Rev. Solomon.

Look, I am a Democrat, so we probably share some of the same views. But I am also a proud former US Force Recon Marine, with service is Kosovo and Sierra Leone. So, I find it upsetting that you would characterize the brave warriors of the US Military as "Terrorists". We are a moral military. Unlike terrorist scum such as Zarqawi, we do not blow up car bombs in the middle of cities, or abduct and decapitate inncoent civillians. We ruthlessley assassinate terrorist scum, who DO all of the above, for no reason. The insurgents who are fighting because they believe we are occupiers, are one thing. I don't like them, but I respect that they fight becuase they honestly believe us to be a foreign invading army. Those insurgents are not unlike the members of the Jewish Irgun, IRA or American Revolutionaries, who all fought against occupation (although I would argue that American occupation is far more benevolent then the Brits ever were).

Regardless, "SARGE", has it right. These people (and others like Hezbollah leader Imad Mugniyah) must be ruthlessly hunted down, and killed...so as to send a message, that America is not to be triffled with, we arte the most deadly military machine in history, and the teeorist cowards must be shown that first hand.

PS. The only sad part is that if A war hero like John Kerry, or John McCain, or a highly competent guy like Joe Biden were in charge of our country...we would be alot further along. Instead we have war dodging cowards like Bush and Cheney running our country, and anit-American scum like Ann Coulter, infesting it. Once we replace those losers...this country will become the great nation it was under Kennedy, Reagan, and Clinton.

Peace Rev. And try and calm down a little, bro.

SARGE...Keep kicking ass and taking names brother.

Task Force 145 operators should be allowed to take out Hezbollah and Al Qaida traing camps in Iran and Syria. Spec Ops and CIA Special Activities Division (paramilitary) agents should also be allowed to hit terrorists in Europe and
other areas, similar to the way the Israelis did after Munich.

Delta, SEAL 6, FBI HRT, and CIA SAD people are the best manhunters on the planet, if Bush had any guts, he would let our military fight this war without tying thier hands. Al Qaida and Hezbollah members and leaders should be assassinated and captured around the world, we need more "Zarqawi" type killings, and not just in Iraq.

Bush's billions, spent for security? or is it simply a disguised socialist ploy to pump taxpayer's money into a failing economy.
Bush's priming of the economic the pump would do Franklin Roosevelt's depression relieving efforts proud.
There are however some ugly aspects here, giving the government snoop powers in order to create an enemies list.
Citizens can fight this by simply stiving to get on the list, makeing it an accomplishment to be so named.
"I made the enemies list" could become the rallying cry of American's seeking to preserve their basic freedoms.
If everybody is on the list how does the Government sort the good from the bad. The only way is to build a concentration camp for everybody, then who pays the taxes to support all of this.
Even without such a citizen protest, under present circemstances how do you know if the Government has a good reason for putting you on the list.
You may have been accused by your mother-in-law.
The Ganaraska Think Tank (Canada) is proud to offer it's deliberations to our neighbours in a gesture of helpfullness.

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_723.shtml

Who is behind "Al Qaeda in Iraq"? Pentagon acknowledges fabricating a "Zarqawi Legend"
By Michel Chossudovsky

and can you explain this?

The recent article on SOCOM, JSOC and TF-145, although very informative, is, in my opinion, a flagrant media violation of releasing sensitive/classified security information into the public domain...a problem that has been ongoing far too long and needs to STOP! The United States, rightly or wrongly, is engaged in a war against radical islamic tyranny where brutality and barbarism drives there every-day rules of engamement. When we violate sound rules of Operational Security by puplishing our capabilities, units, commanders, missions, and locations, we are playing into our enemies hands and making it more difficult and dangerous for our forces to operate. Rest assured our enemies have paid as much attention to your articles as others have. Perhaps one reason Bin Laden and Zarqawi are still alive and operational is the vast amount of operational information they receive through the media and the internet. Have we forgotten "A Loose Lip Sinks Ships?"

or this:

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_723.shtml

Who is behind "Al Qaeda in Iraq"? Pentagon acknowledges fabricating a "Zarqawi Legend"
By Michel Chossudovsky

and can you explain this?

why are the current president and his staffers not wearing orange jumpsuits with manacles around their waists?

how many people do they have to kill before you stop them?

