> I want to believe that the American people are wise enough to >begin to explore these questions, to begin to explore calmly and >rationally some of the historical forces that might account for the >rise of this kind of warfare directed at the US. Time will tell. > > Take care and stay out of harm's way. The United States has always used a judicious, debate-based approach in choosing its actions. The worst non-judicious and undebatably erroneous action that I know of is the bombing of Sudan in the war of Clinton's pants. That incident was just a total error and caused horrible suffering. But in every other military incident in the history of the US, there has been a reasoned, debated, judicious basis for actions that they have taken. You could disagree with any decision, but you cannot characterize the US actions in history as wild flying off of the handle and unleashing erratic vengance far and wide without regard to the circumstances. There is no reason whatsoeve to believe that in this case it will suddenly be different. George W. Bush is an honest man. He will take the course of action that he actually believes to be correct. You may disagree with his particular choice, but you can rest assured that it will not be uncontrolled wrath leading to an out of control situation. What he will do is to eradicate all fanatic organizations. Furtheremore, regarding another all-to-common metaphor that is in your post, these are not "historical forces." They are actions taken by individual fanatics. One big problem in this debate is treating actions by individual agents as the spontaneous release of forces. This is not predicting the weather. This is some fanatics who were allowed (under the pathetic and irresponsible regime of Clinton) to gather and plan the means necessary to carry out these actions. ----------------------------------------------------- Sincerely, Robert Einarsson please visit me at http://www.artsci.gmcc.ab.ca/people/einarssonb To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/