Thanks Tasty :dance - Likewise. I appreciate your input as well, and understand why we can get so heated. Your opinion is just as valid as mine and everyone elses's (except conspirators :rofl ) and I enjoy discussing these things.
Just a heads up to folks - I'm not a flag waver or a war monger or a blind follower of Bush's foreign policy. I'm a registered Deomocrat

In fact, I'm rather liberal in many other areas.
I've always been interested in the nitty gritty of our shadow world of our foreign policy (and Europe's) and read many, many things from respected policy and military think tanks as well as liberal and conservative sources that help shape my opinions. It's one of my hobbies. I've been following the Taliban and how they rose to power with the aid of the Pakastani intelligence service way back in 1996 after reading about them in National Geographic (I believe). If the U.S. (the CIA) didn't abandon Afghanistan after the Soviets left, who knows, maybe none of this stuff (911 specifically) would have occured. (Or, if Clinton took real action there the 4 times we were hit by Al Qaeda in the 90's, not to mention taking Sudan up on their offer to hand over Bin laden while he was there).
Contrary to popular belief, the United States (CIA) along with Pakistan did not work with Bin Laden and foreign jihadists that came via the Arab countries during the Soviet occupation. They hated us then too. Rather we worked with local Afghan mujahadeen supplying them with tons of training, small arms, 120mm mortars, wire guided anti-tank missles and most importantly the Stinger Missle which broke the back of the Soviets allowing the mass flow of weapons and manpower to flow in from Pakistan (like the Ho Chi Min Trail). We made it like a bloody, demoralizing Vietnam for the Soviets (like they did to us).
This whole thing is real nasty and convoluted and I privately question our motives there (Iraq, not Afghanistan) and all the things that went wrong. Things are going to get far worse before they get better. Every new "Democracy" goes through a form of civil war and we're going to watch one unfold on TV in Iraq with our boys stuck in the middle. But, in my opinion, as tough as it will be, in the long run, IMHO, it is in our nation's economic, strategic and philosophical best interests. We have to remain the superpower. It may take YEARS, but in the span of history, that's nothing. It's just that we're living through it. We've stood down some terrible enemies and ideologies in the past taking most of Europe (not Britain!) kicking and screaming along the way, and we'll defeat this unconventional ideology of Islamic Facism. In my opinion, and this is why I get so angry, our worst enemy is not the terrorists, but ourselves.