By jove, I think you've got it! This is one of your first posts replying to me that isn't insulting or misrepresenting me. Thanks!!!

Yes, they were just behaving as their brains allowed. They had brains that thought quite a lot of themselves; as you and I also seem to have. They also had laws/religions that were not quite sufficient to rein them in and enough angry/scared people to follow their orders. A bad mix of megalomaniacal predilections and a fertile social environment. We must continue to support countries that have the sort of checks and balances that can lessen the possibility that those sorts of things can ever happen again.

It was predetermined that they would do exactly what they did; they had psychologies that were destined to take advantage of their environment. As long as we keep this in mind rather than curse the gods or the devil, we can make healthy, rational decisions. In other words, forcing other countries to bow to our god, no matter how much we think that might benefit them in the end, is not now, and never was, a rational choice if we want peace in the near term.