"Pax Romana," "Pax Brittanica," and now "Pax Americana;" all three can be viewed as oxymoronic since peace was always relative either by sword point or gun point. Who would you have holding the peace now? It is all a matter of perspective.

For example, remember Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, etc..? Well, I recently had the chance to talk with a British teen who stated when asked that these gentlemen were not noted in the British history books. What? The founding fathers of the United States not noted? I at least would think Washington would be listed as a traitor to the crown, but worse, he is not even acknowledged.

Another example is Yassar Arafat. Ask anybody of Jewish background, and you will actually see the person (unless he or she has VERY good control) tense up before talking, or in some cases, screaming about Arafat being a bloody terrorist of the most heinous sort. I believe that if you asked any Palistinians about Arafat, you would here a completely different story. Remember, when Israel officially recognized the existance of a Palistinian state, Arafat ceased in his "acts of terror." Is this the action of a terrorist or the action of a freedom fighter? It is a matter of a difference in opinion.

As the adage goes, "no matter how thin you slice something, it still has two sides." It is my opinion that to fully understand something, you must study BOTH sides of the argument objectively. It is not an easy task to accomplish by far, but it can be done. Afterwards you can choose to keep your previous opinion...or not.

With that in mind, I would like to make a couple of points, The Iraquis are all of the same race and religion, but it is not the dominant religion or race of the United States, so in a way DCbeast is correct; that is IF all Iraqis were being slaughtered.

On the other hand, the soldiers have no say in whether they should be in Iraq or not--other than there vote on election day. In a manner of speaking the military if an instrument of action welded by a few select politicals. If later we find them guilty of war crimes, so be it. But for now they are following orders.