This forum is following a disturbing but not new trend to equalize everything, Chechen children, Iraqi civilians, "Islamic Fundamentalist Terrorists", George Bush, all countries which conduct foreign policy, it's all 'so tragic'. But you blur all distinctions and soon there is nothing useful to say.

The obvious thing to stick to is that a thousand innocent civilians were put to torture and murder by a band of (highly likely) Islamic Fundamentalist Terrorists who did not even clearly get a message across. No, strike that, their message was crystal clear. George Bush wasn't there, Vladimir Putin wasn't there. In fact, I heard it on NPR that Putin said that retaliatory action would be treated as a terrorist act.

I would take issue with the title of the thread in that it is nothing new for this type of terrorist to perform this kind of act. In 1974 3 heavily armed Palestinian terrorists took over a school in northern Israel and before the school was rescued, 24 teachers and students lost their lives. As for scale, September 11 in US and the recent train bombings in Spain are equivalent. There is an implacable foe which can justify attacking within their victim's most tender and unguarded sites, with a purpose of inflicting pain and suffering.

There is a growing perception on the part of our societies that this is a new kind of war. All that terror is going to do is reinforce those primary actors to redouble their efforts to blot each other off the map. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and as Tevye says "pretty soon the world will be eyeless and toothless." But, technology has made it much more likely that these warriors of terror will get their hands on WMDs. THAT's where the new level of terror has come in. And 'W', whatever else you and I might think about him is 'on message' when he says: "That is why Iraq."

If you want to judge events from a lofty perspective and make all things equal, fine. You can equalize all wars. Napoleon with the Duke of Wellington, Churchill with Hitler, Jewish civilians with the SS, Hirohito with Roosevelt, people on buses and in trains going to school and work with Hamas and the PFLP. But you might as well lift yourself to the distance of the Voyager spacecraft and you can look back at the pretty blue marble and feel SO much better than those people who are looking at things with 'isolation' or too narrow a focus.