We have your back Neal, The Analog kid, Loyal Citizen Victor, your loyal readers, and my humble self. I just wish that the trolls who are cackling over the dead, were smart enough to see the irony. They are against killing, but taunt us over the deaths of our soldiers. Consistancy may be the hobgoblin of little minds, but not decency, or humility. Death is still an abstract to them, a point in a debate. Some of us know better.

The distant stare, the labored breathing, the sudden tensing of muscles, sometimes silent, sometimes screaming in pain. Then, the release, the rattle in the throat, the relaxing of the body. You can see the light go out of their eyes. All that's left is emptiness, that you can never fill. I've held the hand of a person who has died three times in my life, I don't have any illusions anymore.

Some of us know what death is, it's not something that just happens to people you don't know on TV. You really have to hate death to risk it to prevent more people from dying. Warriors don't love death, they just understand it better than most.

Yep.

I just received an email from a friend with a flash file attachment...with his feelings of Saddam.
I thought I'd share with you guys, I know you'll get a kick out of it.

https://blog.schiesty.org/archives/000125.php

Saddam will have
Death from the best.

Yeah.

Very nice--thanks!

Ehh now, dont bash on the British. At least they have the courage to be on the ground with us, unlike our so called other allies. The pain we suffer for our losses is no greater than the pain they suffer for theirs.

Chief, we don't bash Limeys indiscriminantly (sp?). There are a couple of trolls (Harmonia is a Subject of the Crown, and we've acquired a Canuck one recently) who come on here and make nuisances of themselves. To all those on Our Side, we bid a warm welcome; to those on Saddam's Side, we bid an even warmer "Fuck You."

I wasn't able to access the flash file so I'm not sure about any Brit bashing. I respect the British more than most countries, they still have the guts to stand up for what's right, as do the Aussies. The professionalism of the British military is a marvel to see. I mourn their dead as much as our own.

LC Victor is quite right about the trolls. Harmonia is a petulant child, but the canuck is an evil minded goatfuck, and I mean that in the most personally insulting manner possible. Harm may come to the light eventually, when she is ready to listen instead of shout.

I really did for a time try and engage some trolls in debate in a civil manner, but I learned what most of RNS's readers already knew. There is no reasoning with the lunatic fringe. I hope for converts, but, how do you convert someone who loves being an enemy? Probably naive, I still think there may be a tiny hope that Harm will see that this is the only right thing we can do. I suppose that makes me an optimist, but I can't resist the temptation to pull more people into the lifeboat.

Crowing over the dead?

Well as a number of them are Scottish (like myself) thats a disgusting charge.

Disgusting, but not inaccurate I think.

"I thought shooting officers was a time honored US tradition", if I may be allowed to paraphrase one of your comments.

er, that was a fact, hardly gloating.

And as it happens it's already happened iirc.

Got anything to say about the civilian casualties today?

"I thought shooting officers was a time honored US tradition", thats opinion, not fact Harm. Tradition suggests that it was always a common practice. Hardly. You pick isloated cases from the most bitterly contested war in our history and proclaim a trend? Go back and read more.

Got anything to say about the Iraqi's shelling their own citizens yesterday? A missile going off target is hardly the same as shelling a crowd of your own people.

Harmonia, I thought rum, sodomy, and the lash was The Most Time-Honored of British Traditions. True or not?

Which civilian casualties would that be, Harm -

The ones the Iraqi's claim was caused by US munitions, a claim that has not been independently verified by any other nation or

the civilian casualties that resulted from the suppression of the Basra uprising

or

The civilian casualties caused when conscripts of the Iraqi army try and surrender to Republican Guard forces dressed in US and UK, and are then executed

or

the several hundred thousand civilian casualties that have resulted because of Saddam's diversion of humanitarian aid to build palaces and finance his army?

You really need to be more specific if you want us to try and answer your questions. But you really aren't interested in answers - just the screeching of your own hysterical voice.

Whoops! You're Scottish, sorry.

The *Scottish* tradition is putting lipstick and frilly petticoats on sheep. My bad.

I was talking about the murder of people in a bagdhad markey yesterday.

Comments?

No you weren't. The market hadn't been hit when you originally posted. . .unless you've invented a time-warp space-fabric modulater, which I doubt because I'm not sure you have the mental and physical capacity to pick your nose without giving yourself a frontal lobotomy...and we've your posts as proof.

How about these civilians, Harmonia: "...the extent of war crimes carried out by the Iraqi regime. In addition to the execution of POWs, he said, Iraqis have used civilians as human shields, stored weapons in schools, set up command posts in hospitals and pretended to surrender only to open fire. In one case, an Iraqi woman was hanged after she waved to coalition forces, Pace said."

From CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/27/sprj.irq.pows.executed/index.html

Your Favorite Dictator is quite cares less about his own citizens than you do, Harm. *THAT* is the price of your peace, Harmonia.

So as saddam has killed civilians so it's ok if you do to?

Now thats what I call moral relativism.

Be honest, you lot couldnt care less about the deaths of a bunch of "Towelheads"

That point might make sense if we were targeting civilians, but we aren't and Saddam is. Given your desire to see him continue in power just who is pissing away the lives of Iraqi's Harm?

When the war is over, Iraqi's will be able to live life free to decide their own fate. If thats OK for you, why not them? You aren't a racist are you?

No, the US couldn't care less about the death of a bunch of "towelheads" to use your expression.

That's why we are taking unnecessary military casualties instead of turning Baghdad into a smoking crater.

Do you EVER think about what you vomit forth, Harmonia, or just spew whatever anti-American drivel springs to mind?

There is never anything that Saddam can do that you will condem, and nothing the US can do that you will praise. Your mind is a closed book of hatred, pettiness, and stupidity. Post here all you want - I will never respond to any of your crap again. I will delete what I don't feel like having on my site, and ignore the rest. There is NOTHING to be gained by "debating" with you, because your don't debate.

"There is never anything that Saddam can do that you will condem, and nothing the US can do that you will praise. Your mind is a closed book of hatred, pettiness, and stupidity. Post here all you want - I will never respond to any of your crap again. I will delete what I don't feel like having on my site, and ignore the rest. There is NOTHING to be gained by "debating" with you, because your don't debate."

Well I condemn Iraq's human rights violations, and there are lots of things about Britain and America that I do like.

Still easier to just close your ears to contrary views and just keep a stupid stereotype in your head.

It's a good sign that you are losing it, trying to block out other views. It just shows how weak your position is.

Plugging your ears doesnt change the facts, no matter how much you wish it did.

BTW, "Hate filled" give me an example.

You referr to Saddam as having "human rights violations", yet get shrill when talking about casualities from coalition bombing, using words like death and innocent victims. You just can't see it can you? You blithly candycoat every death from Saddam with a wave of a hand, then accuse us of not caring about "towelheads". Neal's right you are blind, if you can't even hear your own words.