>Why has international terrorism never been seen as such a major problem until the last week ?

It HAS been a problem, Len. What happened Tuesday is a result of "long, hard negotiations" and appeasments. More appeasments will simply embolden them. it is not possible to reason with the irrational. If Fundamentalist Muslims, unlike their liberal brethren, are in political and secular power they will allow only one of two outcomes to an encounter with those outside their faith, conversion or death. Those who will not convert are worthy of death. The Gulf War wasn't about Islam. It was about a socialist who controls the Baath Socalist Party in Iraq and who has desires to become the modern Nebecanezer in a resored Babylonian Empire cented in Babylon. We had a vested interest in defending the peacable Arab countries. We discovered the oil under their sand, we developed it and we paid them handsomely for the rights to do so. We've been paying them handsomely every since.

If you realized that it takes 7 calories of oil energy to give you 1 calorie of bread energy then you'd realize that farming is just a way of using land to convert oil into food. Had Husain taken over the Saudi oil fields 10 years ago you'd wouldn't be communicating with other fox heads on this forum, and you proabably wouldn't be driving a car to work or flying a plane on business. There would have been a HUGE economic turndown resulting in the starvation of millions or the payment of a kings ransom for oil.

The solution is, of course, to get ourselves off the Oil economy and onto the Hydrogen economy with Solar Power Tower II installations. And ASAP. Then, the only collateral damage will be the reduction of CO2 in the atmosphere. BTW, the SPTII technology is not 'high' level, and is readily available. Those key parts can be freely communicated to the rest of the world to help them eliminate their dependency on Oil. Not to spite the Arab nations, but to be sure that there will remain for future generations enough fossil Carbon reserves to meet the needs of the plastics, medical and high technology industries for geneations into the future. Othewise, this generation of teenagers will burn up every bit of oil and coal on the planet in the next 30-40 years. And that despite the fact that the USA has 6 times more coal energy than Saudia Arabia has oil energy!
JLK