I think we just scratched a mosque. you might want to call every media outlet you know.

Bump again! This time the Iraq category had fallen to a shamefull **7th** place. C'mon people - we cant let this be! It's far and away the largest and most expensive war going on right now. Someone must have *something* to say about it! Maybe a quick explanation about how the war on terror is actually *really* being fought in Iraq? Perhaps a reflection on how things are actually goign great but the press just doesnt get it? An insight about WMDs? C'mon folks, let's rally!! eu4ea

Iraq aint no Iran. That's for sure.

Bump again! C'mon people - this time the "Iraq" thread had fallen to **15th** in the "wars around the world" category! No reason to let that stand - it's by far the largest and most expensive war around the world right now! Someone say something - maybe a thoughtful post about how the fact we caught those British-Pakistani nutjobs trying to blow up airliners actually proves it was a great idea to invade.... Iraq! Maybe a quick note about how not catching Osama is not a biggie? A little something about how having 130,000 troop in Iraq really helps to pacify the Afgan-Pakistani border where the Al-Quaeda contacts for these British-Pakistani nutjobs hang out? Perhaps a reflection on how there truly is no better way to spend $400 billion, (roughly 3/4ths our expenditures for the war on terror) than invading... Iraq! C'mon! Let's rally! eu4ea

O.K....lets see...saddam(toilet bug of the first order)is in jail and on trial to answer for his crimes against his people. his twisted off spring,oodie&koodie are now poisoning worms,and pushing up daisies.(their rape rooms closed for buisness,always a good thing) And of course the iraqi nation has a realistic shot at self determination... I guess you must feel that for some reason that that is a bad thing...

Au contraire, Bender - those are fabulous things! The bit about one contained pisspot dictator without WMD and his kids dead/captured is fabulous, at least: we now only have another 60-80 other pisspot dictators without WMD to go, 15-20 or whom are in the inmediate region. Plus at least another 2 pisspot O.K....lets see...saddam(toilet bug of the first order)is in jail and on trial to answer for his crimes against his people. his twisted off spring,oodie&koodie are now poisoning worms,and pushing up daisies.(their rape rooms closed for buisness,always a good thing) And of course the iraqi nation has a realistic shot at self determination... I guess you must feel that for some reason that that is a bad thing...

Au contraire, Bender - those are fabulous things! The bit about one contained pisspot dictator without WMD and his kids getting killed/captured is fabulous, anyway. We now only have another 60-80 other pisspot dictators without WMD to go, 15-20 or whom are in the inmediate region. Plus at least another 2 who are not contained and do have WMD, one of whom is in the inmediate region. It's a roaring $400 billion success! The bit about the "iraqi nation a shot at self determination" is a bit more literal than you intended. Seems the good people or Iraq *do* have a 'shot' at it, and by golly they're taking it! In fact just last month they took an average of over 100 shots at it every day (http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/07/18/news/iraq.php). OK....let's see... - if we consider that Iraq has roughly 1/10th of the population of the US, in US terms that amounts to over 1000 civilians dead every day, or just about 400,000 a year. It's a rip-roaring success! eu4ea =========== O.K....lets see...saddam(toilet bug of the first order)is in jail and on trial to answer for his crimes against his people. his twisted off spring,oodie&koodie are now poisoning worms,and pushing up daisies.(their rape rooms closed for buisness,always a good thing) And of course the iraqi nation has a realistic shot at self determination... I guess you must feel that for some reason that that is a bad thing... ==============

