Hi all! Long time, no talk. Two pages have gone by since my last visit...but I haven't the time tonight to review them all...

Booklady - you asked the following questions:

"Whom do you refer to as our our European and Arab friends ? What countries specifically? "

"Why do you believe that it will be a healing gesture? And in what ways can it heal the breach between these nations when some hold diametrically opposed values? How can they reach concensus?"

Now I'm reading a sarcastic and jaded tone to these questions. But I'll address them anyway. In MY opinion, Germany, France, Jordan, and Russia are our friends. They reacted quickly and swiftly to shut down Al Queda after 9/11 ... but how quickly our so-called "friends" in the right wing forget. Those countries were there for us in our hour of need. Iraq was no hour of need.

And what do you mean by "diametrically opposed values?" As mentioned above, our allies share a lot of the same interests that we do.

And "how will we ever reach consensus again?" *That* is a good question. With an administration that sees the world in black and white and zero shades of gray, it will not happen.

You brought up a good point about the U.N. and the human rights commission. That is a problem area that I'm sure *everyone* can agree on. But if we refuse to participate in the U.N. I suppose we have no right to complain. Same concept as voting...if one doesn't vote, how can he/she complain? Shall we banish the U.N. to eliminate those nasty voices? Surely we see that the U.N. has averted conflict in the past...is it really time to eliminate the U.N.? Maybe they're harboring WMD in the U.N. headquarters...get 'em!

Isolationism was a great tactic that the Soviet Union and other hard-line communist countries embraced. It's also worked out brilliantly for dictators like Saddam Hussein and Pyongang (sp?). These efforts to close off the U.S. from the rest of the world are a tad hedonistic, don't you think?