The outlook is bleak, but the impending tragedy can be averted. Nations, like individuals, must “repent or suffer.” There is only one cure for the earth’s sick condition. That infallible cure is simply righteousness, obedience, godliness, honor, integrity. Nothing else will suffice.

I hope that ‘godliness’ includes compassion, because I don’t see it included in this “simple cure”. I find it most ironic that the pestilences, war, and famine to take place in the last days are things that might be more man-made than anything else (emphasis on Man). As Christians and/or Mormons we seem to be more concerned about protecting ourselves from tragedy by avoiding sin, than we are about our collective choices that may in the literal sense bring about more tragedy.

The apologetic stance of war as a catalyst for democracy/Christianity to me feels like a snow job. It has never sat well with me. The fact that it’s fine to mention Iraqi missionary rumors in sunday school, but not okay to discuss past and present Apostles’ renouncement of war as anything but figurative, gives a good indication of what the general membership feels about the war in Iraq. I’m disgusted, and I know others are too.

Am I wrong to think that democracy and/or Christianity are simply not good enough excuses for pre-emptive war? While I believe in both (perhaps moreso in the former, depending on the form of Christianity in question), I simply do not see war as an all but necessary precursor.

And what of the calamities of the Last Days? Could it be, in part, a self-fulfilling prophecy? Wars and rumors of wars? Pestilences and famines? These are arguably both inevitable AND preventable. Is our ‘simple cure’ part of the illness?

We are using different definition then. I see acknowledged tribal leadership as “legitimate government”.

After all, Al Qaeda did have essentially official and public sanction from the government of Afghanistan.

Exactly. So the US and it allies invaded Afghanistan and Al Qaeda sank into the woodwork. Just like the Gadiantons did. A perfect example of the matching patterns I am referring to.

there’s really no evidence whatsoever that Al Qaeda has meaningfully infiltrated the US government

This is a good point and the record shows that the Nephite government was riddled by secret combinations. However it does not say that all those in secret combinations were united as a single whole the entire time. Al Qaeda does match the Gadianton model, but that does not preclude many other home-grown secret combinations here in the US. (I know this starts sounding like the consiracy theoies talked about over at the 9-11 thread but the BoM does warn against conspiracies of sorts…) Anyway, I don’t think Al Qaeda is infiltrated in the US govt. in any way but I don’t think it needs to be for the basic patterns to still match. The BoM says that the Nephites and Lamanites had problems with secret combinations and “Gadianton robbers”. I doubt that was a coordinated effort.

Furthermore, there’s really no evidence whatsoever that Al Qaeda has meaningfully infiltrated the US government — the signature secret act other than assassination that the Gadiantons used. (Note also that Al Qaeda doesn’t seem to be too big on assassination as a tactic.)

I didn’t say it was. I simply said it distinguished secret combinations from the the type of greed and power motivated group that the king-men were.

If “Democracies and Communists” count as unified groups for you, then why not “Liberal-Western Societies and Islamists”?

Because democracies and communists were led by publicly acknowledged governments as are the goverments of Islamic countries of the Middle East. The Islamic extremists that are at war with the US and the West in general have no (official or public) sanctioning by any world government today, even if they have members of their secret combinations pulling governmental strings behid the scenes (just like the Gadiantons did.)

The pattern in the BoM is that wars between public groups of allies melded into a war with secret and covert groups living among the people and hiding from the official governments (until they managed to build enough to support to come out in open war and threaten the destruction of the established governments in 3 Nephi)

I don’t appreciate hecklers in general. But if you’re going to heckle, please at least make sure that your comments are germane to the discussion at hand. Comments about the historicity of the Book of Mormon are out of place in the current discussion.