[ninenot]

You have something against nationalism?

The "peace at any price" wackos are beginning to crawl out from under the rocks and make bleating noises here in the USA--they think that our Iraq and Afghanistan operations should never have happened.

I'm "nationalist" enough to give GWBush the benefit of the doubt.

[wonders]

(sigh) I think you are confusing nationalism with patriotism. I have a great deal of trouble with the former, none whatsoever with the latter.

[wonders]

To put it in perspective for an American: Imagine that law and order has somehow broken down in Chicago, and there has been fighting with the Polish community in Canada across the border. The innocent Polish community in Chicago is being harrassed and kicked out of their homes, beaten and worse.

An Irish Catholic Priest gets up in his pulpit in Chicago and preaches that the Polish are all scum and less than human in God's eyes, instead of preaching that these law-abiding Polish Americans should be treated with decency, as they are God's children, too, as well as loyal American citizens.

The Bishop (of Irish heritage) goes on Chicago television saying that maybe we can forgive the Lithuanian-Americans, but never the Polish Americans. Pronouncing collective guilt upon a group of one's own citizens because of their ethnicity, not their individual actions.

All this going on in the same city. That's how it was there. That is nationalism, not patriotism. (You can switch the Irish and the Polish around if you wish, it doesn't matter. Or it could Eskimos. The principle is the same.) That is what I am against.

I'm hardly one of those "peace at any price" morons. I do think the timing on Iraq was way off, though. Should have done it in '93.