Apparently, a dead Marine was being paraded around in Southern Iraq. Nasty business, but not unexpected in a time of war. What's very interesting is this conversation thread on this military discussion board. People are understandably pissed:


I can honestly say... that I have never been so pissed off in my life. I am on the verge of sh1ting nails right about now. I can't even see straight right now, damn them all to hell.

And of course there's the obligatory bigotry:


This is what the muslim faith is all about as for me ALL muslims are the enemy! there are no good ones! DEATH To ISLAM!


And finally, the desire to pull the nuclear trigger:

This is an outrage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We should make Iraq glow in the fu****G Dark!!!!!!!!!!




WTFO!!!!!!!!

Tell bleeding heart, liberal, peace loving Americans to suck it the F**K UP!!!!

We are no longer using ROE's. PERIOD!! If it anit American or British it's dead!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I highlight this now not to mock anyones anger or outrage, but to point out how quickly war gets out of control. You can bet the actual Marines on the ground are at lest as angry -- if not more so -- as the people posting the comments. You can also bet that your average Iraqi has about the same reaction when we blow up his/her loved ones by accident. For every American who's typing "DEATH TO ISLAM" on the web, there's a corrisponding Iraqi (or Syrian, or Iranian, or Saudi, or Egyptian, or Turk, or...) who's thinking "DEATH TO AMERICA" and getting ready to make trouble. This is how things escalate. Angry Marines get trigger-happy, make mistakes, mistakes mint more guerilla fighters, guerilla fighters pick off and futher infuriate the Marines, who retaliate in kind, and the world stands aghast as we sink into the horrible cycle of quagmirish violence. Why are we doing this again? Stop the train, I want to get off.

So that's depressing. But here's something that'll chase anyone's blues away: the Donald Rumsfeld Soundbyte Archive. BBC radio has apparently been airing a "Donald Rumsfeld Soundbyte of the Week" for some time. I suggest starting with the "Donald Rumsfeld soundbite competition" link. It gives you 10 of the best.