.

Rev. Solomon,
I have been around a long time and seen things that would make even you question your faith.
I believe fully in the difference of opinions and the freedom to express those opinions.
However, your misguided rhetoric might be well-intentioned but it is a danger on a subversive level.
You are not opening anyone's eyes in the manner which you speak. I do not fear you for being different. You are condescending, aloof and arrogant in the fact you hold your opinion and only yours - that also makes you a hypocrite.

IN REPLY TO THE MEN & WOMEN IN ARMS who wrote into the blog yesterday:

(And forgive me AE, this might be lengthy)

First of all, due respect to all of you who SINCERELY believe that you are doing the right thing by serving in the United State's Military, and to those of you who SINCERELY believe that you are protecting us from an enemy. You are therefore willing to give up your lives in support of those ideals. Hopefully, each of us entered into our respective professions with the hope and expectation of helping people, preserving life and saving humanity!

Having said that, overnight I thought more about some of the comments that came from some of the military leaders and personnel on the blog yesterday, particularly, the one comment that labeled me as a 'DANGEROUS PERSON". You did not offend me for I have been aware of that strategy (military term) for several decades now, most of us have been aware. Demonizing people or labeling people or ideas is a strategy that has historically been used by the coy, also patented in the West, in order to short-circuit ideas that differ from one's own ideas, and/or to neutralize individuals that have differences of opinions.

Sadly the practice of demonizing and labeling, unfortunately works, given that many Westerners are not always willing to do any critical thinking. Many Westerners, as long as they are prospering, are willing to simply go along with the status quo, well at least until something affects them or their loved ones that is. Other than that, many Westerns are detached and seem only interested in living a comfortable lifestyle even if it is at the expense of other people or nations around the world, my opinion!

Ironically, your comment made the point that I have been trying to make, i.e., that when anyone's viewpoint(s) differs from the Western viewpoint, they become dangerous or evil, and therefore neither the individual nor their ideas matter any longer. Should I be taken out, or silenced then? Having a difference of opinion does not make one a dangerous person. What is dangerous is narrow-mindedness, the blind misleading the blind (particularly those individuals who are so willing to be misled), and the demonization and labeling of people who do not share your viewpoint(s)! What is really dangerous in the eyes of most of the world is the preemptive and mostly unilateral action that took place and is taking place in the nation of Iraq. Many nations know that if America did it to Iraq, they could potentially do the same to them; be worried Iran.

I am not the one that has killed innocent people, I am simply trying to help stop all of the venal kinds of violence, including Western Style violence, that too many of you still crave, support and see as the exclusive way of resolving differences. As a civilian, you folks serve the will of civilians. Frankly, I feel that you folks were misled (some of you willingly). I have heard that some American soldiers were so bored leading up to the days of the invasion, that they simply wanted to get going and to see some action. They did not seem to care much about what action meant to the lives of many people.

As an aside, a pastor associate of mine, once a Chaplain in the military himself, counseled a very discouraged young active-duty soldier once. This soldier was despondent over the prospect of killing people in Iraq. He counseled the young man to just kill the enemy (depersonalization) quickly and put him them of his misery. Well, needless to say, I disagreed with my associate, and I am sure that the innocent Iraqi's who were quickly put out of their misery, would disagree as well if they could. I will speak for them and try to keep the same from happening to anyone else!

Now let's consider Jesus, he was once labeled a treasonist insurrectionist and blasphemer. Or better yet, in the history of our own country let's consider that dangerous freedom-fighter Dr. Martin Luther King. He was demonized and labeled as a communist, and all he did was what the American people and the Government of the USA should have been doing themselves, working for the rights and freedoms of all Americans. Makes me wonder, why you military-types were not so animated and effusive about defending or fighting for freedom for the oppressed in this country? Well we won't get into the part that the military played, given your own records of race discrimination in the military, we all knew what side the military was on, oops!!!

