Good question fearless leader. I suspect when you are brainwashed from childhood to hate the evil empire (the other one, not the Yankees), then perhaps killing is more important than HDTV.

 

Exactly, Carmen. Which goes to my motto: fear is the enemy.

 

I hope all of you "pollyannas" are right - but history and middle east culture tells me you are wrong. The muslim culture and it's religion both encourage a dictitorial rule, mind you not necessarily a bad dictator, but a dictator none the less. Christian eithic has encouraged the formation of democaracies; and allows a true democracy succeed. The big problem for the US is it's application of policy has shifted in the last 8 years. When Clinton decided to use the military to bring democracy to places like Kosovo and Bosnia, it signaled a significant change in US foriegn policy. In past years the US restricted it's involement in forgien conflicts to wars that would have an effect on the freedom of the US citizens and their interests. Now we are actively pursuing a policy of making war to free other people. While one can easily make the case that in the "long" run Iraq and its people will be better off, it hardly follows that starting a war with another country over its form of government will be seen as anything but open agression by it's people. And perhaps this is the greatest diplomatic blunder by the Bush Administration. There were no WMD's. So why are we there? Answer: to change the government. Yes Syria and Iran are scared. They should be. But they are not scared because of any "democracy" in their back yard. They are scared because they worry about the US invading their country. Syria and Iran, (both shite majority counties) are not afraid of an elected shite majority government in Iraq. Culturally, they understand that the mullahs will be running things, so no big deal. But these counties are very afraid of us, and if you listened to Bush's Inaugeral address, you could not miss the beating of the war drum.

I hope I am wrong, I really do! But I will make the prediction again - WE WILL BE AT WAR WITH SRYIA OR IRAN WITHIN 12 TO 18 MONTHS.

 

OMG, I couldn't disagree more. Christian ethic encourages democracy??? Why do you feel that way, line...

 

I see we have changed topics. Read I Cor. 13. Love conquers all. While it may not be apparent at first glance, it really does. Of course, hatred and fear are easier emotions to evoke, so many people think they are more powerful, but the practice of love entails all that is positive in human relations, all that is good, all that is profitable. Hence not so easy, and too often the road less taken.

 

So, line, can the human race eventually conquer the hatred and fear that causes strife? How does something like WWII Nazism even happen?

 

If you go back to the founding fathers of this great democratic experiment, you will see that our christian founders interperted certain divine rights that God gives to all his creation, among them the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These rights are the very foundation of democracy and without them, democracy fails. And please do not confuse having an election with having a democracy. At the height of its power, the Soviet Union had elections, but it was no democracy!

 

I'll argue this one.

Christianity promotes Royalty in many countries, today however in most developing countries Christianity seems to favor socialism, communism and not democracy.

It's only been recently, and I attribute that to Poland, that a Pope seems to have favored Democracy. Many countries in this hemisphere are Papal democracies.

Historically Rome has always dealt better with dictators and tyrants

fltsfshr

 

As I stated earlier, fear and hatred are easy. It was easy for Hitler to make War. It was easy to "blame" the Jews for their problems. And if you look at the US in its behavior before its entry into WWII, you see that we were afraid too. Our nations reaction to the the problem was "isolationism" We spent the first three years of the war hiding behind oceans in the hope; that it would just "go away". Wars, terrorism, violence, bigotry, racism - these are all easy to promote, but love, patience, tolerance, understanding, and knowledge are true virtues that conquer strife, and bring peace.

Mind you when I say love conquers all, I don't mean you will not suffer for love. Indeed, you will probably suffer more. And the human race will never conquer hatred, only love will conquer that. Read I Corinthians, chapter 13. the apostle Paul said it far better than I ever could.

 

Comfort breeds complacency; hate and fear do not.