Yes, kendall, the USA has done a number of good things also in its past history...as have many other nations...and those other nations have also done some bad things in the past. And none of it should be forgotten. I haven't forgotten either the good things or the bad things that the USA has done, I assure you.

However, it's the present situation that mainly concerns me.

Slag - Regarding Iran's support for terrorist groups that are fighting Israel...well, yeah! What do you expect? Look, there is a very complicated situation going on in the Middle East and everybody around there is involved in it heavily and all kinds of clandestine stuff is going on, and everyone has people they like to send support to, people they like to see suffer a hit, people they pay off, people they spy on, people they counterspy on...it's endless. Iran assists Hezbollah, for instance. And why would they not? The USA is assisting Israel. The UK is assisting whoever it wants to. Hezbollah has a legitimate cause from the point of view of Iran, so of course they are assisting them. That's just reality. It isn't any more despicable or praiseworthy than the USA's support to various shadowy fighting groups, such as their support, for instance, the to forerunners of the Taliban, the Mujahedin in the past or their support to Christian Lebanese factions who are against Hezbollah. Everyone secretly funnels money and arms to any paramilitary force out there that is fighting a common enemy. That's a fact of life. The fact that the Iranians are doing it doesn't make them any worse than anyone else who is doing it. Blood is on everyone's hands. Don't think it's not.

You say: "Ever since the Grand Mukti (sp?) of Egypt (whose grandson? nephew? was Arafat) met and confered with Adolph Hitler in regards to the "Final Solution" the Jews have been hard up against it. And the Koran makes provision for and encourages lying with the infidel dogs if it suits their ends. Infidel dogs, that would be you and me and all the other swine eaters. Less then human, you and I."

I'd go a lot farther than that, Slag. I'd say that the Jews have been hard up against it for at least a couple of thousand years! Maybe longer than that. The Egptians enslaved them. The Babylonians enslaved them. The Romans pulverized them, destroyed Jerusalem, and scattered them to the 4 winds. In the Christian era which followed they were persecuted and killed in numberless pogroms all over Europe. They suffered again and again merely because they were Jews. They have faced not just one Holocaust, but a long series of them. Hitler's effort in WWII looms largest in people's minds because it happened recently, and on a very large and organized scale...but it was not the first time by any means. No one has to convince me that the Jews have suffered!

The Muslims, on the other hand, have not exactly been having a wonderful time either in the last hundred years or so (aside from oil revenues which benefit a tiny elite), and you must realize that they also have a massive persecution complex at this point in history, and that is what is driving their militancy, just as the Jew's sense of past sufferings is driving theirs. Those who are militarily weak send suicide bombers at easy targets, those who are militarily mighty send jets and tanks to brazenly blow up any damn thing they want to in broad daylight...the basic intention is the same in either case...to kill people and to cow and terrorize the other guy into submission.

This is a case of 2 sets of people with the same basic psychological problem: they both think that everyone hates them and is out to get them! It would be funny if it weren't so completely awful. They even follow the same old holy books, the same ancient prophets, and the same 10 commandments! (so they say) They BOTH feel that eating pork is absolutely filthy and they won't do it. Why is it that one of these sets of people is seen by you as a noble "victim" and the other is seen as a despicable "terrorist"? Seems to me they've got a whole lot in common, and what we are seeing is a very big extended family quarrel playing itself out on the stage of history. ;-)

And that's why they can't get along with each other. Pretty sad situation.

You clearly fear that militant Muslims see you as "less than human". Well, that is just what they fear about you. Exactly the same fear.

I've personally known quite a few Muslims, and I know that they don't see me as "less than human". Therefore, I don't particularly carry that fear. I do not judge an entire group by the behaviour of a few fanatics here and there, and I think you'd find that that is true with the majority of Muslims as well.

The most fanatical Muslim society in the world at present is Saudi Arabia, where the Wahabi sect is predominant. Do you not think it ironical that the Saudis are considered USA allies while Iran is considered an enemy? I do. It was mostly Saudis who were on the 911 airplanes. It was not Iranians.

Does that not give you pause?

Yes, there is real evil out there. Real evil is the complete inability to relate to other human beings as being similar to yourself. I think your fear that the Muslims are like that is causing you to be like that toward them. If so, it's kind of tragic going in both directions, wouldn't you say?