Well, what happened to Jesus, Martin and others, once the, "dangerous", target had been placed on their backs? These weaponless, defenseless, but dangerous individuals were murdered by the good people like yourselves, those who actually believed in killing in order to preserve the status quo, and to maintain a hold on power. Frankly, the enemies of Jesus were correct in one regard, Jesus was dangerous.

In fact Jesus was a lot like Osama when you think about it, i.e., a revolutionary freedom-fighter who wandered around in caves and spoke out against all evil and indecency, no matter who was responsible for it (GO TELL THAT FOX... Jesus said). .

And having said that, isn't it ironic how Osama and Saddam's labels changed in the West (not their behaviors), once they switched sides, i.e., from fighting the Russians in Afghanistan, and their own internal enemies instead of attacking the Iranians, which the USA wanted at the time?. I suppose that my "dangerous" label might change if I was to switch sides and join in with the Coalition of The Misguided, but there is little change that ever happening!

For if pointing out the obvious in order to seek peace makes me dangerous to those who are narrow-minded and will kill people based on their unwillingness to reason, then I am proud to accept your characterization and to wear the label of being dangerous, for the truth has been also known to make people FREE, ironically, something that you folks say that you are frighting for now in Iraq.

And as I close, if being dangerous means that by telling the truth and pointing out wrongs (even those done by Americans), like Jesus, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King and others did, in order to bring about a lasting peace, then I AM DANGEROUS, for I never intend to stop, particularly, if it will stop the propagandizing, murdering, maiming and slaughter of innocent people by any individual or government, even my own!.

Before I go, lets review some of the other labels that we have used in the American lexicon to demonize individuals before moving in for the slaughter, i.e., DICTATOR, TOTALITARIAN, COMMUNIST, STRONG MAN, INSURGENT, SPY, TERRORIST, WARLORD, SUBVERSIVE, TRAITOR or as we have witnessed lately the wistful use of this term by so many on the Right, which helped to jettison this country into the mess that it is in now by squelching a dissenting opinion, LIBERAL!. Which one was Jesus, Liberal or Conservative?

And it seems that anyone or anything that does not go along with the American Totalitarianism today, would be accused of LIBERAL DRIBBLE; hey I like that LIBERAL DRIBBBLE!

Let me close with a few questions:

What do Americans call a nation that invades a sovereign country (on false pretenses) after telling the peacekeepers, the United Nations and its weapons inspectors, to get out or be killed, destroys a part of its infrastructure, takes down that countries government, murders, maims and wounds its citizens, and tells its own allies to get lost?

Answer: A Liberator.

Question: What do you call citizens of a country who rise up to defend their own homeland and culture,ala Iraqi's, who do not support the Western position?

Answer: Rebels and insurgents.

Question: What do you call individuals from other countries who come to support the citizens of a country that has been invaded by a foreign entity?

Answer: Enemy Invaders!

Question: What do Americans do and say having found out that the Just Cause that many of them supported, which resulted in murder and mayhem in Iraq, was based on fabrication and a desire to go to war by its current Administration?

Answer: Oh well!

Question: And what do you call those individuals who want peace, and will work for it and simply be truthful, even about the misdeeds of their own nation.

Answer: Dangerous!

If any of you know anything about Biblical eschatology, it should not come as a surprise to any of you that the United States of America has moved into the seat of Ancient Babylon, perhaps the White House will soon be moved there as well in order to facilitate world domination, okay the massive Embassy that is being constructed there, may suffice to dominate that portion of the planet, I'm not kidding, READ YOUR BIBLES! And I am praying for you folks who command our military and who are in our military. Hopefully, you will learn what it means to fight for the Just Cause of true and lasting peace!

www.onlinejournal.com
www.takingaim.info
www.wsws.org
otherside123.blogspot.com

http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/2304/1/1/

Wisconsin Bill to Ban Coerced Chip Implants
The state's legislative branch passed a bill banning anyone from implanting RFID microchips into people without their consent.

By Beth Bacheldor

May 2, 2006--Wisconsin's legislative branch cleared a bill late last week that would ban anyone from implanting RFID microchips into people without their consent. Assembly Bill 291, introduced on April 4, 2005, by State Rep. Marlin Schneider (D) will now move to the governor's office, where Gov. Jim Doyle is expected to sign it into law.

