Late night joints in general attract this kind of behaviour, but at nearly 54 years old, my days of staying out tip the silly hours are pretty much passed me.
Exceptions have been very good nights in Spain - in late night bars, not clubs, where it was all generally very well behaved.
I absolutely did not intend to imply that my position was or ever has been that an Iraqi life is intrisically less valuable than an American life. That has never been my position and I apologize if that was in anyway unclear.
Furthermore, I was incorrect in assuming Iraq public support of US occupation was more favored than it currently is. Yes, there certainly is concern about a potential security crisis after US withdraw, but the most recent polls I found illustrate mixed approval despite that concern.
My position is that equating an Iraqi insurgent with an American soldier (or other NATO operator) in some 1-1 ratio of equivalency when discussing loss of life as seems to be happening in this thread is very strange to me. In fact, it seems rather absurd. The selection process, training, discipline, military intelligence, coofftopicnd structure, rules of engagement, etc. between various factions of Iraqi insurgents versus American soldiers are grossly weighted in the favor of the US soldiers exercising far more discretion and control in their use of force. Certainly the US has been responsible for cases of excessive force and causing unacceptable collateral damage , but not at a remotely comparable rate to the insurgent fighters. Our soldiers don't use women, children, and IEDs are a matter of protocol. I don't think that can be reasonably disputed.
There appears to be a misconception here that modern snipers like Chris Kyle choose their own targets and don't have them verified before taking action. US soldiers exercise far more restraint and require confirmation before engaging enemies, apparently sometimes while taking fire from behind cover. If you can imagine being hunkered down behind rubble while being shot at and waiting for a radio okay to return fire and kill the aggressor for a moment, you can probably also imagine those are not the same conditions Iraqi insurgents concern themselves. I haven't served in the military so I'm unqualified to discuss standard operating procedures for engaging enemy combatants, and I'm sure it varies greatly depending on mission parameters, but I know enough to realize that assuming a 1-1 equivalency on conditions for death statistics when comparing a modern well-funded military to a patchwork of guerrilla fighters from the Third World is quite misleading.
It is also important to recognize that the Iraqi insurgency is composed of a broad variety of factions with varying agendas, some entirely criminal and self-serving, and some as foreign fighters operating in country specifically to strike at NATO targets without any regard for advancing Iraq interests. Therefore, the notion of the entire Iraq insurgency fighting for the sovereignty of that country is also inaccurate.