[tetsumi]

In agreement to the post above, and in explanation of my post earlier in this thread, there are some things that people say with complete disregard to the facts and to the opinions of other people.

The fact that you would debase my sacrifice in going to Iraq and fighting there to saying that I was part of a xenophobic massacre just infuriates me. Admittedly, my other post was perhaps a little too aggressive, but you know, you say things like that, and all I can think of are the friends of mine who were blown to tiny little bits by IED's, or the one friend who was shot in the back of the head only a month away from coming home. You know, when I saw him, his brains were coming out of his mouth. I listened to a man I didn't even know burn to death inside of a Humvee because we couldn't get the doors open to save him. Fortunately, there was a rocket in the trunk that eventually detonated and ended his suffering.

Not that things like that don't happen to Iraqi's as well, but I can assure you that I and the others in the US military go to great lengths, often exposing ourselves to more risk, to avoid killing innocent civilians. I promise you. Though I'm sure that this post did not have the desired effect on you, I do hope that it made you pause for just a moment. I am not a murderer, I still have pictures on my computer of two little Iraqi girls I gave candy to while on patrol. They smiled and jumped up and down like it was the greatest gift they'd ever gotten! Just because you join the military doesn't mean you lose your conscience. It just means that you learn to temper your emotions in order to keep yourself alive.

So far as I know, there have never been any videos of Americans cutting the heads off of insurgent prisoners with pocket knives. But it's standard procedure for them. I know personally one man who was victim of that, and it happened to almost 20 men in the seven months that I was there. Just something to think about.