if anyone's still hanging with with this thread, try reading anything by eddie bunker (aka mr. blue in "reserviour dogs"), who's got plenty to say about mandatory sentences...try reading eldridge cleaver, try anyone with a jailhouse memoir...try to understand WHAT OUR PRISON SYSTEM IS.
sorry but i don't feel bad for iraqis or afghans or whatever. i feel bad for americans locked into american prisons. too bad neither dems nor repubs would ever dream of decriminalizing drugs, nor reducing mandatory minimums lest they be percieved as being "soft on crime"...
all our problems are at home. why pretend they are any where else?