And that's the sad truth, isn't it? While many commentators echoed the sentiment that the terrorist attacks on New York and DC caused us to wake up to a whole new world, that isn't exactly true...what it did is wake us up to the world that exists outside the previously safe shores of North America.

In many ways, the attacks drove home the awareness that the world is a lousy place. Where here kids fight over fancy running shoes, in other places people are killing each other by the dozens for the chance to eke out subsistence on scraps of land so barren you wouldn't build an outhouse on it.

In many ways, we've lived on Fantasy Island, an island oasis ap

I admire and respect the U.S. for not immediately bombing the crap out of any nation that has a whiff of suspicion about it. Sure, that's what our gut instincts tell us to do. But that's not what the system of values America represents is all about. The attacks last week were characterized as an attack on a way of life. A way of life is about civility, human dignity and respect for the rule of law. That's why this matter needs to be settled in accordance with those values, not through the righteous anger of artillery. Find the evidence, find the suspects, bring them to an appropriate court of justice. Why? Because we are better than savages, and due process is a central tenet of our deeply-held series of shared beliefs.

It's become standard to call the terrorists animals. After all, they can't be human like us and do what they did, right? But they're not animals. I live with animals, dogs and cats, and the worst they'll do is pee on the rug. No, this kind of calculated barbarity can only be the work of humans.

So let's back-off on the cowboy rhetoric and remember that Tuesday's victims died in an attack not on property, but on those values we hold dear. If we abandon our ethics for a quick-fix response in white-hot anger, then the terrorists will have done more damage than they ever hoped to achieve.

art from the suffering of so many millions in poorer nations. But now Mr. Rourke's white suit has been dirtied. We've been brought face-to-face with the savagery that exists outside our borders, and we are both u

Some common words found in the essay are:
Bruce Willis, Fantasy Island, North America, , Rwanda Croatia, York DC, Ukraine Vietnam, Holocaust Stalin's, life cheap, wake world, wage war, exists outside, safe harbour, respect human, respect human life, human life,
Approximate Word count = 1039
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)