can you please just help me understand if there was a connection to Iran? did Iranian Agents plan, fund and execute the suicide bombing? lets get that crossed off the list first, then we can discuss the merits of us military presence in Lebanon, a different and seperate sovereign country from Iran, yes?

It's no secret that Iran funded the organization responsible for the bombings.

It's also no secret that the U.S. actually earned the enmity of the Iranian people for it's activities in 1953 which overthrew the legally elected president of Iran, Mohammed Mosaddeq, and installed our puppet, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in his place. The Pahlavi government went on the establish what was basically a police state in Iran until it was overthrown in 1979.

Have you ever heard the term SAVAK?

Why do they hate us?

One more thing.

While I don't applaud what happened in Pittsburgh, I can verify that the method the police used to apprehend and transport that individual is common practice and is taught throughout the country in police academy settings.

It is much safer for the protestors, the arrestee, and the police if such an apprehension is done quickly and if the person apprehended is removed from the area as quickly as possible. That's about the only thing about the entire episode which I believe is standard police practice and which is somewhat justifiable.

Police officers should at all times wear identification unless, as in the case of many drug related arrests, hiding the identity of the officer is necessary. It is never either necessary or proper, however, to hide the identification of the organization to which that officer belongs. In the case of a multiple unit "task force", it's also common for those officers from different organizations to wear different uniforms - but each should be identifiable as to which organization they represent and, in line with operational security (as in the case of using undercover narcs in arrests) they should all wear personal identification which can be readily seen by those in contact with the officers. At minimum, each officer should have at least his/her surname in visible letters on the outer layer of clothing.

Please remember, this was not done in some Podunk which would not be able to afford proper gear for their officers, but was done in a large metropolitan area - which surely has the financial resources to properly outfit their police. We should wonder why the City of Pittsburgh and/or Allegheny County didn't see fit to properly equip these officers.

Can you tell me what the Marines were doing in Lebanon in the first place?

Were they actively participating in the on-going civil war in that country, on behalf of one side or the other, or could it appear to a reasonable person in Lebanon that they were doing so?

Can you tell me the difference between detonating a truck bomb which just about equaled the explosive power of 12,000 of TNT and bombing a civilian structure with multiple 1000 lb. bombs from 10,000 or 20,000 feet?

Who ordered the Marines into Lebanon?

If their presence there was necessary a day before the barracks was bombed, why was their presence there not necessary several days later when Reagan pulled them out?

I'm not saying that I approve of the deaths of American service men and women, but I also don't see why we should think we can stick our service men and women anywhere we please and then act surprised when they find themselves in harm's way. Perhaps if we had not introduced ourselves into what was a civil war, those Marines would not have perished.

So who's really at fault?

I bet your wife...

I WANT the U.S. (and Israel) to be on top

...is sick of being on the bottom too.

That, my dear Pedinska, presupposes that his wife even realizes he's on top.

Clifton Mitchell helped register nearly 2,000 voters for the community group ACORN. But not one of them actually existed.

source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/22/voter.fraud/

Did any of them actually vote?

The victim here is ACORN. They paid a person, (Clifton Mitchell?) to gather voter registrations and he defrauded them.

ACORN really bothers Teh Right, doesn't it.

There is a huge distinction that seems to have escaped your notice. Many of these countries with a Muslim majority have threaten to destroy Israel and other non-Muslim countries because they are 'not Muslim'. We do not want these religious lunatics anywhere near a nuclear weapon. They cannot be trusted. Israel has never threatened to destroy Iran or any other country for that matter. So when Israel announces rocket tests, we know it's for the protection of their people and not for the destruction of others.

You can come up for air anytime now.

It's quite obvious that you seem to be brain dead.