Ben, I'd be one of those who not bother you. I'd support, quietly, the mission of the Coalition, but I would also like to see them go home. Becuase there are too many historical precidents for safe places that weren't so safe.

I would rather take the risks and still have the freedom to travel within my homeland as I wish, and say what I wish, gather where I wish, and live as I wish. If people hate me becuase of the freedoms I embrace, I feel sorry for them with thier sad lifes. And if someone wishes to try to kill me because of that, so be it. I'm not likely to go along with the plan quietly.

If my hometown became like the green zone, I would load my gear in my car, and burn the house. I would leave, amd not look back. I have it easy, I know- single, no kids, heck, I don't even have a goldfish to worry about. For others, it isn't as easy a choice, and I aplogise if I sound uncaring. Even if I was married, though, it would be to someone for whom the choice was just as easy. I know what it means to be persecuted- you fight or you flee.

I might sound like I'm joking about reeducation camps for political undesirables filled with engineers, ACLU'ers and gun owner, but I'm not. I'm all three of those, and a "pagan". I know that if I'm not just gunned down in the street (likely, I'm stubborn), I will end up in such a camp. And I know there are people who would love to kill me becuase I am a "pagan", which means that if they bag me, they go straight to heaven. After all, thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. I know what it means to be an undesirable, trust me.

America isn't that far away from turning into theo-facist state. But I don't plan on living to see it, nor do I plan on changing my way of life becuase another flavor of theo-facism doesn't like me either. If we change, they win.

The way you fight terrorism is with openness, not paranoia. You build your communities back up, rather than making everyone afraid of thier neighbors. And as a nation, we are too dumb to put it together. Everyone is eager to fear and hate the other people on thier subway car or bus- how many of us see the same faces, 30, 40, 60 minutes a day, and have for years? How many of us know thier names? That is how we could beat these... gangsters.

And are too busy, we can't be bothered, so we will loose. Even if we win militarily, we will loose at home, by becoming something at least as bad as the dreams of those who attack us.