> Having visited Afghanistan, gotten to know the people somewhat, and having
> studied the history of Afghanistan, I came to the same conclusion at that
> time. Great minds think alike, you see. Now, predictions on the demise of
> the United States, anyone?

If we won't find a way to get Likudniks out of the controlling the Congress,
do you have ANY doubts?
"One (wo)man - one term." for all elected officials on federal level
without exception, if you ask me.

>> I'd love to meet that KGB guy, Major Kapustin some day. Thank him for
>> letting me go and ask him what did it take for him to see that the King
>> is
>> naked and actually - dead....
>
> ...And, according to current events, much like democracy in our two
> countries. Putin and Bush, hatched from the same egg, I sometimes think.
> Sorry, not to belabor this.

Look at it from a different prospective. This is a big moment of truth. We
found a weak link in the western democratic model - which is normal for any
model. Now the critical point - we must understand if it is the model that
failed us or we failed the model.
To do that we have to find what actually happened. And that is where we have
done NOTHING. All explanations about militant Islam, "they hate us", etc.
make zero sense and do not stand the test of historic and factual critique.
So, we are not addressing the real problem. How can we find a real solution?
Russia - same thing. But to be honest, Russian population are much less
eager to believe the official story and many Russians do understand that the
state has an interest in being attacked to wiggle out of democratic mode.
The American public trusts the government to such extent that one wonders
which country actually was built on the ideas of the eternal nature of
tyranny of the government, US or Russia?

Sasha.