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 . . .

Buchanan had an article awhile back chiding Condi for her comments about Russian democracy during a Bush visit to Europe (where I saw her wear an outfit fit for a professional dominatrix while reviewing German troops--talk about the undercurrents of violence and sex in this administration). He pointed out rightly that Bush was giving a free pass to countries with much worse human rights records than Russia had. By any accounting, Russia was actually not that bad compared to the absolute religious tryannies that Bush visited on that trip.

But the Washington Post editorials reveal the psychology and delusions of Empire. Bush and the Post can without any seeming awareness of their hypocrisy lecture on democracy while acting and supporting totally apparent anti-democratic actions toward Americans and others. This is the priveledge of Empire; the priveldge of Rome.

But also, messages probably subtle and obvious have been giving to the Washington Post editorial staff that Russia is to be considered a competitor to our right to claim Empire. They resist encroachment on their borders, they sieze American assests, they compete effectively against American companies in the world weapons market (Bush went to India, not as the US President, but as lead salesman for the American weapons market), and they have enough oil and natural gas to force some serious knee bending by the Europeans.

Also, the neocons are lookng for the next great enemy to use as the bogeyman of an emergent fascism.. Arabs didn't work, so go back to the old stand by. (Has anybody ever noticed how many of the politically correct bad guys in the movies are Russians?) Heck, if you watch Law and Order (great show by the way), you would swear the Russian mob controlled all of Manhatten.

But in this political season, there are candidates for you to choose from, who really do appear to oppose the entire "political class." Assuredly, Barack Obama is not one of those candidates. Why do you, and your readers who are like-minded, not support a candidate who truly believes in a wholesale alternative to the current "political class"?

Oh, FOAD. The person around here that's stoopid is the person that thinks they can come in as an obvious RW flack, and then tell us we need to fight each other.

No, sir, we're going to bury you and your ilk and all of the Rethuglican criminal syndicate. Once we're done with that necessary task, we'll work on sorting out our differences in our own way, and you can watch from your jail cell as you rot for aeternity.

Cheers,

So, to everyone who thinks I am out of bounds with my opinion that Glenn seeks to "criminalize policy differences," ...

Not "out of bounds". Just stoopid. Or disingenuous. Or amoral. Or some combination of the three.

Clue fer ya: We get to decide what we think. Not you.

Cheers,

[Elephantdung]: The Iraqi and Iranian people (forget about their govenments) want to sell us oil, and they want to buy American movies, video games, and s.u.v.'s.

No comment needed, just three words of advice: "Start paying attention!!!"

Cheers,

The Iraqi and Iranian people (forget about their govenments) want to sell us oil, and they want to buy American movies, video games, and s.u.v.'s.

It was precisely this abject eedjitcy that caused our neocon nabobs to proclaim that we'd be greeted with flowers in Iraq. If the stoopidity of such a view is not apparent now to Elephantdung, he is really too stoopid to learn (or even breathe without instructions).

Cheers,