[fabsroman]

The bold is to show that not only soldiers are being affected by all this crap. Innocent people, terminally ill civilians, that want to die in the comfort of their own home with their family are stuck in the middle. I always try to put myself in the other person's shoes. Does it suck to be a soldier and get killed, yeah, but you at least know your life is on the line because that is your job. Does it really suck to be a civilian and find out that there is a 500 lb bomb on your head. Yeah. If civilian casualties aren't a big thing, how about trying to work out an agreement with Europe, Russia, and China where we develop the neutron bomb, make it in mass quantity, and tell these people to either behave or we will wipe all of them out. I don't care how this ends, I just want it to end. If civilians on one side need to die, then lets kill them all.

I am willing to bet that there isn't one arab or muslim that frequents this board, because I am pretty sure that person wouldn't be reading this thread and thinking GO ISRAEL. If we are going to kill one side, lets kill both sides. Why are the muslims more to blame for what is going on than the Israelis? Please, somebody justify this to me. One of the partners that worked at the last law firm with me taught English in Saudi Arabia before she went to law school. She is about 55 now. Her take on this whole matter was that the muslims had good reasons for disliking Israel and the US. Again, open your thinking caps, be open minded, and try to put yourself in an arab's shoes. Try to put yourself in the shoes of an arab civilian in Beirut.

We have had this argument before. It is always easy to say that we are the good guys and our allies are the good guys and what we and our allies do should not be questioned.

How long did it take to win World War II once we got in there? Pearl Harbor was bombed on 12/7/1941 and the Japanese surrendered in September 1945. Last I checked, it took us less time to beat the Germans, Japanese, and Italians, not that the Italians were much of a fighting force, than it has taken us to end this war on terror. Granted, we lost 400,000+ Americans in that war.

The fight on terror has taken over 4 years at this point. Yeah, it will be long, and yeah I was originally in support of it, but I am also no idiot. Just because I support something initially doesn't mean I cannot change my mind later on as circumstances change. I doubt most people would have thought Israel was going to do this when we started the war on terror.

Now, regarding the Lebanon issue, how do we justify what Israel is doing? Again, lets assume that Mexico had some strength and backbone. Say that some American vigilantes hated Mexico and went in there and killed two soldiers and kidnapped a third. Would it be okay for Mexico to come into the US and bomb our airport, siege a city, and kill 60 US civilians. NO, because that would be happening to us. Is it okay for the US to supply Israel with weapons that kill arabs and then expect the arabs not to hate us. How would you feel if you brother, actual brother, were gun down, but you killed the Israeli that gunned your brother down, took his rifle, and found "Made in the USA" on it?

We just have blinders on. Some of you are old enough to kind of know what the issue is between Israel and Palestine and the rest of the arab nations. Me, I just remember this thing going on as long as I have been alive. WHAT ARE THESE TWO COUNTRIES FIGHTING OVER? Somebody please enlighten me. What was it initially about? Was it land? Was it religion?

Let's either come up with some game plan to end it like we ended the war with Japan (i.e., send everybody back to the stone age) or get the hell out of there. The longer this war against "terrorism" goes on the easier it will get to be a Vietnam and/or Korea. What will happen at the next Presidential election if a Democrat is elected? We will probably pull out and look like chickens. Get the job done and lets move on.

Now, I need to put my headache toward trying to figure out which bicycle frame I am going to purchase.