Sard,

Thanksk. I appreciate your response and enjoy the discourse. We just disagree about a few things.

About Condi: I'm sure she knows things that I don't. However, saying stupid things and saying things that flat don't add up detract, rather than enhance her credibility. And part of it is a guilt by association thing. She has aligned herself with a dolt of a president. It would be irresponsible of me not to hold that against her. Especially after having seen her previously align herself with people of true genius. If she's doing it because she believes it will enhance her resume, I find that incredulous, but will accept it as possibly plausible. That Powell left the administration causes me to want to still believe in him and his values.

I guess I can see where we begin to diverge. I don't care to see someone burn an American flag, but I do believe that burning an American flag is the ultimate example of American freedom, if you get what I mean. Along with Patrick Henry's "give me liberty or give me death," one of the other founding fathers said something along the lines of, "I may disagree completely with what you say, but I would fight to the death for your right to say it." I gotta' admire the moxey of those old boys.

I agree that a lot of Islamic fundamentalists hate us just for being Western or non-Muslim. Most Muslims, like most Christians, don't take their religion to such an extreme. Most Muslims really do want most of the same things we want: family, jobs, relative economic stability, the freedom to come and go and basically do as they please. Some of those erstwhile middle of the road Muslims become insurgents, or support insurgents, because they are enraged at certain behaviors of the U.S. Chief among them used to be our unilateral, lop-sided support of Israel to the direct detriment of Palistinians. While that is still a major bother to them, it is mostly supplanted these days by our occupation of Iraq. I know that's a real abbreviated sketch, but I get this from friends who have worked with and remain in contact with Arabs who continue to try to reform that hell hole that would be Palistine.

This is just one of my many reasons for disgust at the administration. Instead of win-win, the knotheads created a lose-lose quagmire. If we stay, we lose. If we leave, we lose. Yeah, I know this is a form of armchair quarterbacking, but I'm in no position to influence, only to voice my complaint. And I think the quagmire adds to the bag of pretty clear, cogent, and convincing evidence that the movers and shakers of the administration all rode the short bus to school. Oops, another cheap shot at intellect, but it's darn hard to feel any other way. Call me an intellectual snob, but I resent having my country run by people who behave like lower life forms.

As for getting a lot of Muslims into rabid consumerism, that's funny. That describes what most Iranians were like pre-Khomeni (sp) and most Iraqis were like pre-Gulf War I. Don't you wonder who or what caused them to change their focus?

Sincerely,

Salmo g.