I've just finished listening to the rerun of the speech in its entirety and I admit to being pleasantly surprised by the less furtive and more direct delivery....that alone is a relief. I think it will go down in time to come as a very well written.... speech--just that, with actions as yet to be determined and assessed. The actions described in this speech to be taken on the home front all seem reasonable and well thought out. However, the words regarding international action do cause me concern. The inherent "us or them, yer w/us or agin us" thinking is, to me, both simplistic and frightening.

Yet despite my own relatively pacific philosophy I can't help it...I think SOMEthing has to be done to put a stop to the escalation of global terrorism. I don't think just gving money to certain countries is a total answer...we're already giving Afg. $$ (altho I really liked DJH's idea of dropping loaves of bread instead of bombs).

Allie asks: " What is a fundamentalist? what produces a terrorist is what we should be asking." A more important question to me is what produces a fundamentalist? It is a question I've not ever been able to satisfy for myself...and fundamentalists of all stripe, in all religions, in all countries including the US, scare the living daylights out of me, I guess because to me they seem to have left rationality behind...it's like dealing with a crazy person. And I can't help but worry that pacific rationality may not be effective in the face of such craziness, whether it be bombing family planning clinics with nail-filled bombs, or blowing up buildings.

In terms of the WWIII scenarios and worries, I thot the most reassuring ...words...were Bush's expectations that soon all our lives will go back to relative normal, to the point that he felt it necessary remind us we must maintain our vigalence and resolve. We'll see what actions come.

Kendall...if I'd had a chance to hang out and play with Gordon Bok I'd have forgotten all about this speech too....I've never been a big fan of speeches anyway, but playing and singing, especially when the solace is so needed...now that IS a treasure.

Nancy