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@wittmann:

Sounds great. Thanks for the write up. I am sorry you did not get to see Shiloh, but understand you had little time.

Yes, I was thinking about it as we were in the area, but we weren’t really prepared for a longer excursion otherwise I certainly would have taken us there.

I could write a bit more in depth, but I don’t think it would be very interesting to others. I would definitely recommend stopping in either place (Nashville or Memphis), especially for people from other countries. Country music, southern food and Elvis Presley are some of the most recognizably American things out there and I am sure foreigners would enjoy it. In fact, we saw a couple from Australia in Nashville and at Graceland there were people from all over the world. It was pretty cool.

Truth.

@djensen:

It worked!

Wait until you see Young Grasshopper’s setup. It’s pretty darn cool.

Saw it, and mightily impressed, but i’m curious how does one get such a large size map? or how does one make one?

It was a tuesday. I was going to school in Brooklyn NY. It was my first year of highschool. I had to take a 15 minute subway ride to get to school. It was actually my first day on the subway. Previous days my father had the good will of driving me to school. That day I got lost on the subway and got to school at 8:30 AM. By my second period class my classmate noticed some smoke over the trees. Minutes later some lady comes into the classroom and quietly whispers something onto my teacher’s ear. Once the lady left, our teacher informed us that a plane crashed into one of the towers of the WTC. We spent the rest of the period talking about how in the 1940’s a similar accident had happened with the Empire State building. We went off to the next period class as usual. There we went on the computers and found out that a second plane crashed into the other tower. Panic started taking over the class as our teacher told us that it might have been a terrorist attack. By 4th period we were all watching the news on any available tv that the school had to offer. There were kids crying and teachers as well when we found out that both towers had fallen. By six period my mother came to pick me up. She walked 70 blocks to get to my school. There were no trains running and the busses and cabs were full. As we walked back to my house, we heard jet fighters zooming past our heads and people would duck in fear. I myself was scared since on tv they had said that there were 6 airplanes missing. When I was approaching my house, i noticed a thick layer of ashes on top of the cars. I collected some of it, that i still hold to this day. I also picked up a burning paper that came falling in front of me. Later on that day me and my family walked to the Brooklyn Promonade to see Manhattan. On the there, we saw people taht were coming from manhattan covered in dust. I will never forget that scene. Downtown Manhattan was one big dust cloud. The only thing you could see were the sirens of the official vehicles. “what a day”.
A few days later my neighborhood was covered with faces. Papers everywhere with “have you seen…” “last day seen…” I knew people that died there. RIP

MY OPINION: I, as a person that experienced the tragedy, do not wish to see another American city devastated as NYC was.

-Ezto

The thing is - this isn’t news. I’ve read about similar circumstances - innocent people fingered by mean neighbours and sent to be tortured and die in US prison camps. Even in medical journals.

Sadly this also undoubtably happened under Saddam as well - the only difference is that the US is now the criminal here. This is not to say that the US is as bad as Saddam was (this is more difficult to judge but IMO most US forces refrain from these practices). But no question in my mind that the US has not been acting with clean hands. The questions I have is exactly how widespread is the US misbehaving with regards to the big picture? Atrocities happen in all wars by all sides - war is hell. The clear difference now is that it gets reported more often. Maybe it happens (with US forces) more often than before, but again who knows for certain?

The other point is that sometimes, rarely, it may be necessary to resort to these sorts of tactics to prevent a worse disaster. When/if this is ever the case, I am glad I will never have to be the person to make this call (what if you are wrong :cry: ). But clearly in the case of Lyndie England, et al, this was a case of some evil miscreants who have not been punished sufficiently, IMO for their crimes.

@BigBlocky:

I’m a great fan of the UN but…… It has lately been a disaster… Germany in my opinion has taken herself entirely out of the equation, it is her choice. …Anybody who says “No matter what happens, I won’t do a thing” loses their right to consultation.

True, i am not happy with that too firm position as well. But to be honest: In my memory the US started similar in the opposite position, not really accepting any “evidence” against their point.

If the UN is hell bent on being useless as it was in Bosnia at Srebrencia … useless as it was in Rwanda …

The UN is not the world government. It can only be as strong as it members want it to be, especially as the strongest member wants it to be.
It’s not the worlds policeman, and it doesn’t have an own army to command. You can say it is weak, and i wouldn’t object. But: do you want it stronger or shattered?

No, I’m sorry. The US has shown enough evidence. Even if there were no weapons of mass destruction there is no argument that I have heard that convinces me it’s better to let this mass murderer stay in control and hold hostage a country of 22 million.

You are right in the second part of that caption, but i would not say at all that the US has shown enough evidence. It is more that the US defies what ever Hans Blix is saying: For the US, the Iraq is in a lose-lose situation. Whatever he does, the US won’t be satisfied and claim it’s further proof.

If you don’t want to left a finger to help these people then fine. But get the hell out of my way because I am coming through……

If your government had argued like that in the start, the situation would be totally different. To change the position now would lokk extremely silly and would hint that there is some hidden interest by the US that they don’t want to say alound.
For you coming through and me getting out of your way: If you always prefer action without thinking, then it might be better for you if i trip you while you pass me. Then we can sit together and make up a strategy that has more chances of success.
Assume you are right, and Saddam has WMD. Hoe many of his people do you think will survive being freed?

Mine came about with my love for military history and picking sides in wargames that lost in history. Thus WARAXIS.