... of this discussion (for which I feel a little guilty -- sorry, Pete), but now feel compelled to say that I agree with most of what Pete has said in this thread -- and I think, Bob, that you have misinterpreted at least some of it.

>> You can continue to compare acts committed by selected hate-filled people
>> in this country to al-Qaida, but they aren't even close to being the same.

I disagree with that assessment, Bob. The problem with that position is that al-Qaida is also a group of "selected hate-filled people". The vast majority of muslims, Arabs and other Middle Eastern people in this country are not members of al-Qaida and wish our country no harm. There is no justification under the law of this country for treating them as though they were criminals or enemies.

Most of what is passing for increased security since 9-11 is complete nonsense -- over-reaction by officials trying desperately to at least look like they are doing something which is, to put it simply, impossible.

Reminds me a lot of the Japanese internment camps of World War II -- camps which were filled with loyal American citizens, not enemy combatants, spies or subversives. [As an aside, but apropos of the essential problem with ethnic profiling, the 100th Battalion/442nd Regimental Combat Team, a unit made up almost exclusively of Japanese-Americans, many of whom volunteered directly from the internment camps, was the most decorated American unit of its size in the history of the US Army. They also had the highest casualty rate of any American unit during World War II.]

And, frankly, I think the American public is willing to tolerate the current attitude toward muslims for the same reason that the American public in the early '40's tolerated the internment of Japanese-Americans while absolutely nothing was done to or about German-Americans. Arabs look sufficiently "different" that they are relatively easy to single out.

Do you really think we'd be reacting the same way if the World Trade Center had been attacked by the IRA? Or white Supremicists? How long do you think the American public would put up with the "profiling" of white Anglo-Saxon Christians? Not for a minute -- such profiling is acceptable only so long as it is applied to a readily identifiable minority group of some kind.

Don't misunderstand me, Bob. I fully support the military operations which we have undertaken against al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden. I think we should hunt down the terrorists wherever we can find them (though we could probably accomplish that best by sub-contracting the job to the Israelis). I just don't think we should be waging this "war" on innocent American citizens who have done nothing to warrant being treated as criminals or enemies.

----- jim o\-S