These People are REAL animals!

Ed, I propose you go to Baghdad and tell this joke. Be the first if you do not believe!

i call bs on this story. it sounds like an urban legend.

URBAN LEGEND! I heard the exact same story from Israel in 1981. Did this reporter hear this first hand? Most likely from a friend of a brother of an uncle who hear it from his taxi driver.

So now who is going to hunt down the murderous mahdi army fighter and teach him his lesson?

We all know good people, but humans / humanity (on a collective level) are causing all of the problems. As a good 'people', I try to uplift those humans that I might come in contact with, so as to help make them into a good person (people).

The proliferation of degrading jokes and commentaries might bring a smile to some, but these things just continue to keep the humans in a state of self-justifying turmoil and anger. I do not pass along such unfounded stories or jokes. It's a small thing, but small things add up to big changes.

I absolutley do not agree with the things that are happening in the world and certainly don't condone the actions of certain individuals or groups in their efforts to coerce or frighten or terrorize others. I would certainly take prudent and strong efforts to protect myself and anyone else, even a stranger, from such deplorable actions, even at the cost of my own life. I would not want to eliminate an entire town or country from existence or randomly take lives in the hopes of erradicating some of my 'enemies'. How pathetic!

I cannot change the world, but I can influence my friends, grandchildren and neighbors. You can to! Start today.

A fine example of good people are the Amish who have recently suffered a terrible action to thir small community by a tormented soul. Their forgiveness and collective need to resolve their pain and aguish, without being vindictive, have been a shining light in the midst of humanity's terrible actions against themselves.

We need more good people and fewer humans. You likely know which of them you are. If there is any question in your mind about it, which would you rather be?

What is really frightening is when one gets so used to hearing such stories as these, one views the circumstances objectively without batting an eye ... I immediately started wondering how large a person I could fit into the trunk of my Escort.

I wish to proclaim some truths that arent spoken of nearly enough.We were LIED TO!The American people were duped!We had the support of the world after 9/11 and our President threw it away on lies.NO WMD's- that was why we needed to go correct?Only after that grievious mistake was found out-all of a sudden Saddam needed to be removed from power because he is a bad guy.Would the UN have supported that?Billions spent,thousands Americans dead 10's of thousands wounded,no plan-only death.Spin that Mr President your legacy is wholesale Murder.Even worse,now we are to weak to do anything about North Korea or Iran.We have no World Support,we are the barber in that shop and that is no laughing matter.

The real joke is running into people here in the US who have never been to the Middle East and compare it with life here. They have no idea how lucky they are. If you would have purveyed a similar joke about Sadham and his goons during his time, you could get worse, and your family and your friends.

THE BIGGEST, MOST VILE FLIP FLOPPER EVER! IRAQ MUST be the biggest NATION BUILDING EFFORT EVER!

BUSH OPPOSES NATION BUILDING... "If we don't stop extending our troops all around the world in nation-building missions, then we're going to have a serious problem coming down the road." [Gov. George W. Bush, Oct. 3, 2000]

Well....at least he was right in his prediction about us having a serious problem coming down the road....I, however thought he was going to keep us away from that predicament and not get us into it.

Craig is right on. People in the US get killed everyday (never reported on) just because someone wants to be cool or become part of a silly group or gang. Although we might not be killed for a tasteless joke (depending on where you live (go to Oakland CA and tell a ms-13 joke)) instead, we would be sued for everything we have and it would definitely be reported on so we could never work in the free world again. I wonder what would be worse. To and extent, I do agree that we should let these people work it out themselves but on the other hand, there are way too many decent people over there and deserve a chance to be heard. Although Saddam didn’t have nukes (still to be proven that they weren’t shipped out before we got there) he did kill millions, yeah, I said millions of people and he wouldn’t think twice about doing the same over here if he had the chance. It is an ugly necessary that has to happen. He was definitely supporting and housing terrorists and left to continue doing so, who knows who or what he would have helped support. The fact is that he would have if given the time and opportunity.

The Muslim culture in the Middle East is so different from ours that that it is incomprehensible to us-all I can grasp is their barbarism,violence and hatred of anything alien to them-which is ,of course,Western Civilization,reason,freedom,and tolerance (even of a joke),etc.
We are presently incapable of dealing with these maniacs,but if we don't learn to soon,they will engulf us in another World War fueled by religious hatred.And,YES,WHERE are the Muslims who condemn these atrocities??
Peter,Scottsdale,AZ.

