There's also been a lot of bad committed by my country. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the bad out-weighs the good, but at some point it may, unless science helps soon.

Capitalism is only as good as the ethics which compete for attention with profit motive by decision-makers -- not that I have a better recommendation for governance. Greedy corporate execs result in bad for everybody in the world, and charitable donations to Causes are insignificant to the total impact -- a token to diminish societal guilt.

I believe that America made another horrible mistake by intervening needlessly in Iraq -- similar to Vietnam. The obvious result, of course, will be, ultimately, a religious cause that draws plently of programmed participants against peace.

Our pollution has contributed to global warming. Our consumerism is out-of-control. But, we still produce the best rock and roll music --and that's our true saving grace.

Robert Eggleton
"Rarity from the Hollow"

Good article Timor,

Yabby I am intrigued to know why you think I only care about the 1,000 Lebanese civilians slaughtered by the Israelis and then seem to connect it to some tribal thing. I have French, Scots, English, Welsh, German, Irish and Cornish ancestry - not a trace of Middle Eastern in me. Blue eyed blonde actually. Pure Aryan if you must know.

What bothers me so much about the Iraq and Lebanon adventures by the US and Israel is the lies told in each case with the ensuing destruction. I just bet though that the Iraqis, Afghans and Sudanese would have loved a 34 day spat instead of the grinding, daily horror they live with.

Perhaps also the fact that Lebanon was immediately in our faces with the best journalists in the world bringing us the first stories of the deaths of children with the pictures attached. And that our parliament all said nothing.

Nada, zip. Now Haaretz state that the 5 Hezbollah "terrorists" that were the cause of the Baalbek bombings that slaughtered even an infant in the womb (Peter Wilson, Australian 5-6 August) have been released as innocent civilians and two of them were just kids.

It is the lies I think that make it so disturbing.

Keith,

You're dead set right about one thing. The Gaza beach tragedy was awful. Shouldn't have happened. Heads should roll. Israel should be ashamed of itself on that account. As Martin Ferguson famously said, I'm not going to try to defend the indefensible.

On the Palestinian election issue, though, you're shaky. See I didn't presume to tell the Palestinian people for whom they should vote. What I was getting at was that if the Palestinian people have, in free and open elections, given a mandate to a terrorist organisation to form a government and lead them, then it is not unreasonable to characterise the nation as a whole on the basis of its decisions. If the Palestinian people choose to be led and represented by terrorists, then let them face the consequences.

No longer can they argue "Oh, those terrorists are not the real Palestine, they're just extremists who don't represent us." Sorry. They're still terrorists, but now they've been elected by the Palestinian population and they *do* represent all of Palestine.

In short - a terrorist who wins at the ballot box is still a terrorist, and you can't blame the Israelis for treating them as such.

Yabby's comment was a good one - you cannot underestimate the significance of tribalism within the area.

What I suppose really bothers me about the whole Iraq war was its irrelevance - supposedly, public enemy number one is Al Qaeda right?

So why did the crusading americans head for Iraq? It was a reasonably secular nation insofar as hussein's iron fist did not allow for any militia outside his control - and that included Al Qaeda.
Now the country is prime position for any fundamentalist with a grudge, especially seeing as they can take potshots at american soldiers from the comfort of the middle east. I'm quite sure that when the dust settles, it will be a breeding ground for militants - let's face it, its going to be similar to the situation in afghanistan - the cities represent a relative level of calm, but outside them is a no mans land.

And as for hussein having WMDs. Uh huh. Everybody pointed to the fact that he wasn't denying it, but look at his position - he needed to maintain a position of strength among his hostile neighbours. Of course he didn't admit he had a flimsy defence.

So clearly, Iraq had nothing to do with the 'war on terror'. Which just leaves oil as the prime motive. It's amazing how often economical as opposed to political reasoning is ignored by the mainstream media when reasons for war are debated.

Good heavens Anth, how self-righteous you are about "terrorist" organisations.

Perhaps you forgot that they are only considered "terr'sts" by the US, Israel and perhaps us - they are actually a group that was born out of protecting themselves from the occupation of the Gaza and West Bank by Israel. Just as Hezbollah came about because of Israel's occupation of Lebanon. Do you seriously think then that Israel has the right to kidnap and incarcerate people who were elected?

And how dare you suggest that the people of Palestine must be punished because they elected them. The US elected that moron Bush and we keep electing the repulsive Howard.

We have blown up Iraq without cause so by your reckoning Iraq are entitled to blow all of us up. Actually the probably are.

The Afghan people didn't want Bin Laden - the US trained him and his cronies who are now the terrorist government of Afghanistan to get rid of the Russians.

And we all suffer because of it.

And if you want to blow up terrorist organisations or the people who support them you have to surely start with Fort Benning, Georgia where more terrorists have been trained than in any other place in the world.

Here is a news flash - you don't slaughter the children because you think their father is a criminal.