We're not in a war. I wish that term would go away. We were struck by a band of criminals representing no single country. We're in a huge police action where the only concept of war comes from the fact that to effectively bring the criminals to justice requires either the cooperation of the states the criminals reside or hide in or a temporary disregard for their sovereignty while we stay in hot pursuit.

Generally as long as we remain in that hot pursuit mode as we did in Afghanistan we have the world's blessing and make very few new enemies. Our problem comes when we wage conflict against an actual country and its leaders, especially if we have no evidence that entity directly hit us first.

No matter what the Bush administration wants America to believe, our lives, unless we were directly related to the people that died in the attacks, did not change an iota on September 11th. We were just as vulnerable and had just as many people wishing us ill will 10 years before that date and it will be that way forever. You are no more at risk individually from a terrorist attack today than you were the day you were born.

Yes, we need to remain eternally vigilant. That's a simple survival technique humans should never forget. However, scared only makes people and nations react impulsively and without intelligent thought. Let's simply be street smart and not warlike.