<I find myself wondering if our democratic, free and open society can co-exist with this sort of war.

For the interim, the nation and our personal values will need to change. I'm ready to back these changes 100%. We need to be united against the evil of terrorism, and we need the conviction to rid the planet of it. This will require everyone's willing participation, and our full backing to our president.

As for our civilization bumping against a limit, yes, it has. It ran into the limit of that upon which our nation is based. Tolerance toward others. We, the United States of America, along with the rest of the "free" world, are now prime targets of terrorist attack. It has been demonstrated that our borders are indeed open, and that we do indeed accept all people. Because of our willingness to accept and aid those from other countries who seek shelter from tyranny, we can now be targeted by those same tyrants.

Well, the time has come to take these tyrants down.

If we must ration our Social Security to achieve this, we must. If we must ration our personal commodities, we must. If we must sacrifice loved ones -- we must. The future of democracy on the planet Earth requires it. We must strike, hard and swift. We must show that the threat of a jihad is nothing but a misguided ruse, raised by an arrogant society of oppressors -- a sanctimonious myth -- and that a united, free people can overcome this adversity. We must recover from our wounds, stand tall, and lead this charge. The barking hyenas of the Afghanistan-based terrorist camps have heckled far and wide how insurmountable their mountain stronghold is -- but that was before declaring open war on the United States, and murdering more 5000 free citizens of the world on her soil -- free citizens, as guests in our country, whose lives each of US were responsible for.

We will return from this worn, torn, and bloodied, but unbroken.

America will remain free.

Dan