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Originally posted by Matth3w Just wanted to let you know that I have watched one of my soldiers die almost literally in my arms fighting for your country. I sleep under an Afghan and American flag, and so did he. He woke up every day hoping to help make your country a better place to live, for all people - Afghans and American soldiers alike.

Tax dollars at work on gov't pc's trashing one mans opinion. Although your loss is great. What does that have to do with Rebels' opinion?

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It is sad that you should feel this way about thousands of people you really don't know who are fighting for your country and it's people in your place while you are hiding in Sweden.

How do you know if the Rebel9 is of legal age to enlist? If you don't enlist does that make anyone a lesser person? Nothing like a bit of machismo to convince people to join the service.

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Maybe if you and your fellow critics of America spent as much time and effort fighting to help your OWN country as you do denouncing Americans and their forces fighting to help rid your country of Taliban/HiG/Al Qaeda influence, we would arrive at a conclusion to this war a bit faster.

Non-Americans have every right to free speech. If you deny him that right you are no better than the tyrants that destroy those rights.

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It is easy for someone (who has no part in the effort to help their own country) to post in the luxury of their home via internet (something 75% of Afghanistan only dreams of) from the safety of a different country.

It is easy for someone using taxpayer money using a gov't pc to trash another.

It's the winning of hearts and minds that falters when using the "I served my country so respect me" attitude.

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I suggest that rather than vehemently criticizing thousands of people helping your native country, you either: A) Pick up a rifle and help rid the place of Taliban/HiG/AQ B) Pick up a book and help teach the children C) Some other misc. country-building role (construction work, government service, etc) Because right now, the Americans you seem to hate so badly are doing more for your native country than you are. Oh, enjoy the peace of your home in Sweden tonight - We are protecting your native country for you.

Good luck finding Tim Osman. I heard that he's dead but you didn't get that from me.

Oh yeah one other thing:

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UN Says Taliban Poppy Ban Hits Farmers Hard (Part 1) Vienna, 24 May 2001 (RFE/RL) -- Officials at the UN Drug Control Program, or UNDCP, who recently toured Afghanistan say that the Taliban's ban on opium-poppy cultivation is in almost total effect in the areas the militia controls. The officials, who accompanied a special tour of drug experts from UN-member countries to Afghanistan last month, say they saw no signs of opium-poppy cultivation in the fertile eastern and southern areas that last year produced 75 percent of the world's opium crop.

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Afghan Poppy Trade Afghanistan is the world’s largest producer of opium. Because poppy plants are used to make opium, poppie growing is illegal in most countries, and only frown in highly controlled and specially designated areas. In 2002, the revenue generated by the sale of opium from Afghanistan on the world market exceeded $1 billion at the farm level – almost 5% of Afghanistan's GDP. During the 1990’s, Afghanistan poppies supplied approximately 70% of the world’s opium, but in 1999 the Taliban's fatwa prohibitted the planting of poppies and was 96% successful in eliminating the crops. However, the Taliban government allowed for the trade of opium, and taxed it heavily. Since the US invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 and the subsequent ousting of the Taliban, crop production resumed with full-force. The poppies are processd into opium, and the opium is traded throughout the region and into Western Europe. The illegal trade of poppies has created transnational disputes and directly led to the decline in civil society in the countries through which it is traded. Under the Taliban and in post-Taliban Afghanistan, the profits from opium sales have been used to fund tribal warlords and fuel armed conflict.

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Poppy growers happy to see Taliban gone Once the world’s largest producer of the flower pod used to make heroin Rone Tempest - Los Angeles Times KARIZ, Afghanistan - No one could be more delighted about the departure of the Taliban regime than the opium poppy growers here in eastern Afghanistan. In July 2000, the Taliban’s leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, issued an edict banning poppy cultivation across Afghanistan, then the world’s largest producer of the flower pod used to make heroin. For years, the Taliban had used taxes on drugs to finance its military. That all changed, however, with Omar’s eight-line message. According to a recent report by the U.N. Drug Control Program, the decree brought raw opium production in Afghanistan to a virtual halt, dropping from 3,276 tons to only 185 tons in just one year. But now that the Taliban has retreated to the mountains, there is an eagerness among farmers here in the irrigated lowlands south of Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province.

