Much as I love these guys, Steve is getting into his pseudo virtuosity corner, which has nothing new to offer, and Don'l is digging into his deepity nook, although I always enjoy a good TOM LEHRER link.

I disagree with Don'ls point that "The mutual assured destruction of war is a lesson still unlearned." There's a valid quote "Only the dead have seen the end of war." There's also this recent movie: "OPPENHEIMER" which has a pretty good version of the original atomic explosion Trinity test.

That 'lesson' had as its point that technology has led to the end of heroism. Among the many many sublessons we have been exposed to is that mankind will still put up with an immense amount of killing, from the death factories of the Holocaust to the simple machetes of Rwanda. Our species will not waste even the prospect of a minor advantage in arms, tactics, geography, or timing in shedding blood.

But lay an atom bomb or two down and even the biggest death dealers will take a decades long pause.

So Don'l's observation is to date the most timely, but my outlook unfortunately is the current reality:

"There will be peace in the Middle East after we have exhausted the other alternatives. And, let's not make nuclear one of the alternatives.

I think if we're not 'there' we're damn close.

I don't have much more to say since I'm as repetitive as my digital forum friends. But I may find my copy of the 50s version of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and watch it all the way through. Wonder if there's a couple versions with subtitles that read right-to-left.