Oh the excitement of generative linguistics - I don't suppose anyone remembers the cunning liguist song?

I think that treating an issue in terms of the pros and cons does display an understanding of the greyness and the acceptance of the consequences seen and unseen.

From an outsider's perspective I see Mr. Kerry getting himself in a pickle because he is trying to deal with the difficult issues whilst good ole George Dubya is keeping it straight black and white.

Upon reflection I would like to know whether there was clear and imminent danger either from WMD (pretty much 100% proven not) and/or support for terrorism. I don't think that there was and so I am coming to the conclusion that we were a little impetuous to get in there and settle old scores, grab the oil etc etc.

Tactically and with 20/20 hindsight it may have been better to sort out other terrorist issues first. So now we have the lunatic fringe coming into Iraq from outside and beheading old civil engineers who are there solely to rebuild the place.

I am afraid that we will be looking at a Northern Ireland situation in that it may take a generation to resolve the issues. I think Jseal made a good point about the correlation between economics and terrorism and so I would be rebuilding the economic infrastructure and providing excellent schools and further education facilities - you want their young people to have something more to hope for in life than the martyrdom of a suicide bomb.

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Vigil, if you were my husband, I would give you poison.

Madam, if you were my wife, I would take it.