A former neighbor of mine called me yesterday afternoon. She's of French ancestry and had just spoken to her sister in France. She said they're fully behind us in France. I've heard similar things from Britain and other countries.

The leaders of many countries have stepped forward to denounce yesterday's attacks. They know all to well that the same thing could've happened to them. In fact, many of them have experienced terrorist attacks of their own in recent years. These countries are our natural allies in the battle against terrorism. Politically, it might be unrealistic to hope for their active military participation against the terrorists. However, each country has intelligence assets and other sources of information that might prove useful to us. I hope these countries act in their own self interest by helping us get the people who attacked us yesterday. I have reason to believe their help will be forthcoming. One thing that would be very useful is to track down the money used by terrorists. I've read that bin Laden is very wealthy. If we can shut down his money supply, we can go a long way to defanging him and his supporters.

In one key aspect, yesterday's attacks are very different from Pearl Harbor. The attack on Pearl Harbor was the act of a nation, using its military, to attack our military forces. It took thousands of Japanese sailors and many ships to attack Pearl Harbor. We immediately knew who attacked us. By contrast, yesterday's attacks were probably conducted by fewer than 100 people acting from the shadows. Tracking down and eliminating these people will be difficult enough, but that won't solve the long-term problem. We need to eliminate the resources of terrorist groups around the world. This may require some countries to relax their banking privacy laws for a time. It may also require the international community to make pariahs of those countries that use terrorism as an instrument of national policy. Let's make it happen.