...concerning your analysis:

- The terrorists have no other alternatives except terror for action against the oppressor (the "human cruise missile" thesis).

- They have been forced to these desperate acts by the actions of the oppressors.

This varies. Substitute "patriots" for "terrorists", and we could be talking about the American revolutionaries, except for the "cruise missile" reference. The British didn't have the word "terrorist", but they used others that were the equivalent in their day. And there were British "sympathizers" back then too.

On the other hand, blowing up family parties and murdering schoolchildren are horrifying, unjustifiable acts that offend the decency of any humane person. So, I might add, are acts of sexual abuse committed on teenagers held in prisons by army and intelligence personnel. We can only hope for justice for the victims. Their lives, if they still live, are permanently scarred by these beastly acts.

- Even if they deserve punishment, military violence is not the answer. What is? Reply hazy. Ask again later.

The reply has only been hazy to those who have not been listening for the 80,000 or so times it has been given.

Terrorism is a crime. We have police, and international agreements with the police of other nations, and intelligence agencies that can turn information over to the police. The object is not to take over other countries, but to make the terrorism stop. The more that people can see these acts as crimes, because responses come from the international justice system rather than foreign military groups, the less likely they will be to see them as "patriotic movements" and their perpetrators as national heroes. So far, as far as I can see, the results worldwide has been less splashy but more effective, especially in body counts, from police responses than from military responses.

In the case of Afghanistan, the government was not only not cooperating in the international police effort, but was actually aiding the criminals. The whole world saw that, and authorized a kind of giant SWAT team strike with the armed forces of many nations participating. Too bad we didn't finish the job.

However, I don't recall any cop-beating, spitting, obscenities, sabotage, or other hostility at this level during the Democratic convention.

Of course not. John Kerry is not in charge of anything right now except his Senate seat and his presidential campaign.

Any hostilities the Republicans needed could be launched from a swift boat. And were.

Protestors were protesting policies of the Republican administration regarding war, gay rights, unemployment, AIDS, and probably some other things I missed. The administration is in charge of policies dealing with these issues.

- Some liberals left a few marbles in Florida. It's starting to show. More other places than here, fortunately. A few out there are dropping more marbles every day. Unfortunately for the Democrats, this group includes some of their major political supporters.

I admit that I find the disqualification pattern of legitimate registered voters in Florida to be disturbing. I find it even more disturbing that in the recent primary, the pattern was still evident. (The charitable view is that Florida has done a poor job educating its election workers. I can get behind the charitable view.)

But I, for one, have been willing to let bygones be bygones, although you can bet that there will be more support available for voters who are turned away for spurrious reasons this time around.

- That there is a certain subconscious satisfaction some people have when seeing American lack of progress in Iraq and elsewhere is obvious.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When I see what I'm seeing now, I'm afraid not that the terrorists will blow up the world, even though they may blow up small chunks of it (and bad luck to them if they try), but that our actions as the dominant nation will screw up the chances for a peaceful, democratic future for most of the world. If we, the apostles of democracy, try to force it on the world -- "forced democracy": how's that for an oxymoron? -- we will poison the whole idea. Then we're all screwed.

I also look with great alarm at what's happening at home, as we in our fear, some of it marketted to us by our leaders, edge closer and closer to trading in liberty for a little temporary safety. And of course, if we become a closed society, terror the world over has won. This seems to be lost on our domestic abridgers of civil liberties.

Satisfaction??? Hardly.

Of course, to be fair, they see it as Bush's failure, not America's.

Thank you for that.