[cornelis]

Now, after 9/11, we Americans have been fully initiated into The West.

That's an interesting way of putting it. Perhaps the poetic ring helps pass it off as history. Certainly Reagan and Bush have cradled that adolescent run-away America trying to come of age in their vague consciousness of evil.

[Goetz_von_Berlichingen]

In retrospect, I must say that this was wishful thinking. Jihad has thrown down the gauntlet to America. Bin Laden has spoken of a final struggle between the crescent and the cross.

Elsewhere, Arab Moslems have demanded the removal of certain "offensive" frescos in an Italian (i.e. Roman Catholic) Cathedral. In France, synagogues are set alight, and in Germany, Jews are beaten on the street -- all by persons of "southern" extraction.

And still our president calls Islam a religion of peace and invites the bloody mullahs to the White House to celebrate their heathen holy days. Let me re-phrase: on 9/11, America received its invitation to join the West. The invitation was respectfully declined: "prior commitment."