I like the way this is going so far, seems a bit more productive than the last one...

@2072: personally, i love star trek, ive watched hundreds of episodes and even read several of the books

, however, your wrong about the nature of evil. Evil does have religious context, but evil its self is not based on religion, for instance, evil can be something that is an offense to nature; like if a maniac let loose a plague to kill every one on earth except him, thats evil (sort of anti-darwinism). evil is also defineable as malicious acts (malicious meaning that it is done with the sole intent to cause pain or misfortune). one dictionary definition is "having or exerting a malignant influence". all of these meanings have no context in "morals" or "religion", and so prove that evil is not just an invention of religion, if you think about it im sure you'll realize you already knew this, you just hadnt thought about it that way. (btw, i do a really good kirk impersonation

)
oh, and hitler qualifies as evil does he not?

as for trusting the french with a nuclear weapon, i'd trust
you with a nuclear weapon, id trust huhn, but if france had nuclear weapons and nobody else did then i would loose sleep at night. I would probably trust germany though, because i cant imagine germany's population allowing anything like that to be used for any reason... but i can see france's population being swayed (you dont have monstrosities in your contries background, rather you've been the victim of most of the recent wars, so i can see a french hitler comming to power)...
@dsco: i like a lot of your japan discussion, but let me add that not only were the japanese rulers treated like gods, but they were also told that American soldiers would tourcher civilians and soldiers alike if they were caught alive, thus accounting for a huge amount of needless deaths by suicide and the voracity with which the japanese faught in their homeland. In the end there really was no other option than dropping the bombs, if the government hadn't thought that the next one was aimed of Kyoto then it would have been a war to the last man, woman, and child, only the emporer's order to surender could have ended it. In the end it saved uncountable lives, and truely was the far lesser of two evils, yet we had to comit those evils instead of letting the japanese people do it to themselves. Ive actually walked thought the caves in okinawa where towns gathered to commit suicide, sometimes they gave leathal injections to the children, sometimes they simpley pulled the pins on a few gernades, and held them untill they exploded, other times they would leap from high cliffs onto rocky beaches below. I'll tell you, its akin to visiting a concentration camp, and while that is bad enough, I'd say its far sadder to stand in a dark and damp cave where once fathers and mothers killed their own children, and worst of all that they did it over a monsterous lie made by foolish rulers. human hatred is one thing, but see what human love can do?
oh, and dsco, you may be right about jeb... i wouldnt put it past them (especially since i think he's probably the smartest of the bushes). Im just hoping that the democrats find a good candidate that I can vote for in good concence (not hillary, kerry). I really dont like electing people that are related to each other, reminds me to much of "inheriting the thrown", even if they actually do deserve it...

@huhn: (refrence the above too

)
I can think again, but i can still arive at the same conclusion

. as i see it Terrorism needs no real cause to thrive, just a handy target. I mean, heck, there are American terrorist orginizations that believe that the US government is out to get them all the time, so they decide to attack first and kill inocent people, thus the government actually starts to want them... i believe the Oklahoma city bombing was the most famous example of this. there are some people that are just born to think that someone is out to get them, and they teach their children to think the same way... I actually have a friend that is constantly remarking about how some person he just met (a waiter or cashier for example) hates him secretly, this is of course totally paranoid, and when pressed he cant justify his feeling (i always press him, so he knows what hes doing). he's just hardwired to think like that... terrorists are simply acting on these paranoid thoughts.
by not careing what others think, i didnt mean i dont listen to what people say, i just simply give my own feelings more weight than theirs, I allways consider a suggestion, and if i think its probably right I'll at least try it (or admit that they are probably right, but for whatever reason i might not actually do it...). for instance, fashion, some people think some things look good, i take than into consideration and try to figgure out
why they think it looks good, then i examine my own opinions on what looks good and see if anything needs revision, if it does then i change my opinion; if i didnt have an opinion on that topic i will adopt the general consensus untill i find a differing perspective to look at it from. also, in terms of fashion, you have to weigh in things like comfort as well. now, on a national level im doing the same thing by listening to your viewpoints, you all have already changed several of my views, or at least marked them for later reconsideration, but in a few cases you've pushed them the oppisite way than what you ment to do.

