Gofaster,
That lady's actions may have been disagreable but some of your argumentation is inane.
I would be the first to call for government to get out of areas that can be provided by private business, especially education, but while it is not the case, the people who work for governments of various levels are as entitled to their opinion as those who work for private businesses.
She did not "suckels at the teat of government employment, collects government pension money". She earns her salary and pension like any other worker does. She teaches children wherever she lives and people there pay her through their property taxes. That is of course if she was retired from public rather than a private school. What the heck does it have to do with the Government (unless you mean her local school district government was bombing the iraqis, can they do that?) and what business is it of yours how she makes her living?
Same as you pay bucher for your meat. Would you say a bucher is not entitled to his opinion becasue you pay his salary?
Her opinion may be in doubt but you are not attacking her opinion, just her eligibility to have it based on her previous employment. It would usually indicate that you are out of arguments and that is regrerfull - I can think of plenty of arguments against her actions.
Also, what was the rationale for bombing an iraqi refinery and killing the workers operating it?
Wouldn't we have to rebuild it? Disrupting iraqi's gasoline production would have only mattered in case of prolonged war which we did not expect to have. If we did get into a prolonged war, wouldn't we be able to bomb that refinery any time?
miko