[SamAdams76]

It fills my heart with joy to hear that some of these bastards, including perhaps Osama himself, may be trapped alive in their own caves with no chance of escape. May their deaths be more miserable than the poor folks trapped in the rubble of the WTC. I know it is not Christian to wish this but if we kill the entire Taliban without mercy, perhaps others will think twice about attacking us again. For it is not just retribution we must think about but deterrence.

[kaylar]

...if we kill the entire Taliban without mercy, perhaps others will think twice about attacking us again. For it is not just retribution we must think about but deterrence.

Exactly. What we would LIKE to do is "destroy terrorism", but that's not likely, unless Islam is expunged from the earth, which is even less likely. What we are HOPING to do is convince the terrorists that the US is too hard a target, and attacking it will mean too many of their civilians die. That is to convince them to attack 'softer' targets : The EU (where in certain locales Muslims are 12% or more of the population), Asia (Russia and China have Muslim populations), or best of all, other Muslims. If the radical Muslims and the moderate Muslims (the ones who only want to enslave or 'dhimmize' nonmuslims, not kill them) wind up playing out the Calico Cat and the Patchwork Dog tale of our childhood to its conclusion, so much the better.