One has to wonder how a Pope could question the intentions of his God.
Referring of course, to the remarks of Benedict XIV as he visited Aushwitz, and deplored the actions of his country against a particular group.
One has to wonder how long the Germans must apologise for the actions of a few megalomaniacs, and a people who would have followed Beelzebub himself to escape from the Depression and the restrictions of the Versailles Treaty.
Now don't go thinking the Holocaust didn't happen, nor that it should be forgotten, but one in good concience can only hold a sword over a defeated peoples for so long, before it becomes more of a weight to the holder than a danger to the target.
And for a Pope to wonder aloud how God could have allowed such an arocity, is to question the Deity itself.
Even the Jewish folks have come to the point, that if God wanted to kill millions of them in a hideous manner, there must have been a reason. Divinically speaking, of course.
One might even go so far as to say the Nazi's were Gods instruments, but that would border on justifying insanity, and that would not do. Divine or not, genocide is abhorrent.

There is relief in Washington tonight, with the landslide victory of President Alvaro Uribe in Columbia. Uribe has been an ally, as much as his economy will allow, with the US on the war on drugs, and it's always nice to know the Devil you work with , rather than one you're not too sure of.

Iraq's president has called on its new government to send a team of high-level officials to Basra to deal with a deteriorating security situation there. Jalal Talabani is reacting to increasing violent incidents in that area, one hithertofore relatively quiet. It's where our British troops are deployed.
The small Sunni minority in this overwhelmingly-Shia region has come under increasing pressure too.
In the past few weeks two Sunni clerics have been shot dead.. Much of the instability in Basra has been blamed on Shia militia groups and on rivalry between different Shia factions.
One of these factions, the Fadhila Party, controls the governor's office.
There are fears its leaders could order their supporters in the oil industry to stop working normally so as to hold up exports - exports that provide most of Iraq's current revenues.
That is why President Talabani has called for Iraq's new prime minister, Nuri al-Malaki, to send a delegation to Basra with powers to dismiss and appoint new officials.
To some extent this is a power struggle between the capital and the regions - a healthy sign of political development you could argue - but this is a region that the new government in Baghdad cannot afford to lose control of because of its crucial role in Iraq's economy.
One can only wish them the best of luck.. cooperation among the myriad of interests in that region has historically been impossible.
Odds are, it still is.