when I restart my network I get an loopback error, Why?
 

I have just reloaded Redhat 9 because of boot problem that I was unable to correct (X window would keep timing out). I have been somewhat successful in bring back functions and data but am failing on bring up my network.
I accidentally changed the first line of the hosts file, when I realized my mistake, returned (I think) to what it should be, but the problem still exists. The localhost and loopback functions do not work and I get the following error when I try to restart the network:

Bringing up loopback interface:
Determining IP information for lo...iptables: No chain/target/match by that name
failed.
iptables: Bad rule (does a matching rule exist in that chain?)
[FAILED]

The hosts entry is as follows:
127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.localdomain localhost

What am I missing?
I can not remember changing anything else, but it was a late night.