In the year 2029

Ozone created by electric cars now killing millions in the seventh largest country in the world, Mexifornia formally known as California.

Spotted Owl plague threatens northwestern United States crops and livestock.

Baby conceived naturally...scientists stumped.

Couple petitions court to reinstate heterosexual marriage.

Last remaining Fundamentalist Muslim dies in the American Territory of the Middle East (formerly known as Iran, Afghanistan, Syria and Lebanon.

Iran still closed off; physicists estimate it will take at least 10 more years before radioactivity decreases to safe levels.

France pleads for global help after being over taken by Jamaica.

Castro finally dies at age 112; Cuban cigars can now be imported legally, but President Chelsea Clinton has banned all smoking.

George Z. Bush says he will run for President in 2036.

Postal Service raises price of first class stamp to $17.89 and reduces mail delivery to Wednesdays only.

85-year, $75.8 billion study: Diet and Exercise are the keys to weight loss.

Average weight of Americans drops to 250 lbs.

Japanese scientists have created a camera with such a fast shutter speed, they now can photograph a woman with her mouth shut.

Massachusetts executes last remaining conservative.

Supreme Court rules punishment of criminals violates their civil rights.

Average height of NBA players now nine feet, seven inches.

New federal law requires that all nail clippers, screwdrivers, fly swatters and rolled-up newspapers must be registered by January 2036.

Congress authorizes direct deposit of formerly illegal political contributions to campaign accounts.

IRS sets lowest tax rate at 75 percent.

Florida voters still don't know how to use a voting machine.

Who's rich now?

This is from Michael Jennings, at Christian Aid. Tip of the hat to Samizdata for the quote:

This "trade and cheap labour for manufacturing is the rich world exploiting the poor" argument is not precisely new to my ears. When I was a kid in the 1970s I heard the same thing about how we were taking advantage of poor world sweatshops. The only thing that has changed since then is the location of the sweatshops. In those days people talked about Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, those kinds of places. And what do these places have in common? Well, today they are the rich world. Ten years ago we started seeing "Made in China" on our cheap imports. A lot of this stuff then came from Shenzhen, just over the border from Hong Kong. Well, today Shenzhen is for practical purposes a developed world city. The manufacturing has now moved inland. The process is getting faster, and the more of the world is rich, then it gets faster still for the rest.

Those annoying liberals

Rob Koons of Right Reason has analyzed emails and posts by liberals to come up with the ten things he really hates about liberals:

1. Liberals invariably charge their critics with the straw man fallacy, no matter how tight the fit between the criticism and the words and deeds of real liberals.

2. Liberals are quick to distance themselves from their wacko spokesman (Michael Moore, Ward Churchill) whenever these spokesman are attacked by the right, but liberals will never initiate such criticism, holding fast to the maxim of pas d’enemi à gauche.

3. Liberals love to play hard-ball politics, until they get beaned themselves.

4. Liberals complain incessantly that conservatives don't know or understand them yet have never spent more than five minutes listening to conservatives or reading their works.

5. Liberals are apt to label conservatives hateful, confusing vigorous rebuttal of liberal thought with personal attacks on liberals themselves.

6. Liberals make extremely intemperate remarks, while holding conservatives to a standard of politeness so stringent as to make Emily Post squirm with anxiety.

7. Liberals never bother to check their facts, since they know that only ignoramuses disagree with them.

8. Liberals are boring, since all they ever have to say is "yada, yada, yada, yada,..." [Sorry, I stopped listening after the second 'yada'.]

9. Liberals object vehemently to any attempt by conservatives to make generalizations about liberals, no matter how apt the generalization might be.

10. Liberals have absolutely no sense of humor. They never laugh -- they only smirk.

Planetary Nebula

Courtesy of Astronomy Picture of the Day: the Hubble photograph of the planetary nebula NGC 6751.

Click for a larger view.

Quote for the day

Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.

   Thomas Paine

Free Iraq: the poem

Ali and his Free Iraqi blog are always interesting reading. But he's outdone himself with a poem on the second anniversary of the liberation of Iraq. The last two verses:

I see with my own eyes this other "they"
And I call them simply, Americans.
What are they paying me?
Oh, you couldn't afford that!
Saddam couldn't afford it.
Sadr cannot afford it.
"They" think any of these can?
Could their "they" even try!?

