I once bemoaned the retirement of the human shield concept, but this is understandable. After all, it is one thing to bravely stand your ground knowing that the US soldier will give you the benefit of the doubt and not shoot you, it is another thing entirely to stand your ground before people who will cut your head off and sell the video. So, discretion became the better part of half formed polical valor, and they all went home.
Which is good for them, because they would become fodder for more beheadings, I am sure. Such naive people would 'help' the cause of the oppressed, perhaps not altruistically, but al Queda needs warm bodies from Western countries to parade. There would have been no better source than that of the highly gulliable. Oh, would not if Sean Penn had stayed behind!
That being said, I've noticed a disconnect between some political shrieking and current events. If I am to believe what I am told, Bush has "gone it alone", and his impulsive illegal war (whatever that is) is one of the plethora of reasons we are so roundly hated by, well, everyone. Why then, if our unilateralism is such a core issue, are terrorists beheading South Koreans, killing Italians, blowing up Spaniards, and kidnapping Turks?
If the people targeting non-Americans are psychotic killers so enraged by our insolence that they are just acting indiscriminantly, then they need to be shot or captured! I wouldn't want to think that certain political voices might be misleading people to score political points.
Our enemies seem to realize that there are other nations in this fight. Why can't certain fellow countrymen come to the same conclusions?