We as a nation - 78% are against the invasion in Iraq and want our aggression to stop. You do bad, you get bad. You do good, you get good. We have choices. We've done a lot of bad in the past which is why others want to destroy us. We have to start doing good, get out of Iraq, and we will start walking down the path of peace. We must not retreat back to our world largest embassy and military bases- we must retreat out of the country.
How can we expect not to get our asses kicked when we go around kicking world asses? It's all in our choice...
May PEACE be inside ALL of us,
Cindy
Defense Department blocks some Web sitesBy Robert Weller / Associated Press
DENVER - Soldiers serving overseas will lose some of their online links to friends and loved ones back home under a Department of Defense policy that a high-ranking Army official said would take effect Monday.
The Defense Department will begin blocking access "worldwide" to YouTube, MySpace and 11 other popular Web sites on its computers and networks, according to a memo sent Friday by Gen. B.B. Bell, the U.S. Forces Korea commander.
The policy is being implemented to protect information and reduce drag on the department's networks, according to Bell.
"This recreational traffic impacts our official DoD network and bandwidth ability, while posing a significant operational security challenge," the memo said.
The armed services have long barred members of the military from sharing information that could jeopardize their missions or safety, whether electronically or by other means.
The new policy is different because it creates a blanket ban on several sites used by military personnel to exchange messages, pictures, video and audio with family and friends.
Members of the military can still access the sites on their own computers and networks, but Defense Department computers and networks are the only ones available to many soldiers and sailors in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Iraqi insurgents or their supporters have been posting videos on YouTube at least since last fall. The Army recently began posting videos on YouTube showing soldiers defeating insurgents and befriending Iraqis.
But the new rules mean many military personnel won't be able to watch those achievements — at least not on military computers.
If the restrictions are intended to prevent soldiers from giving or receiving bad news, they could also prevent them from providing positive reports from the field, said Noah Shachtman, who runs a national security blog for Wired Magazine.
"This is as much an information war as it is bombs and bullets," he said. "And they are muzzling their best voices."
The sites covered by the ban are the video-sharing sites YouTube, Metacafe, IFilm, StupidVideos, and FileCabi, the social networking sites MySpace, BlackPlanet and Hi5, music sites Pandora, MTV, and 1.fm, and live365, and the photo-sharing site Photobucket.
Several companies have instituted similar bans, saying recreational sites drain productivity.
Iran lawmakers seek U.S. friendship
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press
Iranian deputies were gathering signatures to try and form an Iranian-U.S. friendship committee in parliament to hold contacts with the U.S. Congress, legislators involved in the effort said Tuesday.
It was the first effort organized by parliament to find a way to bridge nearly three decades of estrangement between the U.S. and Iran. It comes days after the governments of the two countries agreed to hold direct talks on one of the main issues dividing them — the conflict in Iraq.
Darioush Ghanbari, one of at least 10 deputies who has signed the document calling for the establishment of the committee, said Iranian parliamentarians were seeking to reduce tensions with America and "explain Iran's realities to the U.S. Congress."
The document had signatures from both conservatives and reformists and more signatures from the 290-member legislature were expected by the end of the day, Ghanbari said.
"In the absence of formal diplomatic relations, we seek to establish a parliamentary relationship with the U.S. Congress and fill the existing gap of contacts between the two nations," Ghanbari, a pro-reform lawmaker, told The Associated Press.
No specific number of deputies is required to form such a committee. The document signed by lawmakers will be presented to the parliament's speaker, who has the right to accept or reject it.
It was unclear what he would do. The speaker is Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, a close associate of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who holds final say in all matters in Iran. Haddad Adel is considered a relative moderate among the conservatives and hard-liners who make up Iran's top leadership, and it is likely he would consult with Khamenei before taking any decision.
Washington severed diplomatic ties with Tehran after Iranian militant students stormed its embassy in Tehran in 1979, to protest America's refusal to hand over Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi for trial.
Ever since, talk of ties with the United States has long been a taboo among Iran's hard-line clerical leadership. Hard-liners stymied cautious efforts by reformists in the late 1990s to open up contacts with Americans — though the leadership has condoned occasional talks on specific issues with Washington.
One hard-line lawmaker, Saeed Aboutaleb, denounced the effort to create the friendship committee, saying Tuesday, "the nation will strike the mouth of these lawmakers."
Khamenei's stance on the committee was not known. But Iran's acceptance of ambassador-level talks with the U.S. on improving Iraq's security could be a sign the supreme leader sees the need for contact with the United States amid the two countries' escalating tensions.
The United States accuses Iran of fueling Iraq's violence by backing militants there, a charge Iran denies. Tehran, in turn, says the U.S. troop presence in Iraq is the cause of the country's turmoil. Washington and its allies also accuse Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons — a charge Iran also denies — and the United Nations has imposed limited sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment.
The Iraqi government — which is backed by the United States but also close to Iran — has pushed for the two countries to end their disputes.
Proponents of the friendship committee said it could help avert anti-Iranian legislation by the U.S. Congress.
"If (Iranian) government officials are reconciling with Americans, why can't the Iranian nation reconcile with the American people?" said Jalal Hosseini, another Iranian reformist lawmaker who signed the petition.
"We are seeking to form this friendship committee to undermine anti-Iran policies of the Bush administration and show our good will and our peace-loving spirits," he said.
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