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[FluffyMcDeath]

Perhaps this will help.
link

Now you can sign up till the age of 42.
So, if you really want to support the troops, perhaps you now have one less reason to not actually support them with direct manpower.

If you believe in the "war", go fight it.

[X-ray]

"...The Army is the only service to express interest, and Army officials told the House Armed Services Committee earlier this year that the new authority would be used only for a few critical specialties..."
-----------------------------------------------------------

I would like to know what those specialties are. I suspect they will be back line support personnel such as mechanics or allied health staff.

[smithy]

If you believe in the "war", go fight it.

You forget we have a full-time professional army of well trained soldiers who's job is exactly that. If everyone took up arms whenever they had issues, just who'd pay the salaries of the soldiers?

Aside from that, just what are you calling a "war"? Do you think the only way to make your continuing laboured point is by using deliberately exaggerated language? There is no war today, and there wasn't in 2003 when an invasion force met little resistance.

For all those who support the occupation of Iraq

The only occupation force was Saddam's facist Ba'athist party.

[Karlos]

@Smithy

First off, Fluffy's quotes indicate (at least to me) that the "war" means the farce that is "the war on terror", supposedly the reason that the coalition forces are in iraq for. Or had you forgotten?

Anyway, what would you call it? Try going over there and explaining your point to either side and see who would agree and disagree.

[metalman]

FluffyMcDeath wrote:

If you believe in the "war", go fight it.

you can sign up here Fluffy.... no age limit, no pay, but you have the promise of 72 virgins upon your demise.


Consider Al Qaeda...

al Qaeda has "vacant positions" for video production and editing statements, footage and international media coverage about terrorists in Iraq, the Palestinian territories, Chechnya and other conflict zones where terrorists are active.

Asharq al-Awsat said the advert did not specify salary amounts, but added: "Every Muslim knows his life is not his, since it belongs to the violated Islamic nations whose blood is being spilled. Nothing should take precedence over this."

Islamist terrorists fighting U.S. forces and the U.S.-backed government in Iraq have often posted slick montages of their military activities, including beheadings of hostages, on the Internet.


Discussion of the type of video production and editing work terrorists are seeking

The beheading video, is the money shot, featuring the terrorists reading political statements in Arabic, followed by a beheading. In most of the videos, the captives are decapitated with long, serrated knives, in order to make the experience as ugly and painful as possible. The executioners sometimes pause halfway through, allowing the viewer to witness the victim trying to breathe through a severed windpipe before the beheading is finished.

[Karlos]

metalman wrote:

you can sign up here Fluffy.... no age limit, no pay, but you have the promise of 72 virgins upon your demise.

Give this line a rest, you tiresome individual :-P

[metalman]

@Karlos

the reward in paradise could be only72 white raisins, depending on the translation of the Quran!
;-)

[Karlos]

@metalman

Paradise is a place of spiritual fulfilment, not carnal.

[metalman]

Karlos wrote:
@metalman

Paradise is a place of spiritual fulfilment, not carnal.

Other Muslims have different opinions, they say:

Sexual urge does not perish with death because if man is Muslim, he will be resurrected and given a place in paradise where he will enjoy sex day and night.

Hadith Tirmzi, volume two (p 35-40) which gives details of houris, the ever-young virgins (houri) of paradise (jannat):

4. A houri is a young woman, free from odium and animosity. Besides, she knows the meaning of love and has the ability to put it into practice.

5. A houri is an immortal woman, who does not age. She speaks softly and does not raise voice at her man; she is always reconciled with him. Having been brought up in luxury, she is a luxury herself.

6. A houri is a girl of tender age, having large upright breasts. Houris dwell in palaces of splendid surroundings.

Mishkat, volume three says on pages 83-97:

9. Every man who enters paradise shall be given seventy-two houris; no matter at what age he had died, when he enters paradise, he will become a thirty-year-old, and he will not age any further.

10. Tirmzi, volume 2 states on page 138:

A man in paradise shall be given virility equal to that of one hundred men!

[Karlos]

Well, If your individual spiritual fulfilment requires bonking women senseless, then I guess that's what you will get. I am sure there are many men that would welcome the idea. Personally, an eternity of studding doesn't hold much appeal to me, I'm sure the novelty soon wears off.

Paradise is described in many other ways, not a single one of which you have quoted or perhaps even made the effort to find out about. By necessity it is all things to all people. If someone's aspiration only goes as far as endless sex, then that is only a reflection upon them, IMO.

It is described as a place of endless discovery, where even the things you'd imagine to be familiar are varied and different beyond your comprehension. An important consideration if you are to spend an eternity there.

