heru-ur wrote: "The message I always got from that was that the leaders do not do the fighting, it is the soldiers. If no one signed up to "protect" their land then there would be no war."

walter_map responded: "That's "The Universal Soldier", a song by Donovan."

Well, once you take the King's coin . . . .

totallyblase cuts & pastes: ""Universal Soldier" is a song written and recorded by Canadian singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie. The song was originally released on Sainte-Marie's debut album It's My Way! in 1964. "Universal Soldier" was not a popular hit at the time of its release, but it did garner attention within the contemporary folk music community. Sainte-Marie said of the song: "I wrote 'Universal Soldier' in the basement of The Purple Onion coffee house in Toronto in the early sixties. It's about individual responsibility for war and how the old feudal thinking kills us all"."

The point being, if you're going to do something right, at least be accurate.

How many times have we been through . . . . "Dang, I heard / read /saw somewhere that . . . . "

This is the is the fodder that fuels the enemy.

And it's really hard to shout down the SOBs that have us over this particular barrel, at this particular time in history, (even if you were in the mood to do so). But at least get the facts right.

Even today, in modern 19th century America (actually most of America has left the 19th century and has moved into the 1950s where it remains firmly and blissfully mired today), you still have morons that believe Saddam/Iraq had a dab hand in "NINE/ELEVEN™"(patent pending), that Al Gore claimed he sole-handedly invented the internet, that global warming is a myth foisted upon us by crazed-commie-Darwinist tree-huggers, that the press is liberally biased, that Ronald Reagan was the brightest boy at his own birthday party, that the world is flat, and that "Stairway To Heaven" is the greatest rock song ever, dude.

Me? I opt for Jan Berry's (of Jan and Dean -- Jan being the dimmer of the pair after a severe crash left him rather, errrr, brain-damaged)) version of the song ("Universal Soldier") with the lyrics changed and titled "The Universal Coward". Hyuk, hyuk. Right up there with Bob Seger's (remember him??? Think Ted Nugent, but with a whole lot more . . . . whatever, whiskers???) witty remake of 'The Green Beret' entitled 'The Yellow Beret'. Hyuk, hyuk. The goddle days, indeed. The more things change, the more they say the same . . .

scottmcclurkin (lurking) writes: "Another thing why do you all hate the Iraq War so much? If you lost a dear one, like Cindy Sheehan, I can understand, but otherwise why? I support the war, but I am against W."

Number one. This isn't a war. This was an agressive attack against a sovereign country. It was not sanctioned by the majority of the nations in the world. Now it is simply an occupation -- a war against, gasp, folks who really don't like being under the bootheel of a foreign power that doesn't follow or respect international law. No war here, just a dirty policing effort. And I tell you, things are terribly wrong when you have to use a wartime military, 500 pound bombs on suspects, and payments to your former opponents to keep them in line.

"I support it: because it got rid of Saddam and his 2 evil sons, freed political prisoners, and gave Shiites, finally, a voice in Iraq."

Confused much?? We don't 'like' someone, so we have the right of regime change?? Next stop Israel, then?? Talk about your evil regimes. It freed poltical prisoners?? Probably, but we've incarcerated many more (BTW -- our newest prison -- why are we so good at building prisons -- is actually unusable -- some contractor made out like a bandit, wot?), mostly without justification, and we've out and out murdered a whole pile of folks -- and they weren't even OUR own people in the first place.

"I am mainly voting for Obama because i'm pro-choice and support gay-marriage/rights."

Now, y'all be sure that's what Mr. Obama will deliver this before you vote for him . . . get it in writing, because the center (in America that would be the right) is starting to pull him, and he's going to need those votes. It's called pandering.

"Unlike the Vietnam War, no one is being drafted, even though i'm against the stop-losses." Yes, and that's why we're hiring mercenaries, dropping scholastic standards, offering bribes, (er, bonuses), bending over backwards to recruit kids (often coercing them) and letting criminals into the service. This wouldn't happen if the army weren't overextended. Maybe a draft would sober up a few keyboard warriors and college-age chickenhawks. Did you actually read the article or are you just spouting???? It's all about the lowering of standards in the military. Sheesh.