Dear France

[The Brain]

For a nation that is so enlightened, sometimes we seem very backward.

Enlightened? In what way, exactly? You're referring to a nation who up until a few months ago probably couldn't even locate Afghanistan or Iraq on a world map.

Despite the fact that this country is made of primarily of immigrants, or descendants of immigrants, we reman blissfully unaware of the world scope around us. It's something the rest of the planet perceives as arrogance. That's why they won't support us. It took the 9/11 attack for us to realize the shit that other countries (Israel, for example) deal with on an almost daily basis.

Hell, England has to deal with the IRA; Israel has Arafat and Fatah; Russia has Chechyan (sp?) rebels blowing up theaters; even France has some secret terrorist cells running amuck.

Who did we ever have to deal with before 9/11? Timothy MacVeigh? A couple of Columbine misfits?

The fact is, other countries have had to deal with rogue terrorists for decades. Whether they negotiated, or used force to deal with them, doesn't matter. The U.S. policy was <i>always</i> "Let's sit both sides down and form a peace treaty". <u>Until we got attacked</u>. Then the policy changed to "Let's go in, and blow up anyone who looks at us funny".

All of our sudden bluster is fueling the arrogance the rest of the world perceives. It's why they saying we're on our own.