Apparently the entire Republican appatnichts lack understanding of (1.) War, and (2.) Terrorism.

War is political failure.

Terrorism is only effective way for the weak to attack the strong. It works as long as the strong are confused and let it work by granting it the recognition, attention, and media play that are the only reasons for its existence.

I think this shows much more clearly that you and the Democrats don't understand war and terrorism.

At the heart of the Democratic foreign policy is the faith that if you can just talk to the right people and say the right things, that the monster who wants you, your civilization, and your religion dead, dead, dead can somehow be talked out of it, or offered something harmless to make him go away.

Kerry believes this. You believe this. A lot of liberals believe this.

The concept that "war is a failure of politics" implies that there is no problem that can't be solved politically if you are clever and accommodating, and that if they're still trying to annihilate you, it's just because you haven't said the right things yet.

Say you're a representative of the Jews in Europe before WWII, across the negotiating table from the Nazi architects of the death camps.

What can you tell them? What will you offer them? What will appease them? What possible compromise can you make with someone whose goal is your utter extinction?

Go ahead. Stand in the lobby of the World Trade Center while living bodies and flaming wreckage plummet outside. Refuse to grant terrorism "recognition and attention." See if that works.

We weren't in Afghanistan on September 11. We weren't in Iraq. We were in Saudi Arabia, enforcing the U.N. no-fly zones with U.N. approval, and that was apparently enough for al Qaeda. If we hadn't been in Saudi Arabia, our support of Israel would be enough. If we stopped supporting Israel, it would be our television shows, the Western culture that spreads around the world.

It would have been something. These people do not think we should exist. There is no compromise with that.

Sometimes there is no "other hand."

Some politicians realize this, and realize that "give peace a chance" is not a universal solution.