This is why I don't like you...

Don't make the faulty presumption that just because I'm a liberal and a buddhist that I'm supposed to like everyone. I don't and I have some damn good reasons for not liking some of you in particular.

Exhibit A:

• Thirty of 32 journalists killed were Iraqis, continuing a two-year trend in which local journalists have made up an overwhelming proportion of the casualties.

• Murder now accounts for 61 percent of deaths in Iraq since the war began. The incidence of murder began to increase 20 months ago and accelerated in the past year. Crossfire and combat-related incidents had been a more frequent cause of media deaths in the first two years of the war.

• The 2006 Iraq toll jumped 45 percent from the 22 deaths recorded in 2005.

• The war in Iraq is the deadliest conflict CPJ has documented. Iraq has far surpassed the Algerian civil conflict of the 1990s, which took the lives of 58 journalists.

• The 2006 tally in Iraq is the highest in a single country since CPJ was founded in 1981. The second deadliest years were 2004 in Iraq and 1995 in Algeria, both of which saw 24 journalists killed.

"This year's killings bring to 92 the number of journalists who have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003. In addition, 37 media support workers-interpreters, drivers, fixers, and office workers-have been killed since the war began.

"Only four journalists died in Iraq in 2006 as a result of crossfire or acts of war," the report added. "The other 28 were murdered, half of them threatened beforehand. Three were kidnapped and then slain, CPJ found."

So now you know who this post is aimed at: you chickenhawk, warblogging, 101st Fighting Keyboardists who do everything you possibly can to rip apart the credibility of news organizations like Reuters and the AP - whose reporters are dying in the name of bringing you news every day from the hellhole that is now Iraq. You are absolutely shameless in your pursuit of your truthiness and your blind support of every single word that comes out of the Pentagon and CENTCOM, despite the fact that they have lied to you repeatedly to shield you from the realities of the nightmare going on in Iraq which just enables you to completely ignore the victims of this illegal war who have died in the hundreds of thousands due to the policies of the madman in the White House.

No. I don't like you.

According to my principles, I'm supposed to try to find some compassion and empathy in my heart for you. And I do try. It's not easy. I'm not perfect.

I understand why you choose to delude yourselves: the reality is just too frightening to admit and you simply cannot fathom that your Dear Leader has failed. You prefer happy, warm and fuzzy stories so you can pretend that all either is well or will be. That only makes the shocking bolt of truth harder to deal with when and if you finally come around to it. You blame the media because that's what you've been taught to do by Bushco propagandists. Propaganda can be hard to fend off, but there are millions of us who can teach you how to handle it. You place your faith in your ideology, but that has proven to be a failure as well. Yet, you believe that everyone else's ideologies are the problem so you can keep sucking on the comfort of your by now aching raw and wrong thumbs. You don't care that reporters die in the name of seeking the truth unless, of course, they are Warblogger Approved™ reporters. That shows a callousness that defies understanding. You dissect 'enemy media' news stories without ever expressing any sympathy for the victims. That is unconscionable.

No. I don't like you. Not one bit. Some of you are beyond redemption since you will simply continue to be heartless in the name of defending your lost cause. There are others who are finally coming around to the truth. All hope is not lost. But, until you stop playing your cheap CSI: Bloggerville games which are borne of revenge and denial while reporters working on your behalf die, I don't have to like you either.

Maybe one of you can explain to me why it's so easy for you to disrespect human life. Why all of this is so simple for you. Why it's all black and white. Why you, sitting in your comfy armchairs, think you know more than the journalists who are risking it all on the ground. And finally, why you think it's fun to tear them apart if an IED or gunfire doesn't do it first.

Update: Eric Boehlert doesn't like you either.