When does it stop?

[142EBC]

Originally Posted by Brett A

...It seems, as a species, we are literally retarded in our development when it comes to war. Truth is, it takes a lot more intellegence (SIC?), courage and bravery to get along with cultures who have different world-views than it it does to kill them. To choose creative solutions over destructive ones takes a lot of work and is rarely simple, easy, or free of compromise....

Sounds good, tell that to the Jihadis though. I do believe this country has enough checks and balances, left and right, warmongers and peaceniks to keep us from pulling some rash move like arbitrarily killing several thousand innocent civilians. I spent a year in the sand-box and I know that losers that do stupid stuff to civilians and detainees alike are the exception, not the rule. I also know that I had the responsibility to keep my Soldiers alive; if an insurgent definitely had information about an IED planted for my troops and I didn't do everything I could to get it out of him or her, for the sake of ideals, the parents/children/spouses/family/friends/etc. would deserve a shot at me for not doing my job. I believe EITs (PC for torture) should be used as a last resort, and only used if there is no doubt the information is there to be obtained. Our guys live, their guys live.
Those that want to release photos of EITs and those that abhor EITs, spend a few nights on the road around Baghdad; be there when the photos are released... step up to the plate!
After the war, there might be a productive use for publishing these photos; right now the only use for these photos is to incite violence against Americans.
War is not pretty, war is not fair. War is not sanitary, War sucks. And BTW, we TOOK the first punch. We had more objectives than WMDs when we went into Iraq.
If you think you have all the answers, look at the things the new President has stuck with that were going to be changed once he got in office. I think, to his credit, he saw things from a new perspective once he was privy to more info and decided the info he was basing his proposed ideas/changes upon was incomplete.
Just my 3 cents' worth.
Mike