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Your ability to see through firewalls and assess just whom it is with whom you are dealing is truly amazing!

No, seriously, I do not advocate torture. Obviously, it would lower us to the level of the enemy we are fighting, wouldn't it? If that is your point, then I can agree with you in earnest.

In fact, I think we probably both abhor not only torture of, but also killing of, innocents. The soldiers in Iraq who are guilty of atrocities will be punished, as they should be.

But forgive me a pang of conscience since I am sitting here in the states on my posterior doing nothing to help them. I want to make sure I don't rush to judgment in a situation that I have absolutely no way of comprehending.

The Islamic extremists do not seem to fear death, since they believe that they will be rewarded with paradise. Torture would probably not instill any more fear in them than death, and it would certainly help them to make more converts to their cause.

What do we do then?

""What do we do then?""

I know we are all scramble for a mysterious answer that no one has thought of yet.

Well if anyone person had the answer they would surely get the noble peace prize. There is no simple answer. It is important if humanity is to continue that the different races and cultures must come to terms with each other. We as Americans can’t blame everything on everybody else, we also can’t take the blame for it all either, that is were the Muslims and other cultures must do their part. I think it will take either a great person that has no axe to grind to make a difference, or we may have to endure a war with catastrophic results before mankind will see that this kind of none sense is futile. I don’t think their is a person alive that doesn’t know that the US can destroy another country, so trying to send a message that we are strong and tough is un-necessary. There is going to be horrible people in any culture, these guys that killed Mr. Berg are nothing more than brutal murderers that want murder someone and justify it with their religion. Not much different then the women, I believe she was from Texas, that brutally beat her kids to death with a rock and claimed she was told by God that it would save their souls.

The most influential people to the Muslim community are fellow Muslims. If we could get the level minded Muslim to influence their more radical minded ones we would be moving in the right direction. But the bigger question is how do we do that?

No one likes to say it but I will, someone has to start a dialogue of honest intent, we Americans have made some serious mistakes in the way we dealt with other countries. We get involved with good intentions but in some cases we just made the situations worst. We can’t change the past but we hope and will do as much as we can so that the future will not be the same.