reading some of the posts in this thread has been a very disturbing reality. the close minded mentality and simple lack of any educated insight is disturbing. red dog and all the others, get off the war ticket, if we are at war then this "war" is one that will never end. god bless you and every other soldier for your service, myself and every other american can not thank you enough.

terrorism isnt a new thing, its been around for about as long as civilization has. we aren't even fighting "terrorists" in iraq anymore we are fighting gangsters. if we were to invade compton or some other ghetto in the US and fight the bloods and crypts would that be a war on terrorism, and if so then why are we not doing that.

its so simple to forget that at one point our ancestors were all immigrants. that is what this country is founded on, and thats what makes it the greatest nation in the world, that people can come here from all over the world and have a better opportunity than their homeland.

people commenting on what islam about, saying that its a religion that "converts" by the sword and preaches violence. that is the biggest bunch of bull****, and the most unintelligent comment you could make. quite the contrary, its just as peaceful a religion as christianity. these terrorists and fundamentalist muslims, the religion they preach is such a ridiculous extreme and so far outside of mainstream islam, no different than the fundamentalist christianity thats rampant in this country. the world is all about balance, theres a yin and a yang to everything. for all the extremist muslims theres just as extreme a christian, heck the klu klux klan has roots in religion, they too used terrorism as a form of achieving their goals. i happen to have tons of friends who are muslim, not one of them agrees with the fundamentalist mentality the extremists preach. they are good people just like you and me, and wouldnt wish harm on anyone, and thats what their religion teaches.

until we as a society can get to a point where we are willing to accept people for who they are how they look and what they believe in our society will not make any further social progress. we are too smart as human beings to judge people based on where they were born, remember they didnt choose that. start educating yourself as to where people come from and the positive things they might bring to the table before you make such idiotic comments.

being an american brings with it responsibility, one of them being to further the great ideals that this country was founded on, the freedoms that we enjoy that the vast majority of people in this world could only dream of.