Thanks, Raoul.

As one of the few non-Americans on this board, you represent (whether you like it or not ;) ) the voice of the rest of the world to many here. The world could not ask for a more compassionate, level-headed representative.

Even though we read the press reports of international support, somehow it's different, and better, to hear it from someone you know, person to person.

I still hope we never have to get used to cameras everywhere (though they surely are many places in the US already!) and body searches. It feels like letting the bastards take something away from us.

I'm beginning to get an eerie feeling of historical deja-vu, remembering the anarchist and nationalist terror attacks on Europe at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Those attacks led up to and, in one particular case, precipitated the First World War. This isn't going to be trench warfare, but it will change the face of war forever. May Belgium not be the battlefield for this one.

Best regards--
Mary Anne