The legislation prohibits anyone, including employers or government agencies, from requiring people to have microchips implanted in them. Violators would face fines of up to $10,000.

Wisconsin State Representative Marlin Schneider

Rep. Schneider says he introduced the bill mainly to protect individual rights. "We ought not to allow employers to force this technology onto employees to track them every time they walk into a bathroom or leave a building," he says. "That is very intrusive, even more so than anything [George] Orwell ever dreamed of."

Schneider acknowledges that in certain instances, such as in some medical applications, it can be useful to embed an RFID microchip under a person's skin. In such cases, the microchip can be scanned wirelessly with an RFID interrogator to read the tag's unique ID number, then use that ID to access information about that person.

For example, VeriChip in Delray Beach, Fla., makes the VeriMed patient identification system, which is currently being tested on a small scale at several hospitals around the country (see N.J. Hospital to Accept VeriChip IDs). With VeriMed, hospital personnel can read a patient's unique ID number by waving an RFID reader over the general area of the implanted chip, then use that ID number to access a database securely containing identity and medical information.

The Wisconsin Assembly has asked Schneider and others to look into applications of the microchips "where it might be useful even without consent, such as using a chip in an Alzheimer's patient or in certain classes of criminals, such as sex predators, but you still have to protect the civil rights of these people," Schneider says.

If Gov. Doyle signs the bill into law, Wisconsin would be the first U.S. state to pass such a bill. At least one other state has eyed legislation that would ban the forced implantation of an RFID chip. In January, New Hampshire's House of Representatives passed a bill, HB-203. Among other things, this bill would have prohibited the implantation of an RFID tag into any person without their consent or that of a legal guardian (see N. H. Reps Approve Tracking Device Bill,).

In mid-April, however, New Hampshire State Senator Joseph D. Kenney (R) introduced an amended version of the bill. The sole purpose of the amended version was to establish a commission to study the use of radio frequency technology in the private and public sectors, as well as its benefits and potential privacy implications. The Senate then passed the amended bill, which has now gone to the office of New Hampshire's governorto await his signature.

Well, we do not all agree on every point, however, we were all respectful to each other and to each other's opinion,I felt. If only we could learn to do the same with non-Americans, particularly those non-Americans who live in other parts of the world, particularly those who have in my opinion, been wrongly demonized.

With respect to those of you who serve in the armed forces of this nation to purportedly defend it, remember, that the same applies to those who serve in their respective countries; they believe that their cause is also just and that they too are defending their countries.

Too bad that neither side realizes that there is a better way to reconcile differences. I really do hate seeing either group going about the business of killing each others sons and daughters, given that that their leaders sometimes refuse to sit down and amicably work out their ifferences.

Why doesn't that happen, because neither side will be intreated? Isaiah said that, our ways are not God's ways, and as high as the heavens...! Isa. 55

Great discussions, thank you Mr. Arkin.

al-Zarqawi will be quite easily replaced if he is killed. The United States is fighting an idea. The middle east believes, rightly or wrongly, that US presence in Iraq is western colonization under another name. Middle eastern pride will never acquiece to that.

This adminstation in its arrogance failed to understand that influence and control had to be exerted through indirect means. Hopefully, changes are coming, but its recent dealing with Iran suggest the same ineptitude.

The level of Pakistan's 'cooperation' in the WOT/LW seems to change according to the source and audience being addressed. Either way, AQ has already 'marked' Mr. Musharraf as a target, along with many other individuals.

With regard to Mr. Al-Zarqawi, IMHO, the insurgency in Iraq will not be hampered by his capture, in the same way that AQ's activities will not be hampered by the capture of Mr. Bin Laden.

Further information/clarification concerning Mr. Bin Laden's 'neutralization,' as cited in the article, would be appreciated, if available.

***
Army Backs Musharraf over Al-Qaeda Statement
2006-04-29 10:53:21

North Waziristan (Pakistan), April 29 (DPA) The entire Pakistani army is behind President Pervez Musharraf, a senior military spokesman said Saturday in reaction to a call by Al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri for Musharraf's overthrow.

