I find live footage overdubbed with music to be distracting..

I tend to prefer the real audio of the actual footage..

What has happened in Iraq is a project in venture capitalism gone terribly awry. It should have never happened in the first place. And it should be ended ASAP by immediately commencing plans to bring the troops home safely. A major diplomatic endeavor must be undertaken to harvest international support for aid in stabilizing Iraq. There is no time to wait. I think that the USA has lost all credibility in this situation and should be removed from the decision making (though not the funding) process.

The US presence in Iraq is long past its date of expiration.

In the Course of Events

TFI has said what he believes here.  Imagine the thrill of having fought with the Roman legions!

This young, foolish essentially masculine world view gets played out generation after generation.  But the creative, nurturing, sharing and more peaceful, essentially feminine world view is where hope, healing, and love reside.  (And I am not sure about identifying masculine and feminine powers in this matter, but I am a bit of a Jungian, and the feminine and masculine archestypal stuff does speak to me.  It's not as simple as guy and gal stuff, because you have neutered males, like Bush, acting out to assert their virility, and you have neutered females, like Condi and Hillary, similarly attempting to demonstrate their virility. These folks seem to me to be truly lost in some kind of personal, contemporaneous morality play that has little connection with any authentic human endeavor outside of the fascination with seizing and wielding power.)

I think TFI with his immature understanding of the nature and history of warfare, the lack of awareness of why there are rules of war may typify US foreign policy, history, and ethical understanding. 

Why do we set out aspirations so low?  I hope and pray that we would all do better than aspiring to fight with the Roman legions.  Why not imagine working in the world like Mother Theresa?   or facing down an oppressive military power like Lech Walesa or Nelson Mandela?  Why not take on a ministry of love and compassion for "the least among us" as Jesus did in the actual shadow of the Roman legions?  Why not aspire to true greatness on an individual human scale instead of some sham of greatness through brutish exercise of power by legion?

So, maybe some people will think that I am slamming TFI, and maybe that's true to some extent, but that is not my purpose. My purpose in commenting/wondering/worrying about this thread is to express my concern about what our culture and families are doing to produce so many human beings who have this young man's world view?   What is going on when people can talk about how to snipe women and children - don't lead them as much?  And you know this is a common interior dialogue that is taking place inside the heads of many people who take up arms "for us,"  for our way of life, for our standard of living.  The obscene and barbaric have become commonplace. To the extent that we don't speak up and say, hey, please, be embarassed to say anything so hateful and criminal as how to snipe women and children.  Even if TFI doesn't openly subscribe to these views, to post about these ideas with anything other than revulsion is to validate a brutish and criminal world view that does all of us harm. 

What profiteth it a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?  Read that somewhere and it comes to mind when I read this thread. 

I was at the airport checking in when I encountered a group of young men, wearing fatigues and obviously in the army.  One young man was very rotund -- I was surprised that someone with such a weight problem could pass the physical requirements for recruitment.  These young men were trying to use the E-ticket check-in machine, and were confused.  It seemed sad to me that such young and unworldly people were having what was apparently their first experience of air travel in the pursuit of a journey that could result in their death or serious injury.  The rotund young man asked me how it worked, so I explained that if you didn't have your confirmation number, you could put in a credit card with your name on it to get the check-in routine started.  He said "It won't charge my card, will it?  Because the government is paying for this trip!"  I assured him it wouldn't charge his card, but it made me feel sad that he was risking so much for an institution he didn't trust. 

I never would have compared this sad little crew to the Roman Legion.