[Colonel Flagg]

I love the smell of politics and philosophy in the morning!

I've always drawn a parallel, somewhat more recent in vintage, between the American Revolution and the Vietnam War. Both had the imperialist aggressor and the ostensibly weaker populist defender, the outsider vs. the native, however you want to view it, and in both cases the victor chose guerrila tactics to wear down the enemy and eventually win the campaign. The comparison is not perfect, but then again, nothing is.

So if you're looking at how history will view the Iraq war, I'd suggest looking at our own history 220 years after the fact, or even 35 years after Vietnam. Sadly, the picture is not pretty, either for those who were directly involved with the conflict, or the goverment officials and military commanders who orchestrated it.

I like the reliance on historical documention to prove the age-old adage "the only thing we learn from history is that we never learn from history". Humorous and tragic on so many levels.

Seth, I'm curious at your picking the creation of Israel as a pivotal moment in recent history. In most cases that I've either read about or lived through, nearly every time in history people or governing bodies decided to physically and politically separate those of different ethnicity/creed/color/length of hair/whatever, the result has often been conflict. Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India. African Homelands within South Africa. Muslim enclaves within Bosnia and Serbia. The Kurdish regions of Iraq. Protestants and Catholics in Ireland. Closer to home, the Branch Davidians, the FLDS mess, the Freemen, etc. I guess my point is by physically or politically separating groups of individuals we either make them targets, or make them feel oppressed. Neither is a good option.

You made me think, which is a good thing.