"Harball politics all around--as always-- and not any kind of idealistic thought in sight."

Well said, Bill.

As the world's remaining super power would you agree that the United States is, or was proior to the invasion of Iraq, in a unprecedented position to "make a difference"?

Yet, the United States, who Harari thinks "gets it" has not done much into the way of out-of-the-box thinking here recently to cerry mankind further down the road but has fallen deeper into "hardball politics". I don't think that is "getting it".

Now I am no Bill Clinton lover but, IMHO, he somewhat "got it" about the Middle East. Had the Bush folks not been so intent on doing everything the opposite from the Clinton folks we would be having a different discussion today.

We have had opportunities to box the combatents into their own corner and force them to think out of the box. The Saudi Porposal that the Bush Administration rejected was one such opportunity. We may not get many more such oppotunities to short circuit what I agree with Harari is quickly becoming World War III.

But its still not too late to pull out of this but we're not going to do it with more hardball...

I cannot agree that in a tribalized world where you evn see the bad guys seeing in the streets wearing Niki's that there isn't room for success of an entity such as a cabinet level Department of Peace with enough of an asvertising budget to make a difference. Folks have pointed out that peace is not profitable and inside the box it may not be...

But outside???

Bobert