"They Died Fighting For Their Country".......

[leftchick]

I think it is time to give it back to them....




U.S. soldiers look on as Iraqi men carry away the bodies of Mahdi soldiers killed during the fighting that took place over the three-week crisis in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf on Friday Aug. 27, 2004. Guns were largely silent in Najaf on Friday for the first time in weeks, after Iraq (news - web sites)'s top Shiite cleric made a dramatic return to this holy city and swiftly won agreement from a rebel cleric and the government to end three weeks of fighting between his militia and U.S.-Iraqi forces. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

.... Check out how the US Troops initially reacted to these poor Iraqis fetching their wounded and dead....

<snip>
Several incidents rattled the truce within minutes of the end of the siege.

A group of fighters who ventured into areas which they had lost to the Americans in recent days were shot at by US soldiers as they tried to retrieve dead and wounded they had been unable to reach for several days.

At least six bodies were brought to the makeshift clinic inside the shrine while the other wounded, including some who were in urgent need of medical care, were gradually being evacuated to Najaf hospital.

Bursts of automatic gunfire and sniper shots from the cemetery could still be heard two hours after the marchers broke the deadlock.

http://iafrica.com/

[ET Awful]

1. Proving yet again that you can accomplish with dignity and diplomacy

much more than you can with violence and bloodshed.

[JSJ]

2. yes n/t

[capaylib]

3. Very Poignant

Sometimes I think it just that simple and that we need to just get out now. After all the Iraqi people have been through over the last several decades and the various roles the US has played contributing to and/or causing their suffering, how could our withdrawal make it any worse? Let Iraqi's get on with defining a new, post Saddam country....what's that word...sovereign... The biggest risk might be that they actually do get on with it..and Bush will be able use it as a feather in his cap. Of course that couldn't be pulled off in time for the election...nah....and that's all the time Bush has...too bad he didn't explore that avenue earlier.

Other times I think that if we withdraw from Iraq and things fall apart. us broader minded american folks might see our country slip ever farther away.

Since withdrawal seems unlikely at this point, Kerry is saying he won't do it when he is elected, the most I expect is reasonable exit strategy and hopefully some help from our pissed off allies. We can always hope for a well timed President Kerry flip flop:-).

Mine may be a naive analysis...or not an analysis at all...but, it could happen. Look at the first post Apartheid elections in South Africa.

[unslinkychild1]

4. Well-timed flip-flop

That has to be my fondest hope. He WASN'T my candidate earlier, but he IS now. His 1971 testimony took the cake--he can do nothing else, in my opinion. How can he let those words haunt him and do nothing? How do you ask the last man to die for a mistake? EVERYTHING he said back then is EVER-so-relevant today. I read ALL of that testimony about 4 days ago, and it's completely changed my outlook on him. Sure, I was gonna vote for the guy, principle reason being HE CAN FUCKING TALK, but other than that, I wasn't impressed. Now, I am so hoping he's just saying crap that will make the fruitcakes think he's "moderate," and when he gets in, he will do the biggest flip-flop imaginable and get us out of that damned war! He may well lose the NEXT election, but what the hell are the neocons to do at that point? REINVADE? I so very dearly hope for this.

[capaylib]

5. I think we can

I think we can, I think we can....I know we can, I know we can!