I'm not what you'd call an optimist but rather a realist with a positive outlook.
As to your thoughts....it takes a bit of intestinal fortitude to, on the one hand, see clearly inwards and to then clearly express one's feelings.
No matter how fearful one is.
And remember though, to express as you have in no way gives any further form or substance to the realities as they are!
But in the end you're spot on.
I remember posting ages ago that the world had descended into a dichotomous reality. And, of course, was railled against by the usual suspects.
And no matter what the pacifist/anti-war/anti-US/anti-Israeli/politally correct/young idealist/old codger thinks....the world has and probably always will be made up of the have and the have nots....the atheists and the believers....the Jews and the Arabs etc etc etc.
What changed on the surface on Sep11 was the extent to which thse various dichotomies were prepared to go to assert themselves.
On the surface. Beneath, the machinations were manifest, powerful and keenly focused.
And if I may draw a parallel, as in most chemical reactions, when a certain point is reached, I agree with you, there is no turning back.
In the end - whenever that is - there will be a winner and a loser.
Maybe all of us will lose..... maybe not
But to eschew the battle because the stakes are so high is to avoid the reality of our situation.
It is BECAUSE the stakes are so high that we must make the stand that the Western world is stumbling towards.