FOOL! do not dare to cite the bible and base your violence on it. Jesus should have blown the temple? No! He did not destroy the temple he only drove them out (as you stated) the comparrision is BAD!
please refrain from insults, if you cant make an argument then you should just admit it
let me rebut your claim of my ignorance with logic: why should i not justify violence with the bible? Islamic terrorists do it all the time after all

, anyway, violence is a big part of the bible, and a big part of life, in fact life IS conflict, wheather it is violent or not. firstly, Jesus didnt have the technology to blow up the temple, nor would he have killed the occupents and possible inocents over such a relatively minor offence, yet, if the offence had been greater (say human sacrifices or something) i seem to remember a certine city that got turned to salt...

instead of reciprocating the theives with death, he justly delt out blows and stoped them from practicing their "trade" in a holy place. the comparison is not bad, it is merly relative. housing theives = blows, housing murderers = death.
as for your next bit, i dont really understand the first bit...
Bad comparrision. Hitler began the war and I DO regret that he began it as I would regret if you would begin one.
the terrorists started this war, and the justification for Iraq was believed by everyone (and it turns out justified anyway, but for diffrent reasons), including Kerry, the french, germans, etc... all of them can be quoted on it at one point or another, up utill some people decided to "forget" about what they had said.
woow... I could instantly replace the name hitler with bush and the statement would be true as well.
well, actually i think you would have to do this:
"bush brought america great infammy in the world, and made americans feared(?) and resented through out the world"
thats about what your thinking right?

in fact, i dont think this war is all that good for america, but i do think the world will be better off for it even if we arnt and even if you all refuse to admit it

.
now, i could accept it if you simply said that you dissagree with us and wish no part of the war, thats not a problem to me, and i wouldnt (and would hope my country wouldnt) hold any grudges. what i do have a problem with is that not only have you and others (by "you" i typically mean your country) have declared your hatred for us, burning flags and such. this does not make me feel kind to you, it also does not help your cause. the same basically goes for lots of demonstrators in my own country, you probably saw the protests at bush's inagueration, well when i see stuff like that my thought is: "If people like that are aginst this guy he must have something good going for him...", there are hundreds of ways i can think of that people could protest something that would be far more effective than what they are doing. as it is they are simply widening the gap between the opposing sides with their own actions. todays protests are simply perversions of the old civil rights protests, which were actually effective. anyway, enough on that, if you want to hear more i could go on in pages worth of detail...
No! It is reason.
obviously you and I have a diffrent definition of reason... as far as i can tell what you have is "conviction". (I will admit that 2072 occasionally does seem to have reason... but not often

)
Assuiming there is such a thing as evil, of course I agree to fight it but I do definately not agree to the WAY you fight it since blaming nations for crimes they have not done will only raise more hatred and violence and bring up ever new terrorists. As long as you do not get this you'll go to your own doom. If not by beeing killed by those who you bring up against yourself then you will at least get the situation we currently have here in germany, that you must be ashamed by the evil you created arround the world and the wars YOU covered the world with NEEDLESSLY. As long as you do not get TERROR does not hold on to countries and borders you will NEVER win your war and NEVER get rest. YOu'll be a nation that is frightened of everything an that needs to spend more money on security than on enything else. Who do you wan't to attac next? Sudan? Syria? Korea? Germany -- because we housed (and probably still do) terrorists too? THen after your war there will be no world any more since you'll have attacked all countries including you own.
ok, ive already proved the existance of evil, so we'll skip that.
"but I do definately not agree to the WAY you fight it since blaming nations for crimes they have not done will only raise more hatred and violence"
what do you think you are doing right now? by accusing us of making unjust war you are condeming yourself to the fate you have perscribed, as i said before I can understand you not agreeing with our reasons, but you are making war on us by attacking our beliefs and our nation (not physically of course, but its still war, in fact, this disscussion is a war). Terror may be a difficult enemy to face, but that does not mean we should hide from it or give in to it, the only way terror can be defeated is if every nation of the earth pursicutes it without mercy, and eventually (mabey after we're all dead) your countries will come to understand that too, in the mean time I at least intend to make it be known that attacking us results in an immediate and totall response aginst anyone involved. It will make them think twice, and though you may not realize this terrorists are bullies at heart and bullies are inevitably cowards at heart, terrorists differentiate themselves only by having a mob mentality.
@marco:
as for the UN, we tried that at first, and we eventually gave up on it, and as it turns out it was the right thing, since the UN had waved its right to be in on the decision by engaging in Illeagal bussiness deals with the very country they were supposed to be deciding on. Truely, do you think there was any chance of the UN supporting such a war? the UN was acting irresponsibly and criminally, and it failed horribly in its job. if we had obeyed the UN it never would have been exposed as corrupt, and we'd still be sitting here as the UN financed saddam's tyranny... does this make you feel good about yourselves? before you had some justification to this arguement and i could see where you were comming from, but now it just makes no sense.
eventually the practicers of Islam in the middle east will weed the fanatics from their folds, just as christians did (mostly

). and religion will at least for a time cease to be a major istigator of wolrd confilict, you have to remember than in the grand scheme of things Islam is relatively new, it isnt yet through its dark age. we'll simply help the process along.