Drawn, Verbal and Physical Missiles:

Listening to all the stories about the uproar in the muslim world over the publishing in September of cartoons blaspheming the Prophet Muhammad (BBUH), I thought that the Wahabbis must be rubbing their hands in glee. Very unifying indeed. But also distressing, since the non-muslim world's view of all muslims as violent extremists is simply reinforced.

I will be interested to see how long it takes the Danes and later Europeans to turn their dismay over the reaction into anger with the US for "causing all this." Sigh - the Athenians of the modern world, we.

Watching the Federal budget rollout this week also reminded me that terrorism, especially with a new strike within the US, could cause us to spend ourselves into oblivion, much as the Reagan administration did to the USSR by promoting the Strategic Defense Initiative. I am sure this has not gone unnoticed in the tea-laden discussions of Waziristan.