What else was there left to say? How is $10,000, $10,000,000, $10,000,000,000, or any amount you care to mention even going to begin to make up for that? It's just paper.

He could teach America a thing or two with regards to valuing human life

This man's simple, straighforward statement of his irreplaceable loss brings tears to my eyes.

I, like many others I know who oppose this mad war and irresponsible administration, have become partially inured to all the bad news if only to find some way to keep going in our daily lives and obligations to friends, family and work. We're no less opposed to what is happening or less engaged, just less viscerally angered and saddened by what Bush has done in our name.

The honesty and truth of Sadoon Awad did more to return that palpable sense of outrage than pages of analysis and revelations about the inner workings of the Bush administration. I've long said that every revolution sows the seeds of the counter-revolution. In Saddon Awad, we can see the terrible harvest we are sowing for ourselves in the Middle East and throughout the Muslim world.

It wouldn't be the quote of the day on Salon unless it was critical of the US/Bush the terrorist.

No denying the man has a clear case, but I wonder if there are any quotes from Iraqis whose lives were saved by our military? We'll never know here.

There's always that possibility, you know.

Actually, the concept of paying a monitary sum in retribution for a killing or maiming is as old as the Koran and the Bible. But a lousy ten large? That's adding insult to injury.

Wasn't Saddam paying the families of Palistinian suicide bombers $25,000? Uncle Sam is pretty cheap compared to that. But I guess we're making dead Iraqi civilians at such a clip we're going to have to borrow another $100 BILLION from the Chinese Communists again pretty soon.

But isn't a lump sum payoff a part of American culture also? Insurance companies put a discrete value on an eye, or a foot, or a leg. Show me one disabled American who ever tore up a check from an insurance company for the loss of an arm.

But does Blood Money in any culture buy off the eternal hatred of the victim for the person(s) responsible for ruining their lives? Uh uh. The hatred is still there along with smoldering thoughts of revenge.

Only in the Middle East, revenge never smolders, it's a raging fire. No matter how much Blood Money, a person is bound by honor and tradition to exact a punishment on the perpetrator in equal or greater measure.

This is what the dumb bastards in Washington don't understand about the Middle East. Every day we are in Iraq, we cause death -- some of it on purpose, some of it accidental. But there is no distinction in the minds of the victims' relatives. Blood revenge is the only cure for the shame and humiliation brought upon their families.

Bush says they hate us for our freedom. But it's pretty simple really: They hate us because we are killing them.

We train to kill, and kill we will,semper fidelis! What is the difference between insurgent scum who kidnap and kill US soldiers and US soldiers who kidnap and kill innocent Iraky ex-soldiers and then place an AK47 and a shovel beside the body to make it look as if the victim was the attacker? The first get shot on sight or sent to Gitmo, the second get a fair trial with proper defense lawyers (who will use every trick on the books) and the chance to survive and maybe walk free.The person or persons really responsible for both crimes are the tenants of the White House and their sycophants. By starting an illegal war they put themselves and those who have to follow there orders into the category of War Criminals. The difference between the 1940s and the early 2000s could not be bigger, from admired world leader and liberator to this? Welcome to Nuremberg. An Coodoos to the brother of the Iraky victim for not being bribed, 10 000 Dollars for a life? Only in America!!!