take your point about colour hopefully that is better [/color]

that purple is even worse!!  If you use the quoting system properly, you don't need to change the colour of the text, as it will appear in white on a dark grey background outside the 'quote' area (see your own response to Pow-Wow immediately before this one to me).

so you are suggesting the revenge attacks have to do with indian cotton trade?  i have no idea how your analysid stands up on the basis of historical supposition though i tend to disafgree with thesentiments but hey... tha's another story/// i don't see how any of that has to do with 9/11 personally or whethter the victims of twin towers were involved in stuff that relates to the C18 or Ghandi but hey makes for colour i guess

ecu, you need to appreciate that we are talking about 2 different but related issues.  I am not suggesting that the revenge attacks, by bin laden on the West or by America on the Taliban and Al Quaeda, are directly related to issues such as British policies in India in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries but there is a background distrust towards Britain and the West as a result of the actions of the French, German and British colonial powers (especially) that fosters such actions.  You need to remember that, in the case of Iraq and Iran, the British civil service office-bods created the two nations by effectively drawing a line across the old protectorate with no consideration of tribal or ethnic grouping boundaries (hence we have Kurds in Iraq and Turkey).

bin Laden's role is that of an ally who has turned on the hands (America) that fed him.

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As for my final sentence, we HAVE to remember that both Saddam and Bin Laden were initially supported, funded and armed by the West - largely America, France and the UK - so 'we' are as responsible for what they eventually became as they were themselves.

but we are sitting here writing about it what has that to do with EliB's passionate outburst?

A lot!!  It is all too easy to lay the blame 4square at the feet of bin Laden - as Eli and Pow Wow seem to do - conveniently forgetting that, as mentioned above, bin Laden was fostered, financed and armed as a counter weight to the Russians and then the Taliban in Afghanistan.