Many of the ideas here have been interesting and thought provoking. I think that we must all be cautious to avoid the contamination of our thought process by our agendas. Will a debate where all sides skillfully take turns rationalizing and justifying help us solve our problems? If one side characterizes an attack as preemptive or peace keeping, while the other claim they are the victim of an unprovoked attack, all the while preparing for retaliation, where does this leave us? Do the ends justify the means intellectually? Are we willing to sacrifice the truth in order to be right? People are more than willing to look at history in a vacume when it serves their purpose. Why are we so afraid of the truth? Is it because we live in a culture, in which we spend 80$ on football tickets and video games when we KNOW that there are countless in our global community that are starving to death?


Looking at the links that Rick kindly provided, I stumbled upon the following article http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2001/09/power.htm


I urge you to read it as well. 800 000 people were slaughtered! What was the reaction of the international community? It is a horribly sad account and I think that it can help to put things into perspective. What role do we play and what responsibility do we have, both as a group and as individuals,for the suffering that is going on worldwide?