well thats the key isnt it? not to panic and go in all guns blazing. wow. is America really that paranoid? whatever happened to demonstrations and protests?

There is a difference between that and talking about how a government supports terrorist.

I would.......but......that involves.......work.

It occurred to me tonight to wonder where Iran was getting its uranium, and Google came to my aid. The Iranians seem to be working any source they can get at; they're mining some modest reserves of rather low grade ore domestically and they're working on African sources, showing a good deal of enthusiasm for mines in Somalia -- though how much success they'd have, fishing in waters this troubled, I'm sure I don't know. Then there's the Tanzanian uranium smuggling incident, where a lot of stuff doesn't quite add up yet -- arguments, for example, over just how much radioactivity could have been detectable in and from the shipping container. The UN report on all this for some reason (possibly skanky, as UN corruption and favoritism are becoming better and better known) isn't talking about uranium, while Tanzanian officialdom is. Sounds like you ought to fly to Dar Es Salaam with your own Geiger counter and geologists' hammer and find out for yourself. I didn't even see anything on whether it was raw ore or yellowcake, but I might have missed something.

Domestic Iranian Uranium -- I'm a poet and I don't know it.

Two Iranians prospecting for uranium possibilities in Somalia -- link to a one-sentence mention included in a UN report detailing arms smuggling into Somalia in aid of both the Transitional Government and the Islamic Courts.

thats exactly what these "leaders" want : apathy. it will be the undoing of many a nation.
a people should not fear their government - a government should fear the people. cant remember who said that, but its true.

I know V for Vendetta used that but I'm sure they got it from somewhere else.

By the way, that quote was sarcasm, yet it is sadly true.

The Middle East is a great example of that - too many of those countries have it back-asswards.

What do you mean by that?

What Phil said. "a people should not fear their government - a government should fear the people."

I'm pretty sure the American government doesn't fear it's people. Doesn't that make us back-assward?

If you think the government doesnt fear the people, just wait till election year rolls around. Fear of no votes (and therefore no JOB) is fear all the same, no?

I think they fear us plenty. Why else would they be saying all they do to appease us. If at some point they didn't, they certainly do now. They need us to remain employed, to have the power we entrust them with.

Why would Bush send a "surge" of troops when no one wants that? They may give us an illusion that we have power when in reality, it is just one big cycle.

Because he thinks the appearance of being a strong leader is as important if not more important than actually leading.