Your limb just broke Tom because I was as outraged as any other American but I was able to channel my rage into thinking instead of overreacting. The gut reaction is to paint the whole of Al Quaida as radical suicidal wackos and figure the only way to prevent attacks is to simply wipe them all off the face of the Earth. I'm human. Those thoughts went through my mind and, had one of my children been in those towers, I'd have been hunting Mr. Bin Laden personally.

The problem is that, once one gets over their initial shock, engages their brain, and treats the problem as a chess match, the black and white turns to gray. The cult-like, brain-warped soldiers of Al Quaida are not the ones we have to worry about. The leaders of the group are leaders because they are brighter, have charisma, money, and influence over others. They read voraciously and study the strengths and weaknesses of their enemies no less than any West Point graduate would. There's a strong possibility that their religious teachings and it's ties to their terrorist plans are mere manipulation agents and that they don't even truly believe the stuff they're putting out. These men are not suicidal or they'd be strapping bombs to themselves just as their pinhead followers do. Make no mistake that there will never stop being a source of suicidal followers as long as our side keeps playing into the plans of the terrorist leaders.

Are you truly that misguided that you think these guys lost sleep because we blew up some bombs in Afghanistan and destabilized Iraq? We played right into their hands. They can't beat us here. They can blow up a few buildings and scare some folks that can't think beyond their tv set but our country is too big, too strong, and has too many resources. In many ways we caused more damage than the planes did by overreacting to the attacks. Al Quaida didn't make our stock market drop out of sight. Our fear did. Al Quaida didn't cause our airline industry to hit rock bottom. Passengers will never again allow criminals to take control of a plane. We could've easily defended against the type of attack that occurred on 9/11 by reinforcing cockpit doors and putting air marshalls on flights. I would've gladly flown on 9/12. It would've been the safest day of the year to be in the air and yet we all sat shaking in our abodes.

Their only chance at making a dent in our power was to lure us into their enviroment and allow us to enrage the Islamic world. Bush dove right in.

I have my own macho side. You wouldn't want to ever see it unleashed. However, it hasn't been released because my intellect always steps in to ask what life will look like tomorrow after going postal today. Here's the rub Tom. I've always prospered in life with this philosophy. Nations work the same way.

Art