Personally, descriptions of paradise, such as they are, are flawed IMO, one cannot really convey in human terms what it means to exist for an eternity, the evnironment/state of existance you'd need to be able to cope with it, let alone embrace it.

When I die, I will face whatever comes fair and square. If the atheist view that I will just cease to be is correct, then so be it. I have no need of the type of carnal reassurences you seem to enjoy quoting so much.

[cecilia]

Karlos wrote:
@metalman

Paradise is a place of spiritual fulfilment, not carnal.

apparently not for people from Texas...

[Karlos]

@cecilia

Do you suppose it's a case of hereafter envy? I mean I can imagine some people feeling short changed at the notion of playing a harp on a cloud all day long when they could be having endless hot action with 72 perfect women

[smithy]

I don't know what's in Heaven, but I strongly suspect it has nothing to do with sex given that sex drive is created by chemicals in your blood and is a purely physical thing. If you've ever taken drugs that block the receptors in your brain of such chemicals (and I have), you soon come to the conclusion that sex seems rather unpleasant and most definately undesirable. So that leads me to think that these clerics are lying to young would-be "martyrs".

When I die, I'll happily become a particle of air, being blown around the world looking down at all the things I've seen in my life. Sounds much better than some repulsive looking reproductive organs ;-)

[metalman]

The suicide attackers who carried out the September 11 attacks believed that 'the black-eyed virgins' were one of the rewards awaiting them in Paradise. The letter of instructions found in Nawwaf Al-Hamzi's car mentioned 'the "black-eyed virgins" twice: "...Don't show signs of uneasiness and tension; be joyful and happy, set your mind at ease, and be confident and rest assured that you are carrying out an action that Allah likes and that pleases Him. Therefore, a day will come, Allah willing, that you will spend with 'the black-eyed' in Paradise... Know that the gardens [i.e. Paradise] have been decorated for you with the most beautiful ornaments and that 'the black-eyed' will call to you: 'Come, faithful of Allah," after having donned their finest garments."

The Hamas Palestinian movement educates the children in its schools, beginning in kindergarten, to believe that a martyr is given "black-eyed virgins" in Paradise.

Palestinian Muslim clerics also help instill this belief. In an interview with the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram Al-Arabi, Palestinian Authority Mufti Sheikh 'Ikrima Sabri was asked what he felt when he prayed for the soul of a martyr. He answered:
"I feel that the martyr is lucky, because angels bring him to his wedding in Paradise... I spoke with one young man, who told me: 'I want to marry the black-eyed women in Paradise.' The next day, he died a martyr's death. I am certain that his mother was filled with joy over his heavenly wedding. Such a son is worthy of such a mother.'"

The death announcements of martyrs in the Palestinian press often take the form of wedding, not funeral, announcements. "Blessings will be accepted immediately after the burial and until 10 p.m....at the home of the martyr's uncle," read one suicide bomber's death notice.(12) "With great pride, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad marries the member of its military wing... the martyr and hero Yasser Al-Adhami, to 'the black-eyed,'" read another.

Hamas official Ashraf Sawaftah told of a ceremony honoring Izz Al-Din Al-Masri, who carried out the suicide bombing of the Sbarro pizzeria in central Jerusalem on August 9, 2001:
"His relatives distributed sweets and accepted their son as a bridegroom married to 'the black-eyed,' not as someone who had been killed and was being laid in the ground."

The uncle of Nassim Abu 'Aasi, who died while he was attempting to carry out an attack, said that when the deceased was asked why he was not married, he would always reply, "Why should I relinquish 'the black-eyed' to marry women of clay [i.e. flesh an blood]?"

"This is part of the Islamic belief," Hamas leader Isma'il Abu Shanab once explained to AFP. "Anyone who dies a martyr's death has a reward. If the martyr dreams of 'the black-eyed,' he'll get her."

A suicide bomber caught before he managed to carry out his mission; he was wearing a towel as a loincloth to protect his genitals for use in Paradise. Many suicide Bombers wrap their genitals with aluminum foil and duct tape to save them for use in paradise.

[Karlos]

metalman wrote:

A suicide bomber caught before he managed to carry out his mission; he was wearing a towel as a loincloth to protect his genitals for use in Paradise. Many suicide Bombers wrap their genitals with aluminum foil and duct tape to save them for use in paradise.

If true, then they are as profoundly ignorant of their faith as you are. Mind you, given that they are prepared to blow themselves up to kill unarmed civilians thinking this is going to please God, that's a given anyway.