Remember, it took a lot more than a year or two to stabilize Germany after WW2. GI's were dying in incidents and encounters with partisans on a fairly steady basis, but the media had little to no access to what was ocurring in the country as the military censored all news reports. This was happening in a country that had NO outside funding coming in for the partisans, and the borders were secure.

The Iranians elected a hardliner mainly for one reason......all candidates who were not hardliners who stood a chance had their candidacy ended by the current government. Iran DOES NOT have open elections, they have approved candidates.

I think name calling in the political arena by ANYONE is juvenile and assinine. If you can't talk about something without resorting to it, maybe you need to go update your vocabulary. That having been said, however, there are representatives in congress who truly deserve that title. The rep who called for ending funding for the military until the military pulls out of Iraq deserves to have HIS funding cut off.

Name calling, however irritating it may be, is not offensive to me. However, the unproven and unbacked allegations of US Soldiers raping Iraqis are offensive.