[thecavemaster]

Did we really need a second thread on this same subject?

The people who own the property near Ground Zero have the constitutional right to build a mosque there if they want - but that does not make it the right thing to do. This is not a case of bad taste. This is a case of a group of anti-American zealots who support Al Qaeda intentionally poking Americans in the eye as they lie repeatedly about their motive for building their mosque.

The Justice Department should (and would if it was doing its job) investigate the financing for the new mosque to try to ensure that no money from known terrorist groups is being used in the planning or construction of the new site. Beyond that, I do not think that there is any role for the federal government to play in this decision.

It is a shame that the Ground Zero site is still empty. The Twin Towers should have been rebuilt immediately just as was done in the case of the damaged section of the Pentagon.

I toured the Pentagon a few weeks ago and learned that this country was extremely fortunate that many more lives were not lost there on 9/11. I knew that the section of the building that was hit was undergoing renovations but I was not aware that the wall that was struck had already been reinforced. Had the plane struck another side of the building, an estimated 6,000 to 8,000 people might have died there because the plane would have penetrated much deeper into the building.

I had to go to the Pentagon yesterday on business and each time I have been there I am struck at just how nuts the 9/11 deniers really are. There is the equivalent of a small city working inside of that building and it is clearly visible from many vantage points. For a person to think that no plane struck the building and that the government successfully conspired to keep such a fact from becoming known is one of the craziest conspiracy theories ever concocted.

I think it is incorrect to suggest that simply because a man points to policy failures in the middle east by the United States may lead to "angry young men picking up a gun or a brick or a stone," makes one a supporter of Islamic terrorism. To understand why a man commits murder is not to condone the murder. If an Islamic Center is placed there, it will be the most closely surveillanced organization in America...not a real security threat.