Mr. Tristen

What the hell? Looked up my house on the satellite scan of aberdeen, and noticed a strange anomaly I've never seen before! What the hell is that!?

I'm not gonna go into wether they have a right to be there or not, the topic is wether we should pull out. What do you think will happen if the troops pull out? Really? All the Iraqis will throw a big street party, elect a president and live happily ever after in a utopian paradise? The troops stationed there may be an 'evil', but in this case they are the lesser of two evils. There is no solution for Iraq at the moment. Maybe thats Americas fault, maybe its Saddams or more likely its a combination of millions of factors over hundreds of years, whatever the reasoning at this stage we'd be doing no favours by leaving. You have to remember there are dozens of well armed factions all trying to gain power. The fall of Saddam's regime left many small armys in the hands of various generals, many of whom seem to have ambitions of power themselves. It is my feeling that if we left, within a week the gouverment would be assassinated/executed/exiled/etc, a civil war would begin, and in the long run the people of Iraq would find themselves in a far worse state. Say what you like for the American troops being there, they are a stop gap preventing the place from falling apart at the seams. I too want to see America live up to its late promise and leave Iraq alone after overthrowing the Saddam regime, but at this stage it would only further compound the wests crimes to take the dog away and leave the chicken coup open to foxes. I too, as a pro-war originally am very disapointed that we have not lived up to our goals in Iraq, and my confidence in the powers that be has taken a dent, but I will not support compounding one mistake with another. Anyway, personaly opinion, and that of a few people I know that have actually seen things for themselves out there, but as usual I'm sure this topic will be a touchy one with many different sides. Atleast we can agree that we just want to see the Iraqi people stop suffering.

*sigh* Hmmmmm...

Damm some people suck.

Awesome

Damm that was a while ago, though I think I remember. Hell I didn't even realise I met LynDsey that night, thought the first time was in Glasgow a few months later. That was a damm good party actually, especially Andrew blowing himself up and the epic walk home the next day a few of us did. Wonder if theres more planned this year, didn't bother last year.

Oooh, where/when?

Been mugged three times, but never lost anything. First was broad daylight at the quiet end of union street when I was much younger. Basically laughed in the guys face walked away and in the few seconds it took him to decide to give chase we'd jumped in the middle of a crowd of people and asked for their help. The guy ran off and we could see hi9m andf his friends following at a distance, but nothing more was done. Police Response: Very impressive, though they never caught him. Second was when I was about 18, as he was armed I decided to hand over the whole 2 pound something I had in my wallet but he wasn't happy with that and ordered me to a cash machine to empty my account. Somehow I persuaded him I could only use my card in the bank itself which the idiot agreed to, but I simply walked up to the teller and told him what was happening and they hit the alarm. Sadly the guy got away. Police Response: Utter shite - infact they accused me of being a drug dealer for some reason. Third time was in Glasgow where 3 of us were surrounded by 6 guys all armed with knives. Luckily one of my friends was fuckin nails, and the other two of us can look after ourselves well enough. The aformentioned friend had 2 disarmed and broke the arm of a third one before they could even blink, then turned on the fourth while the other 2 of us dealt with the remaining 2. Most of them legged it but the one I floored and the one with the broken arm we pinned down and waited for the police to arrive. The two actually tried to press assault charges against us. Police Response: Good in as far as they were prompt and they basically refused to let the guys press their assault charge, but also not too impressive as the two guys or their friends were never punished for it in the end.

TV Tanned - We've had a long running verbal sparring session now, so I'm curious as to the real personality with the internet removed... Neil - Our all seeing all knowing webmaster. It'd be like looking into the face of God Rainbowprincess - Always seems to come up in conversations with other AM people so I'm somewhat curious now...

Detained in singapore airport as I forgot I had a penknife in the thumb pocket of my jeans - questioned but allowed on my way Cautioned in South Wales for selling booze to minors Arrested but not charged in Glasgow for restraining an out of control policeman So no actual record luckily. On top of this fair few dealing with the police which have ended quite amiably (eg sleeping in union terrace gardens drunk, noise complaints from partys etc etc). Oh, and someone who tried to mug me tried to press charges for assault, but didn't have a leg to stand on really, was never in any danger of being charged for it.

The fear!

Talk about publicity!

Anyone notice the Sunderland South Monsetr Raving Looney Party candidate? Mad Cow Girl Warner, rock on.

Interesting, the BNP are actually registering on the map so to speak this year - their votes so far are actually making them a 4th party... I'm giving 50/50 odds on them actually gaining a seat so far. 8-0 to Labour so far.