Hi Len,

First of all, my heart is with all my american friends and above all with the family of all victims of this terrible act of crime.

>>I think you and I see eye to eye on this. Freedom cost too much to let a few terrorist punks take it away. Like I said, let's take this to them and make them pay dearly.

>Like the majority of the world, I too am outraged by what has happened & am trying to understand what can be justly done.

As I am.

>I know that there is immense pressure for something to be done, but at the moment nobody knows who is responsible. To take precipitous action based on unfounded presumptions could have catastrophic consequences not just for the US, but for the entire world.

I fully agree. The worst 'we' can do (NATO Counties, The Netherlands included) is react in blind anger without the rockstone hard evidence that we going to fight the guilty ones.

>Because of the action of a few extremists, do you bomb the crap out of civilians in their country too ?

Which is an action that show as much as respect for human life as the terrorist did. Fight fire with fire is never a good idea. Look at the palestinian conflict that is been going on for decades. As long as there is such enormous amount of hate at both sides, you can never solve the problem. I've seen DougD mention "jesus said: pray for your enemy" and I fully agree to this statement, though I'm not by any means religiuos. IMO, those words mean: Listen to your enemy, feel your enemy and somehow find a way to take out the hate out of your enemy. This is a very difficult task, the more because the leaders often have many things to hide and can only do this by blaming the otherone (India / Pakistan, Israel / Palestinians) for the (often economical and social) problems they're in.

>You say, "let's take this to them and make them pay dearly", how do you make a group of people who are prepared to die for their beliefs pay dearly. You can't use the threat of death, do you use the threat of making their families suffer - doesn't this make you as bad as them.

The death penalty is not going to work (I doubt if it works anyway, but that's another topic), They would suffer the most if they carry the enormous guild of their actions for the rest of their lives. The only question is: How to do this ?

>There are calls to assassinate known & suspected terrorists before this sort of atrocity can occur again, but who decides who is a terrorist & who is a freedom fighter. Would the US have sanctioned the assassination of Nelson Mandela, a suspected terrorist in South Africa.

Yes, you're fully right. The israeli regard the palestinian as terrorist and the palestinian themself as freedom fighters. The viewpoints change depending on which side you're on.

Walter,