Re: Riiiight.

First, there are plenty of examples of active war zones that are due to lack of government and the rule of ad hoc gangs rather than state-sponsored warfare (such as Somalia, Sudan, etc.), although certainly there are plenty examples of state-induced hellholes as well (Iraq, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe).

I have issues with this analysis, but as you say here:

My post was only meant to clarify my opinions on very specific issues to counteract the bizarre theories of our resident lunatic. You might want to reconsider how much you read into such posts in the future, and next time you might take context into account when reading such a post. Otherwise, I am likely to get stuck in an infinite progression of having to clarify my life's philosophy to posters who feel they can extrapolate it from off-hand comments I make in response to a very specific issue.

I'm trying to get out of the habit of being so argumentative when the arguing easily fails even the most cursory cost-benefit analysis (which probably is something like 90% of all arguing). This is a good chance to show I'm succeeding so rather than drag things out here I'm going to go write some articles-in-progress for Sovereign Synthesis.