I guess survival in the Middle east means keeping yourself well armed and amongst friends.

Now that they've beheaded yet another, I am considering adding a kevlar collar to my psk. Fortunately, I have no plans to go to Saudi, unless they are going to hijack my plane on the way to Tucson, that is.

What a sad state of affairs.

Contractors in the Middle East are specifically forbidden to have weapons by US law, and probably the laws of the country they are in.

Bountyhunter

Indeed, and Very Well Put! Both from Personal Survival and Security Angles, -and from More National and Global Ones.

It's an Utter, Egregious, and Unacceptable Outrage once Again! As Much So as with our Earlier Berg. They Only Debase Themselves (As Well as their Cause!) when they Do Such!, Before the Eyes of the Watching World.

This Reminds me of something from back in my School Days. When we used to Talk About Someone Unduly Thinking they're "Big and Bad"! And in Need of some Disabusement, and Being Cut Down to Size! Contrary to the Image they so Present in their Video, -Big and Bad they are Not! Without Overdoing or Getting Caught Up Unduly in Pure Vengeance, Etc, -We as a Nation and People've Got to Watch our Backs!, -and Properly but Definitely Do Something About This!

I've Heard it said that No Man Stands so Tall!, -as When He Stoops Down to Help a Child! Similarly, -People All Over this World are Trying to Help and Heal! But by Contrast, -Look at What These Likes as we've again just heard of, -are Trying to Do! Someone once said, -that Anyone can Tear a Barn Down! But that it Takes a Carpenter to Build One!

Question is, -To What Extent Does the World so Watch? To What Extent are They Outraged, -and Consequently Make the Perpetrators Look Small, -as they *Really* Are? I Think Many Both Do, but Many Others also Don't! A Silver Lining / Flip Side, is that if X number of People Aren't Watching or Listening, -Such Perpetrators Get Ignored too!

I'm Very Merciful and All, and Don't Like to Get Rouled or Anything. But We've Got to See this as the Outrage it is! And Do All we Can towards Protection and Prevention. And to Do Something About This and Other Such Things, -as a Nation. (While Being Careful also Not to be Misled Off into Fights, -of an Enemy's Choosing, -Thus to our Disadvantage).

They're Putting a Challengeing Choice Before Us! Between our Resolve Not to Give In to them / Thereby Having them Effectively Winning, -and People's Only All Too Natural Desire to Live! So We're Gonna Have to just Sooner or Later, -in One Way or Another, -Root them Out!, and Neutralize and Wrestle them Down! This Ultimately Will be one of the Best Ways to Personally Protect Ourselves!, and Loved Ones / Others.

Berg and Johnson Situations should Thereby be Avoided. These Outrages are Something that we just Can't / Shouldn't Be Having! Both Individually and Personally to Anyone so Concerned, -and as a Nation.

I'll Get Off now, -I Don't Want to Possibly Risk getting Too / Unduly Political. For one thing, I Hope I Havn't Violated Improperly Commenting on Other Cultures or Countries. I'd Decided to Refrain from Posting on my Own, -but to Possibly Respond shud Anyone Else Mention Anything on it. Such has now Occurred, -but I've here also now said my Peace.

We as Individuals, a Nation, and a People, -Have Got to Do All we Can to Protect and Prevent!, concerning this! As Well as Towards Ending these Outrages and Preventing Further Such from Going On! [color:"black"] [/color] [email]benjammin[/email]

With all due respect, what did they expect? I mean, really. The United States invaded Iraq (without, it now appears, any legitimate provocation). Do you really think that American citizens have some God-given right to wander around in a war zone (where it's their own country that's at war) and not be considered legitimate targets?

America's attitude to the Iraqi defenders and their "abominable" methods of waging war reminds me of the attitude of the British commanders in the Revolutionary War/War of Independence, who were scandalised to find that the American "colonials", who were outmanned, outfinanced, and outgunned, were not only hiding behind rocks and trees (which made it very hard to shoot them), but were actually wearing camouflage clothing so the British redcoats couldn't see them until it was too late. How dreadfully unsporting of them! <img src="/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

As Captain Ericson said to the German U-boat commander in "The Cruel Sea" - "This is war. I'm sorry if it is too hard for you."

True, Some Iraqis Feel it is their Own Country, that we are Occupiers, and that they are Fighting for it's Liberation. / (And - Or Enslavement again under saadamedness or a Militant Theocracy). But Not All such Rebels are Native Iraqis.

saadam Brot this War and Conquerment Upon Himself and "his" Iraqi People! By his various Toe Steppings and Other Unacceptabilities. I Beleive that his WMD was Real, -but that has since been Hidden or Destroyed! It's Like him, -to so Put One Over on U.S. and the World!, -Unexpectedly and "In Our Face"! He was Granted Many "Out Oppurtunities", -Toward Avoiding the Onset of War! He Spurned and Nyetted them All! If Truly Innocent of WMDs, -Then Why Did he Continue to Block and Stymie Renewed Inspections?! Why Not Go Ahead and Have!, an "Oh Sure!, -Come On In!", -South African Style Openness?! His All Out *Not* Doing Such!, -Just Does Not Add Up or Comport, -with his Apparent, Suppossed, WMD "Innocence"!

