Iraqi girl kicked, beaten & stoned in broad daylight, while people take pics & watch

This is absolutely sickening - I don't even have words for it. It's brief footage of a 17-year-old girl being kicked and stoned to death in northern Iraq.

I'm so glad to see that U.S. troops are curbing the violence in Iraq. To be fair, this happened long before we arrived in Iraq and it will probably occur long after we leave (if we ever do), but this is the kind of stuff our soldiers should be preventing, at least in theory.

But, the truth is that they can't. No amount of U.S. troops will prevent the violence and civil war that is taking place in Iraq right now.

Seven more troops died today in Iraq as they search for the three troops that turned up missing last week. By the way, I wonder how President Bush feels about our torture policy now? It makes me think of the unthinkable - what Al Qaeda could be doing to our troops in captivity. I can think of no better reason to treat any and all political prisoners (or any prisoners we have, for that matter) in a humane way.

One thing's for sure - Al Qaeda and other terrorists in the Middle East are probably better at torture than we are - they've been doing it a lot longer.

I pray for our soldiers' safe return.