Kevin seems to think that something like 9/11 is the worst thing that could possibly happen to a country, and that people from other countries have no right to comment because they haven't experienced anything as serious. I believe that viewpoint lacks perspective.
With all due respect to the heinousness of 9/11, my position is that unrestricted general warfare is far more serious. The effect of WWII on the average Brit was far more traumatic than that of 9/11 on the average American. Figuratively speaking, with 9/11, the US got slugged in the face unexpectedly by a stranger, and knocked on its keister with a broken nose.
Kevin basically telling Nick to STFU because the UK has less experience of trauma and suffering, is simply ignorant. If that's what you think, you haven't been reading my posts very carefully. I never told Nick to shut the ____ up. I DID, essentially, tell him I think he's 100% wrong.
Yes, a war over several years will generate more fatalities and more damage than a 1-day event.
But for the hundredth time....an attack from an organization that is not part of a nation-state is many times more complicated to respond to. Any attempts to fight a more complicated enemy leads to a ton of crap from political ostriches who say, "you can't do that because it will piss off ...." And trust me, Islamic terrorist organizations are WELL aware of this.
When Nick mentioned Conventry, I reminded him that the Brits decided (right after Coventry) to start bombing entire cities (e.g. Mannheim), which certainly included innocent German civilians. He hasn't condemned his own country for launching attacks against entire German cities that surely killed innocent people - and yet he doesn't hesitate to condemn attempts by the United States to fight back against Islamic terrorists where there are similar innocent bystanders.
Personally, I think George Bush should have done far more than he did. But no one can refute that no further attacks on American soil have occured after 9/11, and that arguably the sum of the actions by the Bush Administration might have foiled subsequent attempts.
I have never once criticized any foreign country for their actions following a direct attack - what I find ignorant is people who do so.
