Talk. More talk. And still more talk. A "call for healing". A promise to "bring these monsters to justice." A bill to barcode every person in North America on the forehead. And, of course a strongly-worded note of protest to the UN.
This is not 1945 and President Bush isn't Harry S Truman. He's not going to incinerate eight hundred thouand Arab civilians to prove we mean business. There isn't a politician alive today with balls big enough to do the obvious thing in such a situation. It might interrupt te delicate Mideast peace process, and what of the reaction of the Arab Street? No, we'll send over some regular, non-nuke cruise missiles to "dominate the radarspace" or something, with lots of grainy infrared footage of outhouses and telephone exchanges going boom; meanwhile, in a speech carried live on CNNANCCBSNBCFOXMSNBCAlJazeera, a tearful president will join hands with leading Democrats for a prayer service with the survivors at Falllout Decontamination Camp #42. "This is not a time for anger. Rest assured that the people who blew up Dallas will be hunted down and brought to justice. But let us not forget that the 865,566 known victims of this tragic event are vctims not of the peaceful religion of Islam, but of a few madmen who have perverted the message of the prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) for their own ends. No, for now, we must grieve for our loved ones, and begin the process of healing our nation. Also, please call your broker and buy some stock."
The ashes and rubble will be bulldozed over and a suitably somber Memorial Wall will be erected at the site of the CityPlace tower: "On this spot once stood the international headquarters of Seven-Eleven, plus the seventh largest city in America,." Crack squads of Grief Counselors will be airlifted to the nation's elementary, middle, and high schools. Ritalin will flow like water. Britney's fairy-tale reuinion with Justin will displace war news in the headlines. People will call the TV networks to complain about all that yucky bomb stuff on TV that keeps interrupting Will and Grace. Life will go on.
The world has changed after 9-11. It is almost inevitable that we (or one of our strong allies) will be visited by a WMD horror. I predict that with adults in charge (Bush is more like Harry Truman than you suspect, if understand what you meant by that comment), the response will be immediate and overwhelming. Disproportionate, in fact, as the Bush Doctrine essentially disavows measured, proportionate responses.
I think we will move away from the pretense of separating Islamic regimes from the "lunatic fringe" that would do us harm, and act much less discriminatingly. In essence, we will tell peace-loving Islamic people: kill or turn the terrorists over to us now, or face the consequences of being considered as harboring them (see Tora Bora for an illustration of those consequences).
You might have been right in 1997; I hope and pray you are wrong post 9-11.