'There is no doubt about (the army's support). There is complete unanimity and unity for taking the war against terrorism to its logical end,' chief military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan told reporters in Shawal, a mountainous area in the North Waziristan tribal region, near the Afghanistan border.

In a video posted on the Internet, Zawahiri urged the people of Pakistan to topple Musharraf, accusing him of leading a 'Zionist-Crusader assault' on Muslims.

On Friday, the Pakistani leader who faced domestic criticism for his close cooperation with the US in the anti-terror war, again denied that his country's fight against extremism and terrorism was for the benefit of the US.

'When you talk about fighting terrorism or extremism, I am not doing that for the US or Britain, I am doing it for Pakistan,' he said in an interview to Britain's newspaper Guardian.

--

Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden are also believed to be hiding in the mountainous terrain between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Giving details of military operations to a group of journalists, Sultan said the army lost 56 of its troops in North Waziristan, since their deployment in the troubled region in July 2005.

--

Area's military commander Major General Akram Sahi, responsible for security in North Waziristan, Khyber and Mohmand tribal agencies, said army troops have conducted 39 major operations since July 2005.

'I am here to kill or capture terrorists. We chase them wherever they are,' Sahi said.

Violence in North Waziristan has increased since March after some 146 suspected militants were killed in a military operation coinciding with US President George W. Bush's visit to Islamabad.

At least 55 alleged Islamic terrorists were killed during different military operations in the North Waziristan region in April alone.

Both South and North Waziristan regions that straddle the Afghan border in the west have been the sites of frequent violence after the US-led military attack toppled the radical Taliban regime in Afghanistan in late 2001.

http://indiaenews.com/2006-04/6112-army-backs-musharraf-al-qaeda-statement.htm

I like Naylor's work, but I am dubious about the intelligence. The Bush Administration doesn't do intelligence. It does disinformation. Both Syria and Iran were closely associated with Shia resistence groups targeting Saddam Hussein. I don't buy these countries supporting terrorism against the Shia population. After the war, Hakin made a visit to Syria pledging support for his Syrian (Arab) "brothers". It dodesn't add up.

There are those who are trained to believe that the 'military' keeps America safe and exists as an extension of the will of the people.
What an immature and bothersome perspective.

To believe that there is not a nine-degree of separation (metaphorically speaking) among all people is to walk through life with your eyes closed.

The military is an extension of the current political state, just as the Roman Legions (once were) and have nothing to do with 'safety'.
Unless we are invaded or directly threatened, there is no place for the military. Then again, that's why the military makes war.

There is no honor in killing or maiming innocent people, for you become the enemy. This is the very essence of American honor. To claim to be a vet who has no issue killing and accepts the issue blindly is to expose you for the fraud that you are. I wouldn't be surprised if you were actually an adolescent pretending to be 'GI Joe'.

As for those who want to believe that peace is impossible, I say you are the minority and suffer delusions of inadequacy.

The real threat isn't Zarqawi, but the corrupt politicians, pedophiles, general criminal element and non-educated citizens.
Why not take all of that effort and money and rid ourselves of the social disease that are evident in our over-medicated society?
There are certain people who want hate and live off the vestiges/rotted minds, which it offers.

Rev, Socrates is fine, although he would like some credit for the individual soul concept, although that is beside the point. You don't have to admit anti-Semitism to criticize Israel, although the 51st state is a bit of a stretch. I would agree that it is our failure to not criticize them when they deserve it, especially Sharon, although I don't think he is a terrorist, no, desperate, ruthless, iron-willed, yes, but a terrorist, I don't see it. I would argue that whether or not someone is a terrorist depends as much on why they use violence as it does on the methods they use. Sharon and Israel have been undeniably brutal, but we must remember that we don't have neighbors who would like nothing more than to subject us to dhimmitude, a rather brutal form of religious apartheid. The Palestinian Arabs for their part have been equally as brutal and I would argue even more so, since they kill commuters and cafe patrons on purpose while the Israelis at least go after the militants when they attack. As for what God has promised, well, that is a matter of faith and I will respectfully leave it at that. Suffice it to say that throughout human history there has been conflict and violence and since we don't seem to be evolving I don't think that will change.