What a quandary.

See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda
George W Bush

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Military grants immunity to 7 Marines in Haditha killings SAN DIEGO (AP) — Military prosecutors have granted immunity to at least seven Marines connected to an attack that killed 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha, the deadliest criminal case against U.S. troops in the Iraq war. Orders granting the immunity ensure any testimony the Marines volunteer cannot be used against them, making it highly unlikely charges will be brought against the men. They also suggest their eyewitness accounts will feature prominently in military court hearings for seven other Marines charged in the case. The orders were obtained by The Associated Press from someone involved in the case who declined to be identified because the documents are not public. Among those provided with immunity to testify are an officer who told troops to raid a house and a sergeant who took photographs of the dead but later deleted them from his camera. One of the servicemen, Lance Cpl. Humberto Manuel Mendoza, was a member of the squad that cleared several homes and killed the Iraqis in the aftermath of a Nov. 19, 2005 roadside bomb attack that killed one Marine. Mendoza, who was not charged in the case, told investigators that he shot at least two men, but did so because they were in houses declared hostile. "I was following my training that all individuals in a hostile house are to be shot," Mendoza told investigators. He was given immunity Dec. 18, just days before the Marine Corps announced murder charges against four enlisted men and dereliction of duty charges against four officers. The Marine Corps said Tuesday that it dropped all charges against one of the eight men, Sgt. Sanick P. Dela Cruz of Chicago. Dela Cruz also has been given immunity to testify. 1st Lt. William Kallop, the first officer to arrive at the scene of the explosion, was granted immunity to talk to prosecutors April 3 as part of an order to "cooperate and truthfully answer all questions posed by investigators." He has not been charged in the case. Kallop was with a rapid-response force that arrived minutes after the bomb went off. According to investigative documents, he said squad leader Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich and Cpl. Hector Salinas heard gunfire coming from a nearby house. Kallop told investigators that he ordered the men to "take the house." In the ensuing raids on several homes, 24 Iraqis died, including women and children. Wuterich is charged with 13 counts of unpremeditated murder; Salinas has not been charged. Kallop's attorney did not return a phone call seeking comment. Two other officers and several enlisted men were also given immunity to testify. A legal expert said by giving so many people immunity, prosecutors are taking a "conservative" approach to the case, which is the biggest to have emerged against U.S. troops since the start of the war in Iraq. "These are legitimate moves by the prosecutor, who is very cautious," said Gary Solis, a former Marine Corps prosecutor and judge who teaches law of war at Georgetown University Law Center. Marine spokesman Lt. Col. Sean Gibson said he could not discuss the ongoing investigation. Preliminary hearings for the seven Marines still facing charges are expected in the coming weeks at Camp Pendleton. Aside from Wuterich, the others facing unpremeditated murder charges are Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, 22, of Canonsburg, Pa. and Lance Cpl. Stephen B. Tatum, 25, of Edmond, Okla. Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani, 42, of Rangely, Colo., 1st Lt. Andrew A. Grayson, 25, Capt. Lucas McConnell, 31, of Napa, Calif., and Capt. Randy W. Stone, 34, face charges in connection with how the incident was investigated or reported.

