Like I have pointed out in the past, the Christain fundamentalists have a lot of dough and over the last 20 years or so have played some real smart PR games and gotten a lot of folks into office, Bush being one of there big success stories.

Problem with Christain fundamentalists is that they, by in large, are control freeks with agendas taken almost completely from the Old Testament. They don't seem to have too much tolerance for the Gospels or the teachings of Jesus which to me is the cornerstone of Christianity. Jesus, and I hope I am not over simplyfying this too much taught that God is a loving God and not a God to be feared. He also taught forgiveness. These are the two most important lessons and lessons that the fundamentalists can't quite square with the bits and ieces they have taken from the Old Testament to justify their political thinking.

Yes, they take the "eye for an eye" portion but leave alone the "vengence is mine".

Now on the other hand we have Islamic fundamentalists who do the same thing. They interpret jahad to mean war when jahad literally means struggle and most people of Islamic Faith believe that this is the same "struggle" that their conterparts in Christianity go thru as they "struggle" to live good lives and serve their fellow man.

Now mix in a long failed foriegn policy on the US that is not inclusive and at it's very backbone you'll find this inherent "we-them" philosophy and out Arab neighbors feel left out. Sure, they trade with the US but there has been an undercurrent of mistrust. Why? Like I said, exclusionary foriegn policy. Further mix in the obvious "Inclusionary" foriegn policy the Arab country's neihbor, Isreal and now you've got some amjor hurdles to clear in making a strong case to thge Islamic world that we are indeed their friends.

And then you have fundamentalist, just like over here, taking center stage and the bottome line. 95% of both populations get caught up in the crossfire, when the vengence is actually between two extremist camps. But then a few of the 95% get there butts blown up by someone else in the same 95% but of the other religion and the folks on the extremes are absolutely delighted.

Heck of a plan they have and it's *almost* a non-stoppable cycle. But it can be stopped and must be, or the joint is gonna implode. It's gonna take the moderates to stand up to the bully extremeists and say "no". You want revenge, go get it. But leave me and my family out of it. When that occurs, then the 95% will take back the control of the 5%...

Bobert