Yes, expecting bin Laden to survive to be put on trial may turn out to be idealistic and naive. Many people want him executed with a minimum of lawyering.

But I will confess I never expected Milosevic to stand trial in the Hague. There he is nonetheless. And while Hitler chose suicide over capture, Hess and others were tried at Nuremburg.

As for your comments about other cultures with opposing values, yes, anti-democratic voices do pose a unique problem for democracy. They exist even within America, voices from the extreme left and extreme right. Some of these extreme voices may be emboldened and, worse, heeded in the hysteria of the present moment. I'm sure you join me in hoping this is not the case, though it already seems to be happening.

I don't have any problem with people like bin Laden not wanting to be like us. Choose to live in fundamentalist hell, that's fine by me. But clearly the minute some zealot or another tries to force his or her version of 'morality' on me - possibly at gun-point or bomb-blast - I have the right to defend myself. I do not like war, but America has all the justification she needs to respond forcefully against those who would bring death and misery to her citizens.

Your opinion that this will be a war unlike any other also happens to be the opinion expressed by Cheney and Rumsfeld. Though I'm not sure how valid that view truly is. After all, in the Cold War didn't both sides employ military action as just one component of their strategy? Diplomatic pressure, intelligence-sharing, economic and financial hardball, humanitarian efforts, appeals to religious leadershp - weren't these all employed as well?

I think the Pentagon and CIA have the new Cold War they needed to justify their continued importance in government and the world at large. It has new names now. Operation Noble Eagle. Operation Enduring Freedom. There will surely be others. War on Terrorism seems popular.

The attacks upon American cities absolutely demand a response. I just wish that America didn't believe the only possible response is a return to the Cold War posture.

In an ideal world, of course, something besides Son of the Cold War could emerge. But, as you well know, we don't live in an ideal world.