Thanks "worldagenda" for the post, and also to "inelpaso" for the insightfull comment. I did not hear anyone here suggest that we should just give up & give in to terror: but I do think that every one of us needs to give some very serious thought as the manner in which we are wagging this "so called war" on terror.

I wonder if we are not now paying the price for mixing up the meaning of our words: "war" is a last result violent attack on another nation state." Or at least that is always what that word has precisely meant. What we are facing at this time is not the violence of other nation states: and I wonder if it does not over simplify things to suggest that we can "wage a war against terror."

In effect what this simplefication of terms has done, is to allow the president to "wage an undeclared war" on whomever & where ever he sees fit: that is not the way that the USA is supposed to function. The Constitution grants the power of war solely to the Congress: yet here we are hearing about the president waging a war on Iran. The war on Afghanistan was valid: the war on Iraq was not.

Post such as this one, help to show the extensive price & devistation of wars: perhaps this is why the Founders demanded that war could be decalred only by Congress: I know some will argue that the Congress gave the president permission to invade Iraq: but the Congress did not debate the issues & did not declare war on Iraq, and until that happens our troops have no place in that mess.

I have also worked with veterans who returned from war: I am a veteran who returned from war: and the scarrs for many last on & on: the devistation can be complex & compounding as these post have stated: the cost to the country & the people of this nation & of Iraq are astronomical. Thank you guys for the post. ....pjwky