I need to take up one more point with your comments...

In principal, I do selfishly agree with you that American values of
freedom are preferred to Radical Islamic values of, well, whatever
Radical Islamic values are. However, I would tend to say that you are
naive if you truly believe that innocents don't die in most wars. The
difference is that the winner of the war generally doesn't talk about it
because it is not honorable. And at least with respect to American
History - we don't generally admire our heroes killing innocent people.
Perhaps Radical Islamists will honor and recall the names of their
"martyrs". More likely, the suicide bombers will be categorized as an
attack method, and only the names of the political and military leaders
will be remembered.

However, I would categorically point out that innocents have died at the
hands of Americans in many wars... And in other democratic countries,
innocents have died during wars too... It's war. That's what happens.

Of course, we've all heard about the innocent Vietnamese that were
killed. But we lost that war, so the heroes aren't portrayed for their
winning war tactics.

One of the other posters brought up the Native Americans... Do you think
any innocent Native Americans might have been killed back then? I haven't
read much about it in the history books, so maybe it didn't happen...

Do you think that no innocents died by American hands in World War II?
How about at Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Do you think the A-Bomb of death
distinguished between civilians and military personnel when it liquidated
everyone there?

The problem is that the terrorists today give themselves scary sounding
names, pretend to be poorly organized, and hide their infastructure in
the shelter of countries who claim to be our allies, like Egypt, Saudi
Arabia, and Morroco. Our problem is the same with Foreign Policy as it is
with TFRs - sure the Prez will pull the trigger on Iraq - it's easy and
he's just finishing Dad's work anyway. But if he's too afraid to pull the
trigger on the nations who harbor and train our terrorists, he may as
well give up now because it's just a big show to make people feel safe
when they are not...


"Jay Honeck" wrote in
news:OZ_4c.11522$1p.210809@attbi_s54:

I bet the British at the time would have disagreed with you. I am
certain they believed the American rebels / freedom fighters were
terrorists.

Terrorists kill innocents. America's rebels fought the British for
independence -- they didn't pointlessly blow up schools in far-flung,
unrelated locales.

Basically, when history finds a band of rebels or oppressed people who
fought their way to freedom, they war is called a War of Independence.

When they were suppressed, the war is called a rebellion, an uprising,
or a failed coup-de-tat...

To even suggest that El Queda operatives are fighting a "war of
independence" is offensive. They are killing innocents around the
world, for no apparent reason, with no goal other than terror and
suffering in mind, all in the name of Allah.

If anything can truly be classified as "insane," this is it.

Perhaps the agenda of modern-day terrorists is not as clear as the
agenda of the Independence fighters who fought for independence and
control of their own countries...

Their agenda is not freedom -- it is the downfall of Western
civilization, in the name of God.