Paul buddy,

As long as you keep the conversation going and don't mind, I'm going to keep posting this on my blog. Now to business.

I don't think there are two America's. There's the left, the right and larger than I thought possible swinging center but the media trys to portray a "bipartisan divide". I don't see it.

The media in the US is very similar to the media in Australia. If you only read the newspapers and only watch 2,7,9 & 10 (OK a little SBS too) then you're not learning what the real Australia is. The same applies to the US. The main stream media actually subconsciously prefers to portray issues as left and right polarised. It makes it easier for them to make their output entertainment rather than put the hard work into teasing out the issues. Also, market forces tend to naturally push the media into polarising everything. Not just politics.

I'm not saying F/911 is completely wrong in all its footage and commentary. But it most certainly is a propaganda movie. The real problem I have with it is not the movie itself. It's the fact that Moore ends up winning an award under the guise of the movie being a documentary. It is not a documentary. Just the same for Bowline for Columbine. One was an anti-gun propaganda movie, the new one is an anti-bush propaganda movie. Neither of them are documentaries and I take issue with Moore for having portrayed them as documentaries. That is dishonest. One of the very things the left accuses Bush of (dishonesty) is exactly what their new poster boy Moore did to promote his movie.

As you mention, I have bad memories of Sept 11. I don't know any other way to put it. Fortunately, I was not actually close enough to feel the full horror. So the bad memories are good in a way, if that's possible. More importantly, I can say that my personal world was permanently shifted by September 11. As a result, I had to investigate just war theory. For too long I was willing to stroll along with sloppy thinking that allowed me to accept the basic premise that all new wars are bad. But in fact, that position is untenable. It implies that things can become far worse than even the horror of war and yet the Nation state won't use it's executive powers and prosecute a war to right wrongs. It also implies that history has somehow become detached from the present and future. No, I disagree with both ideas and left them behind shortly after Sept 11 along with several other flawed ideas. This has inevitably pushed me toward the right. And quite a long way right at that.

Bush did exactly the right thing when he chose to take the US military and remove the broken regimes of Afghanistan and Iraq. Now both countries have a chance to do things a little better. The end result in both Nations may not be Aussie or US or even Malaysian style peace and harmony. Infact, I very much doubt that either country will turn into downtown KL let alone downtown Sydney or New York. Still, it's possible! But at the very least, it would take a few decades. Regardless, what we do know is that whatever happens in those countries will be and is already a whole lot better than what they were before. And those Nations won't be outputing (as many) jihadi terrorists. Those would be the terrorists who are willing to massacre people like and you and me. People who just go to work and expect to be able to come out at the end of the day alive rather than incinerated - or forced to jump out from 1,200 ft to get away from the flames where moments before our laptops and our pictures of our wifes and our cubicles were peacefully enabling us to be productive citizens of a buzzing, humming society.

I find it extremely difficult to understand how the left has become so completely and utterly opposed to unleashing the dogs of war against the most brutal regimes when those two brutal regimes were the most likely candidates for removal to make the world safer from terrorism. Facts on the ground are that Saddam and the Taliban were directly aiding and supporting terrorism. That is grounds for removing them. Direct connection to September 11 or not, there was plenty of terrorist acts beforehand stretching back decades. The UN agreed and has several security council resolutions to prove it. But the UN doesn't intend on pretty much doing anything about it. So the US pulls together a group of allies who are willing to do something about it and they did.

I say - Bravo!

As always, great to be able to talk to you again bud and look forward to hearing from you.

PatrioticDuo