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From the Los Angeles Times Marine says he erased photos of Haditha victims The testimony is the first evidence suggesting that any officer may have engaged in a coverup in the 2005 deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians. By Tony Perry Times Staff Writer June 8, 2007 CAMP PENDLETON — A staff sergeant testified Thursday that he was ordered to destroy grisly pictures of women and children killed by Marines so that the images would not be part of a statement being prepared for an investigative officer and a magazine reporter. The testimony by Staff Sgt. Justin Laughner, taken under a grant of immunity, is the first evidence suggesting that any Marine officer may have engaged in a coverup in the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in 2005. Other testimony has suggested that officers made only a superficial review before deciding that the deaths were combat-related and thus no war crimes investigation was required. At the Article 32 inquiry, similar to a preliminary hearing, for a former battalion commander, Laughner testified hat he felt the order to destroy the pictures, which he said was given by Lt. Andrew Grayson, amounted to obstruction of justice but that he complied and later lied when asked whether any pictures had been taken. "It was wrong," Laughner said. "Somebody was asking for them [the pictures], and we're not going to give them to them? It's not right, but I didn't say anything." Although Laughner deleted the pictures from his computer, the images remained on his digital camera and are now part of the criminal case against four officers and three enlisted Marines. Grayson is charged with dereliction of duty and obstruction of justice in the aftermath of the killings, which occurred in the Iraqi town of Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005. The three other officers — including the former commander of the Marine battalion involved, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani — are charged with dereliction of duty for not calling for a war-crimes investigation. At the inquiry on Chessani's conduct, Laughner said that he had no evidence the lieutenant colonel ever saw the photographs or knew of their existence. Laughner had taken the pictures in the hours after the killings. Three months later, when he and Grayson were preparing a statement for high-ranking officers and a Time magazine reporter, Grayson told him to delete the pictures, Laughner testified Thursday. The statement they prepared reiterated the Marines' official position that the deaths were the result of crossfire after Marines were attacked by insurgents. Laughner and Grayson were part of an intelligence team assigned to work with the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, in Haditha. Team members interview civilians and, among other things, review the scene of civilian deaths to gather information that can be helpful to Marines. Laughner arrived several hours after a roadside bomb had killed a Marine from the battalion's Kilo Company. After that blast, Marines killed five young men outside their car and, after being ordered to search for insurgents in nearby houses, killed 19 civilians. Laughner testified that Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, who led the troops involved in the shootings, told him that the men in the car had "engaged" the Marines with weapons, that Marines encountered an insurgent firing at them in one house, and that AK-47s were found in the houses. Prosecutors say all three assertions are lies. Laughner said Wuterich did not tell him that the Marines had killed women and children in the houses. But when Laughner went to the houses to look for evidence of insurgents, he found instead a young girl who was in hysterics. He said that his interpreter told him what the girl was screaming: "She said the Marines came into her house and killed her family," Laughner said.

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And yet people are in slumber.. sipping on their lattes.

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Music for your Mind

...watching Linsay Lohan get fit shaced on the tele. Yep, typical wanker nonsense. Too bad blokes don't read much, they might learn a thing or two.

Browse the forum you'll see it in the form of "God, does he exist or not?", "Gay marriage, should I or shouldn't I?" or "A friend of mine believes in UFO's, what about you lads?".

