PC, Jeep, Nick Berg

Welp, I have a brand new Compaq Presario SR1010NX sitting on my desk. I’ll take a photo of it here in a few minutes and maybe upload it. Ahhh, the wonders of having a PC. w0ot. Paulie swung by the store … two nights ago? to show off his brand new Jeep. He has the extenda-version that is ~2, maybe 3 feet longer than a normal Wrangler, and it’s hot. Soooo nice. GJ Paulie 😀 Keen is off in Las Vegas again, which is no fun. For him or me 😉 But yea, he’s down there until nearly the end of the month, so there won’t be a whole lot happening until he gets back because I am a lazy slob who doesn’t go out unless there is somebody else to go with. And Keen’s my wingman. Sidekick. Buddy. So you know. I watched the Nick Berg beheading video and read a whole truckload of the websites / news things about it. I personally think he’s kinda foolish (at least that’s what I gather from the news) but that video is so over the top. It’s horrendous. I highly advise you don’t watch it, as it is sickening. Like … you think of beheading where a guy takes a huge axe or sword and just goes WHACK and off pops the head with no muss and no fuss. Well. No. Two words: Butcher Knife. There’s a bazillion videos/mirrors of it, just Google it if you want to feel like retching. Associated Links: [L=http://us.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/05/11/iraq.main/index.html]http://us.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/05/11/iraq.main/index.html[/L] [L=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,119854,00.html]http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,119854,00.html[/L] [L=http://www.lnreview.co.uk/links/001808.php]http://www.lnreview.co.uk/links/001808.php[/L] [L=http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200405/200405130028.html]http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200405/200405130028.html[/L] [L=http://www.wluctv6.com/Global/story.asp?S=1863845]http://www.wluctv6.com/Global/story.asp?S=1863845[/L] [L=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,119810,00.html]http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,119810,00.html[/L] So I don’t know what to make of that. I mean, Holy Shit, Beheading!? Does anybody else think that’s a little nuts? I can see shooting. I can even see raping. Maybe even Burning. But Beheading? Grisly. I am outraged at “them” and at the US Leadership for waging this whole debacle. I’ve read that some people are thinking “Dumb contractor roaming Iraq alone = dead”. I’ve read some people who think that this is retaliation for the Prison Camp Abuse, and some people who think these are just sick fucks and their actions justify the US being there. Read the links, put your opinions below.

2004-05-13 19:26:53 – pinky
I think that they’re saying it’s retaliation for the prison stuff, and maybe they think it is, but the more fucked up shit we continue to do over there, the more excuse they will have to act equally as fucked up. While I suppose death could be argued to be worse than being sodomized with a lightbulb, I don’t know if I’m willing to make a value judgment there. I don’t think that justifies us being there, though, seeing as this happened after we were there, and we obviously weren’t able to stop it. And, besides that, I still believe that us being there has allowed "them" (the terraists) to recruit more people, especially when all the middle east gets to see us abusing people. So, whatever. meh.
2004-05-13 21:48:31 – Siaokh
Point of no return. Unfortunately, as i see it. We had opportunities to get the fuck out of Iraq a few times. But at this point in the conflict, if we (the troops) leave, it shows the warlords and terrorist minded that if they stick it out for long enough, and kill enough people we’ll leave them alone. Sadly with the upcomming election, this might be the case. Very similar to what happened during the US civil war. Lincoln was up for re-election. He was down in the polls… and the South knew that if they could hold out long enough, and get a new president elected that the north would withdraw, and we’d be 2 nations. Lincoln won, and the South fell… Terrorism wont fall because of the re-election of GWB, but we can’t just step back and leave. The terrorists need to know that we wont stand for their tactics, and that we WILL hunt them down and see to it that they find justice (Fourty Virginians?!) 😉 If the call is for Peace in Iraq, the Iraqis need to embrace their new chance at democracy, OR when all is said and done when the government is handed to the Iraqi people, they need to change to something else. Ramblings a-plenty Not too cohereant, but it’s how i feel (sometimes) -Tim
2004-05-13 23:32:00 – Master Ha-reed
We were at the point of no return the minute we invaded. Either a) Bush’s advisors were stupid enough not to know this or b) they knew it, but knew they could never sell a long occupation to the US public so they lied about it. I’m guessing b is the more likely scenario since many of Bush’s cohorts are Bush I era officials, and a big reason we didn’t take out Saddam in the first Gulf War was because we knew we’d have to stay. The reason we can’t leave is that if we go, Iran steps in and creates a client-state. The Shiites are the majority in the country and could easily overpower the Sunni and Kurdish minorities. Even the moderate clerics are advocating a quasi-theocratic government, very similar to Iran’s "Islamic Republic" (a contradiction in terms if ever there was one), to say nothing of nutcases like Sadr who are leading insurrections as we speak. We leave now, and we give Iran (the winner of the "world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism" award for God knows how many years) a partner in crime. We’ve got to do this one right, since Bush & Co fucked up Afghanistan by high-tailing it for Iraq for the job was finished. We left Afghanistan in the oh-so-capable hands of the UN, and the result is a cobbled mass of contradictions they call a Constitution (Islamic law is listed as the highest law of the land, but somehow they think they’re going to guarantee equality of the sexes and freedom of speech, religion and press) and a country that is more or less still run by warlords. The only viable solution we have is to bring in more troops and [B]hunt down and kill[/B] terrorists until they get the message that they’re beaten. This is a key problem we’ve had in this war – we haven’t [B]beaten[/B] the Iraqis. When we fought WWII, we didn’t care if we were going to hurt civilians like we do now. We of course didn’t go out of our way to hurt civilians, but it didn’t stop us from dropping bombs on the enemy. We’re trying (and we have been trying) to fight a half-war here, sending troops in but keeping their hands tied. The result is a needless loss of American life, and a needless prolonging of the war. The country knows how to do this right – we removed dangerous regimes 60 years ago in two nations that are now strong and even (in the case of Japan) surpassing us in some areas. But to do so, our leadership needs to care less about pissing people (both Americans and persons abroad) off and do what needs to be done.
2004-05-15 06:38:07 – Siaokh
THIS JUST IN! [L=http://www.roflcopter.com/]ROFLCOPTER[/L]