Sometimes things just seem utterly incomprehensible. Things like trying to truly comprehend the fact that people have walked on the moon or that televisions actually work can be mind-bogglers, especially because I know that they are true, yet my mind doesn’t really know how it happened or worked.

This same sort of feeling hits me and engulfs me every time I try to understand everything that has happened during the past month.

It is unimaginable that the World Trade Center towers are no more, and that reality was even harder for me to fully realize when I looked up at the Sears Tower this weekend.

There is no way that I could imagine the Sears Tower being gone, but now, that thought is imaginable and sometimes it can be too much.

But what eats away at my thoughts even more is the fact that there are people out there who felt and thought that the right thing to do was to attack the United States with commercial airplanes.

I feel terrible when I hurt a person’s feelings with a sarcastic remark, and here are people who are willing to kill thousands of people and who are willing to destroy world famous buildings.

There are so many words that can be used to describe this (crazy, unbelievable, incomprehensible, insane) and yet none of those words really fit, because what happened and is happening is so much more than those words.

The United States’ attacks on Afghanistan don’t seem fully real either.

I sat at the final Cubs game of the year Sunday while missiles exploded throughout Afghanistan, and it was as if nothing was happening. It was just like the other Cubs games I had attended this summer.

Except one tiny thing was different.

As I sat there and watched the game, I actually heard the planes flying over head, and I wondered what I would do if a bomb exploded in the stadium.

Things most definitely have changed and I can’t grasp why they had to.

I don’t care what type of foreign policies America has or any other thing that analysts might say was the cause of what happened, nothing justifies what happened. There is no reason for terrorism, and I shake my head at how Afghanistan has reacted to our demands.

And I am left with questions that make this so hard to comprehend such as:

Why won’t they just give up bin Laden?

Why don’t they realize that this is not a holy war?

What is the point in declaring our attacks against them “terrorist acts?”

Don’t they realize that America isn’t alone in this fight?

Don’t they realize that they started this war?

Why can’t things be back to normal?

These questions probably never will have an answer that will be just or an answer that will ease the intensity of the situation.

What I do understand and agree with though, and what I can comprehend is that bin Laden must be brought to justice. That any nation that believes bin Laden, and for that matter terrorism, is in the right should be punished.

Do I think war is the ultimate answer that will bring the right end to this conflict?

Yes, it is what we have to do. Not only because of the attacks that were made on us, but because of the situation in Afghanistan.

The Taliban should not be punished just for these attacks and for helping bin Laden, but for the way they treat their people.

Plus, despite our efforts to bring down the Taliban, we continue to send aid to the people of Afghanistan. That is something I can comprehend.

I have become confident with the war on terrorism and that we will succeed because of the support that is coming worldwide.

But even more importantly, our actions are justified; the terrorist actions from Sept. 11 were not.