Like Mike Edwards, I did not consider these individuals to be "enemies". Further, I agree with Michael, Manish and Mike that individuals can and should look for opportunities to build bridges to peace.

However, individuals must also recognize that we are part of a larger, more complex world. We must therefore remain cautiously optimistic, blinded neither by naivety nor fear.

Recall I noted that militaries are trained to use any available information to their benefit. Militaries can gather information from battlefields and ivory towers alike. So despite the good intentions of a good PhD candidate and a good citizen to work together for cooperative trade-relations, information has been made more readily accessible to a government that has repeatedly misused information to threaten and indeed harm the United States and our allies.

In the balance of my own decision, I felt that there is a greater risk that this new information would be misused in the hands of that government, than the potential for the intended civilian benefits.