Everyone does what appears to make the best sense from their own perspective. Everyone. Castro, the USA, Russia, Lybia, Saddam...

If you find someone who can comprehend the other guy's perspective as well as his own...and even respect it...then you have a statesman.

If you find someone who can see outside the box of his/her own set of familiar cultural assumptions...then you have a wise and liberated person, capable of change.

Any fool can defend only what he is familiar with and slaughter thousands or millions of fellow humans in the process. It's the level of awareness seen in simple creatures, like animals, but simple creatures do not possess weapons of mass destruction, and they do not cling to old rituals of hatred and malice the way politicised animals like human beings do. We are gods...capable of the grandest achievments and the most evil and miserable acts. That's the challenge of being human...you can rise to the level of a god or descend to the level of a demon. Just a matter of choice...and choices are made according to one's level of awareness.

There were some key moments when JFK acted in a way that gravely endangered the World, and some key moments when he acted in a way that saved it. We could argue the pros and cons of it forever, but be glad he loved life, in the end, more than "victory".

Remember that crazy guy in Apocalyse Now? "I love the smell of napalm in the morning. It smells like...victory!" Uh-huh. The voice of the demon, who glories in death and loves life only to the extent that he can rob it from others whenever he pleases.

- LH