[Buffalo Tom]

I agree that counter-terrorism efforts should be stepped up. We can argue until Bush cold-cocks himself with another salty snack about the Orwellian implications of buttressing further the current security apparatus; but the fact of the matter is that every day schmucks like myself want to feel secure in the knowledge that they won't be blown to a million pieces while going to a bar to down a few pints and that they won't see their loved ones among the list of dead of some shopping mall bombing.

At the same time, though, we have to realize that tougher law enforcement is only treating the symptom. We have to stop antagonizing the rest of the world, and start winning people over to our side. Give the majority of people reason not to be conspirators in plans to set off a nerve gas in a high-traffic civilian area. To me, this problem is similiar to the problems faced by countless cities in fighting crime in areas of high urban poverty. You have people who perceive their circumstances as being dire, and they are resorting to illegal measures to change this. I'm not suggesting the problem is as simple as that; there is that large elephant that this conflict is a war of cultures that people are generally hesistant to acknowledge. What I am suggesting, though, is that an increase in the effort level in enforcement activities should be matched with an increase in activities to reach out to the groups from which the terrorists recruit. In my mind, we're doing too much 'ass-whooping' and not enough hand-shaking.

:BleedingHeartLiberalEmoticon