re: #74 Cato the Elder

Several points here:

If we had another successful terrorist attack here, asking people not to make a big deal out of it would be like asking the shrimp fishermen in the Gulf to just shrug off the oil spill and get on with their lives.

This is just a horrible analogy. You’re comparing a very real damage with a mostly psychological one. The oil spill is an actual obstacle that prevents fishermen from doing their work. A terrorist attack isn’t for the vast majority of Americans.

If we had a major successful terrorist attack here and it came from Pakistan, I would not be opposed to joining India in all-out war on that nearly failed state.

It’s futile to speculate in such a vague scenario. Depending on the details, I might support an attack too. Or not. But knee-jerk reactions are what lead us to invade Iraq in the first place.

You really do live in a world of unicorns, don’t you?

I was describing a desirable state of mind, not the actual one. You’re simply conflating the two, I’m not sure why.