>There are a few other reasons I could think of, like showing the world who's the boss, gaining a strategic position in the region, countering the Russian presence there...
>
>The reasons you would list are mostly PR in my eyes.

Destroying the Al Qaeda training camps, capturing Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is PR?

>Their factuality could be proven, at least for some of them, if I was doing what I wasn't - dedicating a few hours a week to crosschecking the stuff I read, and making a library of bookmarks, copies of everything etc etc.
>
>Since I was not doing that, the stuff I posted here is in the "audiantur et altera pars" category, which I think I already said earlier. You think my sources are biased, and I think yours are, but at least we've heard them both.

>>But that doesn't make either one of us an expert on the subject, nor does it make him one.
>
>Wasn't the American definition of a professional "one who gets paid for work"?

The guy on The Bachelor got paid for his work, but that doesn't mean I consider him a professional.

>And, you know, it doesn't take an expert to die in a war. Anyone can do that. Now, writing about it does take one. Somehow I'm not buying that logic - that you have to be a proven expert to be heard. That sounds more like an ad hominem attack, dismissing a person instead of proving his points wrong one by one.

I already proved his bias, if not outright lie, in his reference to The Guardian article. He didn't give an acurate picture, did he? Like I wrote earlier, if that is your idea of someone you can trust, so be it.

>It was the joke I saw coming. So, to bring a more serene note, here's a surreal writer, one of the proven experts in nonsensical twisting of reality:
>
>A letter to the Observer (London)
> from Terry Jones (of Monty Python)
>
> -----------------------------------
>
> Sunday January 26, 2003
>
> The Observer
>
> I'm really excited by George Bush's latest reason for
> bombing Iraq: he's running out of patience. And so am I!
> For some time now I've been really p1ssed off with
> Mr Johnson, who lives a couple of doors down the
> street.
>
> Well, him and Mr Patel, who runs the health food shop.
> They both give me queer looks, and I'm sure Mr Johnson
> is planning something nasty for me, but so far I haven't
> been able to discover what.
>
> I've been round to his place a few times to see what
> he's up to, but he's got everything well hidden.
> That's how devious he is. As for Mr Patel, don't ask
> me how I know, I just know - from very good sources -
> that he is, in reality, a Mass Murderer. I have
> leafleted the street telling them that if we don't act
> first, he'll pick us off one by one.
> Some of my neighbours say, if I've got proof, why
> don't I go to the police? But that's simply
> ridiculous. The police will say that they need
> evidence of a crime with which to charge my neighbours.
>
> They'll come up with endless red tape and quibbling
> about the rights and wrongs of a pre-emptive strike
> and all the while Mr Johnson will be finalising his
> plans to do terrible things to me, while Mr Patel will
> be secretly murdering people.
>
> Since I'm the only one in the street with a decent
> range of automatic firearms, I reckon it's up to me to
> keep the peace. But until recently that's been a
> little difficult. Now, however, George W. Bush has
> made it clear that all I need to do is run out of
> patience, and then I can wade in and do whatever I want!
>
> And let's face it, Mr Bush's carefully thought-out
> policy towards Iraq is the only way to bring about
> international peace and security. The one certain way
> to stop Muslim fundamentalist suicide bombers
> targeting the US or the UK is to bomb a few Muslim
> countries that have never threatened us.
>
> That's why I want to blow up Mr Johnson's garage and
> kill his wife and children. Strike first! That'll
> teach him a lesson. Then he'll leave us in peace and
> stop peering at me in that totally unacceptable way.
>
> Mr Bush makes it clear that all he needs to know
> before bombing Iraq is that Saddam is a really nasty
> man and that he has weapons of mass destruction - even
> if no one can find them. I'm certain I've just as
> much justification for killing Mr Johnson's wife and
> children as Mr Bush has for bombing Iraq. Mr Bush's
> long-term aim is to make the world a safer place by
> eliminating 'rogue states' and 'terrorism'. It's such
> a clever long-term aim because how can you ever know
> when you've achieved it?
>
> How will Mr Bush know when he's wiped out all
> terrorists? When every single terrorist is dead?
> But then a terrorist is only a terrorist once he's
> committed an act of terror. What about would-be
> terrorists? These are the ones you really want to
> eliminate, since most of the known terrorists, being
> suicide bombers, have already eliminated themselves.
>
> Perhaps Mr Bush needs to wipe out everyone who could
> possibly be a future terrorist? Maybe he can't be sure
> he's achieved his objective until every Muslim
> fundamentalist is dead? But then some moderate
> Muslims might convert to fundamentalism. Maybe the
> only really safe thing to do would be for Mr Bush to
> eliminate all Muslims?
>
> It's the same in my street. Mr Johnson and Mr Patel
> are just the tip of the iceberg. There are dozens of
> other people in the street who I don't like and who -
> quite frankly - look at me in odd ways. No one will be
> really safe until I've wiped them all out. My wife
> says I might be going too far but I tell her I'm
> simply using the same logic as the President of the
> United States. That shuts her up. Like Mr Bush, I've
> run out of patience, and if that's a good enough
> reason for the President, it's good enough for me.
> I'm going to give the whole street two weeks - no, ten
> days - to come out in the open and hand over all
> aliens and interplanetary hijackers, galactic outlaws
> and interstellar terrorist masterminds, and if they
> don't hand them over nicely and say 'Thank you',
> I'm going to bomb the entire street to kingdom come.
>
> It's just as sane as what George W. Bush is proposing
> - and, in contrast to what he's intending, my policy
> will destroy only one street.
>
>
> Terry Jones

By Terry Jones analogy, his neighbor also:

1. Tortures his family.
2. Allows his son to rape his duaghters.
3. Has attacked and killed his neighbors on 2 different occasions.
4. Has used nerve gas on his neighbors.
5. Has used nerve gas on his own family.

If you have that kind of guy living in your neighborhood and want to give him the benefit of the doubt, that's your business. Hopefully, your neighbors disagree.