….for awhile.

You have serious problems understanding their goals and MO then. THe US lost a lot more in the “war” the Al Qaeda ever did.

2. We took away resources by:

A. Freezing monies.

B. Preempting territory (Afghanistan and Iraq).

C. Removing two govt’s. sympathetic to their ends.

D. Persuading other govt’s that it would be wise to, at the
very least, disengage from hostilities.

3. It’s a really bad idea to provoke Americans in particular,
if you want them to leave you alone, viz. Japan (WWII)
or Germany (WWI, which, although justified, was a provocation on
our part.)

4. Why I think Bush will go down as a great president: He is
looking ahead for decades and investing in education and
infrastructure in Iraq and Afghanistan, knowing that other
Muslim countries are watching. The illiteracy rate in Muslim
nations is very high, and the media almost exclusively
government controlled, which means that the pople know
only what they are fed by the State and their imams.
Break that cycle and there is a *chance* that they will join
the ranks of civilized nations. Fail to do so, and there is a
100% chance that they will not.

5. Al-Qaeda, Hamas, and their fellow travelers have not
desisted because anything ‘backfired’. They have just
continued operations elsewhere than the territorial US–
for the moment.

A. Major Islamic terrorism 2/02-9/04: (Take out the space
between http:// and www.)

http:// http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/jul/07/terrorism.uk1

B. 11,875 Islamic terror attacks since 9/11 (page down to see 9/11/01 to 12/31/03.

http:// http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/attacks-2001-2003.htm

C. Google “hyperbaric bombs” to see what’s next. No
nukes, just good clean HE and potentiators.

Bottom line: These people will not stop until they have achieved their ends, or until we (“we” being the US, being the only power capable of and willing to do so) persuade them otherwise.

“Nobody besides me is saying that the islamic fanatics are “misunderstood.”:”

Hmm. I am in relationship with a member of IVAW. (I can’t reveal his name, but if you’ve watched the news or listened to public radio since the first of the year, you’ve seen or heard him. He was on camera at the DNC (outside) and has been a speaker at numerous prominent left-wing functions.) He makes that precise claim, and I know that he speaks for *many* who feel–AS OBAMA SAID UNTIL HIS HANDLERS CHANGED HIS TUNE–that “further discussion” is needed. When you do that with your enemies, it’s called “negotiation”.

You can’t negotiate with feral animals. The ones with whom we are at war (who are NOT limited to Iraq, BTW) are not going to have their minds changed by anything but high explosives. I am pleased to report that we are killing them by the tens of thousands there, as well as diverting them from other pastimes, such as sawing your head off because you eat bacon (assuming you do). I may disagree with what you say, but I firmly assert your right to have a mouth with which to say it.

There are far more important and *positive* reasons for which we are in Iraq and Afghanistan, but I wouldn’t attempt to go there with you in light of your overweening cynicism about this country’s ability to Do Right.

I WILL agree with you that godless capitalism has as little to recommend it as godless communism. Like gun laws, there are plenty of regulations out there–in the case of Sarbanes-Oxley, far too much. There does need to be oversight, but there need to be sensible controls, and those enforced. The pendulum has swung from overregulation to the present state.

Again, I agree that we are in the same boat, and I really believe that both parties are trying to find a safe course through the mines, despite extremists (Paulsen, Pelosi) on both sides.

There–no straw men at all, were there?

Time out. On the link-eating thingie? Separate URLs thusly:

http: / / http://www.whatever.com

And they go in fine. Nothing gets eaten or delayed. Users need only remove the spaces.

‘Kay, putcher dukes back up!

R.

So, if the prez wasn’t responsible, I guess that leaves… why, it’s the Republican-dominated legislature! What a surprise!