I don't think you are far off, Deck...the most mysterioous thing about the Civil War is that a conflict of ideas was powerful enough to make murderers out of hundreds of thousands of right-thinking, contemplative people. The most mysterious think about the many sides of th Iraqi situation -- Shiite, Republican, Democrat, Ba'athista or what have you - is exactly the same thing -- the willingness to become slaughters on behalf of an idea. To paraphrase one old saw, an idea worth killing for is a beautiful thing right up to the point it is clearly understood...


A