Rev. Solomon,
You are wrong and your comments are inappropriate saying the military failed on Sept. 11.
Furthermore, your delusional rhetoric is on the same lines as a psychopath.
You are a dangerous person.

And finally, my apology for A.E., you know preachers are long-winded!

Did you ever read in the Bible about a sermon that the Apostle Paul gave. He preached so long that a man fell out of the window and died. Of course Paul brought him back from the dead.

I cannot bring you back from the dead, but I will condense!

Peace & Grace,

Thanks for 'trying to keep us safe', but if you noticed on 911, you folks failed miserably, except to hide the wayward policymakers and leaders in our nations, leaving the rest of us to die'; great job. Sarge, there are about 3,000 cadavers (those that weren't pulverized) to prove it. Now why did you fail? Because military action is not the solution to what ails the world.

Yes Sarge, there is much evil in the world, and a lot of it comes from the USA too, so lets call evil for what it is, evil. Even when evil is being done or promulgated by the USA or Israel, it is still evil!

With respect to the [immoral] equivalent, i.e., the USA in not in a position, given its own torrid past that would put Saddam and alZaqwari, Milosevic, Noriega, Papa Doc Duvalier, to shame, given its invasion, murder, genocide, rape and molestation of humans during the colonial, ante and post bellum period of this country. Shall I go on?

To repudiate or to attempt to bring any nation or people to justice is laughable at best.

The USA has yet to atone or apologize for its terrorist's deeds, fully supported by every branch of the American Government and many of its citizens, done to people in this country. Oh, and even now the USA will not allow ourselves to be brought before any world court, albeit, we will deliver other heads of state to tried for their alledged crimes!

And what is Ironic is that you folks consider those leaders who presided over the atrocities in this country to be heroes. Needless to say I don't, I consider them the killers and terrorists that they were! I suspect that God would consider them killers too. We will find out on judgment day!

I know that many of neocons and theocons in America hae been taught, in your churches, about Just Wars, but I am still waiting for you folks to explain how invading an innocent country was just, when many of you cried foul when the Saudi's entered this nation on 911 and did the same thing, albeit to a lesser degress than you did in Iraq!

Let me ask you, if you were an Iraqi and you just lost your mother, father, child or your whole family or home, wouldn't you consider the USA evil? I am sure that you would say no, for the USA brought the Iraqi's democracy.

Anyone who believes that, is (demo-crazy). The fact is, however that tens or hundreds of thousands of innocent people were injured, maimed and murmured in Iraq, not by American Defense, but by the American Killing Machine; and those persons did not do anything to the USA, neither did they deserve what they got.

So remove the beam from your own eyes and the glacier from your own heart and get in the real world, the world where we tell the truth, even when it applies to America!

Peace & Grace,

Zarqawi may be very bad, but I never suffer from the delusion that the US military is keeping me safe. Certainly not those folks in Iraq. They are on a fool's errand, and I feel sorry for them.

I'll say something for old-fashioned newsprint. When space was tight, so was the writing! That goes for columnist and comments alike.

Archmides, you do err... for it is not a delusional dream. God promised a day when the lion and the lamb will lay down together, he promised that all weapons of any type of destruction will be done away' the USA won't like that, have you heard about the latest generation of killing technology that has been developed?

How will this happen? Eventually those individuals who are on the lower rung of the primordial scale, the barbarians, will be removed from the planet, then the rest of us are going to have peace! I hope that you will be around to see it, then you can come back and apologize to me, well to God, oh whatever!

I will be sitting in my Garden, like Adam and Eve once had, sipping a cool drink of iced-tea, walking around in the cool of the day and occasionally writing into this blog, no, we will call it a 'Symposium', hopefully the Washington Post will still be around then(-: And when that day comes, instead of talking about war and killing, we will be talking about how serene and peaceful things are!

However, you are correct about America's 51'st state, Israel, their leaders are rather violent as well, always have been, just like their big brother the USA' its not just the Arabs Sharon was quite a terrorist himself!

