This is not easy given the enormity and the tragedy of this particular situation. Already, the instant polls that the media takes have shown the American people to be overwhelmingly in favor of a total military response against whoever was responsible. This is where the aforementioned trauma comes in. That's what this response is solely based on. This makes it a totally impractical and bad decision because it shall do nothing more than escalate thing further. Its impracticality comes from the fact that the perpetrators of this act are not the general "enemy" that Americans are used to fighting against in a war. In every war in history, America was fighting against a country. Whether that country was England, Germany, Italy, Vietnam, the uSSR, whatever, there was a society, a nation of some sort involved. This meant that the foe was someone from a different society than America, and a different way of doing things, one that had clashed with the USA's in some way. These new "enemies" are zealots that represent no country or society, just a cause or a dogma of some kind. This means that former allies can now be the enemy. Take Osama Bin Laden, for example. This guy was part of the Mujahadeen, the "freedom fighters" of Afghanistan that took up arms against the occupying Soviet Union in the 1980's. This was the USSR's version of Vietnam, a war waged against a much smaller and seemingly less-prepared foe, that ended up with the large superpower ( in this case, the USSR), losing. Bin Laden was one of the leaders of the opposing forces that won that war, but he didn't do it solely because he was so cool, he had some help. That help came in the form of a free education at the finest guerrilla warfare/terrorist/spy school in the world, the one run by the American Central Intelligence Agency. Bin Laden was a rapt pupil as he listened to American General after American Admiral after American Marine tell the proper way to conduct guerrilla/terrorist warfare against a much larger opponent.He was taught not to rely on sustained aggressive offense, but how to strike quickly and effectively. He did this with great success, helping launch a guerilla war that drove the USSR out of Afghanistan after a few years. He rejoiced, as did America, and all was well. Then, when the problems started up with Saddam Hussein, Bin Laden turned against the USA in favor of Islam and his Islamic brother, Saddam. Since then, he has spent most of his time figuring out ways to attack the USA in the very same guerrilla/terrorist way that he was taught at the CIA school. The reason that this dude can attack the USA so successfully is that he was trained by the USA, and he knows how Americans and American society thinks. This is why an all-out military assault is impractical, he knows that is what the American will do, and he has shit planned to take advantage of that in many ways.
One of these ways involves where he lives. Whether Bin Laden is sheltered by the Taleban in Afghanistan or wherever, he is not being sheltered in a First World country, that's a guarantee. He wants it that way. He wants it that way because when you have a poor society, things cannot be separated very well, for there is so little to go around that everything has to stay together, no matter what. Things like the military functions of such a society are right alongside the civilian ones, for there is no practical way to separate them. The terrorist camps, the training schools, the mosques where militarism is preached, the Army headquarters, etc. Is al neighbors with the civilian population and the regular merchants as well. Bin Laden's house is in a regular neighborhood surrounded by ordinary civilians. Even if that house is a palace by local standards, the regular people are right next door. Same with his military schools and barracks and ammo depots. To go and get him, this will entail going deep into the heart of Kabul ( the capital of Afghanistan) just to find him, and he won't be waiting quietly either. This would have to be a dogfight every inch of the way. There would be no way to have this military action without slaughtering untold numbers of innocent civilians. Bin Laden would make sure that at least as many innocent civilians were killed in his city as were killed in America. He would use all of this to show America as a brutal uncaring power that is as hellbent on killing civilians as they say that Bin Laden and his boys are. There would be as big a tragedy in Kabul as there was in New York. No, there wouldn't be skyscrapers demolished, for there are none of those there, but there is cheap, sub-standard housing that is easily destroyed by any military shit. Entire neighborhoods would be leveled, with all the inhabitants killed. The leaders of all of this terrorist shit would have themselves buried so deeply in the strata of everyday society that would have to virtually destroy everything and everyone to get at them. To kill perhaps one man, the mastermind, you would have to slaughter as many people as the terrorists did on the 11th. Then America could be shown as no better than those that committed such horrendous acts against them. Many Islamist types would believe this totally, and then the cycle of violence would just continue and intensify. This would ensure that the madness that Bin Laden created would be his legacy and outlast him, for he would surely get himself killed by the American forces before ever being taken alive. This would make him a martyr under the Islamic scene, and a hero in the eyes of far too many. Again, all of this goes right back to this evil man knowing just what Americans think and how they act and using it against them.
