I am glad you mentioned Zimbabwe in there. As someone who is starting to see and feel the effects of Mad Bob disease, it certainly feels a lot closer to home for me than what is happening in Iraq right now. By that I mean , for example, in a city with already spiralling crime, the hundreds of refugees who cross the border daily are making it worse. They probably were not criminals to begin with, but hunger and desperation force people to do otherwise unthinkable things. Even if Tsvangirai comes into power there, I don't see what he can do to fix things for a long time to come. I was shown a 1 Billion Z$ note recently... it states very clearly it's only valid until June this year. It's beyond laughable.

On a different note, without meaning to stir up a hornets nest, I have for whatever reason recently read several novels written in the USA around the Seventies and early Eighties, during which time the Soviet Union was very much the enemy of the West. How does the average American man or woman in the street feel about the Russians today? A short while ago they were seen as an enemy... To be feared. Today, that role is being filled by people who follow the Muslim faith. I would not know an Iraqi if I fell over one. I DO know that many South Africans are working in Iraq, especially as security, as they feel the high salaries are worth the ever present risk, and with affirmative action being as bad as it is here, for some white males it is the only employment they can get. And quite a few of these people have been killed or badly injured. Of the ones I know, half a dozen are employed by US companies but have never been to the USA.

I guess what my belaboured point is, the West always seems to need an enemy. Someone to make us hide under our desks or feel anger toward on the TV news at night. Who will it be in 20 years time and how will we all feel about Muslims or Iraq then?