>What I keep thinking about is what would have happened if it were the other way round, if news came to the US that a high-ranking Afghan official had been discussing an attack on America with a Pakistani official. What sort of level of response would the US government made ? Would they have the targeted centres of military & government - I think that the answer to that would be yes. Would they have taken action to destabilise the economy of the country making it more difficult to fund a response, possibly. Would they have gone for targets with high symbolic value to the people in that country - possibly.

HELLO!!!!! Hasn't bin laden saying and writing for years that the US and its people ought to be attacked?

It HAS been the other way around. FOR YEARS.

And before you even THINK about it, the US has known for years that the afghans had been more than happy to keep him warm and cozy.

He actually ACTED on his words (several times) and the US' response was still no response at all.

Really, maybe the US government should wait until he authors another 20,000 deaths right here in the country, wait for an affidavit from his attorney stating that indeed he was behind it, and a written declaration of war written in at least 10 languages from the afghan government, you know, just to make absolutely sure that there are definitely NO misunderstandings whatsoever as to who is responsible.

Then, and maybe ONLY then, should the US consider sending them an official apology for not being muslims just to make sure that things don't escalate.

alex