Log on to http://www.vote.com to tell government leaders:

-Whether Congress should declare war on terrorists and the countries that harbor them

-Whether America should attack Afghanistan for protecting Osama bin Laden

-Whether the U.S. should end the ban on assassinating foreign leaders

When you vote, your opinion will be sent to Congress, President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell.

That having been said, I'd like to interject my own 2¢.

When you vote on the question whether to attack Afghanistan, think about whether you're 100% certain the culprit was Osama bin Laden, or if it could have been someone else. Saddam Hussein has been proposed as a suspect by at least one news agency, and I didn't even know about the guy Vote.com lists as another possibility.

If we attack Afghanistan- or any other country for that matter- right now, without being 100% certain who the mastermind of Tuesday's attack was, we stand to do little more than devastate a 3rd world country and look like idiots while the real bad guy gets away.

However, if the US bides its time to make an ironclad case against the culprit (and I'm talking days or weeks here, not months or years), we'll not only kill the bad guy and devastate his country, the rest of the world will probably applaud the US's prudence.

Take my opinion for what it's worth. Please understand that I'm 100% behind finding the bastard who inspired/instigated/authorized Tuesday’s horrors and torching his sorry butt, but the thought of one more innocent person being dead right now sickens me.

Gwen

Terrorism operates on the basis of 'cells' that you've heard so much about on the news. There is no communication between any of them to protect their security from military/law enforcement. The only way to counter this establishment is to fight it like a cancer. You cannot just 'take-out' the one 'tumor', but rather cut out all these 'cells' and sometimes surrounding 'tissue'. Terrorists may operate independantly of governmental controls, but not without sanction and funding. The only true way to stop it is to not only eliminate the controllers, and operatives, but also their source of financing and intelligence.

The other possibility is of retaliation by sympathetic organizations/states. Simply eliminating Usama bin Laden's organization, may only serve to trigger the reaction of another group. The key is to sever the heads of all the terrorist groups (ie. Hezzbollah, DFLP, Islamic-jihad, etc.) simultaneously. Then continue to insure their downfall by persecuting sponsor states economically and militarily.

The pictures coming out of Palestine from Tuesday should tell everyone where the sympathies of the people in most Middle-Eastern countries lie, regardless of the sympathy and support supposed by their leaders. The Saudi Arabian government is only an ally of the US at the will of their royal family, and supported by a small minority of the populous.

Basically, the only way to eliminate this problem, is swift totally decisive action by the US and a coallition of all Western nations. This work is dirty, and must be born by the 'grunt' on the ground to assure it is completed. All combat boils down to this in the end. The only other option is the unthinkable...nuclear retaliation.

[ 09-13-2001: Message edited by: Reinhard von Lowenhaupt ]

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Gwen