[Mike AI]

CJ I think all cultures are great. I think every culture has something to bring to the table.... The conflict/bringing together of cultures have expanded human knowledge and experience.

But there are some cultures that have anomolies - those who abuse their people, destroy basic human rights, who the free world should put pressure on to correct. It becomes a MAJOR necessity when these anomolies become militiristic and put the well being of free people at risk have to be intervened.

I truly hope in our lifetimes that Iraq is a free democracy, and we can all visit the fertile crescent. I cannot imagine visting any cooler/historic place. There is a lot of history, and a lot of culture to be explored.

So CJ, we can take our cameras and get some great photos!

The ironic thing is at one time the islamic world was the elightened ones. When Europe was in the middle ages, slaughtering people because they claimed the world was round, or NOT the center of the universe, or because they were "witches" - the Islamic world was doing complex algebra, figuring out what 0 was, advances in astronomy, etc....

The Islamic world when they clashed with Europe brought many of this advances with them....