On Oct 18, 11:36*pm, Lazarus Cooke
wrote:
I agree with Stella Rimington, who used to head the British MI5, when
she says *that the Al Qaida attacks on the US were "another terrorist
incident" but not qualitatively different from any others.

http://tinyurl.com/6bg866

The lurid US/British overreaction has been astonishingly
counter-productive.

When the US and Britain invaded Iraq, there was no Al Qaida presence
there, just as *(cf DaveS's comment sup.) when the Brits went on the
streets in Northern Ireland, the IRA to all intents and purposes didn't
exist.

Curiously, populations never seem to blame their government's colossal
cock-ups in these respects. The Brits have sadly never blamed their
government for the colossal and entirely unneccessary mess in Northern
Ireland.

They did get shirty over Iraq though (once it started to go wrong) and
threw out Tony Blair.

I'm just trying to get Americans to behave better than Brits.

Surely that's not asking too much?

Lazarus

Of some, it obviously is. Apart from which, it is a fruitless
endeavour, as they are all only people, some good some bad, some
stupid, some nasty, quite regardless of nationality.