...so that we might achieve Salvation through Levithian?

Seriously, you're right about the 'need better police forces.' As long as the cops don't stalk me unless I've joined a terrorist group, I'm fine with that.
Histor | Homepage | 06.29.07 - 2:02 pm | #

Why don't we just build a 500ft concrete wall around the entire country [and call it the Great Wall of America] and let the rest of the world settle its own problems.

This should make us real safe ...and ... according to many on this blog ... lock, stock and barrel in agreement with the Catechism.

We were pretty much minding our own business throughout the 1990s [while Bill Clinton was not having s#x with Monica Lewinsky] -- save rescuing Kuwait from a murderous dictator, a humanitarian mission to feed starving Muslim people in Somalia and intervening into the Balkan states to help fend off ethnic cleansing against Bosnian muslims].

Yep, many in this country acted as though -- without Dick Cheney as VP and a President with a torture fetish, George Bush, there was no danger beyond our borders on September 10, 2001.

I'll say this yet again, for all these people [who are obviously better Catholics than me because they can use the Cathecism to prove Dick Cheney is evil ... and why -- in hindsight -- the invasion of Iraq was wrong] -- I like to see what the outlook on this blog would be if the Vatican is attacked ... and if it is discovered that the attacks were planned by terrorists residing in Iraq ... and that they were planning more attacks against the Vatican.
jerry | 06.29.07 - 2:35 pm | #

"I like to see what the outlook on this blog would be if the Vatican is attacked ... and if it is discovered that the attacks were planned by terrorists residing in Iraq ... and that they were planning more attacks against the Vatican."

Would it kill you if I told you that you are daydreaming? It's unlikely anyone will destroy Rome, since the Western response would likely be a nuke on Mecca. In any case, this has nothing to do with the real point: terrorism is more like crime than war, since terrorists rarely amass and invade.

It is easier and safer to catch a terrorist in preparing bombs than shoot him as he blows something up - considering he's usually absent or carrying the bomb. Police do the former; soldiers do the latter.

And if the Vatican is barely saved from an Iraqi terrorist attack, odds are it will be because police forces found the bombs/perpetrators before anything happened.

Histor
Histor | Homepage | 06.29.07 - 3:02 pm | #

"Would it kill you if I told you that you are daydreaming? It's unlikely anyone will destroy Rome, since the Western response would likely be a nuke on Mecca. In any case, this has nothing to do with the real point: terrorism is more like crime than war, since terrorists rarely amass and invade. "

Western response would likely be a nuke on Mecca? No, it wouldn't. The Western response to the destruction of the Vatican, or all of Rome (take your pick) would be to wail about why the terrorists hate us so much, how much more we can appease them, and what else we can to do flog ourselves into their good graces, including to convert to Islam. And if it's only the Vatican that's destroyed, the historians and art critics will wail about lost history, but the rest of the world will applaud the terrorists.
Sydney Carton | 06.29.07 - 4:33 pm | #

And the reponse from members of this blog to the destruction of the Vatican?

"George Bush & Dick Cheney are responsible!"
Sydney Carton | 06.29.07 - 4:48 pm | #

Um, no, Syd.

You really need to break the habit of putting words in my mouth.
Mark Shea | Homepage | 06.29.07 - 5:32 pm | #

I didn't mean you. I meant the commentators.
Sydney Carton | 06.29.07 - 5:33 pm | #

Ah!

Carry on!
Mark Shea | Homepage | 06.29.07 - 5:37 pm | #

I agree with Histor that an Islamo-terrorist destruction of Rome is very far-fetched.
And I agree with Sydney that the proposition that the West would respond by nuking Mecca is even more far-fetched.
But plenty fo folks would place blame squarely on the terrorists and their supporters; and sadly plenty of folks would blame the West; and most weirdly, many of the latter group would be Westerners.
Mike Petrik | 06.30.07 - 2:20 pm | #