Reply #11: These are very pivotal times, aren't they?

[PurityOfEssence]

It'd be fascinating to read a book from the comfort of a far removed few decades, and I hope the outcome isn't too ugly, but many different good and bad things could happen all at once right now.

That's very nice, and there's no need to apologize; you were very productive and neighborly. I was just trying to underscore my position, since it wasn't that clear whether I had been obvious.

War is a horrible thing, and people and governments seem to be bandying the concept around with sheer frivolity; it's dangerous to see.

Amid the acrimony, though, there have been quite a few people who have been calmly expressing and arguing their stances on both sides of the issue on this board, and for that, I'm rather proud of the bunch. There are always far too many whose egos are linked up with being right, and they shriek "genocide" when nothing of the sort is going on and cite massacres that don't seem to be findable on the web, while conflating innocent flower-carrying protesters with armed insurgents.

Smart people know how stupid they are, and decent ones admit how ignorant they are; certainty, although a virtue when contrasted to the ultramoderate soft-soaping of many politicians, is also a bane to civilization itself, and times like these can get quite heady.

Thanks again for the thoughtful discourse.