Thank you Edith,

The gloves are off. Thank God. America shows again to the world that its strength does not lay only in its morality but also in its power. We have heard the prayer/song "God bless America" more frequently than ever before. And we can only repeat: God bless America and its leaders.

This war is a special war, unique in the annals of mankind. It is not a struggle which will find a solution by a winner or a loser. The result will be that everyone will be a winner, or everyone - and I mean the whole human race will be a looser. In the past, the aggressors that endangered America, be it Nazism or Communists had clear targets. After being victorious, the victors shared their achievements with the losers by bringing them Democracy and freedom. The Arab countries did not graduate to democracy, instead, a minority of extremists impose their harmful doctrines on their entire population. Their non-elected leaderships, as well as the elected leaders of the free world feared so much the power of terror, that they looked away or appeased them, or even accepted them and their demands. A child, who is given his request after a temper tantrum, gets a lesson how to go after his wishes. Israel was and is the victim of such bad education. Being terrorized since its existence, the world did not react to Israel's plight of terror. It neglected the small fire in the distance until the flames reached their own homes. A small fire could have been easily extinguished early on. Now, the full-blown firestorm becomes a struggle for life and death.

And the previous mistakes still go on. Next week Syria will take its seat at the Security Council of the United Nations. According to the Charter of the Council, Article 23, "States are to be voted onto the Council, based on contribution to international peace and security." Is this supposed to be appeasement or appreciation of Syria, which is stamped by the US government as a terrorist-supporting nation?

After a few days of bombardments in Afghanistan, America ran out of targets. That is visible targets. Because hidden targets, festering around the world can not be eradicated by bombs. The greatest American success for peace was the democratization of its attackers. This has to be the goals also today.

A majority of a Democratic and free society in the Arab countries will surely vote for a good and just life. This will include 50% of the population, the newly heard voices of the abused females. We are thankful for the wisdom of our founding fathers for our separation of state and religion.

We have heard the poisonous words of sanctimonious Bin Laden. We saw also his, in his eyes, holy deeds. "It's religion - stupid." This week Sheikh Raid Salah, leader of Israel's' Islamic movement announced at a gathering of 30,000 of his supporters: "The path of happiness, security and peace for your nation and others is Islam. Therefore I call on you President Bush to convert to Islam in order to bring about justice, tolerance and love between the nations and religions of the world."

I doubt that our President will follow this suggestion. I doubt that terrorism based on religion can be eradicated, though I hope that it will be. But in the long run, only democracy that gives the people the right to be heard, can let the Arabs connect to the 21st century with all its possibilities. Glory has not to be found in death, but in life. The Arab devotion to Islam is wonderful, but equal respect has to be given to all people, they're various religions, cultures and colors.

America is a winner. It has proven it before. This time it is harder than ever. But with God's help we will succeed again.

I am Barry Cohen

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