kendall,

What's your solution? Turn the other cheek? Would that be the crowd at the world series cheek, or the GM headquarters in Detroit cheek?

Acquiesce to the Taliban/al-Qaida/Islamic Jihad/etc.? I'll bet your wife/daughters/sisters would be really happy to don the veils and never go out, but I don't think mine would. And, if bin Laden is to be believed, only death will exponge the insult to Allah of having infidels on sacred Islamic soil.

War may be a failure of niceties and it is never THE solution, but it can certainly be A solution for a particular problem at a particular time. When someone has told you that the only solution to his problem is to kill you and he's demonstrated his willingness and ability to do it, I don't think that leaves much room for options.

But if you really doubt my way will work, let's run a test. You and Larry and Amos and LH round up 100 Quakers (or anybody else who wants to TALK bin Laden out of his madness) and I'll take 100 special forces troops. We'll land them all in Afghanistan, and see who does more to end the threat.....

BTW — somebody above (Amos, I think) made the argument that just because history is laced with wars doesn't mean it's natural. Are you seriously arguing that peace (which, as far as I can tell, is not a whole lot more common than war) is?

If we define "natural" as what will happen in the absence of humanly-imposed laws, institutions, etc., I think the evidence will point to war being just as natrual as peace. The question isn't whether it's natural, it whether it's desireable.

There are times for both.

cheers,

david