Thousands of national guards are called into service. Ships and planes are positioned in the middle east to show the bully position of the US.

But what does all that signify? That we have the power and the guts to start World War III by going after a well-known terrorist? If that man was behind the travesty of the World Trade Center destruction, it is because he trained many in a fabulous network in the manner of the KGB and our own CIA.

His followers mastered terrorism from his schools, Nazi practices, KKK, and our probably our own School of the Americas. To wipe out a section of world geography that may or may not actually harbor the man cannot be done without devastation of innocent people in the manner of September 11.

I want to have faith in US leadership. And I don't know what other national symbol that is so compelling as our grand old flag. Then I think of the times the nation looks to our flag and what do I see?

The flag is flown on days commemorating dead heroes, successful battles, and anniversaries of those events. Do we need to have a new symbol around which to rally - a symbol that unites us not only with each other but with the rest of the world? A globe perhaps?

Let us rally around the globe. Shall we try to unite those who look as us with envy and who rejoice just a little that some devious minds gave the mighty US a frightful lesson.

We are vulnerable to mass destruction. I doubt that the sick and uncomprehending planners expected the destruction they delivered. But they did show without a shadow of a doubt that it is possible to annihilate significant parts of the world with neither the expense nor knowledge of hydrogen bombs.