re: your post, #1 in this comment section--

If this is the Anna Badkhen story that you're referring to

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/05/21/services/

then I think that the thread shut-down was simply due the normal expiration of commentary time on Salon articles. Threads close all the time around here for that reason.

The comment with the URL linking to Michael Yon's website remains intact- as does mine, the one that followed it.

[click on my highlighted screen name "cabdriver" for direct link]

"That soldier has an AKM or AK74 across his lap.

Odd.

"-- Electro Robot Friday, May 23, 2008 02:11 PM"

What is odd is that the photo shows that much of Baghdad, a civilian city, has been reduced to rubble by contant US bombings, and with that has been the "collateral" deaths of uncounted numbers of civilians -- men, women, children, and infants.

Each of which "collateral" was a human being not found guilty of ANYTHING, except perhaps of being where they belonged.

Yet the right-winger focuses only on its destructive gun fetish, because to him/her those lives matter as little as the destruction of the civilian infrastructure.

- - -EVERYTHING IS WHAT IT SEEMS.

- Sharyar

I appreciated this entire series, and I commend Salon for running it. Like so many Americans, I am exhausted and demoralized by the whole ragged spectacle of the past seven years. The stark image of the soldier sitting amidst a garbage heap that passes for an everyday street scene in Baghdad at once provokes my anguish, fear, sympathy and outrage, not only over the Iraq debacle but over everything that has happened here in my beloved home as well.

It is not surprising that the MSM gives us so little of the gritty street-level reality of Iraq, both as it is for our soldiers and for the Iraqis who are forced to remain. Although the American election is a welcome distraction for the media, its outcome will probably make very little difference to that Baghdad street scene.

Whether we stay or go, it's going to remain very bad there for a very long time. Our lives here in America, on the other hand, may start to get better once the balance of power in this country has shifted. So despite being exhausted and demoralized, I have hope. For this I feel guilty and ashamed. The Iraqis deserve hope every bit as much if not more than we do.

Looking at the photo accompanying this article by Anna Badkhen I could not at first see the headline or the caption below my monitor window. "Is this the result of a hurricane, a tsunami, an earthquake?" Of course the soldier seated amidst the landscape of rubble and ruined lives lent the clue, but I thought it not possible that every single television station in the nation did not carry scenes such as this, day after day, of the indiscriminate destruction that this war has wrought on the people of Iraq. Where is the collective American despair and outrage over this intentional and calculated devastation that is exhibited day after day for the military junta of Myanmar or the corrupt building practices of local Chinese provincials? The disconnect in this country -- by its leaders, its media, its apologists -- that exists between disasters natural and disasters of human, political origin is truly breathtaking.

Odd.

Americans who realize that we Americans have made life worse for Iraqis, worse than it was under Saddam, those Americans will vote to leave Iraq. I believe this.

Well, not that I REALLY wish you would stay in Baghdad providing these slices of life, but... I will miss them. We need more windows into this war. Thanks for your work and your vivid writing.

My hope is that when pro-war advocates yawn at truth,

The fluttering moth is encouraged to fly inside the mouth.

Meditate of thee blood, war's enticement, and immortality.

Take care. You gave me a flashback. But that's okay. On my medical evacuation flight from the 24th Medical Hospital in Saigon, many years ago....

There was commotion around a patient on a litter.

I was laid-flat too, and afraid to shed any tears.

My fear? I'd not be able to stop a heave and cry.

I asked about the frantic attention to the troop.

`Is he alive or dead? I knew that he had died.

`Anna. Be gentle with your war experience.

`Go off many days. Spend time weeping.

My sincere appreciation.... and "fly away"

And as 4 million Iraqi refugees wonder about their futures as they looks for homes. As millions of Iraqi people mourn the over one million Iraqi people who have been killed as a direct result of the illegal invasion of Iraq by the Bush cartel. As the world looks on knowing that crimes against humanity have taken place. The majority of Americans have their pedals to the metal as they go to the malls.

The world knows that the majority of American people and the American Mainstream Media are morally and spiritually bankrupt. The problem is that the Majority of the American people could care less.

How many reports on the MSM about the Iraqi refugees, the Iraqi dead, hell you do not even hear about American soldiers on the MSM any longer. It all about the ELECTION ELECTION ELECTION.

I didn't see the shut-down thread you're referring to, so this is just a guess -- but based on that site, a post pointing to it might have come across as unsolicited advertisement. When I checked the site out, the heavy focus on buying the book, donating for the book project, convincing others to buy the book or stock it in their stores, etc. did overwhelm the message the author was trying to get across. It took me a bit of hunting to sort out what it was about, past being somebody's views on Iraq.

More on the topic of how the site clashes with Badkhen, and the duty to examine things from all sides... I do try to investigate situations from multiple perspectives, as I don't trust either major political party, but I also analyze & categorize what I find rather than taking all sources as being of the same type of information. Trouble is, some perspectives tend to be presented with so much emotional imagery & so little educated logic & fact that they don't offer much to compare next to their adversary.

It's hard to come to any enlightened, accurate conclusions about the reality of a situation with those as the two main options... It reminds me of a few term papers in junior high & high school, back before I really understood this: sometimes I used detailed explanations gleaned from studying science, but other times I made claims grounded in the fears/hopes expressed in women's magazines. "How sickle cell anemia damages the body" can't really be analyzed as the same kind of information as "how having a working mommy hurts kids (based on a Redbook article)" even though they're both explanations of (potential) damage done to kids. In parallel, how often the power is available in an Iraqi neighborhood can't be counterbalanced by mention of building a few schools that I can only assume make up a fraction of what were destroyed. Both sides are guilty of the "fluff" -- the trouble is that it seems like one side tends to rely on it.

Not trying to come across as anti-this or whatever... It's just that as a person that prefers to analyze in-depth logic backed up with fact on both sides, it's a little frustrating when what one side offers is usually the equivalent of my old Redbook-sourced essay. Especially since I can't for the life of me figure out why the problem is occurring; some childhood friends of mine are extremely bright & educated yet rely on appeals to emotion like that, so I do know those aren't the problems.