An important topic like this, and I am so completely burned out on the process that the only thing that can persuade me to write a letter is to call RealName a dick.

But I won't. It serves no purpose to fall to the level of the neocon and start calling people names and avoiding the real issue. Like how the war is unjust, but that we still can't leave. Can't have Middle East in chaos, our economy would collapse without all that oil. We can't win, and we can't lose. The troops we have now are not enough, but the yellow-ribbon crew just won't sign up. In this respect, it's much like the anti-abortion sentiment the neocons' like to show. We love your baby until it is born, then go fuck yourself.

Are you really Christian, my neocon brothers? Jesus said pretty explicitly that we are here to live in love and peace. To take care of the poor, to feel the hungry, to clothe the naked, to heal the sick. But hey, how can we focus on that sort of thing when some dude might be blowing another dude? I mean, where are my priorities. I mean, it's all about the family values. That's why the neocons keep having serial marriages. They love the institution of marriage so much, they need to have three or four. Wife in the hospital with cancer? Fax those papers, baby. It's God's will.

Somehow, I do not think Jesus, the Prince of Peace and a local, would call the killing of tens of thousands of people for what amounts top war profiteering and bragging rights very Christian. I hope he can forgive...

I also hope he can forgive me for going back on my word and calling RealName a dick, too.

What do you in fact do with middle aged people who are otherwise physically unfit to work at Home Depot but who are uninjured? Bring them all home because they're fat? What about the diabetics and asthmatics?

Scolding becomes you. Now go cry to Joan Walsh about it. Your last post is a monument to blockheadedness. Jews = Israel = Neocons. Brilliant. Just Fucking Brilliant. Don't forget your bike helmet.

A victim of post traumatic stress disorder can not distinguish between real danger and an imagined threat. There is no such thing as friendly bickering to someone suffering from PTSD. The sound of a rocket and something as innocent as a footfall may be equally as terrifying---and they may spark the same fight or flight adrenalin reaction. A victim of post traumatic stress disorder does not have a "safe" time. He or she can not tell the body "What you hear/see/smell now can be ignored." Every waking moment of the day--and a fair chunk of the night---is spent in a hypervigilant state. When danger is perceived, there is no measured response. There are only two settings, "On" and "Off." "On" for someone with PTSD armed with a military weapon is "kill or be killed."

Realname, I am no longer impressed by the tired charges of anti-Semitism. The straw for me was when Jimmy Carter, a great American and one of the most decent human beings in this country and perhaps the world, was labeled an anti-Semite and viciously smeared by the Israel Lobby simply for documenting the apartheid policies of Israel (implemented using American tax money mind you!) and for exposing that the Israel Lobby stifled debate on foreign policy issues critical to human rights, American interests and security through intimidation of the media and politicians (using the same tactic you are using to silence me by throwing around the anti-Semitism charge at any criticism of Israeli apartheid, the Israel Lobby or the neocons).

As more and more people, inspired by Carter's courage, start to speak out, you will find that using the anti-Semitism charge to protect the neocons will no longer work.

So, please stop playing the vicitim and help me understand with which of the following statements you disagree and why (I doubt though that you will want to discuss facts):

1) Did the neocons play a major role in promoting the Iraq war through spin and false intelligence?

2) Are the neocons closely linked to the Israeli right wing and particularly the Likud party (before answering, please read the Clean Break study AUTHORED by the leading neocons in 2000, which I referred to in my earlier message)?

3) Are the neocons, the Israel Lobby and the Israeli government continuing to promote war in the Middle East (on Iran and Syria)?

Again please stop the BS. The neocons ARE NOT the vicitms (nor are the Jews in general many of whom oppose the war). Young American men and women (and countless Iraqis) are!

Smith's commanders are only looking out for the taxpayers. Smith will have a better chance of getting KIA if he is redeployed.

A plane trip home in a box is a lot less expensive than a lifetime of rehab, which will never work anyway.

Do the math...that's all the warlords are doing.

Peace to all,

Will we have to wait a year for the Washington Post or other MSM outfit to pick up on this and report it as new news?

As a result of the first story that appeared in Salon last month, I used used the on-line email forms provided by my respective senators and congressional district representative to request that they investigate this disturbing issue. All I received by way of response was a form letter from one senator expressing her views on the Iraq war. This kind of experience helps me understand why citizens believe contacting their representatives about their concerns is a futile effort. I would like to see Salon investigate how letters to representatives are handled--who views them and the policies surrounding what is done with them, and what, if any, impact they have.

A TV segment of parents who are serving and I noticed they were interviewing a woman who was clearly already so out of shape she probably couldn't pass a stress test. I wonder how a 34 year old who's 70lbs overweight is qualified but someone with a blown knee isn't? I rather see those people rotated into support roles than having to cull another group of civvies into those roles, wouldn't you?