It is not "narrow-minded" to be aware of the fact that the Western world wages war for its own self-serving agendas and feeds the public shameless propaganda about "defending our freedom" and so forth. Defending the oppressive global status quo, more like.

All the U.S. or Canadian military personnel do is waste billions of dollars on killing people halfway across the world so Haliburton can get a nice juicy contract over there, so it irritates me to no end that their undeserved salaries will be coming out of our pockets (I "support the troops" by advocating that they be brought back home in one piece, before it's too late).

As for 9/11, it was of course a horrendous spectacle, but it has been argued by some (notably Ward Churchill, who was basically tarred and feathered after that) as the natural and inevitable response to decades of raping the Middle East. The deaths in the two towers are nothing compared to the unspeakably evil carnage wrought over there. I mean, seriously, the U.S. initiates countless explosions and incidents of civilian death over there, and then acts shocked and appalledwhen it gets handed back to them.

Mississippi Steve, I acknowledge you as my senior but ask that my views (based upon reading and worldly knowledge) not be automatically dismissed simply on account of my youth. I'm vastly more intelligent than any of my grandparents, so age is really only the most rudimentary guideline.