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Hate us or like us, commenting on our politics remains silly. Don't feel like I am singling you out. Americans who have never been abroad make a lot of assumptions about the world out there based on how things are at home. Perhaps the politics in Portugal are corrupt enough to make the idea of the 9-11 being a US government operation a plausible concept. After all, Hitler did burn the Reichstag. Whatever America's problems may be, only a loon would take such a comparison seriously.

Getting back to the point, I don't need to sum you up to discredit your points. When you make outrageous allegations(like 9-11 being an inside job), the burden of proof is on you. I summed you up because I like to speculate at the reasons why people buy into such crap. Blogmaster is running a business peddling it, so I rule him out. The "death to Israel" and "death to America" crowd obviously have their motives for promoting 9-11 conspiracy theories, so that leaves you. I didn't actually expect you to explain why you can buy into such factless drivel when literally thousands of engineers and law enforcement agencies have done their studies and provided their findings for all to read, so I guess I'll be left to guess at it. If you'd rather debate the existence of European resentment, I'm more than happy to do that as well. If so, you'll have to stop creating the straw man that I think Europeans "hate" America. There is quite literally nothing in my post from which you could draw that conclusion. As a simple example, perhaps you could explain to me how it is YOU feel about America for having sent a contingent of the Portuguese police to Iraq(all 127 of them) to participate in the occupation? My guess is resentment sums it up nicely. One reason of many people like Richard Brand have "issues". Where do you fall in?

 

Jeeze I feel sorry for whoever has to wash all of those.

Where's the token black car?

Lol

 

If that were true, I guess the entire world could say the same about America. We comment because we are concerned and understand that political decisions made abroad affect us.

All Portuguese politicians are corrupt, just like American ones. On TV, with the cameras on, they all seem to be against each other. But when they meet behind closed doors, it's business as usual. How can be against each other when they are all members of the same club and pledge oath to the same "higher being"?

Thousands of Architects, engineers and demolition experts also said it was impossible for he buildings to fall the way they did, yet they were quickly silenced. Many people, who were still in the buildings when they fell, stated that they heard "demolition" explosions just before the buildings collapsed.

How I feel about Americans? Well, I fell the same about Americans as I do about all Europeans. That contingent of the Portuguese police sent to Iraq (all 127 of them), was nothing more than a marketing ploy so we could get a few of our richest business in Iraq. Those men we sent, are nothing more than "police special forces" like the American SWAT. Trust me, their presence there had a minimal impact on Iraq.

 

At 127 quantity, it would be hard to have any kind of impact at all, so I can't disagree. My question to you was about your feelings on America dragging(obligating) them in.

Because you say so? Once again, evidence please. I'd like to hear from the "thousands" of engineers who say it isn't so, and I'd like to see some evidence of "silencing".

Now this you have. People who say they heard explosions. Of course to hear "explosions" and then authoritatively say they were "demolitions charges" is a monumental leap. Were all those people also demolitions experts? In such a chaotic situation, were there not many other possible explanations for what they heard?

Ah, now we get down to it. What you do effects us. I heard a couple Brits actually making the case for foreigners being able to vote in American elections based on such an excuse(around 2004 naturally). This is a discussion worthy of its own thread, but let me put it to you this way in short. Nearly a third of our enormous budget goes into our military during peace time, and even more during war time. We may not be a free market economy, but we are a far cry from the socialism that is practiced in most of the other civilized countries on the planet. In other words, in exchange for a government mandated/sponsored one months paid vacation every year, gigantic pensions, and government sponsored health care, we get a military that can project force. We also get the rather unsavory role as the world's police. I hear people in America bitch about why Europe doesn't send more troops to Afghanistan, or why their troops in Afghanistan won't go on combat missions, but truth be told, NATO has a hard time fielding a sizable and decently equipped army. Give up some of your benefits, field a military, pull your weight and you shall have your voice. The same applies to the strength of your economy.

I used the word "Perhaps" because I don't know the first thing about Portuguese politics, just as I suspect you don't know the first thing about US politics. Your response demonstrates nicely how assumptions can be made based on how things are at home. Yes, politicians are corrupt worldwide(including the US), but corruption obviously has different levels in different countries. For Instance, I've driven through most of Central America and there is not one country in which I didn't bribe a police officer to get out of a speeding ticket. Not one. In the US, that will land you in jail with 99.9% certainty. In nearly all of those countries, for a few thousand dollars you can have someone hospitalized or buried in the jungle and the chances of "justice" being carried out are slim.

All politicians may be corrupt, but to imply our system is corrupt enough to facilitate such a conspiracy coming from the top is highly unlikely to someone familiar with how things work here, in my opinion.