It's Official Obama is running in '08

[Goofball]

Have you got a direct quote on that Xiahou? The reason I ask is that two statements that are very much alike would have very different meanings. In this case, I mean the difference between:

"American soldiers are wasting their lives in Iraq."

and

"American soldiers' lives are being wasted in Iraq."

The former is unfair and untrue, but the latter I agree with without reservation.

I'm sure a direct quote wouldn't be hard to find, but I'm curious on what you think the difference is between the two above statements. Care to spell it out for me?

The job of the Commander in Chief is to use the military for the protection and benefit of the citizens of the U.S. The argument can certainly be made that the war in Iraq has served neither to protect nor benefit Americans. So in that sense, it would be fair comment to say that the current administration is wasting soldiers' lives.

On the other hand, the soldiers themselves have not wasted their own lives. They have chosen an honorable and worthy profession: serving their fellow citizens by serving in their country's military. Whatever we may say of the war in Iraq, we can certainly not say that the soldiers wasted their own lives, as they are doing what they are sworn to do.

Ah, here's the quote:

We ended up launching a war that should have never been authorized and should have never been waged and to which we have now spent $400 billion and has seen over 3,000 lives of the bravest young Americans wasted.

So it appears that I was correct. Obama did not say that "American soldiers have been wasting their lives" in Iraq. He said that the administration has been wasting American soldiers' lives. Big difference.