"because "they" will no longer exist."

On the one hand we are told we will eliminate terrorism. We'll get 'em, all of 'em.

On the other we are told they are out there, everywhere, and breeding like flies. That we can't find them, and will never get rid of all of them.

The reality is that we are trying, once again, to fight the last war. This one is different. There are no lands to conquer, people to subject. No way to know when it's over. Winning a war is supposed to help one feel safer? The Taliban no longer rules Afghanistan, and no one is safer, apparently.

Where is Osama? Where's the person who mailed the anthrax?

You are correct, there is a fine line. And I'd propose it be this. That we realize we are not fighting a foe who can hurt us on a national level. That we recognize this enemy cannot affect the American way of life, our vitality, our freedoms.

Excepting if we give them away.

And we act appropriately. They can hurt our pride, our national ego. They can hurt some innocent people, terribly. But on a national scale they are less than a flea on an elephant. Would you recommend an elephant go to battle with the jungle over a flea, or eliminate the flea?

And, there's no real threat to the American way of life except that we impose upon ourselves.

I would suggest we continue to go after the perps and planners. I would even expand that a bit. I would not suggest we change our way of life, give away our personal freedoms, or go to war with the world.

Do we really want to give away the things we love trying to protect them from what really isn't a threat?