I've always wondered how I would react if the US itself were attacked and thousands (or more) were killed. When the day came, I immediately went into a standard lefty mode that wouldn't raise a brow in ZNet/Pacifica circles. But inside I knew this was different -- it wasn't like the Vietnamese or the Nicaraguans staging a reprisal for US attacks on them (and I doubt they would be so bloodthirsty as to attempt massive civilian casualties), and frankly, I didn't know much about the Taliban or al-Qaeda. So I did some reading, especially Ahmed Rashid's excellent "Taliban," and, yes, had conversations with my old mentor Hitch. And I saw how the intervention was played out -- how, regardless of how Bush and Cheney actually feel or what they intended, the Afghan situation was bettered, mass starvation avoided, refugees returning, and, as RAWA conceded, more political openings than existed just a year ago. Is everything peachy in Afghanistan? Obviously not. Did innocents perish from US bombs? Yes they did. But overall the situation there is much improved, many more lives saved than taken, and no one can say with a straight face that things were better under the Taliban.
Oh yeah -- the proclamations of the al-Qaeda filth, broadcast on Al Jazeera and elsewhere, show clearly what they have in mind, and that they are far from through. They are our enemies, comrades. They must go.
DP