Two years and some are still
Trapped in the past
And some cannot withstand the moment
And want to arrive without struggle to a better future
While others just enjoy what is already better now
And work to meet the future, bettered with them.
Two years and they ask Should I be grateful?
Am I?
Do I even need to answer that!?
YES, and to the last breath!

Read the whole thing, even if you (like I) are not a big poetry fan.

How to talk to a liberal

Chrenkoff gives us a lesson in debating liberals.

Those were the days

At the Neurotic Iraqi Wife blog today has a special rant. I call it "special" for how it puts the lie to the conventional liberal mindset that the Iraqi people do not support the toppling of Saddam and the presence of the coalition forces in their country. Our neurotic Iraqi wife is not the only such voice, of course — but I thought this particular post was especially credible and evocative. The heart:

...but Im just angry and pissed off at the moment.It boggles my mind when people still wander whether getting rid of Saddam was worth it. It angers me more when I hear "Human Right" activists complain about the way insurgents are being treated on TV. Give me a F****** break will you!!!! Where were your voices when Saddam and his men took people in the middle of the night from their homes, from their beds, and tortured them??? Where were your voices when bodies were cut up and thrown infront of houses for their families to claim???Where were your voices when his sons raped and murdered girls???

Tell me where were your voices when unborn children were buried in the earth. Thousands upon thousands just disappeared. Where were your voices when the massacre of Halabcha took place, or the massacre of the March uprising in the South???

Your reports didnt save them, and now you come and say that its against human rights for those criminals to be shown on TV??? My God!!! Dont give me text book words, and talk about principles. Do these "suicide" bombers have principles by killing hundreds of innocent people inorder to get a few hundred dollars??? Are these the principles we want to teach the new Iraqi generation????

Indeed.

Galaxy...

The Astronomy Picture of thd Day: galaxy RCW 79, in a false-color infrared view from the Spitzer Space Telescope. The "bubble" at about 7 o'clock in the picture, with some yellowish stars within, is a "stellar nursery" full of "baby stars".

Click on the picture for a larger view.

Quote for the day

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.

   Douglas Adams

Pop vs. Soda

My first thought on reading about this study was "More of our tax dollars at work!"

But then when I started reading about it, I got intrigued. Especially with the map at right (click for a larger view). Of course I was immediately curious about what the "other" responses were. They're all listed; my favorite was "bellywasher" !

Read the whole study (it's very short) to learn more than you ever wanted to know on the topic...

Great Power Deprivation Syndrome

Chrenkoff, as usual, has an interesting and thought-provoking post on the younger generation of Russians yearning for the days when Russia was a super-power:

For over seven decades - most of the twentieth century - the Soviet Union was variously respected, feared, hated and admired around the world. She was an integral part of the international system; what Moscow thought and did really mattered. Contrast it with the sorry state today: Russia is still beset by a myriad of problems like she was under communism but without any grandiose consolations: instead she's either ridiculed or ignored by the outside world. No one looks to Russia for inspiration and hardly anyone fears her. It doesn't matter anymore what Kremlin thinks about the liberation of Iraq or some other issue of international importance; the former satellites, meanwhile, peel away one by one, choosing a different, Westernized future.

The young generation, of course, has no personal memories of the "good old days", but they know that it did not used to be like it is today. It's humiliating, because no one likes to be a part of the losing team.

As many of you know, I work with engineering teams in Tallinn, Estonia and in St. Petersburg, Russia. Almost all of the folks I work with are ethnic Russians. Some are old enough to remember Soviet times personally, but many are not. Of those who will talk to me freely about such things, the St. Petersburg Russians overwhelmingly have opinions and mindsets much as Chrenkoff describes: they are patriotic, a bit in denial about the current state of Russia (which, to be fair to them, may simply be a reflection of the fact that in general they haven't had much exposure to the world outside Russia)), they support Putin, and they are bitter about the imbalance of power between Russia and the world, most especially the U.S.

For some reason this is a less predominant attitude amongst the ethnic Russians I know in Estonia. Some of the Russians I know there, especially the younger ones, have much different mindsets. Even more especially, the Russian Jews I know who are from Estonia have much more pro-Western, pro-U.S. positions. I'm not at all sure why this is so; it may just be more and longer exposure to the West has 'corrupted' them (as some of my Russian friends would have it)...

