thijs,

I hope you don't take my statement as meaning you aren't American if you don't believe what I do, because nothing could be further from the truth. Like anyone else, I do get a little heated when I read things that disturb me. Just because our beliefs are so far apart shouldn't drive a wedge between us. You might say I've become very defensive of the issues related to the U.S. role in the world over the last thirty years, after coming home to my country and being called a traitor because I fought in Nam.

Instead of sitting back, doing drugs, becoming an alcoholic, and wasting my life away because of those issues, I became involved, and it's carried me into a different role in life. I have not been sitting on the sidelines, as some people on our board are very much aware. I won't go into the details, but let's just say I'm more inclined towards finding peaceful settlements for issues than starting a war to resolve them, and have devoted endless hours for that cause. But, at the same time, I realize there's a time when words fail, and action is the only recourse. Such it was with Iraq.

You're absolutely right about the UN avoiding nearly 200 wars. But in a lot of cases, the price of human life, and the degredation of societies of people was the price that was paid. As people who care about others, we cannot sit on the sidelines and watch genocide happening, and say we will negotiate a peace between parties, while one is systematically killing the other by the thousands, and telling the UN they are more than willing to negotiate a settlement with their enemies, when we know that the blood bath will continue, until they are through savaging their fellow man. If that's peace, I'll take war, because the loss of life is much less over the long haul.

Please understand, I not only believe in researching the internet, I usually have six to eight books written by authors from all across the political spectrum checked out of a major library at all times, because I thirst for information related to issues. Usually, within a week, I'm back for another half dozen or so, because I try to find what has caused the mindset people have.

At this time, one of my biggest concerns is that the Arab/Islamic world will do everything they can to undermine the establishment of a democratic government in Iraq. Not because it isn't the right thing to have, but because it undermines their own nations, which really don't often resemble democracy.

I wonder how the UN would handle rebuilding. Since Russia, France, and Germany were totally against us, I think they'd turn everything into a political issue and fight against any plans the US might have. Therefore, I feel we should choose to leave the UN out of the loop when it comes to the building of the nation's infrastructure. I don't like having it that way, but I sure don't want to see those nations create chaos, then conveniently blame it on the US, and anyone who's followed this issue knows that's exactly what will happen.

Rush Limbaugh? I can't stand the guy, and his right wing rhetoric scares the hell out of me. He has too many followers in my book. He doesn't speak for those of us who support the American/Iraqi issue, he speaks for the radical right.

How has Iraq threatened our rights? We have the fundamental right of feeling safe from harm. When terrorists are funded, and harbored by a regime, they are free to lash out against people at a time of their choosing. Such was the case of 9-11. The terrorists deprived thousands of the right to live a happy life. Any nation that would harbor these people is an enemy of the US. If we do not react with force, we'll have these people snipping at us forever, and the number of incidents won't decrease, they'll rise significantly. If you look back over the last two decades, the terrorists have become more emboldened by the lack of substantial reaction by the US, to take them down, as they hid in foreign nations. That's unacceptable.

Peace!

Wolf