Wisdom is the retention of innocence through adversity.

now let me start with the caveat that i don't support the aims and techniques of terrorism...i think it is awful that any innocent people have to die for someones vision or cause...

now i was thinking yesterday about where a lot of this stemmed...and let's get one thing straight, it's all about power or greed no matter what side of the fence they stand on...the u.s. and britain invaded two countries and killed tens of thousands of civilians (probably more they conveniently didn't keep statistics)...many of these civilians played absolutely no part in the politics of their governments...and i'm sure many didn't support it...but they were "collateral damage" and died for a "bigger" cause which i'm sure is very comforting to their families...yet in the west we directly elect our governments...so therefore we participate in their decisions a great deal more...and we can endorse their actions by voting them back in...so don't we share some responsibility for our nations footprint on the world??? so should we really be surprised when these things occur??? seems to me we all had a hand in them...or at least more of a hand than the people of iraq or afghanistan that died or are imprisoned and tortured...

on either side of the fence it's generally the regular citizens who pay the price...the civilian casualties are always many factors above that of the military...and for many politics doesn't ever touch their lives...no matter what kind of government they are under...political systems and leaders change and a few people become rich and the vast majority live as they always have...

i think this is a great tragedy for all the lives of those who were touched in this...but we can't expect to be insulated from the world forever...we live our lives like the rest of the world doesn't exist because it doesn't infringe upon us except through television...and we are shocked and outraged when the reality ends up on our doorstep...personally i'd rather they fly all the greedy leaders, warmongers, war profiteers and terrorists to bikini island and do a nuclear test...they are the ones who should be paying the price...

just some thoughts that i had to get out of my own head...

yet in the west we directly elect our governments.

while I agree with you 99.99999999....% Here in America (sorry, I don't know where you're from) we kinda elect the people who directly elect the government.

*brings out the pompoms*
*cheers*
Gimme an E, gimme an L, gimme an E, gimme an C, gimme an T, gimme an O, gimme an R, gimme an A, gimme an L, gimme an ... oh, fuckit. GOOOOO ELECTORAL COLLEGE! YAY! Woohooo! *does jump-split* Government in action!
*ends cheer*

Most people in the US (notice how in my last post I very egotistically said America when the entire continent is called America but I was only talking about the US? hehehehehe) don't even know about the Electoral College, kudos to you for being Canadian and knowing. Back in 2000 technically Al Gore won (with the popular vote) but since he lost Florida and we have an "all or nothing" system Bush got all of our electoral college votes.

*sighs and wonders what the world would have been like if we didn't elect a dictator*

I'm from the Caribbean and we have a similar situation there, where you elect a party and the leader is the Prime Minister. I blame Britain.

Banana Fish!!!!