[Fat Pang]

It is entirely understandable in western democracy, where freedom of speech is an enshrined right in a written constitution, for it's citizens to question the larger issues that affect it.

They don't get much bigger than what happened on 9/11, and I think it's right for RT and RFS to search for something deeper, to piece together some of these disparate fragments into a coherent whole.

However, when doing this I think it's right to factor in the emotional response. Because America has unrivalled power and unrivalled means to project it across the globe, there was an element of disbelief outside of the fact that it's unbelievable to watch a 757 flying into the WTC. 'How can this happen?','How can this be allowed to happen?' are the most commonly voiced questions, and when you ask these questions and compare what happened to America's power, people come to the conclusion that it can only happen if there was collusion,and corruption on behalf of the US government.

This, RT RFS, is wrong.

It's wrong because people fill in the blanks, people theoreticise, people prognosticate and they also just make it up. People who have been given a voice by the internet use it to vent their spleen on the the 'Federal' nature of the US government. And because they see in this Federal arrangement, unlimited power, patronage and corruption they cannot believe that anything happens without it's say so.

Things happen out there all the time, nasty, unpleasant terrifying things, to ordinary people all the time and they happen without the say so of the US government. They continue to happen and will continue to happen.

To the frustration of much of the rest of what is commonly termed the free world, the US government and its people indulge in this self destructive, insular conspiracy theorisation far too much. There are limits to your power, there are limits to your influence and failure to recognise this is dangerous.

As far back as Woodrow Wilson, the US has sought to regard it's coastline as a white picket fence where the lunacy of 'old Europe' and the middle east could not reach. It can, it has, it does.

9/11 happened because there are really frightening people out there. Even more frightening than your intellectually challenged president with his fragmented, marginalising foreign policy.

Increasingly, nation states, national governments and national policy are an irrelevance. In the age of free trade, free movement of people, and the internet , tat white picket fence doesn't exist , if it ever did.

The responsible thing to do in my opinion is to stop this insular theorising, look outside of your country for the problems and the solutions, and stop blaming yourselves and your government for things that you can't control.

As far as my politics are concerned, I don't really fit into an American party model. On some issues, such as taxation and wealth re-distribution you could say I'm more Republican, on Environmental policy, corporate governance, and foreign policy i'm more democratic. In a UK party model I'm a conservative with a small 'c'.

I've studied international relations to postgraduate level, and whilst that certainly doesn't mean that I consider myself infallibly right it does make me consider things outside of my own limited perspective as a UK national.

I don't mean this to be hectoring, or arrogant and I hope you don't consider it as such, I just think you should make every effort to divert your attention to the truly worrying things that happen outside your own country. If you and your government do the world will be a much better place.

Two good books:- AL QAEDA by Jason Burke and THE SHIELD OF ACHILLES by Philip Bobbitt.