Just got done watching Bush addressing the nation. He has apparently declared war on terrorism, or as he said, "terrorism with a global reach." Which is a nice way of sidestepping the question of "So are we going to invade N. Ireland first?"
We have just given an ultimatum without a deadline before we begin an undeclared war without any tangible goal against people we can't find.
Everyone remembers Vietnam, right?
I love this country, but we're seriously fucked in the head. We got a bloody nose. We lost people, some military, most civilian. Congratulations, America, you've just joined the rest of the world. Aforesaid rest of the world already knows we can't fight a conventional war against an unknown target. We get a new Cabinet member, whose position should already have been covered by the Secretaries of Defence and the Interior.
Our defenses are not what they could be, yes, and we should build them further. Our nation's airport security has always been laughable, and has just gotten a major wake-up call. We're learning from our mistakes, rather than from the examples of the other civilized countries of the world. At least we're learning.
I said "civilized." We are civilized, America. We are not barbarians, come swooping in the night (or day) to attack innocents who have done nothing to us. Yet everywhere I hear people ready and willing to nuke Afghanistan, even those aware that only a few madmen are in charge of an otherwise inoffensive people. People I would otherwise refer to as level-headed are happy to go bomb a country that may be harboring someone who possibly, and probably, had something to do with the attack on September 11th. One guy, and his dippy followers, versus hundreds of thousands of people. That is not our way.
If the facts ultimately point his way, we should find bin Laden and bring him to a fair trial. If it's another trial in the Netherlands under Scottish law, or what have you, so be it, but there must be justice, not blind retribution. The latter will only prove to the nations currently on the fence about us versus him that he's right, we are the evil empire out to stamp ourselves on every country.
We're better than that, aren't we?
"Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose." - Janis
"Love thy enemy." - that nice Jewish boy from Galilee
"Where you go, we will follow." - Germany to Austria, just preceding WWI, alias the War to End All Wars