Either name the superior officer who gave you the order (and then testify at his trial) or take the fall for his crime.

"Make My Day,"

Bush must love the Dirty Harry idea of taking out random Iraqis with a "Go Ahead - Make My Day" challenge.

"Baiting is putting an object out there that we know they will use, with the intention of" blowing the natives away, regardless, Didier sorta admitted in the statement.

"Basically, we would put an item out there and watch it. If someone found the item, picked it up and attempted to leave with the item, we would" blow his head off, regardless of age, lack of criminality, or perhaps the person's legitimate intent to turn the bait into the proper authorities.

It's not the kind of warfare the US Army should be proud of.

What a wonderful way to win over hearts and minds! NOT

If someone where to write a modern version of THE UGLY AMERICAN (published during the sixties) for this war it would be too heavy to lift with a forklift. It is really going to take a century to unearth all the corruption set in motion by Bush/Cheney, and make amends and correct it.

I am again calling for a law that our "War President" lead the troupes on the ground in battle in the manner of Caesar, Henry 8, or Napoleon, being a real commander rather then a honorary one.

I am wondering about this private mercenary phenomenon, there is the historical example of the feudal lords of the middle ages attracting private armies, waring against neighbor Kings and setting themselves up as overlords, offering protection from, made up bad guys, in exchange for blind loyalty from the serfs (us). As I study about my patriot ancestors casting off another King George it seems we are peddling backward very fast and are in real danger of loosing the benefits of three centuries of cultural evolution in a mere 6+ short years.

New Sniper bait and shoot playset, by Mattel, it's Swell.

(Your Neo-Con Dad puts it together!)

What is that? Jamal said to his wife as he walked over and picked up an object he noticed sitting by the road, in front of his house. With horror his wife and children watch as his skull explodes,, and within seconds hear the report of the shot which killed him. In shock, the children run to his side as their mother drops to the ground and cradle's the man she has loved for the last twenty years, Crying, oh God why? The children in bewilderment and stunned silence cannot as yet comprehend the death of the man they knew as their father. The man who loved them and kept them from harm,,, and yet already in the back of their minds, a anger is building, a hatred for the ones who have done this, and who have done this to others. In the days to follow they will vow to kill thoughs who had done this, and will join together with others who have had their loved ones, and families killed, understanding fully now, how they felt when there families were destroyed by the hated Americans. Jihad they will say, we shall kill them as they have killed us, they are animals, we shall bring destruction to their homeland and people as they have to ours. Kill the hated Americans.

Yep,,, Thats how it starts folks.

Thank you, Yarply. Well done. You said it much better than what I had planned. Whoever came up with and approved this stupid idea should be drummed right out of the service. It's things like this that we need to MoveOn because they "BetrayUs" to the world as what we have become.

And, Erika - Private mercs are not a recent phenomenon. They have always been around. King George employed them (mostly the Huns) against the rebels in America. They were considered to be better skilled and more dangerous opponents than the regular British soldiers. Mercenary soldiers have been available all through history. Any time you hear of a revolution going on some place you can be assured the mercs are there on one side or the other, sometimes both. Almost every tin-horn small country dictator will have a few of them on the payroll for personal protection and "midnight missions." As personal body guards mercs are more trustworthy than loyalist countrymen who have a habit of switching loyalties. Mercs may be in it for the money but most are psychotic about giving their word. They have "complete the mission" mentality. They will usually bail out and save their own ass when they see it's a lost cause but rarely will they turn on an employer.

Today, they are not confined to Iraq and Afghanistan, those are just the places that are receiving the attention. The only difference, now, is that they are such a large and public army for hire. It is accurately estimated that one with the money could hire himself a quarter million strong fully trained privare army with no problem. Not anywhere near comparible in firepower to our regular US army but fairly well equiped for what we call light combat. That means they don't have ships and planes and artillery nor do their helicopters have the rockets or other stuff that goes BOOM in a big way. But on the ground they can be a very effective force with a variety of light weapons.

What Blackwater has done is to remove the anonynimity the mercs have enjoyed by being small independent groups, out of sight out of mind.

Hey Seal, have you ever heard of the Rasmussen Reports
web page? do you know anything about its veracity? The 'About us' link on this site says its an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information. Just wondered what you know about this (or anyone else who cares to comment)

Klaus: I've heard of it but don't know anything about it - sorry. I don't shop around much. I only post my thoughts here because of the forum CHB provides. This is the best. Also, I'm not interested in chasing down statistics or reading the nonsense you find on so many sites written by people who think they are so damn smart. Especially those who go running their keyboards about the war and the military when they have no experience at all with either. If you try to educate them they become offended and agumentative to no purpose.

I don't argue with the right wingers. That is a waste of time. They block out all facts and reality. They are the dumbest people on the planet. Too many phonies and pretenders on the internet. CHB has real people who know how to disagree with each other. And I have learned a lot here.

The reason I mentioned this Seal is I was on a San Francisco Times web story reading a comment claiming that this Rasmussen page poll claimed only 23% polled said the MoveOn Betrayus add helped 'the cause' against the occupation.

Not ever having heard about the Rasmussen polling site I went to the comments page on the Rasmussen story finding a posting citing a Rasputin poll (huh! whazat?) saying 49% weren't paying attention to the coverage of the ad at all.

So anyway, long story short, this commentor on the SF Times page was just lambasting the MoveOn Betrayus as detrimental and cited just this one Rassmussen polling report as incontravertible proof of the inappropriateness of the add.

I'm just sick of Milquetoast Democrats disaproval of the MoveOn add being detrimental to the Democrats when the Dems have long been detrimental to themselves.

Anyway, Yes Seal, CHB is the best site for intelligent political discourse with people of the highest caliber to discuss current topics and has the most satisfying
comment pages I've ever participated in and I'm so glad I discovered it. I always need a dose of all the regulars on Capitol Hill Blue on a regular basis.

I think the MoveOn add shocked a lot of people and they are trying to figure out what it means to the issue. This is the first time since Bush took over that anyone has outright challenged them and it has caught people off guard. It really is a shame the dems didn't get behind it and use it as the spring board to attack the BushWar.

It was the perfect opportunity to take the repugnants on and put them in their place. The general did betray us and it was so easy to prove that all the ranting and raving by the repugs would have shown them for what they are.

But, true to form, they fold up and slink off with their tail between their legs. We have a choice of voting for criminals who want to destroy the Constitution or a bunch of cowards that are afraid to do anything, even when it is obviously the right thing to do. The dems will undoubtably win total control of the congress but I have no faith in correcting any of the damage. Some repugnants will yell at them and they will give up.

We're in real trouble. We'd be better off if we went into the end zone Dog Pound at a pro football game and grabbed 512 (?) people out of the stands to be the congress.

This is inhuman. Even I tend to stop to look at every piece of garbage lying on the street if it seems unfamiliar to me. I understand it's not the same thing but anyone could stop just out of curiosity.
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Mary-Anne Davis, voip articles writer.