Doug R - of course not. I was originally replying to Amos'post because it was pointing out the consequences of holding Afghans responsible for the actions of Bin Laden. But events suggest that there are two kinds of terrorist - those who are completely destructive and don't care what anyone thinks about them (like last Tuesday) and those who are fighting for their freedom in their own country and want to end up ruling it. The former will exploit the latter wherever possible, as is happening in Afghanistan and will be made easier by indiscriminate retribution. The latter kind you find you eventually have to negotiate with and they eventually become part of the political system, as in Israel(and I don't just mean the PLO), Ireland and Africa(where they are euphemistically called "freedom fighters"). There doesn't seem to be much point in military action against Afghanistan, because now the international aid organisations have pulled out millions will probably die of starvation anyway, on account of there having been a serious drought for several years. The people who are most dangerous are the people with nothing to lose, as was demonstrated by Germany, crippled by reparations bills after the First World War, and why there was a Marshall Plan after the Second World War.