perfidy

Nope, not curious.

Not curious one goddamn bit.

It's been five years and it's STILL TOO SOON.

How did you manage without breaking down and imagining horrific vengeances?

Well, easy. I didn't read past line that from 09:33:34, a minute and a half into the hijacking, in bold to represent something translated from the Arabic. It said, "In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate."

It was at that point that I began having violent waking daymares about raining nuclear fire on Mecca.

You're right, in most respects it is too soon. But is necessary to know that it's there, lest we forget because we focus too much on going about our daily lives so that the terrorists don't win.

raining nuclear fire on Mecca.

Which reaction, I hasten to add, is a mere symptom of the sheer animal rawness of the emotion, the exact opposite of a sober recommendation of policy.

'cos that's where I'm coming from too.

Oh sure. But there is a big part, in the back of my mind, that would be satisfied by that.

B,
I read the whole thing. It doesn't really convey much.

Maybe it's like reading the transcript from the trial of the century, at the height of the intense exchange between prosecutor and witness, on which the entire case hung.

Unless you were there, or hear the recording, it's just words.

Re #4, not me. Call me a bleedin' heart, but when I imagine raining hellfire on Mecca, all I can think of is how much shittier life would get there, in the brief instant before annihilation. I'd much rather see life improve there, in the sense of no-stoning-women, higher-standard-of-living, and at damn sight fewer religious nut death cultists.

Then we could all share candy and join hands and sing.

While that one part would feel a visceral satisfaction - the revenge served up on a platter with sauce - the rest of mind, which is not a bleeding heart, is well aware of the consequences. And it pretty much agrees with you. The thing that most furriners don't really get about Americans, is that we really would like to see everyone happy and prosperous. We don't want to own the world. We just want not to be bothered.

I'd like to see enough prosperity in the Middle East to, hopefully, begin to offer an alternative to going the way of the splodeydope.