Despite Bush and conservative claims, of 'victory in Iraq, the atrocities go on endlessly.

More than 130 killed in twin car bombings in central Baghdad, the deadliest attack on civilians in Iraq this year. CNN Breaking News.

You surely (what an assumption) are aware that Iraqi security has been long ago turned over to Iraqi military and police. Our guys are on their way out.

Ten years from now if Iraqis kill Iraqis will you still blame Bush?

Looney Loree, it´s a perfect fit!

Of course I'm aware of that.

Are YOU aware, that in countries where there has been a WAR, it isn't considered as 'over' (let alone bragged about!) until ALL fighting has ACTUALLY stopped, and peace is COMPLETE.

Are you taking anything for your brain? Any meds? Get some, as you might (though I doubt it) benefit from those to at least a limited extent!

The killing in Iraq will never be over! They have been killing each other since BC.Hussein kept a tight control and now there is no one in charge and we are leaving.

Same with Afghanistan.

All right,TB cut the name calling.You sound like another poster who shall be nameless,but trust me he will show up>:o)

Signed,the Old Cow or snake,take your pick! Big difference there!

Loree:

Of course I'm aware of that.

Are YOU aware, that in countries where there has been a WAR, it isn't considered as 'over' (let alone bragged about!) until ALL fighting has ACTUALLY stopped, and peace is COMPLETE.

Are you taking anything for your brain? Any meds? Get some, as you might (though I doubt it) benefit from those to at least a limited extent!

Looney, do you know how many Japanese continued to fight after their Emperor had signed an Unconditional Surrender?

War with Iraq was over when Saddam fled Baghdad. Then it became a war with Muslim Jihads. That war goes on in Pakistan and Afghanistan among other countries of the World. Iraq is now an Iraqi problem. Their freedom is in their own hands.

You wouldn’t recognize victory if you were given an enema with it.

MaryAnne:

The killing in Iraq will never be over! They have been killing each other since BC.Hussein kept a tight control and now there is no one in charge and we are leaving.

Same with Afghanistan.

The past couple of weeks have been a dangerous time to live in America. We witnessed a skein of high-profile, multiple victim shootings, many causing the deaths and woundings of several innocents and police officers. Meanwhile, the world looked on in shock and disgust.

The shootings included:

~Saturday, February 1: 15-year old honor student shoots and kills parents and two brothers in Baltimore suburb;
~Saturday, February 1: Gunman shoots and kills five women in suburban Chicago clothing store;
~Sunday, February 2: Gunman shoots and kills three at suburban Washington, DC pizzeria after argument over Super Bowl;
~Thursday, February 7: Gunman shoots and kills police officer, three others in fiery Los Angeles stand-off;
~Thursday, February 7: Disgruntled citizen shoots and kills two police officers, three others in rampage during Missouri city council meeting; and
~Friday, February 8: Nursing student shoots and kills two other students and self at Louisiana college.

What would have likely been the most damaging shooting of all during the period occurred mercifully without death or injury Sunday, February 2, when a man armed himself with an assault rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition and approached the Super Bowl near Phoenix intent on massacre, but had a last-minute change of heart and turned himself in before opening fire.

The series was capped off this past Thursday, Valentine's Day, when a disturbed gunman shot and killed 5 students and wounded 16, before killing himself, in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University.

It seems to me we should - in fact, we need to - view this sad, disastrous and dispiriting time as a crossroad for American society. We should begin an open, dignified and caring national discussion of why our country, unique among its fellows, is so sorely beset by such mass shootings - and the 80 or so other daily gun deaths we suffer.

We should look at the experiences of our colleague Western nations, none of which has more than a small fraction of the per capita rates of gun homicides we do.

We should look to our own experience, whereby a number of states, including New Jersey, enjoy far lower rates of incidences of gun violence than others, even some right next door (PA, in our case).

Candidates for office and elected officials should join in this discussion. We should, in fact, demand that they do. It is not helpful and saves no lives when the US Congress limits itself to rote expressions of sympathy for the losses of families at places like Columbine, or Va Tech or Northern Illinois. It just confirms legislators, Republican and Democrat alike, in vapid, impotent and destructive cowardice.

It heals no wounds when Republican presidential candidates stumble over themselves to pander to the gun lobby and industry and Democratic candidates run from the issue.

That's not the open consideration that we need of one of America's most vexing, singular and difficult societal problems.

Or, on the other hand, we can just continue to ignore the gun deaths as they pile up.

And, sooner or later, the shootings and woundings and maimings and killings will strike someone close to each and every one of us. Close to you, even.

And, then you'll know.

And, then you'll wonder why something wasn't done about America's gun problem before and why you weren't part of the discussion.

But, it will be too late.

And, then you'll learn.

You'll learn what real sadness, and real grief and, most of all, true, utter and uending shock is.

And, it will be too late.

So, I don't know about you, but, even though I already have experienced and do experience every day that unendending shock, I'm going to do what I can to push the media, and pull the politicians, and importune my friends and colleagues - to get the discussion about gun violence in America started.

I hope you'll do the same.

Who knows? Maybe we'll save some lives...and the soul of a country.

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TB,I have already witnessed that sadness,and am quite aware of what is happening in this Country.

It makes me sick when I see people going to meetings with guns strapped to their shoulders,especially the Uzis/This Country is being taken over by a bunch of bullies,the same ones I have spent my life fighting.

There are several areas in downtown Dayton, I would never go into at night. The front pages are full of killings. One reason we left that city,as did all the others,both black and white who could afford to get out.

With unemployment it gets worse every day.And one of the reasons is that Politicians have been so busy sticking their nose in other Countries,instead of minding the store here.

Like,Sea,I blame both parties. That is why I am no longer a part of either one.

Apples to oranges, silly one. Was Hussein asked to sign a documer saying he 'surrendered' to the Bush war machine?! Hardly! He was tried and executed. dI don't think he would have surrendered to GW anyway....who in their right mind would? After all, GW INVADED them, without provocation, but with two things in his brain....revenge and OIL! Nothing more and nothing less.

The civillian death count in Iraq is approaching one million, four hundred thousand, for God's sake...Bush has the blood of every single ONE of those on his hands. He couldn't get his hands 'clean' if he spent the rest of his life washing them!

Pretty damned 'good' don't you think, when you remember that Reagan and Poppa Bush are the very ones who furnished him with chemical weapons...the ones he (Hussein) used on the Kurds, while maintaining that \iron fist' rule over the people of his country.

The 'war' has never been over, silly....only altered direction, and your continued claim of 'victory' is fully as stupid, as that of all conservative Bush supporters, who TRY telling themselves that, to 'qualify' their actions.

The OIL was what the Oil Patch Gang from Texas were after...well, the only two things they have to show for their grandiose ideas, is the flow of INNOCENT blood, and the continued flow of their stupidity!

It is a glorious mess.

Cooked-up and concocted exclusively by President George W. Bush!

Dave

And he didn't even have to apply for a patent!

Anyone with a BRAIN knows that Bush built it, he sold it, and then skipped town with the profits.

As long as even one US solder is in harms way on their soil it is not over….but then we all know your sawed off little butt would not understand that……since you found a way to keep your butt out of harms way.....