> 1) The US government can't prosecute the guilty because they are
> dead.
Nonsense. They were trained, financed and organized by a network of very scary individuals, most of whom are alive and well, and who are engaged in training more suicide squads.
> 2) The US govt can't present a case against foreign individuals,
Irrelevant. The UN can try and prosecute the case itself, if need be.
> 3) The US govt can't enlist powerful allies in the Islamic world to
Sure it can. The Maghreb countries are already pissed at the fundies. Russia, China, India, and the EU are all rowing in the same direction, for once.
> 5) Assuming that a response is necessary, then by default, the US
> government has to engage in the random slaughter and destruction
That's not what President Powell -- Shrub is just the houseboy -- is doing, is he? They knocked out the airfields and are sending in special forces, targeting al-Qaeda.
It's OK to be disgusted with the US' Second World status (Powell, of course, is our caudillo). But you're assuming that the US is the Prime Mover of the world-system, and this just isn't so. The EU and East Asia are in charge, and they don't want indiscriminate slaughter, they want a contained police action. What makes you think they won't get what they want?
-- Dennis