Interesting points you make stigWeard, and I am in wholehearted agreement with them.

Trouble is, when I expressed those same sentiments regarding the connections between the culture of violence, the US military/industrial establishment, and the perpetuation of violence and war as foreign policy in a Memorial Day thread years ago, I was made persona non gratis by Mr. Macho Mick, who loves his guns and thinks we should all worship the military.

And Big Mick is not an American anomaly. I have a brother in law just like him. Votes Democratic party tickets, strong union supporter, demands everyone RESPECT the military (in my brother in law's case, he served in Korea), is church going (in a holier than thou sort of way), volunteers for charity work. And is a huge bully. A lot like Big Mick. There are millions of men like this in the US.

So I wouldn't hold out much hope for us here. Considering how much power Big Mick has in this forum, and how easily and quickly he gained it here by being a bully. Max, the site owner, is a bully too and so are his forum henchmen.

So why anyone would be surprised at Big Mick's comments is beyond me. Any rational attempts at dissuading people like him from their deeply held beliefs and machismo values will be met with nothing but contempt.

Not that I think any other culture is less violent or worships machismo and bullying any less than the US does. I don't. But when you've got the most guns, money and lawyers, as the US does, you win.

The vast majority of American men here is Mudcat talk a good political talk, but they ain't walkin' it as we found out quickly after 9/11. They aren't anti-war, they are against wars where we lose.