I appreciate the analysis from I,Hurricane and for the most part agree. I understand the point that CarolC is making re: not reacting out of blind emotion, wreaking havoc on truly innocent people, and ultimately 'inheriting the whirlwind'. Nevertheless for me there IS a strong emotional component and to deny it would be even greater folly. I know I'm not alone in this, I'm sure we are all in the same boat here. I think Donuel is dwelling too much on 'Bush as warmonger'. I was not a fan of GWB, but he's the leader of the moment, and it is not only he making the decisions here. I saw Rumsfeld on Meet the Press this (Sunday) morning and I think he was saying the right things. I think the US has shown proper forbearance to this point in marshalling her resources and determining just where the virus is.

To a great extent we all know each other. The terrorists who have penetrated the Western countries have quite successfully been ferreting out the points they see as 'weak' which are the very items we hold precious. We are aware of the intermingling of support and responsibility in the Middle East, the 'extremist' view that has taken so much support away from the moderates. It is quite easy to throw stones at attitudes but much harder to determine the black and white amongst the shades of gray. Someone will make that determination, and the rest of the world will critique it for a hundred years. I hope for the best.

I think the US administration has made an important point, correctly that the enemy is extremism regardless of the soil from which it is sprung. That is consistent with accepting the nature of America today and to come, which is that the US is and will be a multicultural experiment in world society, distinctly different from the rest of the world in that we embrace it and design our society around it.

In a terrible kind of way, this event will reinforce the vision of what the US stands for by putting in stark contrast the awful things that we are not. We've been at a bit of a loss since winning the Cold War, and these events may demonstrate that the American mission is far from over.

I don't think Donuel's description of the cowboy movie (at the outset of this thread) is an adequate model of the situation we are facing, but it is a great metaphor, if one truly knows the range of the genre. The cowboy movie is known throughout the world, and in fact was a greater propaganda tool than anything the Soviets were ever able to come up with. If Donuel has truly seen many of these, he/she should realize there is a tremendous amount of variety among the best of them, from 'High Noon' to 'Shane', to 'Cat Ballou', to 'Little Big Man'. When one knows some of the history surrounding the actual 'Wild West' period in US history, one can appreciate that even the cowboy movie has hues and shades.