"Friedrich Ostertag" wrote in message ...
Then I hope the terrorists are better informed than most people in
this group.

You are not really thinking this to be remotely possible, are you? The
average terrorist does not posess much more information about world
affairs than what his leaders choose to tell him. While OBL might be
aware of the political situation in Spain and the little support the
military involvement had already before the attack, his troops
certainly only "know" exactly what was stated above: The attack got the
spanish troops out of Iraq, because we frightened them proper. It was a
great victory for holy Islam.

I don't know... maybe they read the papers?

I think you can safely bet that Al-Quaeda operatives are highly
trained, intelligent people. WTC wasn't done by brute force. It's nice
to think that the enemy is crazy and attacks randomly and is
illiterate. It's difficult to accept that an intelligent person would
have a motive to kill hundreds of inocents. Of course, a motive valid
for him, in his frame of reference. The problem is precisely this:
understanding their frame of reference. What I see here is that people
don't want to do the effort. So they accept whatever their government
tells them (WMD) in order to rationalize the vengeance they feel they
have a right to (and I'm not saying they don't).

But some people stop and try to get a broader perspective, to rise
above the hatred and thirst of vengeance. Maybe if enough people do
that, then this madness can stop. I think the Spaniards have done just
that. They were brave enough to put an end to it, even when they could
have reacted with violence the way the US did. They did the right
thing and I admire them for that.

I only wish Jay's subject line were true.

What makes you think, that if someone is a target, it definitely means,
he deserves it???
If you are shot by a criminal, you obviously deserve it?? Now that's a
strange kind of logic.

Of course not. I don't think innocent people deserved to be killed.
But I do think the US governments have done great harm to people
throughout the world, and that they are now recieving a reaction to
some of it. That doesn't mean that the US deserved WTC. Only that
there may be a logic (however sick) behind it.