The 200 year anniversary of England and Canada setting fire to Washington D.C. came and went without a peep. The United States has been at war for thirteen years over a bloody nose.

Um, no it didn't. There were boatloads of discussions, specials on TV, etc. That was also part of a larger conflict, so it's being dragged out a bit more. The entire city of Baltimore is shutting down for the 200th anniversary of the assault on Fort McHenry.

Also - worth noting - the estimate I saw was that 2,260 men were killed in action during the entire war (more deaths related to the war), 200 years ago. 2,996 were killed on 9/11/2001, thirteen years ago, and we're still involved in the resulting conflict.

I guess I'm out of touch with the "Blame America Firsters" since I escaped The People's Republic of Kalifornia, and moved back to the United States of America.

It never ceases to amaze me how a certain mindset sees no contradiction between espousing a passionate love of one's country while simultaneously denigrating and disclaiming fellowship with huge portions of one's countrymen.

Again, August 24th came and went without any calls to "never forget." Why? Because we didn't live through it, and didn't have to flee the capital while the British put it to the torch. And if you think the Twin Towers are a bigger deal than the nation's capital being occupied by an invading army, you're nuts.

As a nation we should remember the day and hold it in some reverence, but we really need to stop using 9/11 as an excuse for all of our military overspending/reaching. Our war on terror has been just as much of a failure as our war on drugs.

It never ceases to amaze me how a certain mindset sees no contradiction between espousing a passionate love of one's country while simultaneously denigrating and disclaiming fellowship with huge portions of one's countrymen.

DE:
What you and I consider over/under spending or reaching is obviously going to differ. Seems to me that the war on terror - continually justified by 9/11 and people's fear - is directly responsible for what I consider to be some of the most egregious spending in our nation's history.

Remember the deed, the dead, and those forever altered by the event. Do not let the date and the event be waved around by greedy men trying to make more profit by using it as a rallying point for war and their profiteering.

We were not attacked by a nation or a faith. We were attacked by a handful of men who took advantage of the freedoms we used to have in this country. Bush, Cheney and Evil, Inc. used the event in despicable ways.

We are not at war with the people is the Islamic faith, nor should we let them change our culture because their beliefs are not in line with our culture.

When we go to war, we should go in to win. Anything less is the senseless sacrifice of our troops on the altar of appearance.

I think "winning" would be converting the Middle East into a typical Westernized sprawl with McDonalds everywhere, and with people too consumed with entertainment or their job to care about being extremists. Ideally, anything more than liberal forms of Islam would be culturally eradicated.

The terrorist problem is when you mix people with medieval attitudes (jihad) and modern technological inventions (bombs, airplanes, machine guns, twitter).

When you have over 1.6 billion people following a book that advocates violence and conquest, you're going to have problems. Even if you leave them alone and act nice to them, a certain percentage will fester in their communities and lash out in acts of violence.

Unfortunately, I don't see any possible short-term or long-term solution that is a really strong "win".

I must have missed all those news reports of violent christians beheading journalists over the last few months... dang slanted media