[ronnierubbish]

First of all, the phrase "died for their country" kind of irritates me (but I know you weren't invoking it in a pro-war kind of way) because it implies that a soldier's death somehow served or protected us. Just like with our situation in Iraq -- those soldiers aren't protecting us. They aren't dying for us. They're killing and dying for one person and one person only: GWB.

We all know that this war isn't in any way "serving" the interests of the American people (whether or not it's helping Iraqis is yet another debate). But for politicians to say that we should "support our troops" because they're helping us to be free is a load of shit. (Maybe if we were actually hunting down Osama, that would be a valid argument. Maybe.)

In Vietnam, kids got drafted. I'm sure quite a number of them died despite their desire to not even be there. In our present conflict, we have a mostly volunteer army (except for those soldiers who have been discharged and are being re-called) -- this is a key difference between Iraq II and Vietnam. A lot of those who died in the Vietnam War did die in vain. We have to admit that. But for the people who are volunteering to go to Iraq and then get killed -- well, it was their choice (for the most part).

Flame on.