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[sjc <indexer AT fairpoint.net>]

> Besides, Buddhists have never been a major power in modern times (though , as 
> I said they still will fight), if they were a power in Ancient times, it 
> would have been in China, where the history of War is very long.
>   
Bob, do you mean an entity must be a major power to qualify as 
peaceful?  Or what?  I'm not getting your argument....
> The Amish don't fight, but the people from whom they came sure as hell 
> did................
>   
??? The Swiss?  Not much known as aggressors or big fighters, to my 
knowledge, although they have been known to defend.....The Amish groups 
all share the common history that started with Swiss Ulrich Zwingli in 
the mid 1500s, continued with Conrad Grebel, also Swiss, continues 
through Jakob Amman, also Swiss, and continues throughout Europe as they 
were rejected and moved from pillar to post over the ensuing years, 
until now they exist all over the world. 

And if a population comes from an aggressive history, then reforms 
itself to be something non-aggressive, is it less valid as a peaceful 
population, simply because its roots were not peaceful?  That's some 
murky thinking, it seems, in that it says we humans can't execute change 
in our thinking and then change behavior......in that case, I guess we 
would need to say that a lot of our efforts are doomed.  And it leaves 
wanting a peaceful population that wars over territory and then becomes 
aggressive...if one can't change, can the other?

SJ