"Why would I want to put a smiley face of tacit approval on an administration famous for lies, greed, warmongering and religious fundamentalism?"

Well said. But let's be charitable, in the spirit of Christmas. Let's think of the demons that made him do all that stuff. Aren't those demons punishment enough for him?

Muhammad

I recall reading an article that used huge methane bubbles as an explanation for the sinking of some sailing ships in the old days. If that explanation is correct methane escaping into the atmosphere in sizable quantities has been with us for a long time.

Those who are worried about being cooked better get ready. Scrambling for gravy and sauce at the last minute is a bad habit.

Muhammad Zafrullah

Guys if we keep on being allergic to Muslims we might end up in a mess bigger than Iraq. I mean some enemy of both sides might come up with a similar package of deceit to plunge us into another bad decision. Let's hope Obama is a true Christian. That would make him Muslim enough for me.

Muhammad Zafrullah

Geneen you have done well to bring this heart grabbing story to light. It appears that more than greed, it was indifference on your part. My only advice is, take good care and have faith, fruit of honest labor is never lost. I also suggest an addition to the list of our cultural oddities. After “We say we want to stop violence, but we allow genocide in Darfur.” add "We want to remember Holocaust, but we ignore what goes on in Gaza."

Muhammad Zafrullah

I hear that once upon a time,the Chinese thought the sparrows ate their crops off. So they ate, or destroyed the common sparrow. But then they had the problem of worms and caterpillars. Playing with nature wholesale may not be a good idea. I would say try a few farms at a time and see, and leave the rat races and gold rushes to us the Americans. The trouble is there are so many parameters and however much we know some may still be hidden and ignoring them could have devastating effects.

Muhammad Zafrullah

I believe that, like the Lebanon war, in this war too the message was clear: Do not mess with us; we can kill you with impunity. Olmert himself told the Palestinians, in an interview, that Israel has devastating force. In an indirect message Olmert indicated that he could make George Bush leave his speech to attend his phone call. One wonders what Olmert had on Bush to be so sure.

I can see that Hamas is insane to pick a fight with a country with so much fire power and so powerful friends. But will you be sane if you are being blockaded out of existence?

I do not know much about international law, but isn't Gaza under Israeli control? Looking at the ease with which the Israeli army goes in and pick off people with its guns and rockets, it seems so. Then why isn't Israel responsible for the Gazans' well being?

Muhammad Zafrullah

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and all the other psychological conditions that go with it, or come under it, seem to indicate that perhaps modern, well educated, humans are not quite suitable for war; especially the kind of war that we are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan or have fought in Vietnam. The point is we can train a person to use various weapons but we cannot train a person to deal with the sight of bloodied disfigured bodies. We can train a person to repeat certain procedures in certain situations but cannot train a person to react with indifference at the sight of a dying child who got hit in error.

It is also very hard to train soldiers to handle the modern day insurgencies where you do not really know who your enemy is until you see one of your comrades falling to the ground. This kind of situation causes stress that could push a person to want to kill or die. I suggest that while we are trying to cure our war injured we should also try to rethink war itself.