I realize this isn't exactly the Right thread. Just checked out the videos of the riot police trampling on the citizen's constituional rights, at the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh(Raw Story).

If it wasn't clear before, it is now. The USA is a de facto police state. What, if any, democracy you had seems to be gone.

One more aside. Have you seen the proclamation by Obama, to continue that state of emergency as declared by Bush in 2001? Does this relate to continuity of Government? Being a former constitutional lawyer, perhaps you would comment as to whether the US government is legally an active dictatorship at this time, or whether the Constituion still applies?

Thanks, as always, for your insightful commentary.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Notice-of-continuation-from-the-President-regarding-the-emergency-declared-with-respect-to-the-September-11-2001-terrorist-attacks/

If the issues weren't so serious, this thread would seem hilarious. I suggest that most of the commenters do not even know who 'The Taliban' are. Is it not clear to them that the fighters for the Taliban are frequently poor farmers who are upset that their country is being occupied by a foreign power? If Canada were invaded, I am sure I would respond in the same manner. Would that make me 'an insurgent' in my own country?

'The Taliban' is a convenient name to encapsulate an external enemy. We are good, they are evil. How could we get our young men and women to go into war and kill, maim and destroy the lives of otherwise ordinary citizens just like ourselves, if we did not fisrt tar them with the brush of being absolute devils?

It is unfortunate that there are so many war-mongers out there, and that they are so adamant that we kill anyone who does not agree with our political goals. And I thought the world would be a little more civilized in 2009 AD. Have we learned nothing from Jesus? It seems not...

I stand corrected.

I understand that most of the readers of this blog are highly intelliegent. Slip of the word processor. No further comment required.

You make a good point about Opium production. Under the Taliban it had almost been eradicated. Since our 'liberation' of Afghanistan, the production has soared. One wonders whether the Western world might have some reason to be defendeing and helping in the production of this opium.

A recent interview with Sibel Edmonds in The American Conservative may shed some light on the topic.

She mentions Turkish diplomats importing heroin, and drugs being transported in NATO planes. Her testimony is on record under oath. An interesting additional piece of the mystery as to what 'the mission' in Afghanistan really is.

http://amconmag.com/article/2009/nov/01/00006/

'Just consider the rage and fury and burning desire for vengeance that was unleashed by a one-day attack on U.S. soil, eight years ago, by a stateless band of extremists, that killed 3,000 people.'

Most who read this column understand that you don't usually comment on the veracity of 'the official story' in your capacity as a columnist. The quote above suggests that despite all the scientific evidence that contradcits it, you do in fact support 'the official story' of 9/11. Is that your position?