WillH.......Sorry if I offended you by acting a bit paranoid, but I took your advice and reread the original post and I see that I may have been a bit clouded during the first reading and perhaps he was just speaking of the defensiveness which we all display towards home and family. But I always get a bit paranoid when tales are told that somehow are missing in the detail and I am especially untrusting of those who made the decision to leave, although the option was a decent one, without addressing the issue of why they did istead of fighting the battle right here. In any case, I have to agree that I too get a little discouraged over people who refuse to see the foibles and fallacies within their own countries and indeed within themselves. If that was the intent of the original post....good point.

Re: the "VietNam" thread that Kat referenced you too......If you read that thread you will find a true microcosm and cross section of attitudes and stories and lives from that time and the healing that each has found in the years since. I gave the first 80 or so posts on it (after some questioning and approval from others) to a friend who is a high school government teacher. He uses it now to teach that period of American History, using about a dozen of the postings as examples of the turmoil and angst faced by young people then. Its a remarkable thread.

Spaw