Wow Kerry took the Florida primary!

[kandrathe]

Why haven't the Saudis gotten anything more than a slap on the wrist? Oil. Apparently, if someone has the US by the balls, in terms of fuel, they get a "get out of the axis of evil free" card.

Well, more than oil. They have hosted our soldiers for awhile, and they are the focal point of Islam. The house of Saud is vast in numbers, as well as ideologies and sympathies. Wahabism asserts the importance of Saudi Arabia as the seat of Islam -- I pointed out in a differest thread the political advantages to the rulers of having a mind control tool such as this religion. If they were to acknowledge the truth, they would just be another desert covering a vast oil supply. If you are a non-Islamic state in a war with Saudi Arabia, you are in a de facto war with Islam. In an interesting twist, I watched a documentary tonight on the rise and fall of Saddam. His real consolidation of power came in the early 70's after the 1968 bloody coup that reestablished the Ba'athe party to power in Iraq. Because of the OPEC oil embargo on any nation aiding Isreal, the World economy was tanking fast -- it was Iraq that while denying it to OPEC was breaking the embargo and selling oil at high prices to the west. This gave them vast wealth, and thereby the means to build the worlds 6th largest army, free hospitals, free education, and vast investment in Iraqi infrastructure.

Yes, they have. And if Islamist terrorist recruitment triples as support for these governments plummets, that would certainly paint the "obviously you must be against terrorism!" notion in rather a different light. If the people of these nations feel unrepresented by their governments, the best case scenario is that they join terrorist organizations by the hundreds. The worst is that the whole governments come down, a la Iran.

Well I see your point, but something wreaks about it. I think it is because I feel that each individual needs to have a morality. Peace is not only between nations, but between peoples. Even a soldier must make a determination when the time comes to it, whether or not to pull the trigger and take another human's life. When an ideology has the power to strip a person of their morality (such as that that motivates terrorists, or a nationalism that motivates soldiers to act as in Bosnia unquestioning), is when and maybe why we see so much violence and death in our world.

Let's use the recent bombing in Spain as an example. The first message was one of bloodshed. There was no al Queda (or ETA) terrorist representative standing up and calling for an end to Spanish support for the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Just the bombs and the blood, the terror and the tyrannts, the viciousness and the victims. If this is what is destined for the youth of the states that take a stand against the immorality of terrorism, then our future is destined for another world war.

Right after 9/11 bigotry flared here is the US for a few weeks, it was quickly checked by rational people calling for tolerance and calm. Eventually, somewhere, maybe here or maybe where you live, that tolerance will end. I am sure if you asked Islamic or Arab Americans and those of Middle Eastern decent they would concur that attitudes of people toward them have changed. And if you don't think that process has started, I would point toward the PATRIOT Act and every sort of infringement on personal liberty in the name of security. So, just maybe that fear you, I, and others have been feeling is that we are coming to realize that WW4 has started.