It also costs lives.

Your response is very true on many counts, but as far as provoking hate, that's just too damned bad. Hate is not provoked. It either exists, or it does not. I like to think the Muslim communities of my home town hate what happened with the WTC, as well as the Bali bombing, and all attacks between. But these are the same people who appreciate Palestinian martyrdom, so what should I think and what should I feel?

Theirs is a hate, already fully evolved and waiting. Mine is merely disappointment toward a particular sect of humanity.

"It'll get worse before it gets better."

You might have heard that before. It's true, as shown across a year of history, and no amount of hope will change that fact. For a good chunk of the world, the pain of the Middle East came to a peak with the fall of the WTC. Many countries were touched, some more than others -- but they were still targeted, and they were still touched. The touch was in the form of a life, taken to make a point. That's all. Just to make a point.

And still it goes on,
Dan