Right in our own backyard

Stumbled across this page just this morning, and what a pleasant surprise. Tastier even, for some reason, for the fact that it came from a local paper. Can't get much different than the San Diego Union-Tribute! Hat's off to these fine reporters and photographers.

Whatever you do, don't miss the audio slideshow on the page above. Simply outstanding!

A taste of the article:

It was their day.

At the polling stations — mostly schools that the Marines had rebuilt and painted bright green and blue against the city's dingy beige — volunteer Iraqi election workers guided voters through paces most had only dreamed about.

"This is a new birth for Iraqis," said Najaf resident Kasim Kadum Saagban, 45, after workers helped him and his wife vote in the bullet-ridden Medina section of the Old City.

Just a few blocks away stood the revered Imam Ali Mosque, which was the epicenter of a fierce battle between Marines and local militia just six months before. In the interlude, the Marines and locals had joined hands to start rebuilding damaged quarters of the city, paid thousands of residents injured in the fighting, and were holding together a fragile working peace that allowed the elections to happen without bloodshed.

With his forearm taut and sure, Saaban proudly held up his finger, stained with purple ink, in a pose that has become synonymous with the election.

"Iraq is changed forever," he said, eyes wide and voice shaking with intensity.

But despite such euphoria and confidence, Najaf's rise from a city mired in violence to an emerging beacon of peace could still be as fragile as a house of cards.

"If we're not careful," warned Col. Anthony Haslam, the Marines' top commander, "it can all go away, just like that."

'America doesn't get to see this side'

In Najaf, where the Marines seemed to have more friends than enemies, the calm on election day and stability in the days that followed signaled a victory of sorts. The 2,200 Camp Pendleton Marines stationed in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf could say they were leaving Najaf better than they found it.

After two other assignments covering the Marines in Iraq — first during the 2003 invasion two years ago and then again during the first siege of Fallujah last spring — no experience was as surprising as our third and most recent trip to Najaf and its surrounding region, where the American effort seemed to be working.

Arriving in Najaf in mid-January, North County Times photographer Hayne Palmour and I found a city marked more by peace, cooperation and bustling reconstruction than by war.

While a bloody, pivotal battle in August left parts of the city in ruins and many residents maimed or killed, the Marines' legacy in Najaf also included dozens of new schools, a functioning local government, and enough local police that the governor generally asked the American troops to stay out of sight.

"It's funny that America doesn't get to see this side," said one young Marine lieutenant when a group of Iraqi men waved and cheered at his patrol of Marine Humvees passing a cafe along the banks of the jade-colored Euphrates River.

The progress in Najaf could be an anomaly, one that will be difficult or impossible to duplicate in other regions of the country. Or it could be a good example of what could happen in Iraq when the enemy fades, and when peace presents a new set of challenges and opportunities.

As the power base for the Shiite coalition that will dominate the new government and write Iraq's next constitution and as a relative success story for the U.S. occupation, all eyes are on Najaf to see if the peaceful gains the Marines and local residents made there will hold.

"That's key terrain down there," Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. general in Baghdad, told the Army commanders who replaced the Marines there in February.

"Don't lose it," he said.

Smoked meat lasts longer

The question isn't actually about cannibalism, it's about moral absolutes vs. the notion that any behavior that causes no harm to others is ok. This moral issue was raised by the recent case in Germany of a man who advertised on the Internet for someone who wanted to be eaten, and had a victim volunteer.

Moral question: is cannibalism wrong if it is the desire of both the eater and the eaten?

Roger Kimball of Armavirumque answers:

So, was Herr Meiwes within his rights when he made a meal of his new friend? If Mill was right that "the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number is self-protection," then I think we have to pass Herr Meiwes the salt and pepper and wish him bon appetit.

But was Mill right? In this latitudinarian age it is tantamount to heresy to suggest otherwise, but I believe that the sorry spectacle of Meiwes sautéing bits of Herr Brandes shows that, yes, Mill's "one very simple principle" was not merely simplistic but wrong, indeed preposterous.

It is not without irony that Mill's libertarian doctrine, which demands that we free ourselves from prejudice and convention, should have become enshrined as the dominant moral prejudice of the age. It is simply taken for granted these days that one "has a right" to do whatever one wants so long as one doesn't harm others.

