Vernon,

Thank you for posting links to those two articles. Difficult as they are for me to read, I recognize truth in them. A couple of points:

I don't believe revenge has any relation to justice; and binding them in considering a response only insures further injustice.

The writers correctly point out the blindness of the American citizenry to the foriegn policy of its government and the para-foriegn policy of its private sector. Certainly, the financial district is no prairie homestead.

I cannot comment whether the British response is somehow jingoistic.

I cannot help but recognize in the attack against us, the work of the same bigotry and insularity attributed to us in the articles. Nor can I believe that the source of what is worst in the human condition is the United States or its policies.

I concede that acts we have perpetrated on innocents during the course of my lifetime too, have been crimes against humanity. Our foriegn policy needs to be altered radically--at the roots. But I need to ask if one attrocity mitigates another.

Expressions such as these articles assume the existence of justice. But our discourse must not only be *against wrong, but toward justice. I'm not sure we know what justice is, but the weave of our discourse concerning it must not revolve forever arround the terrible, but form a question leading toward what is right.

IP