[Mr. Silverback]

I don't mean to belabor my point, but in a way those folks on the roof had plenty of reason to believe the aliens would be peacefull. After all, why cross interstellar distances to get shot at when you can terraform?

I remember Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle were brought in to try and take the series "V" in a new direction, and one of the things hey felt they had to do was explain why the Visitors cruised past all that water on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn to come here and steal ours. It didn't make any bloody sense.

The way they solved it was to make the Visitors evolutionary descendants of our dinosaurs, so Earht just "felt right" to them in a way no other planet did. the producers never called them back, apparently because it made too much sense.

[CharlieOK1]

I don't mean to belabor my point, but in a way those folks on the roof had plenty of reason to believe the aliens would be peacefull.

I agree. Never having seen Mars Attacks, I wasn't able to make that distinction. But you are right, the Muslims have been telling us they intend to kill us forever, we just can't seem to come to grips with the fact that they mean it.