Actually, even now, Indonesia has been called on the UN carpet for invading and pretty well obliterating the countries of East Timor, the Republik Maluku, and Acheh. Further, while it has not completely taken it, Turkey has commandeered one-third of the island of Cyprus and hopes to take it completely. These were just as nakedly agressive as Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, but I daresay that because of their tiny size, hardly anyone noticed or cared. The issue of Indonesia has been before the UN Security Council for almost two decades, with no resolution in sight because Indonesia "claims" it will grant Timor (and Timor only) independence if a "special referendum" says this is what the Timor people want. That referendum has been stalled several times as Indonesia continues to move more Javanese into Timor in an attempt to influence the outcome. For all intents and purposes, Timor, like the other two, does not exist as a nation. Neither, it seems, does the departure of the Turks from Cyprus seem likely. At the risk of being forced to don my asbestos suit, perhaps someone can say where the line is drawn that makes one invasion offensive and another simply an annoyance? As much as we wish to pretend otherwise, we do indeed pick and choose what we will stand and what we will not. Germany's extermination of the Jews in the late 30s was considered an "internal affair" by the US (Remember the boatload of Jews that was turned back from New York harbour out of fear our taking them in would offend Hitler?); it wasnt until the invasions of Poland and France that the US took note of what was going on and decided to act. Thats not a slam, my friends, its a simple fact of history. East Timor and its tiny little sisters are simply too small and too unimportant for the big powers to notice, much less care about. Even now, in Afghanistan, were seeing a small example of bad decisions coming home to roost: the rightful king of Afghanistan, perceived to be supported by the Russians, was thrown out by forces supported by the US, as it was in conflict with the then-Soviet Union. However, the US failed to anticipate that the forces it was supporting would turn on it. I make no judgment call about the moral rightness or wrongness of those actions, but I believe we must accept some responsibility for their being there in the first place as we procede to clean up the mess we, in some small part, created.