I'm not sure what you think I said, except that what you think I said bears no resemblance to what I said, so allow me to rephrase my post.

>>In other words, [terrorists'] ideas are so worthless and bereft of the power to influence others that they have to resort to mass murder to get attention?

That's not what I said.

>>Is that supposed to make us feel guilty?

No, that's not what I said either.

>>I'm sorry, but the Al-Queda types can either express themselves the way the rest of us do (i.e.: peacefully and democratically) or they can be exterminated.

Sometimes terrorists' demands are rejected because they are dealing with a totalitarian government that is completely intransigent. (e.g. the French Resistance dealing with the Nazi occupation.) Sometimes they're rejected because they're completely unacceptable or unrealistic. Sometimes the reason falls somewhere in the middle. (The Irish PHRASECENSOREDPOSTERSHOULDKNOWBETTER. Army's demands that Northern Ireland be returned to Ireland, despite the fact that 2/3 of the population wished to remain with Great Britain, were unreasonable, IMO; otoh, the problem was probably greatly exacerbated by the government's refusal to address the discrimination against Catholic citizens by the Protestant majority.)

Whatever. The point I was trying to make is that, by cracking down on the freedoms that your forebears fought and died for, in the name of "security", the government is creating the very conditions that make people turn to terrorism and extremism.

Are the government measures going to swell the ranks of Al Qaeda? Probably not. (Although it does make their job a lot easier; why bother planting a bomb, when you can shut down a major freeway for 17 hours by picking up the phone and reporting a conversation you "overheard" in a restaurant?)

But will it swell the ranks of PHRASECENSOREDPOSTERSHOULDKNOWBETTER. militia groups, whose members already think the government has too much power? I suspect it will. Will it result in a resurgence of "Black Power" terrorism, or race riots? It's not that far-fetched, IMO.

Whether you "approve" of Al Qaeda, the IRA, white supremacy groups, or any other terrorist organisation is really not the issue. If you believe that their claims are totally unjustified (or if they're so far gone in their hatred that they don't even have any claims), then the only possible response is to fight them, and accept that there will be casualties on both sides along the way. But you should always bear in mind that the terrorists' main objective is to destroy your way of life; if your government is willing to do that for them, then they can kick back and relax and have a good laugh at your expense.