> In short, the U.S. seems unsurprisingly short of intelligence right now, jumping on snap reactions. We don't (I speak for me and my friends) want a war, a draft, or anything else, but our president (Bush...) seems to go on these snap judgements, and frankly, I'm afraid just as much of what we might do as what happened to us.

What snap judgments? It is laughable to think that you are qualified to make this judgment. No private citizen has half the evidence the government does about what's going on. The rule of central intelligence is, if you know about it, the government knew about it a long time ago and they currently know more. We are being told on the news, time and again, that we have "substantial evidence" and "conclusive evidence" and so forth that something or other is the case (an example -- that the Pennsylvania plane was en route to the White House or possibly Air Force One) but we are not told what this evidence is. And we should not be told. Telling us means telling the enemy.

We have to trust our government to make the right decisions in this matter because it is not feasible for us to be informed enough to make those determinations. You are right to be concerned that the government do the right thing. But all we've *heard* from the government is that we *should* be sure of our evidence before making snap decisions, and that we should not act before we understand the ramifications of our actions and are prepared to accept them. President Bush has NOT made any snap decisions, and if you disagree, name one.