pedro, the vast majority of Iraq is empty desert. Capturing thousands of square miles of empty land is not much of an accomplishment in the terms of modern warfare. You just get in your vehicles and drive. On the other hand, Iraq’s population is highly concentrated in a few areas. Those few areas just happen to be where violence and fear has become a part of daily life. So yippee! We’ve secured the vast tracks of empty land between Baghdad and the Kuwaiti border. Everywhere there are actually people living, well, things aren’t going so hot. Your repetition of your little factoid is only more evidence that you prefer to live in denial of reality.

Just wait until we take Antarctica!

But it would be unfair to say anyone lied, right sir?

I notice that your “extended family” served, you however seem to have avoided that particular injustice eh?

I was forward deployed when 9-11 happened. I was forward deployed for Afghanistan and was forward deployed when the Iraq war began (and ended for that matter). I spent over a decade in the service of this countries military, and am proud of it. Shoot me if I can’t stand to see you leftist euroweenies bad-mouth it on every possible opportunity.

As usual, the leftist argue around the points that I make, and are left with a blustering curse as their only response. Yea, you guys are mental giants, no question

Pedro….shut the F up.

You putz.

jk

It’s not a reflection on the entire United States Military, but it certainly doesn’t make us look very good here at home, and around the world, now does it?

And that has always been art of “winning’ a war, after all. You have to win the hearts and minds of the people you claim to be protecting.

It does not take a rocket scientist to conclude that this is not a particularly good development in this war.

Pedro…when you say crap like the above, I want to cyber-bitch-slap you. I come from an extended family of service members who put far more on the line in WWII, and Vietnam, than you will EVER do.

I realize, however, you say that from the safety and comfort of your own home. However, it angers me to no end. If you were a man, you’d apologize. Let’s see what you do, shall we?

Some of you, are just life’s losers. You’re not happy unless you’re convincing yourself that you’re a better person than the next guy.

JK

I would not pardon convicted war criminals…period.

I also wouldn’t paint the US Marines as the worst thing to hit Asia since Ghengis Khan because of this incident either.

We have the finest military in the history of the world. Iraq remains the most land taken with the least number of casualties in the history of the world.

You want to bad mouth the Marines, thats your business but I certainly am not going to let you get away with the leftist canard of “we support the troops” crap, while at the same time spitting on them.

All your bull about how you don’t want lowered expectations is disingenuous; you’ve already spent much of this thread preparing to pardon the criminals if they are proved guilty. After all, even if they did it, at least they’re not as bad as some dictator’s army. Even if they did it, at least the crime isn’t as bad as any other war crime committed throughout the history of the world.

I have to wonder if you walk around in real life with the same permanent sneer that you seem to wear on every post you make here.

Well, this has to be the stupidest thing you’ve ever posted here, Dugger.

How very bold and patriotic of you…almost jingoistic, I can hear the soft refrain of the Star Spangled Banner in the backround.

and I agree….

and we are substantially better than our nearest competitor, in fact, we have no competition, we are in a class by ourselves.

speaking of reinterpretation, I have made no attempt to justify lowering expectations, I want them raised. What I don’t want is the leftists in this country to destroy it under the aegis of “raising expectation”.

Someone who was really interested in raising expectation would wait for our justice system to work, would give our servicemen the same “innocent until proven guilty” rights that any citizen has, and then would focus on how you prevent these sort of actions in the future.

But you see, you aren’t interested in raising expectations, you are interested in bashing this country and its leaders, therein lies the dissonance.

So I don’t believe that if Abu Ghraib never happened that we wouldn’t have soldiers under attack right now. I do, however, think that incidents such as Abu Ghraib do not fucking help, and in fact play into aforementioned propaganda effort.

Speaking of things that do not help, apologizing for war crime under the aegis of “at least we’re not as bad as _______’s military” is something that maybe makes you feel good, but does nothing for us as a nation. I grew up believing that what made America great was that it was about something more than being just slightly better than our nearest competitors. I thought America was about overachieving, about attempting to realize something potentially impossible in a society. And that that notion went for all walks of life.

I still believe that. So I have little sympathy for those among us who are willing to settle for lowered expectations of ourselves. I don’t want what you’re selling. Go peddle that shit to somebody’s dictator; I’m sure they’d love to instill a sense of “be happy with what you have” in their populace.

I’m not sure why I put that into words just now. I’m sure you’ll magically reinterpret it as something else and ignore what I said when it’s convenient for you to indulge in the crass schoolyard debate tactics that you seem to mistake for high wit.

Democracy is the most horrible form of government, except when compared to every other form of government.

Everything is relative kids, everything.

Antonia Juhasz is a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies (www.ips-dc.org) and a former Project Director at the International Forum on Globalization (www.ifg.org). She is a Project Censored Award recipient and co-author of Alternatives to Economic Globalization: A Better World is Possible, 2 nd Ed. Her articles have appeared in publications such as The New York Times, The Cambridge University Review of International Relations Journal, and the Johannesburg Star. Her new book is The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time (Regan Books of Harper Collins Publishers).

And I’ll say it again, to a fat-*ss civilian in his comfy leather chair at the air conditioned NY Times HQ, ‘unprovoked’ might mean one thing, to a young Marine who’s life is in danger in an extended fire fight, another. We well know the enemy is not above intentionally using innocents as cover and for propaganda value.

Prejudge our GIs all you want, I won’t.

Dugger

So many Iraqi’s? What are we talking about here? One in a thousand Iraqi’s? Are we supposed to let 0.1% of a population decide the politics of a nation?