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Oh I agree, John. Americans seem to be much better looking at effects than at causes. The 9/11 response was pure emotional reaction, and P.H. seems to have been the closest parallel to that, though there are certainly others. But getting people to question why they were hurt is always pretty hard, as nobody wants to admit they were wrong. Anyway, I think it is pretty normal for most people that when they are hit they will hit back. It may be at the wrong person and for the wrong reason, such as imprisoning the Japanese-Americans or killing Sikhs because they are wearing turbans, but it happens. While I believe the American public demanded some sort of immediate warlike response, you know what that dragged out to in Afghanistan, and it was criminally stupid (if profitable). As for Iraq...sadly, one Russian diplomat was right when she asked about that to try and deflect what her country is doing in the Ukraine. Bush and Cheney should be in prison, but good luck having a real discussion on this topic with an America which was also neatly deflected to "supporting our heroes". Almost nobody is asking why these victims trying to serve the nation (let alone the civilians who lived there) were endangered, wounded or killed. As I said, it's all about effects, not causes.

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