Did you know the US just bombed Afghanistan and Sudan?

anon, lisa -- yeah, it's the obvious cynical response, I had the same thought. Not sure I believe it, though. If the whole thing were manufactured I'd expect it to have happened months ago.

my yes is qualified to one of my coworkers pointing it out and telling me about it.

I'm completely confused about these attacks and am researching them right now.

An: That's the running thread I'm seeing - that a radio personality had joked that Saddam had better keep his profile low until this Monica scandal went past. Apparently the bombers didn't know about American politics. "Wag the Dog" indeed.

An(2): I'm not testing anyone!! I could care less if you knew about it, but it'd be pretty useless to ask how you felt about it if you just now realized it had happened. Why are you defensive? Living near Boston, I think it's important to know that my location is now more dangerous, as it's a primary target. Good to know these things :) Did you know military bases are stepping up activity? That might be good to know if you had a relative stationed somewhere. Just a fact of real life nowadays. Maybe you're up in Canada and relatively safe, in which case, you are quite right in not worrying about this at all :)

For anyone: Is it OK for the US to just go and do these attacks without discussing it with the UN or anyone else first? Does that make us better than the terrorists, because we "knew they were guilty and executed justice"? Shouldn't there have been some sort of real court?

I didn't know that it had been done. I can't form an opinion on whether or not I agree, because I don't have any of the evidence on the matter. I do agree that the United States should launch military attacks in cases of state sponsored terrorism. bewb for tat and all that. ***lisashea: the trick with discussing it with the UN is that you lose the element of surprise. Also, the United States would have to either go against the decision of the UN, angering many other countries, or obey the UN, thus looking as if it is surrendering a piece of its sovreignty. The US Government is in the business of perpetuating it's existence.

Yeah, I'm so incredibly sure Clinton is doing this right at this moment and in this way entirely for the benefit of the country, and deflecting attention off of his recent image problems has nothing to do with it... *lisashea: I'm sick of current events type questions too, though I don't feel "tested," I just think there are so many other forums for that type of thing.

I didn't know. I don't know yet how I feel about the attacks; if there's really credible evidence that this bin Laden guy was behind the embassy bombings, and if he really does have a fairly isolated compound where terrorist wannabes were being trained, AND if it really was isolated enough that they could expect to hit it without blowing up a lot of innocent Afghanis, who have enough problems right now, then I think I'm for it. But that's a lot of 'if's.***Hey, anonymous kvetchers, you know, there's a "hide" button next to every question, you don't even have to vote on it, just press the button, it goes away, and you've even rated it "bad" so you don't have to feel like your opinion hasn't been noted. MUCH less work for you than coming here and typing to tell us all how you don't care to come here.

I just read about it on CNN before I came to Survey Central. I think that it's possible that it's not unreasonable that the US did this, but I don't have nearly the amount and quality of information I'd need to form anything I'd consder a reasonable opinion.

thank you steve.

I knew about the attacks within an hour of their having occurred. What a world we live in...

I heard it when I was home for lunch today. When they said the president was coming on for a special announcement I thought he was maybe resigning or at the very least going to tell us that Hillary, poor gullible woman that she is, was leaving him. Then they said it was a matter of national security & I didn't see what the Monica stuff had to do with national security. Getting slow in my old age.
Do you think Clinton took action to avert our attention from his mess?
He needs a good war about now.

For someone who doesn't watch television or read newspapers, I feel fairly well informed.
I knew about the attacks but I don't know enough about any evidence that they were actually "terrorist-related" sites to have an opinion on the reasonability of these attacks. I would not be surprised to find that the evidence is weak and that this is essentially a publicity stunt.

lisashea, the UN isn't very good at executing. We have an executive branch of our government for things like this because that's what works. Asking a hall full of people to decide on something as timely as an attack is a bad idea.

They need better aim.

I didn't find out about it until Friday night. I was in Canada on business and hadn't seen TV, heard radio or read a paper since Wednesday morning.
The past year seems to have added a new phrase to our national political vocabulary. Last night I read in a local paper that "Clinton has been accused of 'dog-wagging'."

I was on a canoe trip in Maine. At a truckstop where we ate lunch on Saturday on the way out (Dysarts in Herman, Maine has pretty good food by the way) I saw the headlines on a newspaper.

its 20 days later now, and yes i know about them. in fact, i knew about them the morning after the attacks when i read the boston globe.

if everything the u.s. government is saying is true, then i approve of the attacks. if everything the u.s. government is saying about the attacks is true, then that must be a pig that just flew by my window...