are both of you saying that the us had knowledge that terrorists were going to crash planes in the wtc and the pentagon . . . or more along the lines that an attack on us soil would take place and the to what extent they did not know . . . for anyone to believe that our intelligence is advanced and sophisticated enough to infiltrate terrorists cells is naive. to this day, no one would even dream of such a terrorist attack, crashing planes into buildings. there is no way in hell that it could have been prevented. which again is the whole basis of my opinion . . . prevention. if it could have been prevented, what actions would the us take in order to do so. arrest perpetrators here and even worse, abroad. go after bin laden and the terrorists who plotted 9/11, even before it happened? if that is the stance that you are taking, which is clearly for prevention (as in the case of 9/11), isn't it a contradiction to everything you just stated. because clearly the war now is about prevention. i find it very confusing that you believe that 9/11 could have been prevented and should have been. it's always in retrospect that we realize inaction is worse than action. you just proved my point.