What does not seem to be understood in most discussions is that the airplane attacks on the WTC and Pentagon were preventable. The simplest means was just to keep the cockpit door locked as it was in the 1970s. So the tragedy only happened because we let our guard down. That will not happen again. The airplane and the bio threats were well known to the govt. They just did not have the political will to implement the means to prevent them. They do now. No need to be scared of the terrorists now. The single suicide bomber will always be a threat as in Israel as long as there are serious differences between Islam and the secular world. But even that can be resolved if the situation does not escalate.

Now the need to be scared is that the US will over react and needlessly escalate the situation, just as the terrorists hope. Sometimes it is necessary to fight evil with evil. But the evil used in reaction has to be much smaller than the evil reacted to. There is a measurement of evil in this case- the taking of innocent lives. So while the US may feel compelled to take out the terrorists we have to make sure that far fewer than 1,000 innocent lives are so affected.

It would be far better just to remove their support, financial and moral. If the US could have the magnimity it had after WWII when we made allies out of our enemies, then we could defeat terrorism by removing their moral argument. The Marshall Plan was great for our former enemies, but the Moslin world was not included in that plan. I fear that the best, and if things go badly the only, solution to the fundamental and the fundamentalist problem is for Islam to produce a new Prophet who would put life above law, encourage research and investigation and debate, and make the rights of women equal to those of men. We need a world where all could be happy being Moslin. We need enlightened Islam.

• Please don't kid yourself. - richard - September 27, 2001 - 02:29 UTC