As much as I disagree with most of the ideology of liberals, they are not the enemy. As much as liberals may disagree with conservatives, they are not the enemy.
Terrorists are the enemy. You cannot reason with a terrorist. You can't hope that the terrorist will change his mind. All you can do is hope that your government can stop an attack before it happens.
On an earlier thread I was accused of being afraid of terrorism. I surely am not. I am afraid that terrorism will change the way free people live and think. I am afraid freedom for my children and grandchildren will be a thing of the past.
Terrorists hate the USA. They hate us for what we represent. Think about the things that the USA represents. We protect homosexuals, Muslims hate homosexuality. We protect women. Women to Muslims are nothing more than an object to be USED at their discretion. We protect freedom of speech. Muslims hate freedom of speech because all are a slave to Allah.
We protect freedom of expression. A woman can wear just about anything she wants to wear on the streets. When is the last time a Muslim woman could be identified on the street? You can't reason with people who hate us and everything about us.
So I am not afraid of terrorism. I am afraid of what will happen if we don't fight against terrorism and kill the terrorists before they can kill us.

__________________
Those who think they know everything, usually know the least.

So how exactly are we going to kill all the terrorists?
I believe we must attack the root cause of the problem BEHIND terrorism, mainly the feeling of disenfranchisement (sp?) many Muslims are feeling towards the West. Supporting corrupt regimes, meddling in internal affairs, labeling countries part of "the axis of evil" do not help in that regard. I believe we did do a good thing both in invading Afganistan and Iraq. But we can't just invade every country in the Middle East.

But anyways....
Fanatical Muslims don't hate our freedom, persay. They hate the fact that we have such freedoms while they live in squalor. Seems to them a little corrupt.

Terrorism is like a hydra, you chop off one head and two grow in its place. We can't fight fire with fire, as that begets a firestorm, we must fight the fires of terrorism with the waters of peace and understanding.

Not that I don't want to bring terrorists to justice. I merely think that preventing terrorists from existing takes precedence.


[/ramble]

been there, done that.

Source: Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,86915,00.html

The USA Patriot Act is a package of broadened surveillance and law enforcement powers enacted by Congress and passed into law weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Civil liberties activists say a number of measures contained in the act encroach upon individual rights. Specifically, they point to powers by the FBI to monitor e-mail and Internet chat rooms, political and religious gatherings, library records, financial transactions and consumer buying habits.

Moreover, concerns are growing about the authority of the FBI to obtain secret search and seizure warrants against U.S. citizens suspected of having terrorist ties under the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act

__________________
I've been informed....don't blame Bush, he's "not in control"
That must make him out of control

I am firmly against terrorism... but not just that which comes from radical sects of Islam. Other forms of Islam, I have NO problem with, any more than I have a problem with Catholicism or Judaism. Whether I agree with their view or their concept of God or not, I would not judge the validity of their beliefs. Those who believe that they can freely interchange Muslim with terrorist (with groups like the Shining Path and FARC running rampant), are nothing more than examples of bigotry.

And in my mind, a bigot, ANY BIGOT, whether American, Israeli, Arab, Christian, Jewish or Muslim... is my enemy. People like that are cut from the same cloth as those who have caused us so much grief in this current Middle East conflict.

__________________
"Tweeter was a Boyscout before she went to Vietnam and found out the hard way... nobody gives a d@mn."

"Disenfranchisement"? I'm not sure what you mean by this. Are you refering to Muslim citizens of the U.S and Europe feeling disenfranchised?

Not all of them live in squalor. Those in power in Muslim nations live quite nicely.

As for this "freedom-envy", I must ask, what freedoms are they lacking and why? If their governments are denying them these freedoms that they supposedly cherish, then why not lash out out these oppressive regimes, instead of innocent people who live thousands of miles away?

Also, if freedom is so valued, why then are women in these societies given so little of it?

As Abu Musab Zarqawi has said, "We have declared a fierce war on this evil principle of democracy and those who follow this wrong ideology." You can try and understand him all you want, but it seems clear that the only way to have peace with this man and those like him is to give up democracy (your freedom). Therefore, you must make a choice. Is freedom worth fighting for?

The only way you could do this is to take away someone's freedom to choose.

Or we could listen to what they want and attempt to understand why someone becomes a terrorist in the first place.

Yes. He is the fanatical leader of a criminal group. HE does hate freedom and all it stands for, but he is not every terrorist. For instance, I would doubt that the members of the (former terrorist) PLO hate democracy in every form, they hate the Israeli government for what it has done to them. We should listen to what the reasons the average joe terrorist has are.

Those in power in those muslim nations are also the targets of terrorists. One of the reasons Bin Laden gave for declaring "war" on us is our support of the Saudi government. They lack the freedom to eat well, live comfortably, etc, while at the same time they are inundated with American movies depicting us a living the high life, and I would suppose they get a little jealous.

Not of the U.S., our muslim citizens are comparatively happy. However, in Europe, they find it more difficult to assimilate into the culture. The recent terrorist bombings in London were caused by English muslims...

Noble of you to say that. But listen to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. It's no surprise that so many people think liberals (meaning anyone who questions the government) need to be quashed.

And opinions differ on how best to "stop" an attack before it happens.

If freedom is vanquished in this country, it will not be due to some jackasses killing a few thousand people and bringing down a building or two. It will be due to our own government and the complacency of the people.

Methinks you are engaging in gross stereotyping and generalization. You went from saying "terrorists" to "Muslims." Terrorists represent a tiny percentage Muslims.
And I bet if you look up information on homosexuals, women, and freedom of speech in many "Muslim" countries, you would be surprised. For instance, in many Arab countries women are free to dress just like they do here in America.

I am afraid of a misinformed public. I am afraid of a government that exploits terrorism in order to keep the people fearful and complacent.

All I know is that starting an oil war and burning the constitution a la va Patriot Act is making things worse; both for the people of America and the people all around the world. We need to get rid of the capitalist fascist imperialist war mongering United $tates government of AmeriKKKa.

__________________
“Capitalism cannot reform itself; it is doomed to self-destruction. No universal selfishness can bring social good to all.” —Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois

All of the above.

__________________
'Cave ne ante ullas catapultas ambules' -unknown

Oh, but I have been listening. I already listed the quote from Zarqawi. Here is another one from the Hamas charter...

"There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors."

You see, understanding terrorists isn't really all that complicated. Terrorists are not at all shy about telling you what they want. In short, they want the world their way, and anyone who disagrees with them to die.

The only thing you have to decide is: will you give evil what it wants, or will you resist it?

Here's a novel idea: When someone commits a crime, how about we hunt them down, arrest them and prosecute them? After all, a terrorist is simply a criminal who claims to have a cause. And a cause is no excuse for murder. Why give a terrorist criminal preferential treatment as oppposed to a regular criminal?

If someone has grievances, that's one thing. If that someone plants a bomb on a bus, they just forfeited the right to have civilized people hear those grievances or give them any serious attention.

After all, the Indian people had grievances against the British, yet Gandhi managed to get exactly what he wanted without blowing anyone up.

So naturally this justifies suicide bombing.

Can you give proof that those behind the recent bombings in London felt disenfranchised? If so, why specifically did they feel disenfranchised? I mean, how exactly was the evil British government being culturally insensitive to these poor fellows?