Doug,

Thanks for giving appropriate attention to what I wrote, and for adding your insightful comments.

As we may get deep into the muddy waters of convictions, I think there shouldn't be nothing more to add here (anyway I like the idea of another thread <s>).

Just came to my mind, reading your comments, a war fan folk that somewhat followed the same line of thinking to justify his acts (please I'm not making any connections here, but you know that sometimes when we read or see some things, memories came up). I won't tell his name, but certainly you'll recognize who he is by some of his thoughts, quoted below <g>

"Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun"

"War is the continuation of politics. In this sense war is politics and war itself is a political action"

"We are advocates of the abolition of war, we do not want war; but war can only be abolished through war, and in order to get rid of the gun it is necessary to take up the gun"

Regards,

Fernando

PS. BTW, what does *chuckle* mean? It has some to do with the nasty habit of chewing tobacco by the cowboys (kind of onomatopoeia)?