I have to say that most of the arguments presented in these threads leave me profoundly saddened.   I'm old enough to know that people aren't going to change their minds in heat of debate, but is there really no way to consider the factual detail and human complexity of the situation. Are we limited to accepting the will of U.S. officials as a sacred belief system?

We're talking about extremely complex problems with social, economic, political and religious history that go far back in time. Nearly any action taken by the world's governments is going to have consequences ranging from serious to dire. We're talking about the lives of possibly hundreds of thousands of people, both military and civilian. And yet those who seem to favor an unprovoked attack by the U.S., et al., will countenance no argument or information that contradicts their “faith.” The fundamental canonical philosophy seem to be simply stated as: us… GOOD! them… BAD!… KILL! Anything more complex than that is rejected out of hand.

The world isn't a simple game of captain-may-I in which any slight technicality results in a setback for the offending player—unless the offense is unnoticed or purposly ignored by the current “captain.” International relations is a complicated give-and-take process in which the representatives of various national interests work out an arrangement under which all can co-exist with the opportunity to thrive. Very often the best solution is satisfying to no one but it achieves the objective of permitting the world's nations to live together peacefully.

Perhaps the word fundamental is the key here. Many sorts of “fundamentalism” seem to be attracting large numbers of followers these days. But in every case, the fundamentalists who claim unbending devotion to their chosen faith—Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Communism, Capitalism, Militarism—have, in fact, perverted the central idea that made their chosen “faith” attractive in the first place. Fundamentalism of any sort isn't a system that helps to guide our thoughts and actions, it's a system that helps us dominate, directly or passivly, those who do not share our point of view.

As the fundamentalists of all stripes rush to hurl the world into a bloody maelstrom of epic proportions, I am left only with profound sadness, lamenting what might have been.

      - Mark