How is it that so many young men and women born and raised in secular, post-Christian, democratic societies in Western Europe (or the U.S.) acquire the passion to kill and die for Islam?

I’m not cut out to be a pundit — I don’t trust my own instant opinions. But I had to say something. I think what I said was that the aggression of Sept. 11 had been so extreme, that it called for an extreme response, and I was not prepared to condemn the attacks [bombing of Afghanistan] without knowing a lot more about them. (2001.10.07)