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I have yet to read anyone put things so well concerning the events of this morning. And I do agree, this is WAR and it's time we accepted it as it is.

absolutely. this is not an act of terrorism. it is an act of war. hypocrite that i am, i attended mass for the first time in 20 years today. i prayed for forgiveness - for what i'm thinking and feeling. i thought i was a cynic. i was wrong.

as dumb and naive as it may sound on a morning like this ... I refuse to believe that more hate, more destruction, more killing, is the solution. to offer another quote, this one from Gandhi: "An eye for an eye, and the whole world would be blind."

Noah, your response is that of a rational feeling compassionate human being. The people behind these cowardly acts share none of those attributes with you. Applying rational thought to those of fanatical beliefs is an exercise in futitlity. If we take the policy of turning the other cheek against such fanatics, then to turn Ghandi's phrase, we are the only one who will end up blind, and they will go on with their jihad, continuing to poke out the eyes of everyone who "offends" them. I am more of a subscriber to this philosophy: All that is required for evil to succeed is for good men to stand by and do nothing.

While I understand Noah's stance against violence, I share Reid's sentiments. Tens of thousands of INNOCENT people were brutally murdered today. I could never turn a blind eye to that fact.

And that's what terrifies me: the knee-jerk reaction to see more tens of thousands of innocent people killed. As I write this, apparently we're bombing Afghanistan when we don't even know for certain that they're responsible yet. A swift and focused retaliation on the people that we know are responsible, yes, absolutely - but I've heard so much talk today of "war war war, let's nuke 'em all" - and that's the reaction that sickens and terrifies me more than anything else. I can't pretend to have any answers or solutions, just overwhelming heartsick grief. I just don't want this to turn America into another country where hate becomes a way of life. but the way things look right now, it's hard to see much hope that that won't become the case.

Noah, I have no desire to see even one more innocent person killed. In fact, I'd like for us to do everything in our power to see to it that never happens again. I'm not in favor of wholesale bombing of anyone (BTW, the explosions in Kabul are apparently a re-eruption of their years old civil war, given this sudden "opportunity"), but I'm 110% behind a strike against those determined to be behind the killing of innocents today. And that strike should be one of massive retaliation, on a surgical level. I'm as non-violent a person as you might hope to encounter, but I recognize when the line is crossed. I recognize an act of war. This is the greatest act of war ever perpetrated in this country's 225 year history. One that is, in my opinion, both greater in scale, and far more despicable in design than Pearl Harbor. At Pearl Harbor, Japan at least had the honor to strike military against military. We view it as a "sneak attack" because they caught us with our pants down. In this case, there was no honor. This was not a strike at our military (despite the attack on the Pentagon), this was a strike at the heart of America, its soul. Its people. I have no desire to see any more innocents die. I have no desire to live in fear of going into a tall building, or of a simple plane passing overhead. I have no desire to alter my lifestyle in any way because of the suicidal acts of fanatics. I view these things as a direct threat upon me, and my loved ones. On my freedom I will not stand for that, in my personal life, or in my world view. It is evil, and we must stand up to evil, not cross the street to avoid it.

Terrorism is worse than war. War has rules. Wars are fought over a just cause. This is criminal. This is mass murder. This is pure evil.

note: We're not bombing Afghanistan, they're fighting themselves.