Funny (to the 2nd degree) how some people still think that everything can be solved with war, or violence in general.
As my fellow european citizens have pointed out, terrorism is not new here. Maybe this is why we don't have a knee-jerk reaction after the Madrid bombings. If some of you think that Al-Quaeda has won because the spanish govt changed after elections planned well before the last week bombings, then they should realize that they had even a greater victory in the U.S. because:
- US reputation is at its lowest
- economy is crippled as a result of war in Iraq (which, if it was even aimed at Al-Quaeda in the 1st place, is a huge miss IMO).
- some democratic rights are cancelled/suspended
- normal life is regularly spoiled by rainbow coded threat levels (i.e. airports at Christmas 2003)
- almost every US citizen feels very insecure and see terrorists everywhere
...
War on Terror is absurd. Terrorism doesn't follow any of the war rules. The 'enemy' is within and invisible. You'll never win against terrorism by muscles, but you can control it by brains.
In the U.S. you started in the 80s the War on Drugs (if you think about it, there are a lot of analogies between a drug dealer and a terrorist...). Was the goal reached? How did it end? How do you handle the drugs problem now??
And this:
You have given up your right to self defense.
is not only pompous, it's deeply stupid.