Mr. Clarence Butterworth: Iraq War supporters think war is a videogame, with no lasting consequences.

As someone who was trained by the USAF and participated in the first gulf war, I find that offensive. I don't think that we should have gone into Iraq and I never bought the public reasons for doing it, but I definitely support what we are doing now. We need to continue fighting and rebuilding the country that we destroyed. All those dead American Servicemen and women and all those dead Iraqis will be just wasted lives if we pull out before the situation is stabilized.

Having a democracy in Iraq is the best way to honor those dead.

Those brave servicemen and women signed up to risk their lives to defend your freedoms. They gave up their individual freedoms so that you could exercise yours. They have no choice but to follow orders. They can be jailed or even killed (by the opposing forces) by not following orders. So yes, I support the troops and so should everyone else.

It is also our responsibility to question our leaders and examine the results of their decisions in order to make sure that the troops are being supported properly by those that give them their orders.

The things that I find unconscionable are:

1.) Not supplying our troops with the proper equipment like vehicle armor and personal armor even though the money and supplies are readily available.
2.) Refusing to use the force necessary to get the job done.
3.) Not giving proper and fair veterans benefits to those troops adversely affected by the war.

Supply and strategy errors will be made in any conflict. I don't necessarily hold leaders responsible for them until they refuse to learn from those errors. The Bush administration has been slow to learn indeed, but they seem to be finally making some of the changes that are necessary.

I can only hope that the next president does what is necessary to stabilize the country and put an end to the fighting and loss of life.

Mr. Clarence Butterworth: Ohh, get off your farking high horse. Iraq has nothing to do with defending "my freedoms" in goddamned Iraq.

I agree. What they are doing in Iraq now has little to do with 'defending your freedoms', but that's irrelevant. Most of them signed up with lofty ideals and did, indeed, do it to defend others' freedoms.

Nothing anybody is doing in Iraq has single GODDAMNED THING to do with anything stateside.

You're a tool if you think that stability in the middle east has nothing to do with anything stateside. Haven't you been paying attention? Iran already has a nuke or is trying desperately to get one so that it can dominate the region. Saddam was trying to do the same.

You can argue (and probably be right) that the war in Iraq makes things less stable in the short run, but it most certainly affects you. Nobody knows what will happen in the long run, but we are certainly going to have a permanent military base there similar to the ones we have in Europe.

Uncle Pim: In my experience, anyone who proclaims as an act of pride that they belong to any political party is a douche.

Amen to that.