it is the coward’s way.

What is it that you all think would have precluded these attacks?

Westerners, unlike Islamists, tend to forget their history. This clash was coming from the moment that Mohammed was born. It was inevitable the moment that European empires broke apart and took over the Ottoman Empire establishing “mandates. From the instant that the Balfour Declaration was signed and the day that oil was found on the Arabian Peninsula.

As a matter of fact, had Mohammed never been born, I assure you that these men would have found another reason, another cause for which they would declare their reason d’eter as have any number of terrorist organizations declaring their resistance against nations since time imemorial. Bolsheviks, Marxists in Europe, Fascists, FARC, etc.

They say today’s cause is Iraq. Tomorrow their cause will be Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan and Egypt. On 9/11 it was our presence in Saudi Arabia and Palestine-Israel conflict.

In a decade or less it will be Indonesia, Thailand, Philipines, Malaysia, wherever we come in contact with the Islamic world, they will claim a reason.

You may forget your history and geography, but they do not and more fool those that do as the saying goes, you are destined to repeat it.

Iraq neither makes us safer or less safe in the short run. But, it is not short term strategy that is at play. Certainly, bin Laden and his ilk have been declaring their hate for western decadence and interference in the ME since long before the first Gulf War. You could withdraw from every Islamic nation and never do another moments business with them and these men would claim that you are oppressing them financially by keeping them from the global economy.

Simply put, the reason is not only our existence or any activities within a region, but includes the desire of men to gain power in their own right and own names above those they claim to fight for.

Castro, Hitler, Lenin, Chavez, name a cause and a nation that did not revert to democracy immediately upon revolution and you will find the power seekers have stated causes throughout history and yet never lived up to one.

That is the nature of Islamist terrorists.

You ignore it at your own peril as have those who have come before you and the unfortunate many that will come after.

On the aforementioned Okinawa, the Japanese fought with suicidal fury. Seeing this, there were many conservative newspapers (Chicago Trib, Hearst publications) that called for an easing of the Potsdam Declaration that called for the Japanese unconditional surrender.

No one in America thought on August 5th that Japan was in its “final throes” or nearing unconditional surrender. War planners in Washington believed the earliest the war could be over would have been the fall of 1946 or spring of 1947.

Only idiots who know nothing of history would make a statement that posits the notion that Japan was nearing unconditional surrender. So maybe I should forgive you when you accuse me of saying that the terrorists are near the end and simply chalk it up to your breathtaking ignorance.

Pearl Harbor attack - December 7, 1941

Japan accepts unconditional surrender - August 14, 1945

I calculate the duration to be 3 years, 8 months, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. With the time comparison, are you suggesting that the terrorists are nearing complete, unconditional surrender? Perhaps the attack in London is a part of their “final throes”?

Remember that terror isn’t a person, it’s a strategy. Would you rather that we just sit around and REACT to it, or is it better to be PRO-ACTIVE?

Okay, waiting for your solutions . . .

Each time one of them kills one of us, we randomly hunt down and find 5, any 5, of them, and shoot them in the street.

Of course, we could go with Richard Bottoms’ solution and just bury our heads in the sand and hope they won’t bother us any more.

If regime change and democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan, 2 hotbeds of terrorist activity (argue that there was no Iraqi connection to Al Queda until the cows come home, you’ll be wrong) are not indicative of success, then you need to define success.

Also, please let us know what our “idiot president” SHOULD be doing to fight terror- because you’re obviously a genius when it comes to geo-political thinking and are certain to have some suggestions which don’t involve appeasement.