>--- by viewing al-Qaida militants as a demonic force bent on destroying cilivisation Bush played right into the Jihadists' hands by setting the groundwork for a new and terrifying age of religious war.

Very true. Unfortunately a lot of people also believe that they are fighting a religious fight when in fact if you look at the rhetoric you will see that the words -:

I want a muslim state world wide
We want a catholic state under a catholic queen in England
I want a German state world wide (HITLER)

Question- Who in the above statements is telling the truth?

Answer- These statements all mean the same thing. Hitler was the only one who didn't try to hide his murderous intentions behind the respectable cloak of religion.

What do these statements all imply? Genocide.

Istvan
“Also, the Old Testament should be viewed as Mythology, - poetically embellished, and written well after any event occurred. In many ways it is not unlike Greek Mythology.”

I agree, which proves my point. Making It all mythology used as a control mechanism, not a beneficial fact. When I say religion is behind most of the wars, I'm talking about the psychology which revolves around the beliefs of those creating wars. Economics is also a religion, it has no basis of fact and can be seen to produce the opposite of what it foretells, except for the elitists. Who by the way are fettered by the elites of religion, both supporting each other to maintain control.

You can make all the excuses you want, but it always boils down to the base psychology of a person, group, culture or country and 99% of those involved or instigating conflicts, are religious. Religion is quick to claim a positive, if ever you can find one, but they spend a large part of their time in apologetics and denial of fact.

Istvan,

"Religion is not behind every conflict on the planet.The economy is".

You can't let religion off the hook so easily.Surely the Islamic states are backward politically and economically because of their theocratic mode of government,unlike Western secular societies. Little progress of any kind has been made in the ME for a thousand years, yes, one side is disadvantaged, the question is why?

Both the Old and New Testaments and the Koran are fantasies, the tragic mistake of the Moslems is that they have tried to build a society on the ravings of a 7th century psychopath. We in the West escaped from the dead hand of the Church, that's the reason for Western "advantage."

Palestine and Israel should be left to duke it out.

Tim Minchin has the best take on this unholy struggle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UO6YlkYNJQ

As discussed in the forums:
"Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oil, oil, oil" (http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=8752#140638),
"9/11 Truth" (http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=2166&page=83),
http://johnquiggin.com/index.php/archives/2009/04/17/weekend-reflections-121/#comment-234274

... and elsewhere, the best way for the US to win the "war on terror" and to defeat those who are truly behind the jihadists would be to conduct a proper inquiry into the September 11 outrage as the New York City Coalition for Accountability Now (NYC CAN (http://nyccan.org/mission.php)), amongst others, are trying to force the New York City Council to do.

Anyone, who insists that George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleeza Rice et al were not the architects of the 9/11 outrage, should check out the follow the YouTube broadcasts, each under 10 minutes long:

"9/11 Science vs. Conspiracy Theories Part 1" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PawC4u1U7k
"9/11 Science vs. Conspiracy Theories Part 2" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG6i6WBHM3U

Barack Obama has a golden opportunity to hand Afghanistan to Iran and let Islam sort out its own problems instead of pushing a Roman Catholic version of democracy,onto an unwilling population.

Roman Catholic democracy is a vote every three years. True democracy is the universal Protestant Christian right to be judged by a jury of twelve disciples of Jesus Christ guaranteed by the US Constitution. Not only in criminal matters but also in all civil disputes.

Pakistan and Iran in a toe to toe confrontation would balance each other,and between them they could demonstrate the benefits of Islam, over war.

Islam has been a great civilising influence but it is hardly democracy. Islam and Roman Catholicism have much in common. They are both obsessed with Rules,and both have condoned slavery, and an aristocratic social structure.

The discipline of Islam would see the Taliban suppressed by Iran, not by infidel soldiers of a misguided Christian Nation, struggling with its own moral dilemmas.