David,Many thanks for your post.
I am glad that you think we can still continue with the discussion. I do not have the time tonight to comment at length about your post but there are a couple of things I wanted to mention now.
Firstly, purely a technnical matter, I think we should try to make it so that our posts appear at the end of the list. I am having difficulty sorting out which posts I have seen and which posts I am replying to. May I suggest that whoever sends the next post start a new root (as it were.) In other words, making it a new post even if it is a reply rather than making it a reply itself. Does that make sense? I am not sure that it does but I hope you can extract some sort of meaning from it.
Secondly, when I can comment more fully on your post I will tell you, briefly, how The Answer to the Great Question of Life, The Universe and Everything came to be 42.
Thirdly, I share your concerns over the Iraq situation and I also have concerns over the German, French, and Belgian positions. I would like to comment and question more fully on this at a later date.
Lastly, I am going to be missing for the best part of the next two weeks starting from this Sunday 16th. If I can, I will get a proper reply to you tomorrow. If I can't, please bear with me and I will catch up when I return.
Best wishes,