If commonsense had been used at Versailles rather than treating defeated Germany like a pariah, Hitler would never have been in power. Once he was in power he needed an impoverished desperate populace to follow him blindly as he and his friends manipulated sufficient number of them.

But Hitler did not believe that God was with him or that martyrs would be rewarded in paradise, he was not as mad as all that. Unfortunately people like Ahmadinejad et al believe just that,and this makes them potentially much more dangerous. Ahmadinejad would happily annihilate the whole world if he felt Allah required it, and his Nazi like state has his citizens in a tight grip.

Israel like India and Pakistan has a ethic which uses a nuclear bomb as a threat rather than an actuality. The Jewish faith has a long standing belief that life is the paramount concern for the living and also that divine favours are bestowed equally on all good people regardless of faith or lack of it. This makes a Jewish neighbour a better proposition than an Islamic or Christian one.

What ever you say about Israeli methods they are not even interested in world domination, just a peaceful, tiny little patch for themselves. You have to admit Israel's treatment of other religions in its midst is far superior to that of its Islamic neighbours.

Regarding oil surely you all can realise that it is a life blood to the Western way of life and that Western lands cannot afford to leave major supplies in the hands of madmen.

Has OLO introduced a spell check, or is mine, which has just appeared, a result of a upgrade of Mozilla Firefox which I use in preference to MS Explorer?

Dear Planta and Logic.

Planta first.. yes its a long shot mate, all Iraqi's becoming Christian. Any such 'mass conversion' would be probably as deep as the next privilage or SUV they thought they are going to get.

But the Gospel has never been about 'mass' conversion, it has been about mass proclamation.
Lets look at the circumstances of the birth of the early church.

Acts 2
Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs-we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" 12Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"

13Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine.[b]"

14Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning! 16No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel

41Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

Dear Logic/Celeste.. this is the 'brand' the only name it goes by is Jesus.. Messiah. I acknowledge your point though.

Bushbred and Logic

I prefer to write current analyses that can be placed in the political science category. More implicitly they are in the context of historical currents.

But still its interesting to argue historical points for their own sake. On Hitler...I think Germany would have again become an aggressive force in Europe if he had not been there. Military aggression had become a German problem solving technique by 1939 as seen in Franco-Prussian War 1870-1871 and WWI 1914-18. The Great Depression (1929 into the 1930s) added widespread suffering for many Germans and especially returned soldiers. The "stab in the back" feeling which predated Hitler's rise, together with the ideological vacuum of lack of faith in society, set the conditions for future war. These drove a need for scapegoats, designated as Jews, communists and capitalists which in (then) current German style were combated with military aggression. In a nutshell, if not Hitler then someone else.

Dear Boaz

I appreciate the frequent virtues of your faith. I try to avoid an approach of religious alignment over issues of terrorism and war in the Middle East, because bullets and bombs are not truly guided by faith, but by politics crushing faith.

My non-aligned status admitted I hope you all have a good Christmas and Happy New Year.

Pete

Your reasoning is far to deadly, Logic. Maybe mine is too, with the fact though I do not want to live with the Iranians because I do not favour their religous laws, I believe as a middle-road thinker, that Iran under scientific power-balance theory, needs to be protected from the menace of Israeli nuclear rockets, either by Nato, or by her own atomic means.

Please read the appropriate literature on it, Logic. Also rememember that in her lifetime Iran has only used deadly dialectic, never invaded other countries as modern Israel has done too many times in the last century.

bushbred

Correct me if I am wrong but Iran has not been seriously invaded or had rockets fired into its territory deliberately targetting it's civilians
as Israel has. Nor has any nation declared that the complete destruction of the Iranian state is their intention.

That is the reason for the Israeli attacks, a justified fear.

Bush at his worst has only argued for replacement of the present Iranian regime by a a democratic one preserving the rights of women and non Islamic religions.

A lot of western intelligence suggests that Iran is supporting Hezbollah. I think Israel has reason to worry. Question is what can be done about it?

Admittedly on the face of it, Logic, you are partly on the right track, as is said in some discussions on the matter, but not looking at the whole future of the Middle East.

The major problems are:

1. Both America and Britain with some sort of hegemonic cum contrabandist neo-colonial scheme in mind are protecting mall nations or peoples like the Israelis and Kurds, who admittedly have been suppressed by more powerful peoples. Such could be either because of their cultural independence or by fears from the ruling parties about their higher intelligences causing some sort of unwanted intrusion.

2 It is also admitted that the Israelis and Kurds are highly intelligent people who unfortunately through history their ability especially in economics has often superseded the intellect of the nation they should have been more quietly absorbed into.

From one who has had much to do with Hebrew peoples especially in the military and also as a farmer in older times selling his woolclip on the property, and must say how adept they are mentally, and can understand how in history they have shone in so many ways in modern times particularly as writers and in the film industry. Remember that Einstein was of the same race, as well as Einstein - and many many more.

Surely there is a better way, Logic, in this so-called advanced age of superior intellect to peacefully work things out rather than multiplying by ten in Iran, all the recent killings that have gone on in Iraq.

Further, seeing that battered unipolar Americana still holds the Ace cards - rather than threats of sheer power alone, from now on, maybe she should take a lesson from Abraham Lincoln, and learn more ways of making friends with opposing numbers