(from Abstract Reality)

I sometimes cannot believe the words that come out of my parents' mouths. We were discussing the situation in Iraq, the situation with human shields in particular, and my dad said something to the effect of "I don't understand why we're willing to lose so many of our soldiers just to avoid killing a few Iraqi women and children."

I was, of course, flabbergasted. My dad has said some insane things in the past, but I'd never realized that he was capable of saying something so awful; it was really horrifying to realize that it was my own father talking to me. He was actually suggesting that the United States slaughter innocent civilians in order to keep our soldiers out of harm's way, when we were the ones who started the bloodshed to begin with, and even claim (laughably) to be waging this war for the benefit of the very people we would be murdering!

I tried telling him that if we did something like that, we would be no better than the people we were trying to oust. He simply said that if I couldn't see the difference between the two, then he couldn't explain it to me. What a surprise, that he once again had no discernible backing for anything he said.

I can't believe he actually wants us to violate the Geneva Convention, as well as every standard of wartime morality ever used by a civilized people, simply to save a few of our own lives, especially when we where the ones who initiated this conflict!! He attacks Saddam Hussein because he kills his own people, but has no problem if we are the ones slaughtering innocent Iraqis. After all, we're on a mission of "nobility," and are therefore exempt from criticism.