[ssmoot]

What honest person interprets "response" as anything but "attack"? Seriously?

I didn't mean to imply that there'd be a body count attached to the "response" BTW. That's (hopefully) far-fetched. But an attack in the same way that hacking some computers and releasing some embarrassing information is an "attack"? Absolutely.

Isn't that the entire point of the quote? (And yes, I reproduced Obama's words pretty faithfully I believe. They were playing on repeat on the radio.)

I mean, if you don't think "response" means "attack" in a gimmicky "cyber-warfare" way, what does it mean? A strongly worded letter?

If I run over my neighbor's cat, and he says to me: "I'll respond all right. At a time, place and method of my choosing." Any rational person would have to interpret that as an explicit threat of an impending attack.

Just because politically it may be weaseled out of does not mean it's in any way ambiguous in delivery or intended reception to Joe the Plumber.