[dogscoff]

If a man were to break into my house and try to harm my family, I would kill him, or die trying. Unfortunately for me, I can't see the distinction in this case, except my government is doing the figting for me.

And that's where your metaphor falls over. If you were on one of the 9/11 flights, with a chance to rush the hijackers- that would be analogous to fighting off an intruder in your home to protect your family. In those cases you would be justified in taking some fairly extreme measures of self defence.

However, waginbg war on Afghanistan/ Iraq is analogous to going out of your home, finding someone who might be an potential intruder (or a friend of a potential intruder, or someone who is rumoured to be prepared to sell burglary equipment to a potential intruder, or maybe just someone you don't like the look of), breaking into their home, killing a few of hisfamily members and smashing up their possessions.

Then, when your target has fled out the back door, you award the contract for the repairs to his home to your best buddy (with the target's surviving family selling off their remaining assets to pay the bill), build a few airbases in his back garden and start threatening the neighbours.