Originally Posted by Blackthorn

I've often wondered about those magentic stick ons that declare your support for our troops and I'd come to the same conclusion as BoR. The proceeds from the sale of those things are going to the opportunists who are lining their pockets with the money spent on them. True enough that some of them may represent noble causes but the cynic in me believes it is more than likely the former rather than the later.

Make no mistake about it: Iraq is a dangerous place to be. Even if you don't follow the mainstream media you cannot help but know that the insurgents are oportunistically attacking with deadly force. Insurgents is a name that makes me nuts. Let's face it they are TERRORISTS and calling them insurgents connotates an air of legitimacy about them and what they are doing. There is nothing legitimate about them or their cause and until there is a more regionally enforced level of support for stopping these TERRORISTS Iraq will continue to be a yellow bug light attracting them to the possiblity of serving Alah by attacking anything that looks like it came from the West......

.....If you allow yourself to be completely influenced by the myopic views of CNN or other outlets for mainstream media you would naturally come to the conclusion that Iraq is a country spiraling into chaos. It must be incapable of enforcing peace and stability and the Iraqis themselves must be living in fear that if they venture out of their homes they will become the next victim. That is simply not the case although this view is easily supported by the daily accounts of violence in Iraq and by the running body count that seems to carry the same significance as a Yankee vs. Red Sox box score. Just this past week it was TERRORISTS: 14 -- US MARINES: 0. They win if you trivialize the individual losses by keeping score and evaluating the war on only those terms. They win if you dishonor the ultimate sacrifice paid by the more than 1800 American military personnel by reducing this war to a game of numbers.

The brutal regime of Saddam Hussein and his well documented Stalinist legacy of oppression, murder, and explotation now thankfully fades to black. Areas outside of the Sunni Triangle (which refers to a roughly triangular area of Iraq to the northwest of Baghdad inhabited mainly by Sunni Muslims of the same ethnicity as your good friend and former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and most of his Ba'ath Party) are now starting to experience luxuries previously only afforded those in Hussein's the inner cirlce. Things we take for granted every day like electricity and clean water are now available to more people and the number of those afforded that luxury grow every day. The lights are now staying on longer and in more parts of the country than at any time in the past 25 years. Roads are being rebuilt and other public infrastructure improvements are taking hold. Schools are opening and young girls are returning to the student population. Business and economic activity on a local level is returning with a vigor not seen in 25 years. The free"er" press is starting to publish many more forms of print publication than have existed at any time in the history of Iraq............

........The following article comes from the USMC web site and details a first hand look at the front lines in Iraq. I was fortunate enough to hear several of the interviews conducted during this visit and it was astounding to me how positive each of the stories came through.

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