i agree, wayne. but patriotism isn't the same as racism, or at leat it shouldn't be. my fatherland is the human race and the values of civilization. i will defend those values any chance i have. i'm willing to die for those values. but i'm not willing to blindly attack people based on religion, race, creed, or anything else. if that makes me weak, then so be it. but i highly recomend reading camus' "resistence, rebellion, and death". it's a great collection of essays on how we must resist evil (in his case nazi germany) while still retaining our values. here is an excerpt from "a letter to a german friend":
"This is why, at the end of this combat, from the heart of this city that has come to resemble hell, despite all the tortures inflicted on our people, despite our disfigured dead and our villages peopled with orphans, I can tell you that at the very moment when we are going to destroy you without pity, we still feel no hatred for you. And even if tomorrow, like so many others, we had to die, we should still be without hatred. We cannot guarantee that we shall not be afraid; we shall simply try to be reasonable. But we can guarantee that we shall not hate anything. And we have come to terms with the only thing in the world I could loathe today, I assure you, and we want to destroy you in your power without mutilating you in your soul."