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On Mon, 2003-04-07 at 01:36, Douglas Barbour wrote: > I'm against the war, Chris, but things change so fast: Hi Doug, Yes, things do move fast. I do have to say I am not only thankful to Henry and Frederick for posting their views in support of the war but also very much have to admire their courage and their reasoned arguments given the strong opposition. Given this, I can understand the rhetorical slippages in the debate with Gabe, which I did enjoy reading. Being so deeply opposed to this war I found it difficult to get any perspective on how it may be supported and I was able to get this perspective, thanks to what they posted and which I looked forward to reading. One thing that did become clear to me was how much they believed in democracy. Reading this also gave me hope that we will not see a successful totalitarian government in the United States. The people of the United States, from what I can gather and when it really comes to the crunch, care too deeply about democracy to ever let this happen. Although my revolutionary marxist politics may appear to put me on the opposite end of the political spectrum, Henry and Frederick's belief in democracy is one thing we share in common, at least from what I have read of the debate. I am sure we would have many sharp differences on many different issues, but isn't this what democracy is about and including respect for our various different positions. I am not too sure I can say the same thing about Australia, given the undemocratic and discriminatory governmental bureaucratic pressures being placed not only on myself as a research candidate but other academics to do research and to write what the government approves of or lose your livelihood, since the government totally controls research funding. Despite the personal encouragement, the governmental discouragement still affects your output very much in a negative direction. But, that's the way it is. best Chris Jones.