Read the whole thing; it's a bit of a long slog for a blog post, but worth it for the thought-provoking questions. I don't have any certainty myself on this question. The problem I keep bumping into this that if you concede there are moral absolutes ("moral facts", as Mr. Kimball puts them), then someone has to decide what those moral absolutes are. And every attempt I know of to set moral absolutes has resulted in disaster of one kind or another. And yet, as Mr. Kimball illustrates, there are many reasons to be uncomfortable about a world without moral absolutes. Tough one...

Earthquake!

...and we are mightily puzzled, as according to all the best information we have available, there are no faults anywhere near us!

The map at right (click on it for a larger view) shows the location of the epicenter (the large red square). This is about 2 miles, as the crow flies, from our home. Kinda close!

I was away from home on a business trip, so I didn't get to experience this myself. Debi said it woke her right up, and she knew what it was immediately — there was more sound than shaking, as often is the case. Our animals reacted in various ways; the most surprising was Halala, our most serene and unflappable cat — he was terrified into hiding out somewhere that Debi couldn't find him. She thought he must have escaped, and was calling him from outside. At some point he just sauntered in, apparently calmed down...

When we bought our home out here in the chapparal, some seven years ago, we did our homework with respect to faults and probable earthquakes. We've lived in San Diego County for over thirty years, and not had a really bad earthquake in all that time — but we thought it would be a good idea to play it safe and NOT locate on top of a fault. The fault maps I found then, and the updated ones that I located this morning, all show NO FAULTS for a 15 mile radius around us. So...we wonder...what the heck caused this earthquake? Some new fault that nobody knew about?

Now they tell us!

President Talabani

From today's WSJ, this commentary from the recently appointed President Jalal Talabani. Remember, as you read this, that this man is a Kurd whose people was stomped on by Saddam. Remember that his political ascendancy was opposed by our CIA (who didn't consider him the "right kind" of opposition to Saddam). Remember that he's been widely dismissed by the liberal press as the illiterate, unqualified lackey of G. W. Bush and Karl Rove. Then remember that his party was freely elected to about 1/3 of the parlimentary seats, and that the Iraqis in negotiations purely amongst themselves chose Talabani as their president. I think this commentary demonstrates some of the reasons they did that:

Through their democratically elected representatives, the people of Iraq have entrusted me with the office of the presidency of the republic. After 50 years of political struggle against discrimination and dictatorship, this is a grand honor and a humbling moment. As we look ahead to a new Iraq based on tolerance and equality, federalism and unity, democracy and freedom, we remember those whose sacrifice made this possible -- Iraqis, Americans, Britons, Poles, Italians, Czechs and so many others from around the world.

As president of Iraq, I shall strive to represent the diversity of a country that has too often in the past denied difference. I shall stand for freedom of thought and expression in a place where it has been trampled and penalized. I will work with the prime minister to ensure that our government's finances are transparent and that our citizens have access to government records; above all, I shall pursue the politics of reconciliation in opposition to the politics of hatred and incitement.

My door will always be open to those who genuinely renounce violence and seek peaceful accommodation into our nascent democracy. That is why I proposed, in my first speech as head of state, an amnesty for those who have been led astray by terrorism.

But while the new Iraq is open to all, there must be no underestimating our determination to vanquish terrorism. Conciliation is not capitulation, nor is compromise to be deemed equivalent to imbalanced concession. Rather, it is through conciliation and compromise that we are building a fair Iraq, a just state for all its peoples. Democracies, unlike dictatorships, are forgiving and generous, but they cannot survive unless they fight. And fight we shall.

The choice of peace or war lies not with the Iraqis who ignored terrorism and intimidation to vote in their millions, the Iraqis to whom I am accountable. No, that decision lies with the terrorist minority that despises freedom and spurns every offered opportunity to enter the political process. The attacks on election officials, the suicide bombings of voters, and the cowardly attacks on brave Iraqis waiting in line to join our fledgling security forces are not the tactics of "resistance" or "freedom fighters" but of murderers and criminals.

Nor are the terrorists by any stretch of the imagination the repressed or the disadvantaged. They chose violence despite consistent exhortations to contribute to the new Iraq. They are, for the most part, representatives of the old regime, Baathists who gorged themselves on their compatriots' riches. They are not the dispossessed of the earth but those who have been deprived of their palaces.

