[mburbank]

See, these 'assholes' all look alike. They don't wear uniforms or announce themselves. This means when you 'back them up against a wall' you back up a lot of noncombatants. This is one of terrorists great sttrategic strengths.

They expect us to 'strap on our spines' and throw our muscle around, they count on it. Sure a few of them die, but it's not like they aren't ready and willing. In the meantime, the collateral damage convinces lots of other poeple that the US is just what they always said we were.

Do you suppose that our current actions will at some point make terrorist organizations say "Gosh, these guys is tough after all! We give up!"

Are you hoping that perhaps we will actually find and kill every terrorist and 'win' the 'war'?

Do you think that we will peer pressure people into not supporting terror by being terrifying ourselves? "Support terror and we'll overthrow your government, occupy you and kill lot of people!"

ask folks in Madrid how well this has worked preventing terror. Not a whole hell of a lot better than 'diplomacy'.

Terror is a terrible, terrible crime. Calling it a war misses the point, puts us in the position of perpetrating violence, puts ever more power into the hands of terrorists (since one bomber can derail an entire peace plan). This is why after a drive by shooting we don't attack from the air and then send in a tank division.

The aim of terror is to make people afraid, angry and irrational. It's what you do when you know the people you're fighting are way, way more powerful. They aren't trying to get us to surrender, they know we won't. They're trying to get us to screw up. They want us to do things like invade a state we can never hope to run, unleashing chaos, ethnic hatred and death, which they can then blme on us. The way I see it, the terrorists are winning.