Be careful not to make any mistakes. If you err, you’ll make new enemies who are neither nuts nor terrorists but are just out to get revenge.

Sorta like you are out to get revenge. They’ll be like you.

President Adams: “Go not abroad in search of monsters to destroy.”

As Pete Seeger used to sing, “You can’t kill all the unbelievers.” Besides, how do you know who the terrorist are?

You seem to be putting your manhood on the line here by vowing not to give in. What point are you trying to make? That we have some right to put our military anywhere in the world? Does that work for other countries, too?

The idea that you can accomplish any political goal “once and for all” is naive.

I don’t think that I need to point out that Saudi Arabia allowed us to base American troops in that country. Osama Bin Ladin had and still has no say in that decision. If we give in to them now, where do we stop. The only way to defeat terrorism once and for all is to make sure that you kill all the terrorists.

and look half way down the page for this passage: “In 1990, in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the Saudi government allowed American troops to be stationed in Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden was incensed that non-believers (American soldiers) were stationed in the birthplace of Islam. He also charged the Saudi regime with deviating from true Islam.”

and later this passage: ” . . . the 1998 bombings at the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The date, Aug. 7, was the anniversary of the deployment of U.S. troops to Saudi Arabia.”

Then there’s this on suicide bombers at Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying_to_Win
Scroll down to Ch. 7 and read this part: “With increasing knowledge of al-Qaeda, we see that “the presence of American military forces for combat operations on the homeland territory of the suicide terrorists is stronger than Islamic fundamentalism in predicting whether individuals from that country will become al-Qaeda suicide terrorists” (103). “Al-Qaeda is less a transnational network of like-minded ideologues . . . than a cross-national military alliance of national liberation movements working together against what they see as a common imperial threat” (104). . . . . . it does corroborate a connection to U.S. military policies in the Persian Gulf (107-17). Al-Qaeda propaganda emphasizes the “Crusader” theme, which is inherently related to occupation.”

Finally I found this newspaper story on suicide bombers: ” . . . .”Well, I was actually surprised” to discover that “what over 95 percent of all suicide attacks around the world since 1980 until today have in common is not religion, but a clear, strategic objective: to compel a modern democracy to withdraw military forces from the territory that the terrorists view as their homeland.”

So we weren’t attacked on 9/11 by Islamic radicals because they hate our freedom?

Negative, says Pape: Fifteen of the 19 suicide hijackers came from Saudi Arabia, where nearly 5,000 U.S. combat troops were stationed at the time, with 7,000 more billeted elsewhere in the Arabian Peninsula.

Although the largest U.S. military presence is now in Iraq, these troops are seen as a threat by some Muslims because of the Americans’ overwhelming superiority and ability to quickly redeploy. Osama bin Laden, who has often spoken of the “American occupation of the Arabian Peninsula,” said in 1996 that American troops are “going to conquer Iraq,” says Pape. “Now fast-forward to 2005. How are you going to persuade somebody that bin Laden’s wrong?”

That article is here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/09/AR2005070901425_pf.html

Could you please elaborate more on your assertion that terrorism is caused by our military presence in another nation.

Criminals attacked us because our military was already in their holy land near Mecca. Instead of concentrating on the criminal leader we let him go and invaded a country that had been hostile to him. As a result of falling into Osama bin Laden’s trap for us, the number of our dead keeps escalating as does the number of suicide attacks on us. Now we have even been (almost) attacked by an African. Our list of enemies seems to be growing.

As a further result the new attack has caused real Christmas nightmares among the frightened and fearful. They want to bring back a version of the Berlin Wall to keep out hard working Mexican waiters and Guatemalan gardeners. Meanwhile airplanes still go everywhere and criminals still think of new ways to attack them, undeterred by scanners and sniffers and X ray machines.

What to do? How about bringing home the military before a third continent starts breeding bombers? Soon we may be outnumbered.