A comment of mine from Ted's blog

These are the times when EVERYONE gets mad at me. I believe each of you has taken a valid, yet narrow, point of view and accentuated it. I agree that this is not a war for oil. The oil robber barons didnt need to do that to get richer. Actually, the first Gulf War was for oil, and I didn't hear anyone bitching about that. Uh, yeah, we were saving poor little Kuwait out of the kindness of our big government heart. Look at a map of the Middle East - Kuwait was obviously meant to be a part of Iraq, at least geographically speaking.

This current war was for political gain and power here in the homeland (when did we start talking like 18th century Russians). There was also an element, within the American people, who truly believed that we are fighting for freedom and against terrorism. I agree with Jon that Islam is not a "religion of peace" Christianity, Judaism, and most religions are not any damn thing of peace. Honestly, I can't tell you the difference between a Sunni and a Shi'ite either, just as people from other regions probably can't tell you the difference between a Catholic and a Baptist.

Over the years I have met, interacted with, and befriended, probably 50 Arabic Muslims. Of course they were each individuals, with their own personalities, with positive and negative points. There were many more similarities than differences amonst them, however. Without fail, every Muslim I have ever met was happy to utilize the tremendous resources America has to offer, while at the same time speaking derisively (sp) about our "decadent" culture. Speaking just of the people I personally know, it is not a far leap from the disgust and contempt they held America in, to blowing up a couple of really tall towers full of people. I have the same contempt for Islam as I do for most every other organized religion.

Now I also agree with Ted that we need to get working on some major diplomacy, fast. We need to deal with Middle East countries from a position of power. That means we have to end our dependence on foreign oil immediately. It is also our policies, and our very presence, in fact, that is causing a lot of the unrest in the area. Not only do we need to pull our troops out of Iraq, we need to pull everything out of the entire mideast. Without oil in the mix, the US wouldnt give a rat's ass about how these countries run their affairs. They could all go back to the days of raiding each other's tribes on camel back. I find it astounding that the middle eastern countries have been so sophisticated, for so many centuries, that they gave us things like our modern numeral system; yet they are still so backwards that they treat women as slaves. Quite a paradox, it seems.