11War

My favorite line: "An overwhelming 49.9 percent of Americans responded enthusiastically to the Bush speech." A nice nod to the election results.

You have to realize that you're comparing two very different militaries here.

I saw that when I was in Israel (I'm an American). The best place to visit if you want to see this? The hospitals. Israel will open its doors to Palestinians (especially children) with medical conditions that they can't get treated in the West Bank and Gaza. There is certainly prejudice (on both sides) but people in Israel are no different from people anywhere else in the world. I think that's what scares people most about this conflict. Either they're scared to get to know the humans and identify with them, or they're scared because they know that they're no different from anyone else.

Do you think the public's infatuation with the Marine Corps has any downside? Does it detract from the reputation of your sister services? No disrespect meant; the best people I know are Marines. I just don't think the rivalry is always healthy in a volunteer force when it's aching for volunteers. (I.e. The army in 2006)

Holy cow, Semisonic is still my favorite nostalgia-laden rock from the late 90s. Thank you so much for the awesome music. When I started playing guitar I made sure to learn some Semisonic as soon as I could!