Here is where I trot out my standard comment anent "those people" who haven't figured out what terrorism is all about. It gets shorter every time I post it. Today, it comes down to this:

Many of the people tripping the life fantastic through Manhattan pursuing their favorite hate causes are going to become the enemies of the rest of us. By that, I mean that sooner or later in the WarOnTerrorism the rest of us are going to discover that "doing nothing" to fight it constitutes "doing something to support it." When that day comes we will have civil war in this country. We have met the enemy, and she is the person who won't fight the enemy.

Thought your comment and McCanles were both on the mark. You either fight evil or you surrender to it. The Left doesn't get it, or perhaps it does and is just preparing their version of a Tailiban government.

I'd rather think of them as "slow" than as "the enemy". I have heard uncounted British people bitch and moan about how we were "late" in arriving at the most recent all-Europe Hostilities, but that didn't make us enemies. It didn't even make the 30s American isolationists enemies. Not even the 30s Nazi sympathizers. It just made them slow to understand.

The problem is self-correcting. As long as we continue to evade getting our act together, attacks will continue and escalate. Eventually, learning experiences powerful enough for even the slowest will be had.

Wait! Barlow's not a Republican anymore? Who knew?

Agree that the problem is Islamic fundamentalists. Don't agree that the solution is necessarily reelecting George Bush. Deficit financing and the Patriot Act scare me. I've been a registered Republican myself for the past 6 years by the way so I'm not just blowing hot air through liberal sensibilities here. (Do you ever wonder what Tom Mandel would make of the current world situation? I do.)

Three tactics are required:
1. Search and KILL all the terrorists we can (We chose not to take advantage of a great opportunity to rubble a section of Faluja where we had terrorists penned in...that will have to change)
2. Work to change the dynamic that spons these terrorists or, God forbid, destroy the culture that spons the terrorists
3. Shore up our homeland defence by ending the PC nonsence here that prevents us from naming the enemy (radical Islam is obvious, we should also be looking with critical eye at all of Islam), monitoring the enemy and their social places (Wahabi mosques (aren't these virtually all the mosques?) and 'Islamic' charities), prevent any travel from enemy countries (we all know who these are) and prepare to aggressively deport any suspicious character from the enemy countries of origin.

Bush is more or less pursuing 2 out of 3. Good people can and should debate the effectiveness of his tactics, but the basic strategy other than number 3 makes sense. I'm horrified about what it might take for everyone to get to the third category. Why do we always have to wait until the price is sooooo dammed high.