christy –

part of me hates to even bring these two issues up… but in a commitment to a search for truth, i have to ask… is there independent confirmation that there actually is a captured usa soldier in sadr city? some iraqis are claiming that it was propaganda to justify the siege. i trust these sources as much as i do pentagon sources – which is not at all.

so i am left unsure of what is really happening here…

in case there is any doubt, of course i don’t think that a soldier should be abandoned. that is wrong, wrong, wrong. but, maybe so is a siege which interferes with the lives of 3 million people – including their ability to get to the hospital. i think there are many other ways to attempt to rescue which is more respectful of the lifes of 3 million iraqis and doesn’t depend on collective punishment.

This has concerned me from the get-go on this story. Why have we cordoned off a neighborhood of THREE MILLION(?) IRAQIS?! How many IRAQIS = 1 American soldier? This certainly appears to be collective punishment to me.

I suppose you swallow the story, aren’t you? It is because the iraqis said so…

Come on, the puppet gvt in Iraq is unable to go alone to the toilets, let alone deciding something in Bagdad or elsewhere! Without a US green light, they wouldn’t say anything.

Blame your gvt, your army or your country for what is done in Iraq today, and since march 2003. Don’t hide yourself and the crimes of the USA behind such a thin screen.

So what do we do:

1. Front page the story in exactly the frame you laid out. Bush abondoned one of our boys behind enemy lines.

2. Raise the emotional level. One of our boys is a hostage of Iraqi thugs RIGHT NOW.

He is sitting in some hellhole while Bush plays dress-up as the commander in chief.

3. Highlight it on talk Radio. Send The Al Franken Show an Email and ask them to lead the news with this.

4. Use whatever media connections you have to ask to get this story highlighted. From calling your local newspaper to calling in your best connection
—
send digg to a few friends. It’s got a ways to go. It’s not even in the top 20 yet.

Notice though that they’ve changed the hook and headline of the story to Iraq Tells U.S. to Quit Checkpoints Much better, much more forceful.

If they changed it to “Iraq Tells U.S. to Quit Checkpoints. Soldier Still Captive.” it would be much more explosive yet still factual =You want to talk about disrespecting our troops. Well George Bush just ABANDONED one of OUR boys to the enemy. That poor kid is sitting in an Iraqi hellhole right now with a hood over his head, while George push plays dress up as commander in chief. Don’t give me this crap about John Kerry’s speech, get off your ass and go after them for abandoning this kidnapped hero to the enemy.
http://digg.com/search?s=bush stop soldier

http://www.dailykos.com/storyo…..93019/6178

=A more important topic: Bush abandoned a U.S. soldier behind enemy lines

You read me correctly, the US envoy in Iraq has decided that our US military personnel should take orders from the Iraqi government and abandon one of our soldiers to the Mahdi Army.

Whether America likes it or not, the Iraqi Government (albeit a puppet or not) is still the Government in Iraq NOT and the Smirking Chimp has no right to tell it what to do.

This may be a puppet government in Iraq but it is still the Government.

America should never have gone over there in the first place, let alone with such absolute arrogance and such incredible ignorance that it defies all belief (how on Earth could the White House Administration honestly believe they would be greeted as “Liberators”???)
I don’t think America realises just how disliked it is across the globe.

America defies International law in many, many areas, it has become such a real danger to world peace that I honestly believe that if there is a 3rd world war it will have little to do with Terrorists but more to do with the US bullying and sticking it’s nose in other Sovereign Nations affairs that the rest of the world will finally say “enough is enough”.

I get continually frustrated at America’s “mindset” of “we can do whatever we want, where ever we want because we’re Americans”.

If anyone here reads the The Bag Notes they will see how an American living in Spain sees the States from the outside. I think he got a bit of a culture shock when he realised how the US is portrayed across the globe.

I realise that FDL and it’s readers are good people and are certainly doing a good job in trying to bring change, but Americans have to realise that they are just another country and that there are many many more out there.

I wrote this before I read the comments and post 175 by HReading, it say’s what I was also thinking.

But, what the hell, I’ll press the “Submit” button anyway.
Keep up the good fight people. But please remember that the US is not the centre of the Universe.

Just FYI we abandoned thousands as POWs/MIAs in Vietnam and ran, and ran, and ran all the way back to the US of A.

So much for not abandoning our own!

If you want to get indignant, upset and angry about something, then get upset and angry about the fact that nearly 50 percent of your tax dollars are being spent on a military whose size can only be justified on the basis of world domination. We can provide for our common defense for far less … and use the savings to provide college educations for those currently forced by economics into the armed forces, to provide universal health care. A smaller military will also act as a constraint against egomaniacal monsters here wishing to rule the world.

Get out of the militarism mind set. Live and let live.