When have I ever said anything about North Korea and atomic weapons? For the record, I am totally opposed to nuclear weapon proliferation, whoever is involved. But it's a bit rich for the US, whose nuclear arsenal is enough to blow the planet off its orbit, to preach to others on the subject. Nor do I have illusions about the brutality of regimes such as that in Iran, where public stoning to death is still practised as punishment for what we would regard as petty crimes. The point is not to press propaganda weapons into the hands of the Ahmedinajads and the Sheikh Nasrullahs with ill-thought-out adventures like the Iraq invasion. This must have multiplied tenfold the attractiveness of jihadist ideas in the Moslem world.

Well done, George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld et al!

Youngsteve - my comment about North Korean nukes was directed to your eponymous fellow traveller - Steve Madden.

But let me dispute your attempt to rewrite the history of the Cold War (you are the one who keeps bringing up Cold War references, not I).

You cite Strobe Talbot, whom I regard as nothing more than a crass leftwing ideologue. And his attempt to vindicate the dovish point of view in the conflict vis a vis the USSR is laughable in light of the Soviets' brutal track record of expansionism abroad and crushing dissent at home. We just celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian uprising. You should have a little more respect for those who died defending freedom against the Red Army in the streets of Budapest.

There was no moral equivalence to be found during the Cold War.

Marxism is an ideological system that, by its very nature, negates individual rights and freedoms. Lenin presided over the 'Red Terror' of 1918, and Trotsky later wrote a tract entitled "Terrorism and Communism - Dictatorship vs Democracy" to defend the murderous record of the Bolsheviks. And then Stalin came along and took repression to a bloody new level. Between the three of them, they accounted for roughly 20 million deaths amongst their own people. And this is the system that the Soviets wished to export forcibly throughout the world.

That's what you just don't get, Young - on one side of the Cold War you had a totalitarian dictatorial system, while on the other you had a democratic system that guaranteed the liberties that are at the core of any free society.

Democracies are places where people risk their lives to reach, while totalitarian dictatorships are places people risk their lives to flee. Remember E. Germany had to build a wall with armed guards to keep its people in.

Ronald Reagan was correct - the communists did constitute an "evil empire" And even your comrade Gorbachev admits in his memoirs that it was Reagan's military build up that hastened the USSR's demise. And not a moment too soon.

Most certainly I tell you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and he will do GREATER works than these, because I am going to my Father.

WHATEVER you will ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

If you will ask ANYTHING in my name, I will do it.

If you LOVE ME, keep my Commandments.
John 14:12-15

We are not the pure son of God but we are (ALL) God's children in whom and by whom miracles will be performed (greater than those of Jesus who raised the dead),if we but have faith as a mustard seed. (miniscule size compared to a human body)

John answered, "Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him, because he doesn't follow with us."

Jesus said to him, "Don't forbid him, for he who is not against us is for us."
Luke 9:49-50

"If yer not with us, yer agin us"
George W Bush

If you cannot see the difference between christian Bush and Christ follower John's two statements then you will get all you truly deserve.

Hawaiilawyer, you paint a picture of no hope for us today, I suspect you long for the coming of the Anti-christ.

'Humans can't be ethical, no matter how hard they try'.

Not if you only deal in absolutes! To me Ethics is a spectrum: we do good when we move away from corruption, greed and contol over others and move towards Truth, Charity and encouraging self-control and Peace among all men.

A lawyer lecturing us on ethics? what next?

Personally i would rather paint a Way to a picture of True Hope for all mankind and encourage any and all of us to fight for truth from our leaders and Faith and self-control (and even self-denial of that which corrupts us away from our Soul's purpose here on Earth) in our own minds and bodies rather than justifying the unjust and giving cause to keep people in darkness and poverty and perverting their faith.

I ask Jesus for a better world than we have let be created by man here NOW - starting today! Open your heart, eyes and ears to truth. Speak out and demand better from your elected leaders (or dictators) when you hear lies being spouted as propaganda for elite regimes. Do God's work, not George Bush's, Or Ahminajad's, Or Olmert's, Or Jong-Il's, Or Howard's.

This applies to Muslim's and conned christians alike. Even to the Hebrews, although i fear it will be much more difficult for most of them, because of their history.

Thou Shall Not Kill!

Thou Shall Not Spread FALSE Witness!.

What part of NOT don't American/Australian christians get??

C'mon all you George and Johhny Lovers out there explain THAT one to me?

Ted Lapkin -- There is absolutely no evidence to support the idea that the USSR was hell-bent on "world domination". Influence, yes (cf. the Middle East), but domination, no. This was an invention of the fevered brains of the McCarthyists who, for various reasons, wished to purge American society of dissident opinion. Their rampaging not only ruined thousands of lives, it also badly damaged America's world image. For years, Hollywood was almost unable to produce any worthwhile cinema -- even movies like "West Side Story" were attacked by some as "leftwing" because they involved working-class youth and problems of ethnic tensions etc. There is no way I can defend or excuse the USSR's sins of omission or commission, but it is possible to find explanations in that country's actual history, primarily in the Wars of Intervention which resulted from the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, and then the massive bloodbath of the Nazi invasion and occupation. They could see no reason to trust the West, and this suspicion led inevitably to the Stalin purges of the 1930s and the setting up of puppet states in eastern Europe after 1945 as a buffer against the West. The black-and-white world of Ted Lapkin ignores most of this.

I wonder what Strobe Talbott would think of Lapkin...if he ever heard of him?

Ted, mate, no hard feelings, but Israel with America behind it has had Iran in its sights for a long time now. What is happening in Iraq, is nought compared with what a war with Iran will bring on. It is just a case of using scientific reasoning of which scientific power balance is part of.

The power balance in the Middle East was lopsided towards the US and Britain quite enough without loading little Israel with nasty nukes. Those in charge should have got sacked somehow.

And breaking our global laws at that, maybe Israel might sit in the same Court as the US. I guess you may not have heard but the spin that America's attack on Iraq was legal somehow has been definitely scrubbed by the UN.

Yet I guess GWB and his gang might get out of it, seeing it's reported they have now got a stranglehold on the US Supreme Court of Law.

Nothing about who's the strongest Ted, because it should be all about a fair go, as we say in Australia. And the Middle-East Arabs haven't had much of it for years.