I am a Christian from Canada who lurks here from time to time. The events this week in the US were horrible despicable acts of terrorism that should not occur anywhere in the world. But these events are a horrible reminder of what others in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere have lived through for many years. I can't help but fear for what will happen if retaliation and revenge drive the response to these acts. Just look at how awful it was in Ireland before people said enough and started to try to find a different way to solve their problems.

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> Do they *really* think they can scare us into submission, or scare us into changing our policies they don't like? If they do, then they are ignorant of the entire history of this country. Americans are polarized politically, diverse in race, religion, and culture, fractured, in-fighting, and oftentimes brutal to one another. But if ever our safety, our soveriegnty, our freedom, or our way of life is threatened or attacked, we put aside all differences and stand together to face our common enemy, and we do not stand down until that enemy is rendered incapable of threatening us anymore. Anything less would be intolerable.
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> -- Dave

How can we ever make sure someone else in incapable of threatening "us"? And why would we try it? It just creates more martyrs for "their" cause and everyone pays the price. Yes people should be brought to justice for this, but going in with force into another country, or attacking another country for what a few of their citizens have done is against UN agreements. I would much rather see as many of the reasons "why" this was done removed. This would reduce the threat to "innocent" people and and would encourage other countries to surrender those people suspected of this kind of crime to international courts.

What reasons the attackers had may never be known for sure but there is no lack of potential candidates, not the least of which is the embargo on Iraq. Regardless the best way to reduce the threat is for all everyone to think less about finding someone to punish and rather find ways in which we can support peacemaking efforts.

I will get off my soapbox now. I will be watching this thread and will try to respond to others comments.

For thoughtful commentary on many events (including this one) here is a site I find very informative (even if I don't agree with all of it). These articles are gathered from a variety of published sources, mostly in the west.