<HTML>In a message dated 9/14/01 11:05:16 PM Central Daylight Time, larudee@pacbell.net writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">How about looking at the despair of the places in which terrorism breeds.  How about looking at the role of the most greedy and cynical American businesses and lobbyists in promulgating injustice and oppression for profit all over the world. There is no justification for terrorism, but you don't eliminate terrorism by eliminating the terrorists.  We are not responsible for all the injustice in the world, but we are making no attempt to be responsible for our part in it, and until we do we should not be surprised that desperate people will sacrifice themselves to hurt us. Sorry if that's not as popular as revenge. Paul Larudee </BLOCKQUOTE> While I agree in principal with what you write, Paul, but I just heard an interview on NPR where an expert on Arabian mindset was asked what, if anything, would satisfy bin Laden. The answer, quite simply, was for all Americans to move to another planet. No, we will not eliminate terrorism by eliminating terrorists, but eliminating a powerfull, rich, influential, unreasonable person is a very good start in that direction. We didn't eliminate Nazism when we defeated the Germans, but we were able to eliminate the leader of that movement. Who would have thought, during the midst of the war in Europe, that within 5 years after the war was over, Germany would become one of our strongest allies. The same goes for the Japanese. Even Japanese Americans who had lived here for several generations, were rounded up and interned during the war. Now Japan is one our strongest allies. There are still radical groups within that country, but the majority of Japanese appreciate and respect the US. Jan and I have two sons of fighting age. Jan is worried sick about them having to fight in a war, as am I. She doesn't want to go to war, as would any mother, and I certainly don't want to loose them. But, and this is where we have to take a good hard look at who we are, what price are we willing to pay for our freedom? Are we prepared to loose our loved ones for the sake of keeping our freedom?   I am not saying the government and business needs to reevaluate the way it does business in the Near East. But we can't allow the event of 9/11 to go unpunished. That will make the sacrifice of those who lost their lives meaningless. And that is not right. We cannot move to another planet, but we can't allow someone like to bin Laden to live on this one either. Just my thoughts Wim </HTML>