No offense taken, I never suggested the brief examples I gave were a complete history and explanation.

Hmm....

You are siting an incident from 20 years ago as part of your explination. Spain and England have active terrorist cells that have been successful, which while tied to an international sponsor are home grown. 10 years ago, Mexico had a nice little insurgency going on. And Germany- why the last hundred years has been nothing but trouble. Or maybe going to visit Isreal, which is living proof that terrorism works. Oh, wait, you don't need a visa! All those guys we Americans get told the partial truth about, like George Washington and Ethen Allen and Francis Marion, they were terrorists to.

For the reference to a radical and extremely small minority in thier government without significant power within the government (they were elected becuase of thier extra-governmental power- democracy in action), look at the fundamentalist christian component in the American government- there have been several who have made comments that can not be interepreted any way but a desire to imprison, deport or "liquidate" of certain minorities in this country, which would end up including me. Hezbollah is no more the Lebenese government than the KKK is part of the American government (but I have zero doubt that there are white sheets in closets in the Beltway) or that the IRA is part of the English government becuase Shen Fain is a party. The KKK analogy is a little weak, admittedly, but while Hezbollah hasn't shown off SAMs yet in the past two weeks, the IRA had them, and the IRA was trying to get katyushas.

By your logic, no westerner should want to go to the UK.

I did not say you were a racist. I said you made a bigoted statement- there are plenty of people who see things from a very narrow view, usually the one that says that those from other countries have something inheriently wrong with them. Or that other countries are "screwed up". If I was going to call you a racist, I would have said it flat out, trust me. Have you ever seen me mince words here?

There are plenty of places where westerners go that in all honesty are barely above "pest hole" once you are out of the tourista areas. I'm not likely to go anywhere for humanitarian aid, but I will say that when two groups of irrational people decided to attack people who are sick and tired of thier crap, those people have commited at least a social faux pax, if not an out and out crime. I mourn the innocents and the destruction of reconstruction on both sides of that border. And the fact that my country is acting in a manner which I can only call embarrasing, which while not a direct contributor to all this, it sure ain't helping.

As for studying history, all I can say is, you don't know me or you would not have said that. Nor have you read my posts. I grew up studying this mess. I know the players, I know the factions. I know who's pissed at who for stabbing thier brother-in-law in a bar fight thirty years ago, and who's got tribal grudges going back seven hundred years while the media scratch thier head and come up with BS for why dates are significant. I know the nations who talk war but won't step in and the ones who talk peace with a dagger behind thier back. I also know which nations are at risk of having their military-intelligency-industrial trinity get out of hand and get them into a war they didn't plan on, and which ones really need to muzzle thier clerics. I know who get's public money from where, and when people announce secret sponsers, I have yet to have missed one. I've been calling terrorist targets since I was in high school, and my accuracy rate is well over 70%- the only times I'm suprised is when it's in Russia, too many factors in constant flux. I can't accurately predict is timing of an attack, but diplomatic trends I'm pretty good at. I'm one of the last Cold Warriors, and I always figured that the Middle East would be the flashpoint, not Germany, not unless someone intentionally lit a fire there.

This is what I do rather than go on dates.

Well, I stated my previous post was my one and only rebuttal to you ironraven and I stick to my word. My lips are zipped. Hope you feel better inside now.

Other than pity for your case of jingoism, I feel fine.

*blink* *blink* *wide eyed* Wow!