At least when/if the troops are ever pulled out of Iraq, they won't have to walk very far to get to their next occupation zone.

I love the fact that rarely is PNAC ever mentioned in any of this. It was all planned out back in '96 and 9/11 gave the people on the list of signees (in that link above) the power and backing to do what they've always wanted to do:

Imperialist aggression.

Oh, and the neo-cons are up to their bald heads in defense company stock, too...that always helps in the decision-making process.

Great article!

that's fucking outrageous. fuckers.

I wish I could say this whole thing was surprising at all. Women aren't just being assaulted overseas. The barracks room above mine is a female-occupied room, and it's been broken into at least twice in the last month. I know at least one of those was an attempted assault, but apparently they were prepared for the fucker. From what I hear from talking to PMO (The MPs), the barracks incidents are much lower than domestic violence reports from base housing, and they can't blame all (or even most) of it on PTSD. Marines are indoctrinated to beat the shit out of stuff, and some people can't turn it off when they get home. Disgusting.

oooh i can't wait for aldoushuxley's comment.

This is actually a big problem in the military I will admit it and it is really sad. I have a friend who was just forcibly sodomized and the guy that did it is thankfully getting his just deserts, court martial trip to Fort Leaven Worth where his anus will get forcibly sodomized. It is especially rough when a unit is deployed, however the military has changed its policy on this and it is really cracking down on rape in the military. I am not just being a mouth piece here, in my career every time a girl has cried rape the male has been punished, this is around three years of experience. I however have had good commanders, their are instances where a commander turns his eye to an incident and that is wrong, and the military has cracked down on commanders who have done this. This has resulted in court Martial and imprisonment for some commanders. Honestly and sadly this is a result of a career that teaches forceful aggression, when you have a majority the minority will always be abused.

check out woman in war.

http://athome.harvard.edu/programs/asc/index.html

You know how I knew we were planning to invade Iran?

I looked at a shower curtain map while sitting on the can about 4 years ago. The colored chunk on the left is Iraq, the colored chunk on the right is Afghanistan, and I'll let you guess what the colored chunk in the middle is called. And honestly, you're dumb if you didn't think that was the plan. It was an AXIS of Evil people, not two holes in the desert full of evil.

Here are the Military's 4 reasons for having rape:
1. Exposition
2. Executive Decision
3. The French Connection
4. Cranberries

I wish I could say I remember a time when the punishment for rape was castration, but I think we all know that a woman has never been thought to be worth a man's junk.

This goes to a conversation I have had with many people. This and other topics have to do with the lack of maturity that Americans have with sex. Far too many in our country are messed up mentally on this subject. Don't know what the answer is, but I wish we could find a way to make them grow up.

What?

sad? It's fucking disgusting.

Well, at least I didn't read this to hear someone defending another stable totalitarian dictatorship.

That's my favorite! 'Stable Totalitarian Dictatorships are cool, as long as I don't have to live in one! Man, GW did away with Habeas Corpus? This fucking stable totalitarian dictatorship sucks!'

Ah, the irony. I guess we should have left Hitler in power to avoid the Choas of Post War Europe!

Who taught you analytical history!? Hitler started invading other countries thus starting the war: it was inevitable because he was a megalomaniac. Saddam was growing old, had no WMDs, and was simply in negotiations to trade Iraqi oil in Euros to sell to China, which would have hurt the US dollar: therefore we invaded Iraq to liberate them to the utter chaos engulfing the country. The two are hardly contiguous in an kind of causational respect.

Great link. I enjoyed what Louise Richardson had to say.