Re: the sword.
Maybe it's convenient but not quite true to call it a ntwork of terrorists, or an archipellago or Al Qaeda or whatever, but it's never a nation against another. It's indeed a small minority in many countries, most of the time governed by pro-western authorities.
And then, there's the iraqi episode which I can't find fitting in the fight-against-terrorism puzzle.
Someone, of a certain aura, once said "They that take the sword shall perish by the sword".
Time will tell how many friends the coalition force made in Iraq. That issue is far from over, at this time.
Raoul