- Peculiar how war so often has followed hot on the heels of a depression or a threat of one. Some of those are World War II, the Vietnam War, and the Gulf War, this one.

- Doesn't it seem strange that countries with one or two nukes ( North Korea) or those that might develop nuclear capacity in the future ( Iran and Iraq ) have already been determined in a 'leaked document' of the CIA's to be likely to attack the U.S. in the future.

- Isn't it interesting how much fanfare surrounds the "generosity" of rebuilding efforts after a "war" or, more literally, a bombing campaign that destroys the infrastructure, such those in Serbia and Afghanistan, particularly if the new leadership is 'pro-Western' as is the case with the two aforementioned countries.

- The language itself has been doctored to soft-peddle our violence. Collateral damage describes massive destruction and civilian deaths, and the world peacekeepers refers to occupation forces or targeted killings is the term used to describe Israeli assassinations of Palestinian political leaders.

- In a too often repeated sequence of events, official dismay over "poor or corrupt leadership" in third World countries becomes massive demonization of the enemy that inevitably precedes a military assault or "military assistance", i.e. the sudden realization that Noriega was a drug lord; the hysterical oversell of Saddam Hussein as the anti-christ himself; and now, of course, the allegation that Osama bin Laden is behind, well practically everything.

- Life is hell for so many now as more and more populations are displaced. What results as millions of people become refugees, is an increasing number of "ethnic conflicts" around the world.

- The glorification of war reaches an all time technological high in Hollywood mega-productions while actual war footage virtually disappears from the TV screen.

- The enemy's broadcast facilities are inevitably bombed, usually 'by mistake', i.e. a Serbian TV station Yugoslavia, Al Jazeera in Kabul, the recent destruction of the Palestinian central broadcast facility.

- Extraordinarily bad weather seems to plague the extremely poor, i.e. in impoverished countires like the Congo, or Honduras or iffy governments, i.e. Venezuela (floods) or Iraq (drought). This is not to imply that God is on our side but that someone or something may be getting involved with what was once solely the province of The Lord.

- Countries that cannot pay their IMF debt are also countries whose recent past has included an expensive military regime, i.e. Argentina.

- Remember back when the term 'terrorist' was reserved exclusively for Palestinians in the one word moniker Palestinianterrorist. Now conveniently enough it has been expanded to include the entire Muslim world, and provide the pretext for war against any part of it.

And now for something completely different. Isn't it odd how China seemed not to be in the least bit perturbed about the bugging of its presidential plane, a newly purchased Boeing 767 from the United States. Hope it doesn't get hijacked. Those Boeings are somewhat prone to unhappy endings.

Since the Chinese didn't like being spied on last spring, it does kind of makes you wonder why they bought such a crucial piece of equipment from the U.S. Do you think there might be any connection with their participation in the Let's Build a Brand New Afghanistan" project or possibly, for getting the OK to build settlements, er, going ahead with Tibetan resettlemnt plans, or just for getting on the Terrorism is the Worse Thing to Happen to the Human Race for the Last Ten Million Years bandwagon? All aboard now. Interesting how China, an ally of Iran's, is on the anti-terrorism bus as Tehran is being considered as a possible next target. Think there might just be a pattern here?