The good news is that kind of statement, and that kind of thinking, ensures that you continue to lose this war. When you can’t think like the other, you’re certain not to win any hearts and minds, especially when you can’t understand perspective.

The bad news for you is that the argument is fully reversible, and becomes a justification for killing Loyd. Enter with an invading military force — man or woman, it doesn’t matter — you get burned.

Cheers.

That’s right: you too can be a “Smart dude”!

No matter what, Paula Loyd remains dead, and you’re still an idiot.

Somebody grant me my wish and write to me at:
lathropeamt@yahoo.com

My I.P. address is: 173.52.156.35
pool-173-52-156-35.nycmny.east.verizon.net

P.S.: I love your action heroes in Afghanistan, like Paula Loyd: they die, and they die for absolutely nothing. Words will always outlive, and have far more meaning, than any charred corpse lying in a ditch full of sewage…don’t you think? (Rhetorical question.)

In response to my comment about today & being able to spend it w/ ur mother:

I honestly feel for you that you no longer have your mother to share life’s many joys & I can’t begin to imagine what it’s like to lose a parent. I’m sure days like this are hard no matter how long ago the loss was. And just as I say you don’t know me, I have never claimed to know you. When I made the comment at the end of my post yesterday it was made with the most intent possible. I meant nothing other than what I said. If you weren’t able to enjoy today WITH your mother, I hope you found another way to enjoy it, because I do, in fact, KNOW, you are also a person, like everyone else we speak of.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

“For the record, working on basic womens rights is hardly Minnesota.”

No, it is not, because Minnesotans can work on this for themselves…but presumably Afghans, being an inferior species, need Americans to show them the way (at gunpoint no less).

Paula Loyd worked for the Pentagon. She wore a military uniform, and was accompanying a military patrol. You can say “embedded civilian” all you like, but clearly, from an Afghan point of view, your convenient justifications, rationalizations, and arbitrary classifications (that whitewash reality)…have no consequence. She was not working on a civilian mission, she was not a humanitarian worker, and if she had even half the brain people said she had, she herself would understand very well why she would be targeted.

I don’t get your Jordanian point at all…and to liken tourism to a war mission is…possibly a good argument after all.

Good job.

not a big difference either way.

The whole discussion avoids the point of the original post, which was to argue against a brutal double standard.

Omar Khadr may (for nothing has been proven) have thrown a grenade in self-defense (soldiers were actively killing anyone around, so there’s no doubt he was under attack). He was then shot 5 times in the back, carried back to jail, given medical treatment, then sent to be tortured, pissed on, and humiliated. He was 15 at the time.

For this, he has been in jail ever since – in solitary confinement, and he has developed issues with his eye sight. He has been dragged through urine. He has been waterboarded hundreds of times, and denied sleep regularly.

Remember he was 15, and soldiers were shooting and attacking his home.

Now this soldier Ayala murders someone out of rage – of which no one denies. He was angry, terribly angry. He was also put into a difficult position based on U.S. (and Canadian, etc) civilians support of a war that should not have happened.

If U.S. civilians didn’t support the war, it would not have happened. Soldiers depend on civilians to pressure gov’t to do the right thing. They sign up believing civilians will vote for the right people and the right causes… Every single person who screamed “support the troops” is also responsible for putting Ayala into this position where he had to invade a country, and witness a very normal reaction of people defending themselves. For this, we can only blame voters who knew damn well George Bush wanted blood.

So who knows how Ayala feels about the murder – but regardless, it was murder.

Now I hope we can see the double standard. Omar Khadr a 15 year old kid is still in jail. Ayala is set free. Omar Khadr had no choice, he was being attacked. Ayala had a choice, he wasn’t being attacked.

You should scream out inside when you think about this. It should run against everything you believe in.

You saying ANYTHING about her & what she was trying to do would be like me trying to “play” curling when I don’t even like sweeping.

As for the comment about bail… It was a guestimation based on a conversation I had w/a good friend who’s an attorney & 2 family friends; 1 who’s a local judge & another who’s a private investigator in town. So, there was a bit of research put into it, and I did say “about 50%”. I didn’t give an exact number.

With that, I wish you a beautiful Sunday & hope you have the pleasure of spending it with your mother.