Your sentence reads in the present tense, so I have been trying to figure out who <i>Khomenei</i> is. I give up.
Okay, I am confused...you say you know historical facts which directly contradict your generalized assumption re: Christians, and yet you claim to be insulted by my question on that matter...It would have been better had I asked if you were purposely ignoring historical facts you are aware of in order to not see the error in your assumption? How would you react if I were to say that I find it hard to believe that any world leader would allow his people to be murdered repeatedly...than you were to say that I must not have heard of Stalin...and I were to respond that I was insulted, as of courseI know about Stalin, and that your post was ridiculous? I am befuddled.
To me it appeared you were intentionally trying to be offensive. This is why I found it insulting. Perhaps I misinterpreted the demeanor of your response. You responded with WW2 in a general context. Its difficult to interpret whether your reference was to Hitler's faith backed slaughter, the Church's reluctance to condemn the Nazis movement or other.
At least we know who's paying for Bechtel's part of the rebuilding of Iraq: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationw...sh_lat,1,1260385.story?coll=la-home-headlines Soldiers Discover $650 Million in Baghdad Boxes of U.S. currency are found by accident in an upscale neighborhood where Republican Guard, Baath party officials had lived. BAGHDAD -- Two Army sergeants went searching for saws today to clear away branches that were blocking their Humvees. But they stumbled across a sealed-up cottage that aroused their curiosity -- and ultimately led to the discovery of an estimated $650 million in cash. The sergeants tore down a cinderblock and concrete barricade blocking the cottage door and found 40 sealed, galvanized aluminum boxes lined up neatly on the stone floor. Breaking open one box, they were stunned to discover 40 sealed stacks of uncirculated $100 bills -- $100,000 per stack, or $4 million in the box. In all, the 40 boxes were assumed to contained $160 million. But there was more.
There isn't much harm from the fringe left yet, but there seem to be a lot of extremists. Lots of them are accusing Bush of creating a war for oil, saying that the US is a colonial power, believing in all types of conspiracies about the government (like something about a pipeline in Afghanistan, or that the US orchestrated 9/11), etc. Sure, there are some right- wingers who join the KKK and militias. But I rarely hear from them. They don't march in the streets or have radio stations like Pacifica Radio. Their numbers pale in comparison to the numbers who listen to Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly, who may be annoyng but aren't extremist.
Did you guys actually think we would knock out Saddam and then leave? Get real ! We are there to stay, and for a long long long time. Maybe 50+ years. We will leave when the democracy in their country is fully established, heck, they may be like Germany and not want us to leave, just have our military as their protector. We will be there as the ruling government for up to a year, then we will transition power to the democratically elected Iraqi government and leave a nice big military base in Iraq for years. Anyone think it will be any different, is just not being honest. DD
I didn't see it as that. I saw it as them voicing what they want. It's as if that is what their political party wants. Now people will hopefully get to vote against it or for it as they see fit. They weren't saying join us or die, or behaving like the Taliban, which is definitely forcing their will on others. All these guys have said is 'No Bush No Saddam, Yes Yes Islam.' They want to get on with governing their country, and not have that country being dictated to them by Bush. Like I said, I wouldn't vote for them, and I hope most Iraqis don't, but they deserve to at least be in the running, since they have a significant number of people who agree with them.
That was not my impression of what the protestors are saying. The protests began as they left prayer... 'feelings on the streets of Baghdad on Friday when Muslims poured on to the streets, calling for an Islamic state to be established. ' http://uk.news.yahoo.com/030419/80/dy34k.html I don't care if they elect fundamentalists. It's not my desire, but I agree that it's for the Iraqis to decide. I would not budge on the demand for a democracy. I am not convinced that the 'Islamic state' that the clerics envision includes the right to vote for all.
