You seemed to miss one sentence I wrote in my reply Frank - "That's just my hunch". People that know me well would never apply the label "absolutist" to me. Also, far right of my philosophy is far right, not close to the center.

If you're truly an agnostic (and I'll certainly take your word for it), then that conjures up other possibilities for why you would support the policies of the far right and our militaristic ventures of late.

You, like many other Americans, are simply in fear and clinging to hope that a "Damn the torpedos. Full speed ahead" approach keeps you safe. Understandable but a bit short sighted in my opinion and the clear results of that tactic should have you questioning its value. If this change in perspective isn't occurring and this option is your reason for support, then it would imply that your fear is so overwhelming that it's blocking out the logic.

The second option is the Republican and Libertarian greed factor and I'd hate to believe that a substantial number of right wingers are falling prey to this syndrome. What drives this is that a militaristic, expansionist policy that keeps us constantly engaged with some enemy, gives economic advantage to the person. Naturally, if the individual is engaged in the military themselves or works in an industry that profits from the defense industry, there's an understandable economic and job security factor that drives or distorts their logic.

An extension to that previous option is just pure and simple greed. The individual is in a higher income tax bracket and could care less about their obligation to give back to the society that helped propelled their success in life. The party tends to look out for them financially so who cares what their other policies are (such as a propensity for shaky foreign entanglements). As long as I've got mine, the rest of the world be damned. Not a particularly pretty picture.

The final option is of course that the person is simply mentally deranged and incapable of using any convoluted logic at all to come to a political opinion. I would hope that's a very small segment. Note that this option would apply to people of any party or philosophy.

I'd love to hear of more options that make sense.

So you see Frank, none of the above options are particularly pretty or flattering to an apologist for this war and the administration. In many ways rationalizing that the motivation is religious in nature (as it certainly is in many) is almost comforting in that it removes greed and abject fear of other humans from the equation. It just smacks of gullibility which all humans possess to some degree. Of course religion is this powerful cultural force as well since it is passed down through countless generations and for one to reject it takes a great deal of strength to call your lineage gullible.

Don't take it personally. This is Flame and we get to be outrageous here. If you're truly an agnostic I applaud that. Doubt in absolutes is a great thing.

Art