A noted Islamic scholar whose name escapes me for the moment said of the September 11 tragedy: "It was not four airliners that were hijacked on this day, but the Islamic faith."
As much as the US needed to avenge this act, it also did not go in boots and all as has been clearly pointed out - there is no molten sheet of black glass where Afghanistan use to be.
Would this solution achieve anthing other that to create even more hatred and give the agitaters even more fuel to feed the mindless. This is going to be a long and drawn out affair. My fear is, how do we say "enough is enough" and lets end it? Will we have any say in it?
On one side we have George Dubya saying it is a war on all of terrorism not Islam, on the other side we have Bin Liner saying it is a war on all of Islam (let's not mention terrorism) to inflame all nations following that faith into rising up with him.
Meanwhile more boats will flounder at Ashmore. More Australian money will be thrown at detention centres here and in the neighboring island nations and still more boats will appear on the horizon as people flee that part of the world.
Economic refugees we have already and they should be dealt with as interlopers, but this war will also create a new wave of humanity fleeing to all points of the compass for a more basic reason - survival.
How shall we treat this war refugee? More importantly, how do we indentify who is deserving and who is not and differentiate between their struggle to get here (and it will be heroic if they manage it) and the interloper who paid US$30,000 for the easier option (not comfortable, but also not forced on him) just because he liked the look of what we have better than his first several ports of call?
