Well Gab, it's not like our soldiers are roaming the streets shooting everything that moves. What we are killing are thugs. Iranian backed thugs. And the more of them killed, the better the rest of the Iraqi people will be. So I'm with Timber. I want Sadr's head stuck on one of the minarets at this mosque.

I don't care about the thugs of Sadr, what I was refering to is innoccent people who (unfortunetly) are getting killed in the crossfire. As for Sadr, he should be starved out of the mosque and captured. He shouldn't be made a martyr.

Night Stalker summed it up for me, Gab. I root for my team. Even above innocent bystanders, and certainly above those who would do Americans harm. Do I think the American life is worth more than the Iraqi's life? Hmmm.... an interesting and a complex question, and one that I am certainly not capable of evaluating at a time when my emotions would dictate the answer due to the ongoing conflict.

I wonder what al-Sadr is hoping to achieve with all this.

I understand this to some degree. But what is the exchange rate on Iraqi lives. Is one American worth 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000 or 100,000 lives? Or is it, as was once posted on IW the case that 1 American life is worth 1 million foreign lives?

Why not neutron bomb the whole world? Then you would be safe!

I think you understand it more than you think Donut. Try to imagine your feeling if the next journalist abductee displayed by Al Jazeera is a Brit.

And I don't know why people that are so diametrically opposed to guns/war/violence (and believe me, I am a soldier .... these thing are not on my list of important things to do in a day) think that the reason for advocating them is for safety. Safety is an illusion. A lie we tell ourselves everyday because most people can't handle (and don't want to either)the fact that we are food for worms that could be packaged and processed at a moments notice. It's much easier to tell ourselves that we are safe, go about learning our Ps and Qa, watch our stock portfolios grow, and make sure our picket fences are the same color white as everyone elses.

YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!! [img]graemlins/usa.gif[/img]

Erm... I mean good post, Night Stalker. [img]graemlins/heee.gif[/img] This little bit here I found really, um... interesting, if whimsically and poetically vague:

Exactly correct.

When you (Donut or Gab) see one of your own countrymen in danger, tell me how you place the exact same value on them as you do for a non-countryman. Cuz I won't believe a word you say. Not one damned word. People will always place the lives on their fellow countrymen on a higher pedestal than those of foreigners.

IMHO, a person who states otherwise is lying... lying to themselves and lying to everyone else. Any person will place the highest value on their immediate family. And the levels of value proceed downward from there. Immedidate family, extended family, neighbors, countrymen, allies, neutrals, and enemies. Oh, some people may describe it differently, but it comes out about the same. You value those closest to you the most and those furtherest from you the least. It's simply human nature.

I understand this to some degree. But what is the exchange rate on Iraqi lives. Is one American worth 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000 or 100,000 lives? Or is it, as was once posted on IW the case that 1 American life is worth 1 million foreign lives?

Why not neutron bomb the whole world? Then you would be safe! </font>[/QUOTE]That depends are we talking open market prices or Gov't controled market prices ;)

We can't drop the neutron bomb on the whole world, who would make our sneakers, CD players, & computers? Beside if we did that some small furry creature might wander into the area then we would have to deal with PETA. And the exchange rate of dealing with PETA is not very good. ;)

John D, you get 2 :D :D and a minimum sentence of 3 [img]graemlins/whackya.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/whackya.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/whackya.gif[/img] for bringing animal rights into a debate that has nothing to do with animal rights.

Now, someone else will come along and string you up for the sneakers & CD players comment.

I was trying to come up with a conversion factor between US lives and lives of other countries, but kept getting an imaginary number.