I say this, and I’m not even a supporter yet.

I say this as someone who believes that Gore will be drafted, and Hill will be VP.

That has been quite clear for some time.

There’s a historical story about the Progressive Republican U.S. Senator “Fightin’ Bob” LaFollette of Wisconsin. In 1922 he was running for re-election, and was scheduled to address the Wisconsin Legislature. His aides wanted him to repudiate his votes against WWI and other “patriotic issues.” Instead, LaFollette reaffirmed his votes, insisting he’d cast them again even with 20/20 hindsight, and told anyone who didn’t want a Senator like that to vote for his opponent. Even one of LaFollette’s enemies said, “I still hate that S.O.B., but I’m proud of him.” LaFollette won the election handily.

Increasing the size of the military is only necessary if you plan to 1) maintain tens of thousands of troops in Iraq for the foreseeable future (gotta populate those four mega-bases they’ve spend billions on, after all), and 2) further the policy of invading and occupying unwilling foreign countries, as Benjamin Friedman of the MIT Center for International Studies points out in this article.

And for those who think the Democrats are serious about really extricating the U.S. from Iraq, keep in mind that the Levin-Reid Amendment that got so much attention last week was NOT about withdrawal by any stretch of the imagination. (was utterly appalled to hear Barbara Lee of all people claim that it called for complete withdrawal by April 2008. I can’t imagine she would have lied about it, so can only conclude that she never actually read the Amendment – terribly disappointing!)

WE ALL KNOW WE SHOULD NEVER HAVE GONE INTO THIS ILLEGAL WAR IN THE FIRST PLACE. We all know that. For cryin out loud.

OK. Shirin, if you not a professional concern troll, at least give us that much credit.

It is also clear that while some of us recognize doing it at all as the central, overriding wrong, many do not. All too often these “we did it all wrong” discussions have the tone, and probably the purpose, of a “lessons learned” analysis for the purpose of improving the outcome of the next venture. It is very, very dangerous to ignore the fact that the only lesson that really needs to be learned is to refrain from initiating acts of aggressive conquest.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2809181.ece

The doctors — whose names were blacked out — said that the bullet holes were so close together that it appeared the Army Ranger was cut down by an M-16 fired from a mere 10 yards or so away.

And various other reporting that he was shot three times, and that it was eventually concluded that all the shooting was triggered by either a mine or remote control bomb.

So reporting is that the suspicion of murder is renewed.

Here’s the grains of salt. Not mentioned in stories is that bullet fragmentation from an M-16 gradually decreases with distance up to around 200 yards. No widely reported stories about studying tissue penetration (maybe an unreleased autopsy somewhere); just that three bullet holes close together seem suspicious. Note: in automatic mode, a standard issue M-16 fires not continuously, but in bursts of guess how many bullets; three.

It appears that there’s less real new information than is being advertised. Most likely we’ll never really know the answer unless the shooter is identified and gives up a confession. Meanwhile, it’s plausible that someone in panic with sweat and dust in their eyes at 50-100 yards could have mis-interpreted Pat’s reported arm waving as someone throwing a grenade, and fired a three round burst. A burst, with less time between bullets fired, would be more likely to hit a moving target closer to the same spot than individual shots, assuming the rifle is being held still enough against recoil.

LOL!

Traffic laws which the occupiers consistently ignore, forcing the Iraqis to also ignore them if the wish to increase their chances of survival!