It was a horrible day. The most horrible day this country has faced in over fifty years. In those 24 hours, the United States proved how united they were with prayers, sympathy and compassion in massive numbers. There was strong rhetoric from Congress, tough talk from the president, and plans to retaliate before we knew who had created such a horrible day.

Then, the U.S. learned who was responsible and attacked the country that was harboring the villains. We bombed the war-ravaged lands of Afghanistan, we replaced the Taliban with a group that had a slightly less militant stance, and we have moved on as a country. Afghanistan is much the same, and America is much the same. Except for the tough talk.

Our president has picked the evil nations. We have threatened to invade the Philippines. We say we like the Islamic religion and point the finger dead on Islamic countries. This 'We' represents the stance of our government, but not necessarily the feelings of everyone in the country. It's really hard to distinguish between the two. All because of one horrible day.

The tough talk needs to stop. We know we have the best-equipped and trained military in the world. Bombs can only wipe out things; they don't create anything. We wiped out the Taliban, but that wasn't enough. We had to point the finger at everyone who doesn't like our country. Once we started looking, we found out that a lot of countries didn't like us. Suddenly, Teddy Roosevelt's concept of the U.S. as the world's policeman became the popular opinion of our men in charge.

Fixing the world through force is never a pleasant option. World War II was the last time almost everyone had a stake in the fighting, and some of the worst atrocities in human history took place. Back then, the enemy was clear. He had a first and last name. We knew what country he represented. Now, we don't know if the figurehead of our enemy is alive or dead. We don't know where he is or what he really represents. So we fight terror. Where is terror? If you look for it, you'll find that terror is everywhere.

So we talk tough, we start shadow governments, we plot, we scheme. Meanwhile, the people and countries that hated us before still hate us. I'm not saying we have to be everyone's friend, but we are overreacting to the consequences of one horrible day. We are being a big bully.

For one moment, pretend you do not live in the most powerful country in the world. Pretend you live so far away that you have only heard about the United States. You sort of know what the president of that country looks like, but you really think that the new Bush is the same as the old Bush. This big powerful country calls you evil. This country that has everything calls the nations around you evil. Nations that you have seen and met people from. You're evil and they are evil. It makes sense that these Islamic countries are not fond of the big bully.

The bombing of Afghanistan was inevitable. Before the end of the horrible day, I knew we were going to punish someone or something tenfold for what they did to us. I did not complain. I did not question. I know how things work. But our horrible day has passed. Our retribution for that horrible day has passed. We still watch sports, sit-coms, and Britney Spears sells us Pepsi.

The more tough talk we spew out, the more we give countries that have nothing more than blind resentment toward us tangible reasons to hate us. When Timothy McVeigh blew up the Oklahoma City Federal building, we did not create homeland security. We did not make it painful and tedious to rent a Ryder truck. We learned from his madness, and we moved on. I doubt there is a correlation, but we moved on to the biggest economic boom in the history of our country.

So what now? How about a little diplomacy? How about a little good will? More than hosting the Olympics, more than lump sum economic packages. Let's actually learn to tolerate each other, rather than saying 'you're evil, and you need to change.' If someone called me evil, I would be inclined to respond with 'Man, that's evil thing to say.'

Chris Jungle has survived many a horrible day.