Most of the rest of your points are something we probably have some agreement on.

However, I stand by my posting. And I really am not reassured that the Democrats want to stop Terrorism, because their record and their leaders give me no confidence whatsoever that they would have a clue about how to do it, or the cojones to do what is necessary.

Certainly the Clinton administration screwed it up royally by leading the terrorists to believe that Americans are cowards, willing to throw bombs and cruise missiles but afraid to fight on the ground.

His first confrontation with Al Qaeda, the 1993 World Trade Center attack, one which was an attempt to kill 100,000 civilians and included a weapon of mass destruction (cyanide gas which fortunately was incinerated by the bomb), he treated as a mere police action, and he failed to put in measures concomitant with a proven threat of mass-terrorism. His second one in Mogadishu, his administration failed to provide the necessary weapons systems, and when as a result Americans were slaughtered, he bailed out – a clear victory for Al Qaeda (who were involved in the fight and derived the tactic of shooting RPG’s at tail rotors). Clinton hamstrung the CIA by greatly restricting their ability to recruit assets (this was clearly done to avoid embarrassment of the administration). He treated another serious Al Qaeda-linked plot for mass casualties and serious economic damage (the New York City tunnels attack plan) as just another police issue. He failed to adequately respond to the mass casualty attacks on our embassies in Africa and the attack on the USS Cole. He failed to deal properly with daily acts of war by Iraq when they engaged our no-fly-zone aircraft, and he failed to respond to another act of war when Saddam attempted an assassination on his predecessor.

If you understand anything about Middle Eastern cultures, you know that cowardice and failure to avenge attacks is despised and read as a sign of weakness.

Now we have Kerry. Kerry helped force the US surrender of South Vietnam after the war was effectively won, an action which greatly enabled the enemy of the time, the USSR, which was substantially more successful in third world subversion as a result, and even overtly invaded Afghanistan after having correctly judged Carter as a fool.

Even the North Koreans are in favor of a Kerry election. They are distributing copies of his speeches in that very closed society, the most oppressive on earth. Iran is also supporting Kerry. You have some great people on the side of the Democrats.