Eric writes: >I wasn't using rhetoric to insist that there was a balance, as though I were a Republican...and to argue that oil money spreads corruption throughout the industrialized world so that no country can be said to hold the high ground or be free of its taint.< Holding the high ground is a state of affairs that does, I think, belong to political rhetoric; but I'm certainly grateful for Eric's clarification, and I agree with him that oil money (or the desire for it) spreads corruption, not only in the idustrialized world, but in the Third World as well. >And that therefore the problem that Bush represents will not be solved by merely removing Bush. It is international in scope and must be treated as an international problem.< This particular problem won't, although it may be ameliorated a great deal. But many other problems _will_, one hopes, be solved by removing him. Robert Paul The Reed Institute ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html