The point being we need to see the similarities because they are there, in order to prevent our government from going down a long dark road and dragging us along. I am however much to the left of you and though I don’t see conspiracy I see a government which is cruel and selfish and corporate as I said, a government entrenched with corporations who made millions off the spoils of the war in Iraq.

My family is familiar with a man who worked for Blackwater, the man was a Marine years ago, but I only know the stories at the outset of the war and to this day from this man are rather horrific,though he does not seem to see it that way.

When they call you an enemy combatant for no good reason and allow you or your family no due process you may feel differently. We should have gotten the f–kers in Afghanistan…we should not have made fake alerts, invaded Iraq, tortured people who did not deserve to be tortured. Change comes from within,we know that, and if we really wanted to help Iraq there were ways to help them change their government themselves. Instead we have made the US more a target for terrorism lost many lives and spent trillions.

I don’t want my government spying on me under their rules. If they can declare anyone an enemy combatant and considering how often they seem to get things wrong…no thank you.

What was meant was when the Germans were invading Russia they were told to treat Russian troops harshly no conventions … and to treat civilians with the utmost cruelty.

No the German’s didn’t use homeland they used “fatherland”. The Nazi’s used “Homeland”

And your point is? I’m confused here as to the point, the fact that some very rich Americans head of corporations were enthralled with the Nazi’s to me means it is not that unlikely it could happen again.

I believe we can certainly blame the government and the people for electing the government and not really paying attention… the media…well corporatism… and the people again. Really it is the people and the government. The media is the government is many ways the huge corporations which own most of the major media outlets in some way control the government. We watch the media we drive it.

I have no one in my immediate family who suffered through the horrors of Nazi Germany I have two family friends who had family who did.

No again, on did I know someone who died on 9/11, a family friend of mine was newly employed across the street, on her first real job out of college and she saw bodies falling out of the window, I remember as I was a junior in high school and her mother, a professor at a local college was frantic, unable to get in touch with her and left for New Jersey that evening because she didn’t know what else to do..I also was in lock down as my high school is in the D.C. fly zone or whatever it was called, so we were in that circle of planes - Pentagon-Pennsylvania… so many forget the Pentagon was also hit, and that plane in PA was heading back… we were juniors in high school watching on television our country being attacked. I do not think we were horrified, a sad thing maybe but it was almost as if this was not unexpected.

I understand it was a tragedy. I just never understood what made it more of a tragedy than any other tragedy,what made the untimely deaths of those any different than the many tragic and untimely deaths all over the world every day. I get the attacking our country thing, and if we had gone after Al Queda it would have made sense, we didn’t and so now for me nothing makes sense and I do not believe much of anything…and then came Katrina…what good our government?

I’m not sure if growing up partly in Tasmania, Sydney, Venezuela…and of course Vermont is to blame for some of this. The United States is my country but there are many countries and the people are just people.

I’m not sure what you meant on the contradiction I said I believe we control ourselves it is not the same things as not being able to do things for others, though it is the excuse those who follow that mindset use. We can actually do things which will affect others lives in positive ways we just can’t control those others….

I actually had a few emails on Chopra which is why I addressed the subject.

I’m sure there is more I have to look at it tomorrow it is late when I saw this but I responded as best I could at this time of night.

Oh and in regard to your second comment. It does pay to look at who we are treating fairly…how the people of governments we ignore, don’t recognize, sanction or embargo, perceive us. It affects these people lives. The whole picture is different now, we are no longer at least economically the top power in the world,we are going to have to work with the whole world now and it is unlikely we will dominate them. We need to use sense to see how our policy affects the living breathing people of any given country because in the end it will come back to haunt us.