>>  love G-d and love your neighbor as yourself.
>
OK, we're way off here. Excuse me but I didn't have your email tag to
write you directly.  (And anyway, its a nice change from the usual paleo
stuff...don't worry paleopurists, well get back on-topic soon enough!)
  The question is, if you try to apply the above sentiment to your life
on a personal level, then it must be so true that it should apply
equally on a societal and international level as well.  We are so
knee-jerk reactionary against war that we forget that war can mean you
are legitimately defending yourself, your interests; and if those
interests are truly legitimate, then you are ipso facto defending others
in the process.   To commit to go to war to free 30 million + people
from tyranny has got to be a most grand expression of the power of
Christian love and brotherhood.  It may sound incredible to Bush haters,
but you'd do it for your brother so why not your neighbors across the
ocean?  Oh, you can say it was for oil or revenge or ego or hubris, but
that's not enough to set you dead against freeing 30 million people --
your default sense of Christian brotherhood would prevail.   Yes, its a
big mess now, but if Iraq wasn't important to the "war on terror" in the
first place then why are the Islamofascists pouring all their resources
into the battle there?  Don't forget, they're the ones making a big
mess, not America.  America has been trying to rebuild infrastructure,
jumpstart schools and small business and create a civil society where
there was none in the first place.   The Islamofascists consider that
"evil western corruption".  Should we just say, well, they're
different...Let them stew in their own problems?  Why should we get
involved?  In that part of the world, there are so many reasons to get
involved, and oil may be one of them, but its not unreasonable and its
not the only reason either.  With all the anti-American noise out there
people have forgotton what a great country it is.  The leadership,
whether democratic or republican, would never risk its legacy, its
treasure, or its blood, unless the stakes were truly high. America, for
all its faults, stands at the pinnacle of human freedom and progress.
Not unexpectedly, the world throws it  challenges.  We, in turn, become
great as a society and as individuals by rising to these challenges,
with conviction, courage and humility before the divine.  Personally, I
hold the hatred that the Europeans (and the UN) feel for us Americans as
a badge of honour.  After all, they are the ones with the (very recent)
history of fascism, not us!  "These truths are self-evident", as I said
to one list member quoting the US constitution.  I could be quoting the
bible as well.   That is why we ascribe to it the value it deserves.  We
are all equal before G-d and under the law and we should expect no less
from "other cultures" -- especially from those who are so regressive and
that seek to do us harm.

~Eliot