[DemolitionRed]

Originally Posted by Brillopad

I'm not so much interested in historical events as the here and now. We can't change the past.

Neither am I so insecure that I believe we should forever feel apologetic about the alleged actions of past generations and certainly not to the point of the destruction of our own identity and way of life - that fragile belief didn't get the Germans very far did it?

How can you say you don’t care about history when the history we are talking about is so recent? If history doesn’t matter, then does 9/11 not matter? Before 9/11 there was relative peace in the Middle East and the countries that are now in chaos were stable regions with long term leaders and relatively good economies. For the past 14 years we have played our hand in the upheaval and the deaths of millions of Muslims and we are now seeing the consequences of that involvement.

Its fundamentally important to understand what these repercussions are about because if we don’t, we may as well just fall down the rabbit hole where we can wallow in our own fear and ignorance.

You recently tried to deal me a low blow by suggesting, (tongue in cheek) that I was a terrorist sympathiser. Those words told me two things, 1) that you don't know or don't care about the atrocities we have committed and 2) Unlike me, who's sympathies lie with both the innocent westerners and Middle East civilians who get caught up in the political backlash, you have little sympathy for the later.