"Maybe a quick explanation about how the war on terror is actually *really* being fought in Iraq?"-eu4ea Although I can appreciate your keen use of sarcasm, I believe it is to the detriment of your appreciation of a not so subtle thing like geography. Do try and grasp, for example, the vastly high minded concept of 'over there' vs. 'over here'. Or look at a map and take notice of location of said war comparitively to troubled areas and potential hot spots in larger war context. The term 'island hopping' and its historical strategic significance may start a faint bell ring somewhere in one's grey matter. " OK....let's see... - if we consider that Iraq has roughly 1/10th of the population of the US, in US terms that amounts to over 1000 civilians dead every day, or just about 400,000 a year. It's a rip-roaring success!" Ah, but not quite the success of say...New Orleans (pre Katrina), Baltimore, Washington D. C., or Atlanta. Granted, the statistics are a little dated (5-16-06) yet recent enough for your seemingly not-so-genuine concerns for Iraq. from the article: ---"...According to Mr. King, the violent death rate in Iraq is 25.71 per 100,000. That may sound high, but not when you compare it to places like Colombia (61.7), South Africa (49.6), Jamaica (32.4), and Venezuela (31.6). How about the violent death rates in American cities? New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina was 53.1. FBI statistics for 2004-05 have Washington at 45.9, Baltimore at 37.7, and Atlanta at 34.9...."--- http://www.nysun.com/article/32787?page_no=1 It's refreshing to know where we all stand in times of war. In fact, I could not find a better place to argue the position of not going to war than...well, two and one half years during war. And it sure is better to pack up and wittingly quit (thus losing long term objectives) than to win just because some may not have gotten 'their way.' Sarcasm can be fun, indeed...so can being a snit.

" OK....let's see... - if we consider that Iraq has roughly 1/10th of the population of the US, in US terms that amounts to over 1000 civilians dead every day, or just about 400,000 a year. It's a rip-roaring success!" Isn't it great how they always do these comparisons where they get to inflate the number of dead civilians for their headline by multiplying to compare to US population? It's funny how no one notices the retractions as news story after news story after news story is proven to have ranted off the wrong number. What's even funnier is they just count the terrorists as part of the civilian dead. Or when they blame us or Israel for terrorist staged atrocities. Oh well, after the Democrats once again finish throwing away the effort of our soldiers we can all sit back and watch the world go to hell. I don't think the world understands the difference in US politics, as the Democrats are busy hacking away at the middle and ensuring we live by political extremes. I wonder what the Middle East will be like when everyone realises the Democratic Administration really doesn't care what they do, all the bluster aside that is. May we live in interesting times. There is a reason the Chinese consider that a curse.

Nope! I dont have the wrong #, and I dont recall blaming anyone in particular for the deaths - certainly not US troops. Read the actual article, it's helpful: http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/07/18/news/iraq.php Politics aside, the reality on the ground is that 100+ civilian casulalties per day is what's currently happening in Iraq. If you take into account Iraq's size (29 million), 100+ civilian killed every day is quite a lot. To put that into a perspective we are familiar with, in the US the equivalent would be 1000+ civilians getting killed every day. This has nothing to do with Democratic, Republican or independent politics: it's simply a way to put the violence in a scale we can understand. As far as the civilian death toll is concerned, the US equivalent would be one Katrina-sized disaster every day, or two 9/11-scale attacks every week. Hopefully that can give us a grasp on why these folks might upset, and just how much that sort of on-goign death toll might rattle them. Of course, we're also free to think "blah, a 100 civilians dead every day. Who cares, I dont see how that would be a big deal". Re: 'democrats once again throwing away the efforts of our soldiers.." it sounds cute, but it quite simply aint so. If anything, this sort of foreign adventure, throwing american lives and treasure to depose overseas dictators and bring democracy to people who are neither familiar nor interested in the concept is a classic left-wing Democrat nation building policy. The sober (and *extremely* effective) active military containment of Iraq we practiced before the war is a quintaesentially Conservative policy. heart, eu4ea ============= Pseudo wrote: " OK....let's see... - if we consider that Iraq has roughly 1/10th of the population of the US, in US terms that amounts to over 1000 civilians dead every day, or just about 400,000 a year. It's a rip-roaring success!" Isn't it great how they always do these comparisons where they get to inflate the number of dead civilians for their headline by multiplying to compare to US population? It's funny how no one notices the retractions as news story after news story after news story is proven to have ranted off the wrong number =========