Michael, I suggest that you go back and read them again. It sounds to me that you are the one who is "reading past" them. I, and others, are communicating ideas. Quite frankly, folks who think that political discussion,as well as religious discussion, is a waste of time deserve what they get. It is in the ignoring of other folks politics and religion that things like the Middle East, the north of Ireland, South Africa, Vietnam, etc. occur. Now if what you are referring to as talking past each other is jingoistic statements, and the "why can't the world see the rightness of what we do" to the exclusion of other arguments, then I am with you. But it appears to me that you really haven't read the whole of the statements posted.

Respectfully,

Mick