The Apostle Paul's prayer for Israel (I guess he was anti-semitic)was that Israel might be saved, for he bore them record that they had a zeal but not according to knowledge. Until christians will hold Israel accountable for its misdeeds, there will never be peace in that region; they are culpable as well.

I keep referring you folks to Genesis, read where God's angel spoke directly to Hagar, Abraham's concubine, just as he did to the Virgin Mary.

Israel must stop slaughtering Abraham's other descendants, for THE USA and Israel are all partners in crime. Thank GOd, however, that even in Israel, many of their people disagree with their leaders and the warmongers, just as many of us do. Their are many Israeli's who feel that their leaders are headed in the wrong direction.

Isn't it ironic then that many American Christians still support the murder and slaughter of innocent people in the middle-East. And many of these same Christians wants to see Al-Zaqwari fry! It was those same kind of attitutdes that got Jesus killed!

Peace & Grace and how's Socrates?

wow, more diversions away from the Real War - meantime, the Brits just took over control of a district in Afghanistan from the Canucks, and both countries are showing signs of being about to bail, due to the lack of effort from the Yanks in fighting the Real War, while they're bogged down in the Fake War.

World peace reverend? I thought that particular fantasy had faded from popularity with LSD, well I guess not. It is ironic that you criticize the American people, whom you conveniently deem homogenous, for not respecting other people's views and right to self-determination. What about "our" right to such self-determination? What if we determine we want to fight Islamist wackos and that the only way to do so is to kill them?

World peace is a delusional dream of those who refuse to face reality. Conflict is a part of human nature, the infuriatingly primitive part of man I'll grant you, but an integral part none the less, and your combative rhetoric only proves it. Look at your own history. How many have died in the name of God? How many times in the Bible does God himself order the Israelites to war? The Israelites even carried the Ark of the Covenant into battle with them. The idea that the entire world can be at peace is simply naieve and is a waste of time.

THE ARTICLE WAS GREAT. THE BLOGS HOWEVER ARE VERY DISTURBING. REV C SOLOMON, ZARQAWI IS EVIL. YOU HAVE NO IDEA, OR YOU ARE NOT CAPABLE OF COMPREHENDING THIS BECAUSE YOU HAVE NEVER DEALT WITH THESE THINGS FIRST HAND. HERE IS A FACT THAT I WISH WAS NOT TRUE BUT IT IS. SOME PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD ARE BETTER OFF DEAD. DONT FORGET WHO WE ARE DISCUSSING. THIS MAN DECAPITATED PEOPLE WITH A TWELVE INCH KNIFE. IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THE POLICY. PLEASE, PLEASE, WATCH MR ZARQAWIS VIDEOS. THIS MAN SUFFERS FROM SEVERE PHSYCOSIS, AND THERE IS EVIL IN HIM THAT YOU CANT BEGIN TO IMAGINE. IVE BEEN TO FALLUJAH I WAS IN IRAQ FOR 13 MONTHS LOOKING FOR ZARQAWI. GOD BLESS TASK FORCE 145 AND GOD SPEED TO THOSE MEN. SLEEP WELL TONIGHT REV. SOLOMON. DONT FORGET WHO KEEPS YOU SAFE.

If there ever was an "all the king's horses and all the king's men" story, it must be Task Force 145.

They may be limited in Pakistan, but in Iraq they can blow up any building they want, kidnap or kill any person they want, and probably torture anyone, anytime ("secrecy gives it greater flexibility and more freedom of action"). TF 145 gets the best intelligence science and technology can provide, and probably has a larger budget than the NYPD.

So one has to wonder what TF 145's metric for success is? One might guess that several years of hunting a single individual who is widely visible, and not capturing or killing him, is an indication of significant failure.

Of course TF 145's performance should not be evaluated in isolation. The other 130,000 or so US troops in Iraq haven't done very well either - assuming their metric is providing security for the Iraqis.

i thought zwarqawi was an invention of the us? or at least his role has been exaggerated - now he has whole task forces breathing down his neck? why didnt they catch him, when they caught him on tape??? please arkin, more analysis, less opinion!

The more things change the more they stay the same, don't they!

