new I feel it may be helpful to mention a few things in regard to some of what I've read in malaysiakini (about the war o­n Iraq).

But before I do that:

1) I was an American soldier, an infantryman with the 82d Airborne Division, in the 1991 Gulf War.

2) I consider myself a citizen of Earth and I look at what happens in that context.

3) I have never been to Malaysia though I did live in Asia for some years as a boy. I subscribe to malaysiakini because, like many other Americans, I make it my business to care about what other people feel.

I have a few points to make that I hope will be thought over by hotheads o­n both sides of the Iraq issue, especially since my points are coming straight from the mouth of an ex-US soldier with combat experience in Iraq.

1) I have seen the Doctrine of Relative Filth used here to justify inhuman conduct o­n both sides. The doctrine is quite simple and it goes like this: "Well, we may be bad but you are worse so that makes what we do OK."

This doctrine is as patently absurd as it is ubiquitous, and that's a shame. The world would be a healthier place if we each tried to keep our side of the street clean.

2) We are all human beings and just because you reside in any particular country does not mean that you are a mental drone of that country's government.

I have read in malaysiakini how all Americans are dollar-worshipping demon-whores. No, we're not. We have a large segment of the populace here who are outraged at what's occurred. In addition, we're radically different people because of our ethnic potpourri. If you hate us, you a hate a part of yourselves. My last girlfriend, and good friend still, is half-Malaysian.

3) If you seek from government the type of truth, honesty and respect you get from a friend then you are o­n a fool's errand.

Governments are inherently self-serving and they tend to attract the type of people who are inherently self-serving.
So defend no government blindly. Instead, defend the various moral principles upon which they're supposedly based. That's why as a soldier, I swore an oath to uphold the US Constitution and not any regime.

Examples of government gone bad? The ISA is a blank check for dictatorship. I can't even imagine having a law like that in the US, not that it hasn't been tried.

Want another? This country, the US, is in flagrant violation of its Constitution in delegating legislative authority over warmaking to the executive branch (the president). But they've been doing it since Korea.

I am never for o­ne party or another. I am for what I believe to be correct o­n individual issues. So sit back, take a deep breath, and stop yelling these vitriolic generalities.

Christian does not equal missionary.
Muslim does not equal terrorist.
Jew does not equal rich.
Buddhist does not equal ambivalent.
Atheist does not equal immoral.
Ad infinitum.

Our differences are what make the world interesting. Who wants everyone to be the same? If we were all the same, we'd be Hitler's dream.

I can say that the o­nly people I've known who want that sort of thing are the sad, little, frightened people who are too timid to acknowledge themselves as fallible and their rigid viewpoints as o­nly opinions. I pity them the most.

So what do you do when you meet them and their plans? If you can't help them, then you resist them and their plans - but with resolve, not hate.

Choose your targets carefully and individually. Don't attack, with either words or weapons, the plot of dirt o­n which they were born or their neighbours just because they live near them.

To blame an entire country for anything is as humanly flawed as it is easy to do. If you do so, you betray
your own ability to do better.

The road I describe is harder to walk because it doesn't rely o­n fickle, easily swayed emotional reaction. In the end though, as I'm sure some quick-wit might say in order simply to denounce what I've said, this is all just my own opinion....