Bush referred to this war as a "crusade." As America returns to
                   news-watching at dinner for the first time since Vietnam, I ponder the
                   danger of such a word.

                   While we condemn validation of bin Laden's declaration of a "holy war" of
                   Islam versus the West, should we not look at our own position in the
                   world? America, an exchange student recently explained to me, is
                   dangerously isolationist.

                   In recent times, flags have gone up all over this small college town,
                   making it look like small town America is supposed to. It looks like
                   Reagan's America, the idealized society. The society becoming necessarily
                   nationalist and postmaturely patriotic.

                   Stop and think, for a minute: did not the Crusades of Christianity begin
                   this way? And Nazism? What good can come of this national attitude? We
                   have unity as Americans in the most 'e pluribus unum' sense, but what are
                   we doing to the rest of the world?

                   Resorting back to the times of the Crusades, or even before. At least a
                   dozen eyes for our eyes. While the terrorist attacks were damaging,
                   disarming, and alarming to this country, is this crusade the right thing to
                   do?

                   While justice is extremely important in situations where life on our soil has
                   been lost, perhaps the real justice should be American security.
                   Eliminating bin Laden doesn't eliminate terrorists here. While I haven't
                   personally lost anyone I know or love to terrorism, I have as much life at
                   stake as those who have. I want to get married, and I wanted children.
                   Now, I am not so sure about bringing children into a world where they
                   know such violence.

                   I have gone through a transition. The sadistic part of me that never
                   existed before now wants bin Laden dead. I want those camps taken out.
                   I want his home destroyed. I want the joke circulating the internet to
                   become a reality: bin Laden should undergo a forced sex change
                   operation, and then be returned to his oppressive Taliban allies so that he
                   can be mistreated, have his genitals mutliated, and marry some sick
                   terrorist, only to have his house completely decimated by overzealous
                   American forces. I want the Statue of Liberty to truely give him the
                   finger.

                   But unlike most, I want no war that lasts longer than this one already
                   has. Converge on the terrorists at home- let cynicism once again become
                   an American trait. Therefore, anyone not radically cynical about the whole
                   sex change operation thing would be an identifiable terrorist. Something
                   like that-- something to end another war.

                   We've waken up, we've learned our lesson, and we've lost our people. I
                   ask you this: will this war delete your anger?
 

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