Well, after all, it is the United States' turn to kill somebody; isn't that how things work on this Planet of the Apes, particularly given the current forms of leadership that we have around the world, including the United States, i.e., the combatants take turns slaughtering each other?

The real question is, how should we do it, poison, a bullet to the head, or a hell-fire missile from one of our unmanned drones that will pulverize him (he will never know what him)? Or, better yet, how about sending in one of our unmanned combat vehicles to do the job, perhaps we can catch him, his whole family and his camel together and (forgive me Lord) blow them all to hell?

People, I am still looking forward to the day when the more enlightened people of the earth, probably women, will be in charge of the affairs of all nations on this planet, for it is truly time for a new dispensation and a new way of doing things. Men, we have had our chance, and look where it has got us to, a killing standoff!

Look, America can kill Zawari and Osama, imprison Sloban (who recently died on his own, at least thats what we were told), keep Noriega, Saddam and others locked up, but has anyone noticed that the problems persist (I suspect because none of the American Terrorists/leaders and policy-makers have been brought to justice yet? The other reason is because killing people, does not kill the ideals that people are fighting for the good ones or the bad ones.

Many Americans simply do not respect the ideals and ideas of other people, nor do they believe in their right to self-determination without interference from the United States. Whatever you believe, you cannot kill all the other 7 billion people on the planet who don't think like Americans. Well, on the other hand America might do that if any entity or nation attempted to remove it from its current seat of pre-eminence in the World.

Unlike Osama, who the USA never wanted to kill from the onsent (I said that a week after 911), they really needed Osama, their poster boy, to be alive and well which would justify what have been their most recent crusades/incursions into Afghanistan and Iraq. Watch out Iran, you're next bucko! I am sure that the USA will kill al Zakarwii though if they get the change, just as it killed and dragged the bodies of Saddam's boys through the street, how barbararic, for it will make it appear in the Western Press. anyway, that America is making progress in the war on terrorism; you know that you have to kill everyone in the card deck and a few more, to make your point. That action will satiate the American pallets, Americans are barbarians and addicted to killing you know! Americans would enjoy watching him being killed and shown on the 6pm news, pass the dinner rolls honey, I am sure that some will say!

We need some enlightened people with real ideas that will work to bring about world peace. The American strategy of killing all of the so-called terrorists besides their own, has not worked, in fact it never will! America missed an important internal lesson in its own brief history, i.e., how to live with people in America who don't look like, act like or walk like white Americans. Having learned that lesson would have taken America a long way in learning to share the planet with other diverse and indigenous people, rather than continuing to try to dominate, force and inveigle the world into doing what America wants them to do or to live in the manner that Americans prefer.

Remember too and God gave me this one, "WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO BECOME A NATION OF RECENT HISTORY". Okay, back to the killing, whose turn is it next?

We need to continue to work with Pakistan -as unsavory as it is. Should we attack Iran, we need them to stay out of the fray. All the more reason for the adminstration to take the nuclear option off the table.

I thought "you're either for us or against us". If Pakistan is blocking US efforts to find bin Laden then I'd have to conclude Pakistan wasn't for us (besides proliferating nuclear technology throughout the world). Maybe we just aren't that serious about catching bin Laden.

Well, this was a great article, until the last little bit. Arkin's hatred of all things officially secret seems to cloud his judgement from time to time. It is, I think, better not to say that Pakistan is standing in our way, thereby risking embarassing Pakistan, than to risk losing what support we do get from Musharraf. Sometimes what we need to do isn't what we would necessarily like to do, and this is often the case in matters of diplomacy. It is always good to remember that foreign leaders, like our own, have large, fragile egos that often require a good bit a massaging if we want them to play along and feel decent about it. In this case the greater benefit comes from working quietly, and yes secretly, behind the scenes to try and convince Musharraf to let SOCOM forces into Pakistan than it is to turn the issue into an episode of Oprah where everyone airs their dirty laundry. If this means that it is hard for the media, mainstresm of otherwise, to do their job and report then tough. I am continually amazed at how on one hand they say it isn't their responsibility to keep secrets, just to report facts, while on the other they cry foul and whine when they can't get any info out of the government.