The real question, I think, could be: how effective is it to answer violent death with violent death? It's not serving Isreal all that well. We're not going to be able to find and quell everybody who hates us by killing them all. If we want the terror and violence to end, we may have to face the reality that was pointed out so clearly by Ghandi and by King that hate can never end hate, and violence can only beget more violence. In these terms, attacking Iraq on flimsy pretexts, just so we would have _somebody_ to smack around in our fury about 9/11 is clearly making the whole situation worse. If we really were as benevolent as we wish to be seen, and went around helping people rather than blowing them up, people would be unable to develop the hatred that leads them to strap on dynamite and blow us up. Instead, they would start to welcome us, and they would try to be like us, as we wish they would.