Thank you for all the responses. This is a good discussion.
I am interested, though, in finding out a little more about what the people around you (for those of you outside the USA) seem to think. Please include that angle in your responses, alongside your own opinion. Do most of your countrymen agree with you? How do they see the USA, bin Laden, Blair, Iraq?
One real concern that I have is that one year later, we still see only sparse condemnation for terror from largely Muslim nations or Muslim leaders. This particular terrorism hurts their religion, and it bothers me that Muslim leaders are not speaking up loudly. Anyone on this board live in a largely Muslim country and have any take on the view of "average Muslims"?
Finally, as regards the IRA and the "war on terror," even though this particular war seems focused on middle-Eastern terrorism, I personally see the enemy as terrorism itself: that is, the idea that rogue people can take the law into their own hands and use terrorist methods to scare people and undermine civil society. In that regard, the IRA (and any other group or person) is a "terrorist" threat when it uses these methods to intimidate and bully others. So, it needs to take notice also, if the goal is to defeat terrorism.
