Pull out of Iraq. No draft. No more access to people as cannon fodder for Cheney's insanity.

I am going to give you the benefit of the doubt here, and say that I understand. Soldiers, their friends, and their families have voted for several different candidates in this primary. In a sense, for this reason, it is unfair to make an emotional appeal to end the primary; because, as you imply, if it were to end now, Obama would win (I hope that is not too contentious a point-- if it is, imagine that I instead said "if it were to end now, things might favor Obama"). And, to be very harsh, I can see the analogy to Bush/Rove tactics in using the military to further political goals (though I disagree with your analogy here, I definitely understand it).

All of that said, what I did here was this: I listened to you. I wish you had done the same to Nate's post. If you had, it would have read a little differently, maybe something like this:

"I share your frustration with this war, and your sadness. I have friends and family too that have really been hurt by it! And I agree, this primary, as it drags on, is focusing on petty things, instead of really important things like this war. However, I disagree with your emphasis to call undecided superdelegates as a response. Let's hold the President accountable. Let's hold Republican members of Congress accountable. While the story of your friend is very sad, and my heart goes out to him, I want to caution you against using this to support your preferred candidate. This reminds me of Rovian tactics-- I'm sure we can, at the least, agree that Rovian tactics are a bad thing."

That, to me anyway, is the difference between simply arguing, and listening. Now, it wouldn't have to sound that psychobabbly and nice-- you are of course welcome to write in your own style, even a biting style. And I am completely a hypocrite here, because I usually just go for the kill too! The other day someone's comment rubbed me the wrong way, and I went all "you're misquoting Jesus" on them! Truly awful of me, and my apologies for when I have offended you. You probably have written many things where you have listened, and I'm sure in actual life you are a compassionate person, which I take from your politics. I just think after the DF royal rumble yesterday, I am going to try to actually listen to you when you write, and I hope you would consider returning the favor, not just to me, but to loathsome Obama supporters (no matter how loathsome their writing).

For the record, I agree with you, and I think your point was clear. I just wanted to listen to oceankat as an exercise in civility. Great post- and, I agree, the stop-loss is sickening. Stop-loss is a euphemism for the old fashioned shanghai. This is also known as slavery.