Curmudgeon, have you noticed the coffins arriving in Australia from Afghanistan. They hold Australians!

Did you read the whole article by Chris Hedges, a writer with a lot of prestige internationally?

A quick lip is easily beaten by considered reflection!

A bureaucrat is a bureaucrat, whether they are in a Company or a Government. They are are all a pack of .... (aussie comment) and are in it for themselves. The advantage of with private ones is they don't have the monopoly power of the State behind them. This argument is .... (more vernacular). The main differences between the two pernicious types are that the Government one likes to mask themselves "virtue" and does much more damage.

David G

While obviously any deaths add up to too many, go and have a look at the actual count of deaths in Iraq (are we up past two week's worth of road toll over several years?) and then recollect that those in the coffins are volunteer professionals. So they are not being "slaughtered" and they are not conscripts which is what your quote implies.

As I said the quote fits early 20th century regimes and later communist ones. If you want to be taken seriously don't over-state..

Given a choice between accepting your thoughts and those of Chris Hedges, Curmudgeon, give me the latter any time.

'Christopher Lynn Hedges is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and war correspondent specializing in American and Middle Eastern politics and societies.'

Perhaps you'd like to include a brief biography of your own achievements, Curmud.