You have a hell of alot to say about something YOU have never done. How can you understand anything about how a vet feels, when you are so obviously not one yourself.

This type of "hyperbole" usaually comes from guys who have never been witin a thousand miles of combat.

I know a lot of combat vets who served at places like Bastogne, Midway, Frozen Chosin & Khe Sahn. They almost NEVER talk about it. They certainly do not shriek about having "defending the free world" to complete strangers...

Fox News reports the bombing was a suicide attack by a single man, no evidence of mortars.

Seeing that you were absolutly wrong in your facts, and it seems Ken was right in his, you should consider an apology.

An observation about Ken made so painfully obvious by none other than himself.

If they get up a good head of speed and don't mind dying in the attempt, they can always sabotage the fence and drive right through or charge the gate. In a civilian post you have a series of concrete chicanes, but I'm not sure how effective that is in the desert, and anyway I wouldn't come through the gate as that's the most fortified point. What you hope to do is place the gate far enough away from the people so you can blow them to hell before they get there. It's very hard to keep them from entering.

You don't know what you're talking about.

Hellooooo Ken...

It was a mortar attack. M-O-R-T-A-R.

A group claiming responsibility on a web site is hardly definitive evidence. Holes (symmetrical ones, indicative of MORTAR ROUNDS) on the other hand, would generally be considered EVIDENCE.

And as far as listening to the generals, my husband just got back from being over in Fallujah for two weeks talking to those "generals" you so blithely reference, so I'd wager I have a better idea what their opinions are than you do from reading the WaPo, which has an agenda a mile long.

LJD, of COURSE it was the guards' fault - they were supposed to jump up into the sky and block incoming mortar rounds!

Don't all guards do that when they're on post? That's the very first thing they teach you at MP school.

If you were in the military when I was a babe, that would make you hmmm about 70. If you are going to try and match quips with me at least try not to sound stupid.

As I said, it is not your ass getting shot off in Iraq...

I suppose Bush and Rumsfeld are directly to blame for this attack. Of course you don't mean to throw mud in the faces of those on guard duty at the time...

I am not blaming the press for orders that were or were not given, rather orders that could not be given. Orders that are simply not an option because of the pervasiveness of cameras on the battlefield and the failure mentality of those against the war, who like to align themselves with the philosophy of the enemy.

To fight and win this war, or any war, will take actions distasteful to the 6 o'clock news, and your hightened sensibilities. I thought that was obvious from the text of my post. Of course, your philosophy has proven time and time again to have ignored the obvious.

...and Mortar, has an "A" in it.

Excellent point! Since you did not do enough to ensure that Geo.W.Bush got elected in the first place, and as President, he got us into this "illegal, immoral and unjust invasion of another country" situation, the blame of those deaths rests solely on your shoulders.

I hope you are proud of yourself!

I stood proudly against this illegal, immoral and unjust invasion of another country by Bush. But if, against better judgement, you're going to go to war anyway, it seemed to me common sense to listen to the generals. Bush not only got us involved in a war based upon a lie, he cannot even fight the war successfully. For the occupation of a country the size of Iraq he needs to send in at least another 100,000 troops. Don't blame me for telling it like it is.