1

I think you went easy on Ted Rall. I would have liked to see this freak show on the Titanic while it was going down. He would have spent all his time cursing the captain out, asking why they had to go so fast to through a sea of icebergs, while everyone else secured a lifeboat.

Let's see where Teddys career goes from here.

2

Bravo, Joe.

3

What indefensible garbage! I expect this guy will go the way of Bill Mahr and have to fnd a new job soon.

4

Well done.

What's even more sad than Rall's cartoon is that he is likely reveling in this negative attention.

5

I'm curious as to what national publications would run such an appalling cartoon. The artist's intellectual dishonesty and insensitivity to the young man's family reflect poorly on him and his publishers.

6

Echoes of Kos?

How exactly does a man who gives up a $3.6 million contract to earn $18,000/year in the service of his nation's armed forces qualify as a "mercenary"?

I don't think you're living up to the statements you made in response to Joe's posting of his concerns regarding the degeneration of comments.

Joe,

fair enough. i do offering a differing viewpoint from many other 'Christians' that post here. i hope that doesn't get me censored. i do try to comment on the topic presented, and although i don't agree with you on your opinion or spin on them, they are good intelligent topics for debate.

thanks for the site. better and more intellegent than many. - dicknbush

7

>I'm curious as to what national publications
>would run such an appalling cartoon.

OC Weekly, LA Weekly, and all the other Alternative Freeps, for openers. OC Weekly runs his stuff every issue, plus a lot more Bush-bashing.

8

huh, why am i being quoted here? i've made no comment on this post.

9

dicknbush,

There was a quote attributed to you earlier. It read "Pat Tillman was a mercenary. Screw him." - a la The Daily Kos.

My comment was in reference to that (it would appear erroneously-attributed) quote. I've emailed Joe and told him that may feel free to remove my comments, as it would appear that they were made in response to something you never said.

I apologize for my comments in light of that fact, and I'm relieved to know that you didn't make the original, insulting statement.

10

"Tillman was a human being."

Great article about his memorial at

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/05/04/SPG5K6FD091.DTL

11

Jared,

cool.

Tillaman was Army and I respect his reasons for being in it. There are plenty of mercenaries, but they are contractors, not army or marines.

12

DNB,

The comment that Jared was referring to was posted under your name and email address. You've said some pretty outrageous things before but I didn't think you would say something like that. Since it didn't come from your usual IP address that you use, I figured someone was impersonating you in order to stir up trouble. I apologize for not catching it before anyone else read it.

If you discover any comments attributed to you that you didn't make, let me know and I'll delete them. I know there are many people around here who disagree with your views but to pull a stunt like that is pretty childish. Like everyone else, as long as you keep it civil you're always welcome here.

13

My comment is cross-posted from another blogger's post about Tillman...

I am, of course, anti-war, but I still hate to see American soldiers dying over in Iraq (which is one of the reasons I'm anti-war, but that's another discussion). The American casualty count this month is especially gut-wrenching. Despite being pro-war I find Tillman's story (passing up the huge offer and joining the military as a run-of-the-mill GI instead) to be incredibly inspiring, and I very much admire the man. I do find it tragic that he died for a cause I'm so completely opposed to, but one can always admire heroes even if they aren't fighting the wars you favor.

14

Tillman didn't die in Iraq, he died in Afghanistan. I suppose you were against that war too?

15

I support taking out Bin Laden, and in-as-much as the war in Afghanistan accomplishes that (and it has not been accomplishing that) I support that war. As I believe I've said on my blog before, I don't support the "War on Terrorism" and the effort on the part of the USG to eradicate terrorism worldwide. First, it's not a reasonable goal...it simply isn't possible to eradicate terrorism completely, although it is certainly possible and necessary to punish those responsible for the 9-11 attacks. Second, I don't believe it's our nation's prerogative to eradicate terrorism beyond our borders. So, though cleaning terrorists out of caves is an admirable thing to do, I don't believe it's the business of the USG to do such a thing...unless those terrorists are the ones responsible for the destruction of the WTC.

So, the short answer to the question "was I against the war in Afghanistan" is: it depends on the reason for that war. It seems to me that the troops still in that country as primarily there in a nation-building capacity, and I don't support that.