The US's Presidential candidates ought to be making a paramount priority putting together

functional-strategies to deal with the very dangerous and increasing rift between Muslims/Muslim-ruled countries and non-Muslims/democratic, rule-of-law developed world countries...

2-dimensionally posturing about future U.S. troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan doesn't, in the least, lead towards this objective....

The obvious motivations for Iran's- & other Islamic nations- (and similarly positioned ones like North Korea's) fractious, oppositional relationships with countries like the U.S. need to be "constructively addressed" instead of- in a perceived-as-bullying, hostile way- opposed.

How?

Led by the US, United Kingdom & perhaps leading European Union nations such as France, the developed world ought to:

->>> Offer Iran rights to co-host the 2016 Olympics with Qatar (which was bidding for the games).

Guaranties of significant logistical & financial support to Iran (from developed world nations) for its participation in such a 'world project' would go a long way to making such an offer seem palatable & not-too-contrived to Iran's citizens.

Other states in the wider region could be approached for participation, with a "Middle East" Olympic games an optimal objective.

->>> Offer both Iran & N Korea the rights to be exclusive locations for the International Thermonuclear Energy Research project, ITER (in planning stages, recently awarded to Cadarache, France, http://www.iter.org ).

ITER is, by its design & nature, international in function, thereby enabling competent oversight, precluding Iran or N Korea from misusing the project's resources.

Publicly offering the ITER project would, in effect, call these nations' leaders' bluff about needing secretive nuclear technology development programmes... & also would neutralize their basis for alleging that many developed-world nations harbour unseemly motives for being against their development of advanced nuclear technology.

An ITER campus/sight in North Korea would invariably lead to South Korean technical & financial participation.

South Korea co-developing/maintaining & co-running an ITER campus/sight in North Korea could only greatly assist & productively amplify the currently improving political, social & business ties between these two unnecessarily separated, highly-culturally similar states...

->>> Additionally, offer to pay for, & partner in the building of significant infrastructure for N Korea, & possibly Iran, of a type that will instill national-prestige, as well as facilitating an improved connectedness- both physical & psychological- to the outside world.

Japan's government has been pushing for a greater global role for Japan.

Supporting/participating in strategies like the above would go a long way towards this... as would paying for & assisting in the construction of a Japanese-type high-speed "bullet" train to connect North & South Korea's capital cities to each other & to China.

A pan-Korean peninsula high-speed rail link could only contribute to & make more permanent the existent, but very counterproductively limited, trade, industry & societal connections between these two (virtually) culturally homogenous states.

If accepted, altruistic overtures such as the above would enable global stages where these 2 egotistically defensive country's- & many Islamic nations- could feel that they can show their positive potential & achievements.

As well- meeting the developed world's political & defense objectives- would effectively require these countries to "fit", & productively "work with" the world community.

Furthermore, & most importantly, offering N Korea & Iran the ITER project; the 2016 Olympics & committing to pay-for & partner-in-the-building-of much needed infrastructure would go a long way to eliminating their (+ many Islam nations/people's) perceptions of threat from developed world & "Judeo Christian" country's- removing their leaders' main argument for alleging a requirement for developing: advanced nuclear technologies that are applicable to the production of nuclear weapons; & long-range ballistic missile programmes.

If attempts to constructively "set directions of development" for N Korea & Iran do not work- the developed world has sufficient fire-power to revert to heavy handedness, & "bash" till both these mal-governed countries are moonscapes.

Roderick V. Louis

Vancouver,

Canada,

ceo@patientempowermentsociety.com

Naive Ambitious Men Can Created Havoc for Others

“The terrorist attacked in the heart of Jerusalem, several hours prior to the arrival of the personality that attracts the greatest amount of media attention in the planet. It seems that the location was also not haphazard. The path of destruction is less than a minute away from the hotel where Barack Obama will stay, the King David. The result: guaranteed world coverage, second only in the news line up of international media outlets, after the capture of the Bosnian-Serb leader accused of war crimes in Bosnia.“ Jerusalem Post 7/23/2008

zzzzz.

... was on Larry King tonight and couldn't praise Obama enough. He believes that McSame is a horrible campaigner.

McSame's gaffe parade on international affairs in recent weeks will be amplified as he trips over himself in the debates. We will all cringe when his does his Admiral Stockdale routine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6n5OQVzVVQ

Obama stays home, McCain supporters criticize him.

Obama goes abroad, McCain supporters criticize him.

Admittedly, Obama was not my choice for the Democratic nomination. I didn't care for his thin resume on a host of issues; he just didn't strike me as "ready for primetime." However, he has the requisite number of votes to secure the nomination, therefore, he gets it...barring some unseen mishap or tragedy. I like his energy, enthusiasm, ideas and plans.

John McCain, on the other hand, has much more experience overall than Barack Obama, his service to the country is inspiring, but, I feel that he lacks the vision, demeanor and intelligence to go with that experience. He's old, forgetful and seems just plain mean.

So, it comes down to a choice of the lesser of two weevils, as it were. Experienced but nasty or inexperienced but promising. I wish that I had other options this November.

One Observation:

Grover Nordquist: "While that gives him some sympathy for what Bush went through, it should also remind him that the press doesn't get to vote -- giving a guy a lot of attention is not the same as convincing people to vote for him."

I wasn't aware that the members of the media were barred from participating in the voting process. Of course, Grover is a serious nutcase, so who pays attention to him anyway besides Fox?

Go ahead, McCain campaign, keep criticizing Obama for being too popular, for generating too much excitment with his supporters. That's the ticket!

"Vote for John McCain: The candidate you can be proudly unenthusiastic about."