He also knows that Americans have no conception of what a war can really do to a society, for other than the revolutionary War, The War Of 1812, and The Civil War, America has not ever had a conflict fought on its own soil. Those previously mentioned conflicts were a long fuckin' time ago, too. Ever since there was real global warfare, America has remained unscathed because of its geographical isolation in the world. The fact that there are thousands of miles ( kilometers) of ocean between America and anywhere else has always worked to their advantage. Previously, the technology wasn't available to span these gulfs and make America vulnerable. In the last number of wars that the USA has fought, virtually all of the casualties have been military personnel, civilian casualties were unheard of. This was true in World Wars 1 and 2, in Korea, in Vietnam, in the Gulf, etc. Everyone that dies was "over there". That made everything a lot different to the American people. The vast majority of citizens were not soldiers in any of these wars, they were civilians. They saw no death and destruction firsthand, only in the media. Their cities weren't destroyed, their lives not lost in droves every day, as happened in places like Europe. Americans then started to look at war differently. They always seemed more anxious to use it than other societies were. The USA is the only country to ever explode an atomic weapon, America likes war and weapons too much. Remember the first night of the Gulf War? Remember how many people thought that what they saw was great shit? What they saw was the destruction of a metropolitan area. But as long as it was way over on the other side of the world, then it was cool. It was great TV, great theater. Bin Laden knows that Americans have no conception of the realities of war, for they taught him. If he then makes America destroy Kabul and kill great numbers of civilians and destroy all sorts of historical treasures, he can paint the American people as bloodthirsty and evil, people that want the destruction of Islam, etc. This would inspire a whole new generation of fanatics to go out and follow in his footsteps.
The way in which it would inspire these fanatics is the problem. No matter how much Kabul or wherever had to be destroyed to get the job done, there would be some survivors. These would be the fertile fields in which the seeds of dogmatic terrorism and hatred would be planted and later reaped. Any military operation that would have been conducted would have been relatively casualty free for the Americans, for they would be going in with far too much force, and even the guerilla shit wouldn't work,. It wouldn't work here in Kabul, that is. The city would be destroyed, the bad guys would be either killed or captured, and America would rejoice. This would be the image that would be forever burned into the minds of the survivors, how America came and destroyed and went and celebrated. The celebrations would fade with time, and America would go back to its regular ways. Since the annihilation of the terrorist cell would have been so thorough, there wouldn't be too much of a problem with those kind of people anymore, not with their organization destroyed. Then other things would start to happen in America again, things like shootings in schools, another Timmy Mc Veigh scene, that sort of shit. America would tend to dealing with that shit then. All the while, the survivors of the last raid would be in training with the fanatics that would prey on their hatred and the unfortunate circumstances that they were placed in by a total fuckin' asshole. Then one day, it would be graduation day vat the terrorist school for the fanatics. Then they'd go out into the world and show what they learned, just like Uncle Osama did. Yes, there will be new restrictions on people as a result of this latest incident, especially people from overseas, mainly the Arab world. However, these restrictions will eventually have to be relaxed, for America cannot be a leader in the new global economy if they keep much of anyone out, for the population explosion in the Third world is going to have tremendous benefits for Mr. American Businessman. If America keeps the Arabs out, they will lose business opportunities, and thusly money, and no businessman wants that. So they will let the Arab immigrants in, and as long as they pass muster with immigration, they are cool to come on in. These new fanatics shall be just that, for they shall have led such a sheltered life that they have no record of much of anything, and no one can read a person's mind for their real thoughts and intentions. The fanatics shall enter the country, and they shall band together and orchestrate another series of horrible disasters to strike at America again. That would make the "victory" of before seem pretty shallow, for it shall be proven that there was no real victory at all, as there never is in war. The cycle of violence and death shall continue ,and everyone shall lose out. An all-out military response by America shall create all of these situations.
The only way to act is to band together with al the other nations of the world that have been horrified by this act and go and get this fucker that's responsible and bring him ( or them0 to justice. No matter where he ( or they) may be hiding out, there is a larger country that this smaller one is dependent on for something. Whether it's Russia or China or Japan or another Muslim state or whatever, someone has the sway to get into that country and work from the inside and either pull off a subterfuge type thing and arrest him ( or them), or else pull off an assassination or whatever. This way the horrendous carnage is kept to an absolute minimum. Since so many countries of the world were so offended by these acts, I don't think that there would be too much trouble finding help from those that can do that. This at least needs to be looked into and tried if at all possible. This could end things without so much horror. Shit like President Bush calling this "acts of war" are doing no good at all. That attitude is playing right into the terrorists hands, and helping to perpetuate the evil that we saw the other day for generations to come.