Jose wrote:

But the islamo-facist scenario is more profound, longer lasting, and
insidious. There are, what, a billion+ followers of Islam, the large
majority of which don't much care for what they think Western culture
is. There are probably many hundreds of thousands who would eagerly
take up arms against us, and many thousands who would volunteer to die
against the "crusaders and jews".


The widespread (though perhaps not strongly felt) Arab support for the
first invasion, after the little Kuwait incident, argues against this
rather bigoted position. It seems to me that our response to the 9-11
vandals has created or at least amplified a lot of the anti-US
sentiment, and made it far more difficult to mitigate that sentiment in
the next fifty years.

We get stung by a wasp.
In retalliation, we find a hornet nest and beat it to a pulp, with
predictable results, while shouting "Bad bees, bad bees!"

I've been stung by a wasp and the sting was gone a few days later. I
don't recall having to go to any funerals for it, as I did after 9/11.
And so many others did as well. I've had to clean up vandalism from my
store. While a pain and an insurance hassle, that doesn't matter a damn
compared to burying someone you love. Too bad you can equate the two so
easily. Have a nice day.