Again read you history. I have studied the Cuban revolution in great detail. Have you? I assume you could not have otherwise you would not be denying the fact that his militants killed countless innocent people in their early stages. Even within their own ranks a great deal of barbarity took place. You are clearly defending an evil tyrant. Hitler also 'did good things' for the German people. That doesn't change the fact he's one of the most evil SOBs humanity has ever produced. The fact remains his regime has locked up and murdered countless political opponents which overshadows anything else he has done. Castro also sent his terrorists to countries that didn't want him to. He back the Bolivian communists into a corner and despite there demands that they obtain revolution through peaceful methods, by de facto the placing of Che Guevara in Bolivia.

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Yes, of course you forget (just a mistake?) to mention the fact the crowd were firing into the US troops. Lets get the facts right.

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"The idea that resolving problems with radicalised - or potentially radicalised - Islam can only be framed as reolving problems with Bin Laden is setting ludicrous parameters on the political necessities of this crisis. " I just gave you an example of how absurd it is to suggest it could be solved another way. "Loz, there weren't two sides in Fallujah. I don't like the term Islamo-fascism, but I agree that some of the insurgency groups are politically very repressive and propagate a politics that we both rightly find repugnant. But there was a plurality of 'enemy' in Fallujah, and to dismiss it all as 'Islamo fascist' is to avoid politics and ensure war. And yes, the tactics of guerilla warfare are horrible and brutal. Nobody would expect 'the enemy' to locate their positions or their rockets far outside residential areas where they're easier to hit. No sides 'play fair' in this sort of conflict, whether it be the interaction with the civilian population of guerilla fighters, or the overwhelming dominance of 'traditional' armies. But to echo you: that's war. War is a horrid, repulsive, barbarous thing in which people are killed: civilians, professional soldiers, conscripts; zealots, ingenues, the brainwashed, the idealistic: they are all killed. And women, children, the elderly. Others just have their lives destroyed. Loz, there are very few circumstances when anybody should choose that reality. While people like you are saying 'this is all the fault of the terrorists, the Islamo-fascists, etc. and their actions mean we must act as we do' and your mirror image is saying 'this is all the fault of the infidel, etc. and their actions mean we must act as we do' we are left with a completely hopeless situation." But that is warfare. Two sides who ultimately want to destroy each other. You've just got to decide if that similarity extends to tactics. Ultimately we're not the ones with a policy to target innocent people. They have done and continue to do so. Day after day, they are blowing up indiscriminately. Do you ever sit and wonder why these people are doing that? I do. Do you really think these people would not be doing this had we not invaded? That they would be the average iraqi, or as it happens foreigner? Just going about their lives. Yet one day they saw old dubya invade their land and they decided to take up arms. I just don't buy it, and I think it is an insult to islam and iraqis to suggest that beneath the surface they are evil barbarians. I fully accept that this is a diverse and splintered ideology. But time and again, when their leaders speak, the end game is roughly the same. The evil in these people wasn't born in 2003, nor 9.11. This truely evil and dangerous mindset is generations in the work. It is sadly, religious in its tone. With talk of 'crusades' and an 'evil empire' we know that this problem goes beyond the Iraqi war, or even just the Americans. It is a problem nations across the world face. Terrorists were planning to behead the Canadian PM, they have targetted numerous nations that has nothing to do with the war. Thye reasoning is often different, but it is the ideology and extremism that gives them motive and inspiration for their actions. If we were an oppressive force, I might be able to understand it. But we are helping these people. They often do try and promote us as an evil occupier, but then where were these people during Saddams regime who surely must be as awful as they make us out to be? Many of the leaders of the islamo facist network were radicalized from birth. That chain of indoctrination is getting worse. From palestine to pakistan the tactics are becomming more evil and desperate. We've seen the picture of what they do to these children, and it should scare every person with a soul. There is no way of negotiating with this. They will never change, and have plans that extend beyond iraq or afghanistan. So we can either just sit back and hope for the best, appease and placate or we can learn the lessons of history and confront this head on to save ourselves in the future. That doesn't mean total war, it means a multi pronged approach. Trying to win hearts and minds by helping and supporting the moderates, and confronting regimes which are openly hostile to us and our allies. I'd love to think we could reason with nations like Iran, I honestly would. But you only to need to listen to their leaders and negotiators to know that there plan is not for peace, it is for war.

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If I ever reached the point I would feel violent against a foreign force, I would target that foreign force. Targetting civilians is NEVER acceptable. For me that is rule number one and is non negotiable. I think for anyone to have a genuine gripe against our forces, it would have to be if those forces were carrying out massacres and as a policy trying their hardest to pilage and ruin my country. I don't see that, therefore I see no justification for violent actions. I people want to peacefully protest to get our guys out, I have no problem. As President Bush has himself said, if the Iraqis ask us to leave, we'll leave. At this time they haven't. They've asked us to stay. You've got to consider that while there are without question tens of thousands of insurgents, these are made up of many thousands of foreigners who do not represent iraq, yet despite all that are an extreme minority. Not even 1% of Iraqis are involved. So how can these people trying to force us out and fight us out legitimately represent Iraq? Further to that, their campaigns are largely if not solely foreign aided. As has been rightly pointed out, the country has become a magnet for terror. It's a desperate situation, and I wouldn't want you to think that I don't sit and despair as I'm sure you do every day at what happens. I feel great anger towards these terrorists, I want the Iraqis to be free, to have democracy and for out guys to come home. These bastards are an obstacle to that and efforts so far to negotiate with them have proved fruitless. In fact things have only got worse. Now, you did raise an interesting point about children who sadly have been exploited into this and other conflicts around the world. The tactics have been barbaric. Children are literally forced into that situation, in places like Palestine the terrorists, the government of Hamas have used despicable tactics to create a generation that will hate us all. We are quite shielded from this in the UK. It's an interesting and shocking topic that many would do well to research. But back on topic. I wouldn't want to see any children killed. The only situation I can imagine that this would happen is if a child genuinly posed an immediate threat to our troops or civilians. It is permissable that shots might need to be fired at that child. But again, that is the horror of war. I don't know how to win this war, we are not winning it at this point. Militarily we win every time we engage the enemy, but in terms of hearts and minds, we're really up against it. I would be genuinly interested to hear an alternative strategy but I have seen none at this time from the anti war groups. I'm sure they'd have a hell of a lot more respect from more moderate sectors of the public if they could provide this alternative.

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There is absolutely no proof any such orders were given.

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