Slaying terrorism, and the extremist nationalism and perversion of religion that breeds it, will require our greatest effort, both as Iraqis and as new members of the alliance of democracies. We will again and again ask and work with our neighbors to assist us by controlling their borders, intercepting the transmission of funds to the terrorists and by handing over Baathist fugitives. We, in turn, will work with our neighbors to ensure that Iraq is never again a haven for terrorists. All such foreign-armed groups in Iraq must be neutralized and rendered harmless in a manner that is just and legal. Iraqis, the victims of the vilest stratagems and subterfuges, will not fight a "dirty war."

Our commitment to human rights, primarily of the individual, but also of our diverse ethnic and religious heritage for which we suffered, must be absolute. The justice of our cause must be reflected in the manner in which we rectify the crimes of the past.

The rehabilitation of Basra, the refloating of the ancient marshes of southern Iraq, the return of the ethnically cleansed to Kirkuk, the renaissance of the holy cities as centers of learning and piety, all these are acts of justice. They must be accompanied by the trials of the major Baathist criminals. Justice for the major perpetrators cannot be separated from the vindication of the rights of the individual victim.

Nor is justice independent of constitutionalism. Here the progress in Iraq has been remarkable, in place of the provisional Baathist constitution of 1970 we now have the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL), a progressive liberal interim constitution. The TAL represents the highest achievement of the new Iraq. The result of intense argument between the legitimate representatives of all of Iraq's communities, the TAL embodies the virtues of compromise. By sensibly sharing power under the TAL we all acquire more rights and security than if we were to each selfishly pursue our maximal objectives.

The TAL governs all politics in Iraq until the adoption of a final constitution. There can be no government, no elections, and no politics of any kind outside of the framework of the TAL. Any attempt to circumvent the TAL would not only be illegal, and an affront to the rule of the law, but an implicit rejection of the justice of the liberation of Iraq from the outlaw Baathist regime.

For all the talk of Iraq as a "model" for the Middle East, we know that there are unique factors at play in building our federal, multi-ethnic democracy. Indeed, we do not seek to export our political ideas or experiences, a practice that has too often led to instability in the Middle East. Rather, we ask that the uniqueness of the Iraqi experience be recognized and our newly restored sovereignty respected. We will not allow the naysayers (who predict disaster awaiting us around every corner) and their companions in despondency, the apologists for despotism, to distract us with their uninformed comment from our vision of a democratic and equitable society: The rectification of past crimes and the binding up of the many wounds inflicted upon us by the Baathist regime -- these are matters for Iraqis alone.

We seek foreign assistance to help us develop our security forces and to partner with us as we try to further sustainable economic growth in our shattered country. We hope that the United Nations will live up to its ideals. The assistance provided by the U.N. during the recent elections was invaluable and an important step toward the return of this organization to Iraq. A continued and consistent U.N. engagement, which bolsters the new Iraq, will convince Iraqis to put aside their qualms about an organization that many of them identify with the previous Baathist regime.

A greater international role is important to lift some of the burden from the shoulders of the United States. Our gratitude to the American people is immense and we should never be embarrassed to express it. Time and again the U.S. has given the world its most precious resource in the cause of freedom, the lives of its most talented and courageous young men and women.

Now, the time has come for the rest of the world to recognize that a federal, democratic Iraq that can defend itself against terrorism is a goal worthy of broad international support. The victory of the new Iraq will be the triumph of freedom over hate, of decency over intolerance. Who would not want to share in such a worthy campaign?

No noose for Saddam?

The London News-Telegraph reports:

Saddam Hussein could avoid the gallows under a secret proposal by insurgent leaders that Iraq's new administration is "seriously considering", a senior government source said yesterday.

A reprieve is understood to be among the central demands of Sunni nationalists and former members of Saddam's Ba'ath party who have reportedly begun negotiations with the government amid the backdrop of a bloody insurgency which claimed 30 lives during the weekend.

Officials say they are looking for a way of joining the political process after January's election, which was boycotted by most of the once-powerful Sunni minority.

"We are trying to reach out to the insurgents," the source said. "We don't expect them to stop fighting unconditionally. Sending Saddam to prison for the rest of his life is not a huge price for us to pay, but it will save them a lot of face."

