Very well put el duerino. cruthinboy, you probably don't mean to, but I think you sound a little condascending. I have read pretty widely on the subject of Islamic terrorism and I think I understand it relatively well. I don't actually have particulary 'cool-headed' views on this, and I don't think I underestimate the threat posed either. This war is never going to be won by bombs and guns alone - all that does is generate more terrorists from a generation of increasingly angry young men. The tactics el duerino described seem, to me, to be our best bet and we need more decent, moderate Muslims and their leaders to start shouting about the atrocities that are being commited in their name. I hope we've seen the start of that this week with the comments from Abdel Rahman al-Rashed, the general manager of Al- Arabiya news channel. I'm under no illusions that this could end up as all out war, nor am I in favour of negotiating with terrorists, but I firmly believe that there are other avenues open to us, at least for the time being.