Gaelan, there are only two answers to your question that I can see. Either the Muslims in this country and the rest of the civilized world are afraid to speak out against those that pervert their religion or it is not a perversion of the faith and they are silently complicit. Since they really have very little to fear while they are in this country, thanks to the excellent protections provided by our government, one can only conclude that the latter is true. It is only in societies where Muslims are in the majority that they are willing to openly practice all elements of their faith including the killing of infidels.

I hope that people do not consider blogs news, or even news worthy. The joke was poorly written, and tasteless. The Iraqi's idea of civilization is radically different than ours, and it seems we have wasted a lot of time and effort. I understand you've been posted in Iraq, so do your job: Please stop posting blogs and work on stories.

Richard, be safe and thanks for the news from that poor, sad place.

Once again, a member of the "religion of peace" demonstrates his outrage at the ridiculous notion that he and his fellows have a propensity towards violence, by engaging in a little violence. Reminds me of the comedian who said something to the effect of "Some guy told me I had an anger managment problem. This pissed me off. So I kicked his ass." It might be funny line if it weren't so true of much of the muslim world. Sounds like if you told this joke in Iraq you'd be endangering your life.

Whether or not this paticular story is truth or exaggeration, the accumulated anicdotal evidence is convincing: not a nice place to live.

The fact is that Saddam kept these people together by brute force. Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds don't really want to be together, as we see in what's happening today. It might have worked if we had set up a puppet strong man to keep folks from settling their ancient scores. And there were a lot of scores festering over the years. Instead, we decided to impose a puppet democracy on people who never knew democracy and expected them to act like suburban republicans. Shows you how well we planned this fiasco.

In this country, whatever your viewpoint, a bad joke can often cost you your job, your main source of income. The barber lost this and so much more. I am sure that Nazi Germany had similar gallows humor about the trains bound for the camps that undoubtedly cost some Germans their lives as well. But this kind of savagery is a product of intolerance, not simply of barbarism. In America of the 1960's, being a young, black male and whistling at a white woman would get you lynched. In Wyoming in 2003, being an openly gay white male was enough to get you beaten and left to die. So we're better than Iraqis how when we permit these injustices to occur? Oh, wait - we actually prosecuted the perpetrators of the beating murder of Matthew Shepard & sentenced his murderers to something he was denied: life. Perhaps those who plucked out the barber's eyes will be granted the vision to see the error of their intolerance & embrace a more tolerant Iraq in the future.

Ah, Islam... the religion of peace!

I love the smell of napalm in the morning..
ring a bell?

Ed from Redondo, Humor often masked or makes the truth more palatable. If you want proof, look at the papers. If you wish to be as serious as those depicted in the story, then substantiate and prove every thing that is reported.

But I ask you Ed form redondo where were you when bush and cronies were elected, where were you when the mess in Iraq began?

Muslims who are "silently complicit". You mean sort of like the Christians who are silent over violence at women's health care clinics, silent over pedophilia in the church and silent over "jesus camp" style brainwashing? The enemy of any faith is reason. That's why zealots cannot be reasoned with, nor can they make a coherent case in favor of their actions.

Tariq, that's what i thought also. more room for explosives.

and Julio, who would call "them" Barbarians!, look at the other side please. the fact that in the midst of living that reality anybody could come up with or relate a joke on this subject tells so much about their spirit and nature. how many people, between the birth of that joke and this man's death, told and heard it? just think of the character required of one to be able to absorb and adjust to their horrific reality as the vast majority of them have. just because one of that number comitted a horrible crime when hearing a joke does not tell anything about "them". let's pray that neither of us is tested with the circumstances that the people in iraq are living in now. i only hope that i would be able to come out as brave as they and still trusting in God.

I do feel bad for the Iraq people. But wht gives us the right to go to their country tell them how to live and arrest their president? This makes america no better than the germans during Hitlers rein. Why didn't we do this to Cuba in the late 60's it sits on our border. And why can't we feed, house,and get medical for our People? We feed 3rd world countries all the time but try giving a homeless person a meal in Orlando, Florida. You go to Jail. TAKE CARE OF OUR COUNTRY BEFORE STEALING ANOTHER.....