[fire and forget]

I'm really astonished how many people are jumping the gun on this. Enough Monday morning quarterbacking. Bush is railroading Muslim nations into assisting in ensuring the total anhialation of Bin Laden and his people. He's NOT telling these states he won't take swift and decisive action against them once Bin Laden's finished and we've uncovered evidence justifying bringing the full brunt of our resources (and the international coalition's) against them as well (not to mention if they so much as look at us the wrong way). And rest assured, Saddam won't survive this war either.

One at a time, guys. And let's do it right. Fools rush in. I believe Bin Laden's network is completely hamstrung right now and the Taliban are doomed. Time's on our side, not their's. They may be able to pull off a few relatively small acts of terror, but nothing on the scale we've already witnessed. If they were capable of effectively unleashing bio/chemical weapons on a large scale against us, they should have done it before we thoroughly dialed up our intelligence and domestic security. For Bin Laden to have succeeded in this game, he needed to hit a number of cities hard and suddenly to really paralyze our economy and our ability to act. Now his remaining cells are in pieces, his funds frozen or else otherwise useless to him, the Taliban are defecting, the Northern Alliance is advancing on Kabul, the Afganistan borders are closed, and the military might of America and her allies are closing in with single-minded purpose. As FDR's speech writer so eloquently coined, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." The war on terrorism is in excellent hands.

[MagnusMat]

So true! The fact that Bush is not just aimlessly shooting missles is a clear sign that he intends to win this and win it big even if it takes a while.

[eureka!]

nicely stated at 88

[mwl1]

Good insight. People need to understand the GWB is an extremely astute politician (unlike Bush 41)... 43 understands that he has put enormous political capital on the table with the war against terrorism... if he fails to protect his right flank, he'll be toast in 2004.

[Dems_R_Losers]

For Bin Laden to have succeeded in this game, he needed to hit a number of cities hard and suddenly to really paralyze our economy and our ability to act.

Precisely so. While the primary mission succeeded somewhat, in destroying the WTC, the secondary mission, to totally disrupt our economy and military command - and possibly civilian authority as well - failed miserably. It seems implausible that Al Qaeda or even Iraq has a real Plan B now that Plan A has failed and much of their M.O. has been discovered and their money cut off. The only thing I can see them trying now is if they really have some tactical nuclear missiles, to use them on our carrier groups now that the September 11 attacks have drawn them into the Middle East. But even if they try this, I believe we have anti-missile capabilites on all our large warships.

They have to know that they are really screwed now. They did not produce the kind of attack they expected from the U.S. and its "cowboy President", nor the reaction from the non-extremist Muslim countries that they expected. All they can really do is kiss their asses goodbye while they are praying to Mecca five times a day.