1 I pray that all the troops shown in this photo come home alive and sane. From the article you have linked to: "Some 880 Iraqis have been killed this month. Among those are more than 600 Iraqis — mostly civilians — killed in Fallujah, according to the city hospital's director." Women, children slaughtered.

2 I've discussed before here the distinction we make between civilians and troops and how I don't buy into that dichotomy. (For the reasons, see Den Beste's article.) My husband, because he is a man and a soldier, is no less "valuable" than an Iraqi woman or child. I don't agree with the idea that women should somehow be more cherished than men, so that argument does not hold any weight for me. And to say that people have been "slaughtered" in these past two weeks is a gross misuse of the word. People were slaughtered, literally, under Saddam Hussein's rule. Our Marines are specifically targeting insurgents who are using civilians as shields; some will unfortunately get in the crossfire. It's sad, but I know our military is doing everything possible to minimize Iraqi deaths; in contrast, the insurgents are trying to maximize American deaths. To say that our Marines are "slaughtering" Iraqi women and children is irresponsible and libelous, Florian, and I don't appreciate you coming to my blog (which I pay for) and posting such disgusting lies.

3 "Women, children slaughtered." And I suppose you haven't seen the photos of all the women in the "Mahdi's Army." Either that, or you offer your own little cute interpretation of them. Hardly looks like they want to be considered innocent to me. Also, are you therefore calling people such as her husband "slaughterers"? Psht. If anything, these women and children should be angry at their people who brought this "slaughter" upon them. As for sanity, I think you'd should also be praying that a little bit of it will appear in Fallujah.

4 You can hide behind the idea that the hundreds of civilian women and children were killed in crossfire incidents. Here is what British troops in Iraq said about US tactics after a friendly fire incident wounded one of them: "There was a boy of about 12 years old. He was no more than 20 metres away when the Yank opened up. He had absolutely no regard for human life." I am not saying that all US soldiers have no regard for human life, but to pretend that tons of civilians are not getting killed when large scale weapons are used is just a fantasy. And your ideas of soldiers not being responsible for civilians flies in the face of the Geneva Convention and all modern standards of human rights in wartime -- but then this whole war does. Strange that you feel free to cite and slam tons of writers, but when you get it back you call it lies and libel. Obviously you are projecting your feelings of being lied to by Bush, who lied about WMD to get the country to go to this war in the first place. But go ahead and blame me, or liberals or whatever. So you would like for me to stop visiting your blog -- I guess the truth hurts. In terms of no longer pointing out the major fallacies and immorality of your way of thinking, yes, I will go away if you want. And I really hope your loved ones, and all the troops, come home from Iraq safe and sound. And SOON. http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,926237,00.html Another isolated incident, I am sure: http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4680733-103550,00.html