I do not support the death penalty, but like President Talabani, I could make an exception for evil of Saddam's magnitude. But this sort of a deal, if it's genuine (that is, if the "insurgency" would actually lay down arms), seems like a major win-win proposition. Hundreds or thousands of needless murders would be avoided; without the Iraqi participants, the "insurgency" would nearly disappear. Sparing Saddam's life isn't necessarily a bad thing in the absolute — but if the sparing of the monster's life could bring about peace, that's a very tasty outcome...

A tip 'o the hat to Captain's Quarters for the pointer...

Iraq good news

Arthur Chrenkoff is one of the blogosphere's gems. From his perch in Australia, he manages to round up scads of those "good news" stories that the MSM somehow manages to miss (that was sarcasm, in case you didn't catch it). Though it's long, this 25th roundup is a must read, and don't forget to follow at least some of the multitude of links he provides. Here's just a tiny taste:

And helping doesn't stop when the troops go home:

"When Joseph Yorski was serving a yearlong tour of duty in Iraq, he noticed Iraqi police had little protection compared to his peers in the New Britain Police Department. Upon his return, the officer decided to help fellow law enforcement officials by spearheading a movement to outfit Iraqi police with old, surplus equipment instead of following regular procedure, which calls to destroy it.

"Yorski, a member of the 143rd Military Police Company and an 11-year veteran of the Police Department, oversees property. He said he took matters into his own hands when asked by acting Chief William Gagliardi to destroy surplus police equipment, which ranges from riot gear to reflective vests.

"Teaming up with America Supporting Americans -- a nonprofit organization that encourages law enforcement agencies and individuals to donate used police equipment -- Yorski collected an extensive amount of gear that will be shipped to Baghdad."

The allies are also doing their bit. Here's the contribution from the 400-strong Slovak contingent: "According to a Defence Ministry spokesperson during the 19 months it has been operating in Iraq, Slovakia's sapper unit has deactivated, by hand, mines over an area of 140,000 square metres, this equates to about 28 football fields. Plus, a much larger area has been demined using the help of specially-designed equipment. They have found and deactivated some tens of thousands of munitions and grenades."

A company of soldiers from Azerbeijan, together with US Marines, is providing constant protection for Haditha Dam, one of the most important pieces of infrastructure in Iraq, which provides electricity for a third of the country. And here's the story of the El Salvadorean contingent, representing the only Latin American country with troops in Iraq.

Thanks, Arthur — you've no idea how much we appreciate this...

Quote for the day

We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.

   Carl Sagan

Remembering Belsen

The London News-Telegraph has an excellent story on an interview with Lieutenant Randall, who is still alive and kicking. Here's an excerpt:

After 30 minutes alone in Belsen, Randall and his driver were joined by another SAS Jeep carrying the squadron commander, Major John Tonkin, and his squadron Sergeant-Major, Reg Seekings, an SAS veteran of North Africa, Sicily, Italy and France. ''Seekings was a very tough man,'' Randall says. ''He had been with the regiment almost since it was formed and had been an army boxing champion when in the Guards.''

As the four SAS men stood looking at this pitiful and horrifying sight, they were approached by Josef Kramer, the camp commandant, and a woman in a dark blue uniform. "Kramer introduced himself and the woman, Irma Grese, responsible for the female prisoners, and to our astonishment offered us a guided tour of the camp,'' says Randall. ''We followed them. We pushed open the door of one of the huts and were overpowered by the stench. Emaciated figures peered out at us, in fear and surprise, from the rows of bunks. Lying among them, on the same bunks, were dead bodies.''

As they came out of one of the huts, the four men saw a camp guard using the butt of his rifle to beat up a prisoner. "Reg Seekings turned to John Tonkin, and asked permission to intervene and teach the guard a lesson.'' This was granted without hesitation. ''So Reg went over and hit the guard in the face. He got up and was then knocked out by another punch to the head. Then Tonkin ordered Kramer and Grese into the guardroom, and said, "We are now in charge, not you, and any guard who attempts to treat a prisoner with brutality will be punished."

It's infuriating enough for me, but it must be particularly horrible for men like this when modern "liberals" compare our soldiers in Iraq to the Nazis...