When the avowed goal of one of those parties is the wholesale destruction or mass subjugation of anyone who does not swear total allegiance to that party’s point of view, prospects for compromise are clearly diminished. This is all the more so when that same party fervently views its own destruction as a glorious form of reward for faithful service.

Where the primary responsibility of this, or any US President is the protection of innocent American life and the removal of the threat of international Islamist terrorism, the terrorists by contrast have no such concern for innocent life to be protected.

This is, sadly, a situation where the least worst answer may well be that the idealists of whatever partisan stripe withdraw to contemplate the frustrating unfairness of it all, foreswearing their rationalizations and apologia, while leaving the warriors and the “hard men” to do the job for which they are so splendidly suited and trained.

In a world of bio-weapons, dirty bombs, and ultimately nukes, there can be no other answer. War IS hell. That’s the point.

Regarding the remark on the over-reaction of some Muslims and some public officials with respect to finding offense where none exists unless you create it in your own mind, I cannot speak with respect to the attitudes of Muslims today, but I took the photo from the angle I did because there were many (between 8 to 10%) of the headstones that were not crosses, but instead were for Muslims and shaped like a conventional headstone with a peak on the crest of the arc on the top. Since it broke the symmetry of the photo, I moved to a position where none were visible. Perhaps I should go back and take a photo that shows how many Muslim headstones were in that field.

That was 90 years ago, but many Muslims died in that war “defending the West” against the “dreaded Hun”. Somewhere along the way, something changed. Perhaps we should figure out what did change, why it changed, and how we can end this war we are in now without resorting to the tactics of annihilation.

Still, my first thought on seeing the lead picture of the WWI portion of the cemetary was to wonder how long it will be before the Islamists start to protest the effront to their sensibilities of all of those crosses displayed so publicly. Kinda sad, isn’t it?

I have played with monochrome a few times in the past ten years. Great for creating mood. I confess that I have had little success with it, and getting b&w film processed is almost impossible - there is one lab in Auckland and it costs about $25 for d&contact print for a 36 frame film. Compare with $15 for C41 colour…

Good work. I admire!