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Marine tells of order to execute Haditha women and children Aug 30, 2007 CAMP PENDLETON, California (AFP) — A US Marine was ordered to execute a room full of terrified Iraqi women and children during an alleged massacre in Haditha that left 24 people dead, a military court heard Thursday. The testimony came in the opening of a preliminary hearing for Marine Sergeant Frank Wuterich, who faces 17 counts of murder over the Haditha killings, the most serious war crimes allegations faced by US troops in Iraq. Wuterich, dressed in desert khakis, spoke confidently to confirm his name as the hearing to decide if he faces a court martial began at the Marines' Camp Pendleton base in southern California. The 27-year-old listened intently as Lance Corporal Humberto Mendoza recounted how Marines had responded after a roadside bomb attack on their convoy in Haditha on November 19, 2005 left one comrade dead. Mendoza said Marines under Wuterich's command began clearing nearby houses suspected of containing insurgents responsible for the bombing. At one house Wuterich gave an order to shoot on sight as Marines waited for a response after knocking on the door, said Mendoza. "He said 'Just wait till they open the door, then shoot,'" Mendoza said. Mendoza then said he himself shot and killed an adult male who appeared in a doorway. During a subsequent search of the house, Mendoza said he received an order from another Marine, Lance Corporal Stephen Tatum, to shoot seven women and children he had found in a rear bedroom. "When I opened the door there was just women and kids, two adults were lying down on the bed and there were three children on the bed ... two more were behind the bed," Mendoza said. "I looked at them for a few seconds. Just enough to know they were not presenting a threat ... they looked scared." After leaving the room Mendoza told Tatum what he had found. "I told him there were women and kids inside there. He said 'Well, shoot them,'" Mendoza told prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Sean Sullivan. "And what did you say to him?" Sullivan asked. "I said 'But they're just women and children.' He didn't say nothing." Mendoza said he returned to a position at the front of the house and heard a door open behind him followed by a loud noise. Returning later that afternoon to retrieve bodies, Mendoza said he found a room full of corpses. In cross-examination, however, Major Haytham Faraj suggested a girl who survived the shootings had identified Mendoza as the gunman, sparking an angry reaction from prosecutors. "The girl in question already identified another Marine," Sullivan stormed. "This is completely unethical, inappropriate and has no basis in fact." Mendoza had given similar testimony during a preliminary hearing against Tatum earlier this year. Investigating officer Lieutenant Colonel Paul Ware, who is presiding in Wuterich's hearing, last week recommended dropping murder charges against Tatum, describing Mendoza's evidence as "too weak." Later in cross-examination Mendoza praised Wuterich's leadership. "I think he's a great Marine, sir," he said. Prosecutors allege Marines went on a killing spree in Haditha in retaliation for the death of their colleague in the bomb attack. Defense lawyers will argue that Wuterich followed established combat zone rules of engagement. A total of eight Marines were initially charged in connection with the Haditha deaths. Four were charged with murder while four senior officers were accused of failing to properly investigate the killings. Of the four Marines charged with murder, two have since had charges withdrawn, while allegations against Tatum are also expected to be dismissed. Wuterich also faces charges of making a false statement and asking another Marine to do the same. He faces a life sentence and dishonorable discharge if court-martialed.

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Marine Faces Charges in Haditha Killings By CHELSEA J. CARTER – 2 days ago SAN DIEGO (AP) — The highest-ranking U.S. serviceman to face court-martial involving combat since Vietnam was due to answer charges Friday of failing to investigate the killings of 24 Iraqis, including women and children. Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani was to be arraigned on charges of dereliction of duty and violation of a lawful order on allegations that he mishandled the aftermath of the Nov. 19, 2005, shootings in Haditha. Earlier that day, the squad's convoy was struck by a roadside bomb, killing one Marine and wounding another. In the aftermath, squad members killed 24 Iraqi civilians, authorities have said. Chessani was commander of the Camp Pendleton-based 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment that has been the focus of the largest prosecution of U.S. troops in the Iraq war. The decision to send Chessani to trial came after a hearing officer blasted Chessani for failing to go to the scene of the killings immediately after they occurred. "To not have made every attempt to be on scene as this action developed, or to not have at least reviewed this action in detail ... is in itself negligent," Col. Christopher Conlin wrote. At Chessani's preliminary hearing in June at Camp Pendleton, several witnesses testified that Iraqis had complained to Chessani in the days after the killings and that he promised to look into what had happened. But Chessani, of Rangely, Colo., said he never ordered a formal investigation because he believed the deaths resulted from lawful combat. If convicted on all counts, Chessani faces up to three years in prison. Chessani's civilian attorney, Brian Rooney, said the lieutenant colonel would reserve the right to enter a plea at a later date rather than at the arraignment, which is a standard practice when a case goes to court-martial. "We fully intend to enter a not guilty plea," Rooney said. Chessani is the most senior U.S. serviceman since the Vietnam War to face a court-martial for actions or decisions made in combat, said Gary Solis, a former Marine Corps prosecutor and judge who teaches law of war at Georgetown University Law Center.

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