To understand what a solution would be, you would have to understand the problem.

The problem is not that some bunch of people thinks of us as an enemy. I would have danced in the street the day the USSR collapsed, having grown up with the faint threat in the back of my mind that I could be wiped out by a Russian missle.

The line of thinking that identifies their celebration as the problem -- the fact that the "United States" is perceived as an enemy for helping the Israelis, with anti-Palestinaian consequences -- leads to a solution of "everybody in the human race in communication andf agreement".

Nice idea. On more practical grounds, the simple and immediate statement of the problem is "US attacked in an act of war". Well, that's a fact, not a problem. The problem is we have an enemy without a face.

The problem of having an enemy cannot be properly posed unless you know who it is. If Osama bin Laden or the moguls of Kabul are the enemy, we have one problem.

If the Japanese Red Army is the enemy we have another one.

Assuming it is the former, the hard truth is that if you are facing a group dedicated to your extinction, and you wish to survive the only "solution" is the complete dissolution of that group, disbandment of its members, extinction of its "group" identitiy, mission, and group existence. . If this could be acheived through administration, management, or communication it would be wonderful. I doubt it is possible. I believe that the disbandment of this hypothetical group will only occur when the core of people generating it have been dissuaded by force. This may mean individual force.

I do not think it is useful to call for "revenge" or "make 'em pay". But it is imperative for our national survival that we ensure the dissolution of any group exercising this kind of warmaking against us. Not for moral or retributive reasons. For survival.

A