True, they may Often be Employing "Rebel Tactics" against the Present "American Redcoats". But I Think that that Comparison Only Goes So Far.

For if nazis or Soviets were at a Comparative Disadvantage, -and so were Employing "Frontiersman Fightations", -I'd Consider Them to be No Less Worthy of Being at the Receiving End, of our Superior Weaponry / Firepower.

Rich or Poor, -If a Given Someone Wants to Wrongly and Unacceptably Clamp Down on Other Given Someones!, (nazis to Occupied Holland, Norway, Rusha, Poland, or France. / Iraqi Minorities, and Foreign Outsiders!, -Over their Much Larger Populace), -Via even "Frontiersman" Tactics, -Then They are Fair Game for What we Have Up our Arsenal! "Frontiersman" Tactics to Such Wrong Ends, -Remain Entirely Opposeable and Deploreable!

I Know that a Given Side can Tend to Think of it's Own Side or Views, -as Being "Holier Than Thou!", -or Purer and Nobler than it May Be! And to so Demonize or Belilttle the Other's Side or View.

But We were Fighting For a Truly Noble and Upstanding Freedom!, in Both Iraq and in our Own Revolution! Whereas By Contrast, -They in Mosul to Baghdad to Basra are Fighting For a Re-Imposition of saadam and fedayeen type Tyranny! Or an Ayatollah Style Militant Islamic Pandora's Box! And Many of Those Don't Even Put On a Pretense, of Suppossedly Working and Fighting For the Noble and Good!

As to *our* being "Outside Occupiers",-We Will Get Out When the Place is Sufficiently Safe and Secure! The Rebels Can Help and Hasten such Withdrawal!, -by Doing Things like Refraining From Attacking their Own Citizenry, Government, and Infrastructure! And They *Are* Getting Their Own Government Handed Back to Them!, -Very Soon!, -This June 30th! You'd Think the Rebels over there would Welcome That! But No!, -They Fight It!

I Don't Care What Remains *Otherwise* Understandable regarding such Frontiersman Fighting Techniques, -Fallujah Type Body Burnings, and Berg / Johnson type Beheadings, -I Consider to be Out of That! You can Add Bombing Many Red Cross and UN Innocents to that List too! There is an Area of Difference!, Between various Types of "Frontiersman Fighting"! -and I Beleive that your Rebels and Redcoats Analogy only Goes So Far.

I've Read an Earlier Post of your's along Much the Same Lines. To Which I again Turn your Final Line Right Back on such Wrong, Unacceptable Perpetrators, -"This is War!, -I'm Sorry if it's Too Hard for you!"

Using your Same Reasoning and Logic, -Could That Perspective of Their's be Extended to the September 11th Attacks Themselves?! I Think that the Vast Majority of Americans, -and Indeed People Thruout the World, -Would Consider that to be Over the Line, and Unacceptable!

It for One Thing Involves Innocent Civilians, -Not Combatants. Just as the Red Cross, UN Personnel, Translators, Iraqi Police and Law Enforcement, New *Iraqi* Government Ministers!, and even Unarmed Contractors also Are Mostly to Totally Innocent Non-Combatants! And How Bout All of the Innocent, Civilian, Iraqi Human Shields!?, -that this Other Side Routinely Uses?!

"Redcoats and Rebels" here Only Goes So Far! We are at War Too! For our Very Survival! Against Some Very Real, Able, and Determined Enemies! We All Too Have a Decision to Make! (Not that you've Decided Wrong!). This is War From *Our* End and Perspective Too! They of the Other Side Didn't Have to Throw the First "Conquering" Punches! I am Not Sorry that it so may Often be Too Hard for *Them*! [color:"black"] [/color] [email]aardwolfe[/email]

I could end all hostilities. Just demand all weapons and foriegn guerillas surrendered within 24 hours. The option? We put Saddam back in charge <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

In war and crime, the best way to find out why things started is to follow the money.

With my parents heritage that suffered under 400 years of the Ottoman Empire, my parents countrymen have no particular love for Middle Easterners. I have learned one thing from my parents and their countrymen about Middle Easterners and it is this: They do things in the passion of the moment and at times important to their beliefs. 911 is most of the Western worlds help line and has no meaning to Middle Eastern religons but in the jargon of Madison Avenue it will be easily remembered because of its association with our telephone help lines.

I believe that hormone driven Muslims were recruited and hijacked the planes and that few of them knew it was a suicide mission. I do not for one moment believe it was conceived or planned by Middle Easterners for the purpose of attacking Americans in their homeland. Because of the Madison Avenue angle of it occuring on 9/11, I believe it was designed by rich interests as a way of getting their hands on more oil and the money that wars tend to spend in their direction.

Those of you that think people whose main interest is the bottom cash line, regardless of their nationality could not kill their own, their friends, associates, or allies are only deluding yourselves.

It was and is about the money and what cemented my belief in that is the knowledge I gained about the people that ruled my parents heritage for 400 years and my beliefs in the way Madison Avenue advertising works.

Bountyhunter <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />