[JMI]

The difficulty with "knowing" is that there is often "too much information" and some of it is too untested to be considered "reliable." And as a simple, sad fact, we all know that "something is going to happen." The real problem is figuring out "where," "when," and by exactly "whom."

We simply have to take it as a "given" that there are people in most countries who will, if given enough time and opportunity, launch attacks against one group or another to advance their political, ethnic, and/or religious agenda with little or not concern for the consequences to others and often with the hope that mass casualties will frighten some government, or group or another into changing its position on something they want changed, or worst, will cause some to overreact and lash out at other innocent people and further the interests those causing the carnage are seeking to advance.

The trick is always to try not to become worse than those whom one is fighing in order to defeat them. It is most unfortunate that some countries have capitulated in the face of terrorist attacks, because that always simply emboldens others to attempt the same result in other locations.

But none of this is really new to a student of history. Only some of the weapons are better, and, therefor, the potential for wanton death and destruction greatly increased. People who view themselves superior to others on the basis of ethnicity, politics, and/or religion seem not to have great difficulty going that step further and finding self-justification for the "elimination" of all those who do not appear willing to bend to or share their own view of their self assumed "superiority."

Unfortunately, such people fail to see the moral bankruptcy of their own actions and simply can not be reasoned with and are unwilling to accept any other path. These choices leave society with no other option but to hunt them down and eliminate them, but that also is a path which may lead to grave consequences for society seeking to improve its own security.

Regards,