More on the meaning of 9/11

Part of an argument against pacifism I've made on a web board today:

The entire cesspool of medieval mysticism and modern dictatorship brewing in the Middle East is a threat to us. That's the lesson of 9/11. If some bacteria are willing to fly planes into skyscrapers, and others are willing to organize such an attack, and others are glad to pay for it, then the only possible conclusion is that there are other creatures out there figuring out how to get a trunk full of plutonium onto Manhattan Island (or some equivalent) -- whether it be tomorrow or 30 years from now. And since their primary motivations are to make room for theocracies and tyrannies, and the existing theocracies and tyrannies are providing them time and space and who knows what other support, pacifism in the West has zero chance of appeasing or derailing them.