Last night as I rocked Zoe I was watching a program about 9/11 and how key political figures reacted to it, our president included. I remember most of what happened pretty accurately, but it never hurts to have one's memory refreshed, so I kept watching and it came as no surprise to me that my feelings about all of this have not changed.

I've see-sawed back and forth on this issue a lot because as much as I love a peaceful environment and loathe guns and non-action movie (real), violence, I really don't see another way the powers that be could have reacted in this particular situation.

I see protesters in the news every day and though I understand why they're protesting I'm left to wonder what would have heppened if our president hadn't decided to strike fast and hard after the attacks. He took action as soon as the identity of the attackers was confirmed. That to my way of thinking makes him a good leader.

I have wondered so often in the last fourteen months (has it really been that long ago?), what might have happened if instead of taking action we had simply cleaned up the Pentagon, the crash site in Pennsylvania and WTC site and moved on? What if we had just swept it all away and left it at that?

Without question there would have been more attacks, attacks far more severe than the isolated incident involving an attempt to blow up a plane by an idiot who doesn't know that plastic explosive won't detonate without an electrical charge.

I have no doubt that there would have been more of what we saw on 9/11. We see that from what has happened since. The threat is still very real. It seems that every week new evidence surfaces that there are still plans to hit American targets. If our government had taken no action those targets would have been destroyed, with thousands more lives lost and families left behind to grieve.

That is not the case because something was done to prevent it. Not only that, but new procedures have been developed to increase airline security and though there are still flaws, for the most part those procedures work pretty well. People are also more aware in general now. We tend to look out for one another more.

On the other hand, I'm terrified of guns and want to maintain peace. I've been struggling with this for a long time and have come to realize that there is no happy medium, no point at which compromising to arrive solidly at one conclusion or another becomes comfortable. To be violent goes against everything I believe, yet I don't see any other way the situation could have been dealt with and our people protected than to strike out at those responsible.

When I found out GW had said he didn't consider witchcraft a religion I was upset and worried about what might happen if he was elected, but that was really my only concern about him.

I believe that he did the right thing by not turning his back and leaving us all exposed to more attacks. People who are willing to kill others indiscriminately have to know that there are consequences to their actions. To do anything less leaves us open for more of what we have already had too much of to begin with.