How many of these pictures did you see on Fox or CNN?.
Was it worth it?
I have been trying to imagine what an embarrassment this whole thing would be for the administration if the bulk of Iraqis did not welcome their new freedom (even if it has been expressed primarily as chaos up till now). What would we have? ~1,700 dead innocents, no weapons of mass destruction, broken trust worldwide, and a $20 billion bill (+ $2 billion / month ongoing)…. Does the administration appreciate just how lucky it is they had the liberation card to play at the last minute? Without it, this would be the most unmitigated of disasters, on all fronts. With it, they are apparently emboldened.
Check out megnut’s Iraq War Justification flowchart.
Music: Captain Beefheart :: Telephone
i must be watching a very different war, one where saddam’s statue is pulled down once every 4 and a half minutes.
thanks for the photo link, hard to view, but very sobering.
This is utterly unrelated, but I don’t know if you read livejournal any longer, and I feel the need to pass you this
http://www.michaelkelly.fsnet.co.uk/karl.htm
There’s something about the matter-of-fact description of these surreal tales that appeals to me greatly. It’s almost an extension of the principle of The Metamorphosis, taking the absurdity a level further by eliminating the story following the discontinuity.
My friend Sarah reports: “I have no interest in Roy Orbison, or in cling-film, but I want to read more!”
Scot, why do you hate America?
Dont hate America, just wanted to keep Pandora’s box closed. Avoid the loss and suffering.
– 12,000 dead Iraqi’s. Most of the soldiers
in Saddam’s mandatory military were barely
literate, if you had hair on the balls, you
better pick up an AK.
– 20,000 wounded.
– Tons of Depleted Urainium Munitions littered about.
– Tons of JDAM damage
We made quite a mess of things, but as you have
pointed out while it may be better to be alive under Saddam than Dead and liberated, 2 million Iraqi’s may have a different option.
However we have every reason to believe if provided
with a fair election (fat chance) Iraq would elect a similar leader, fall into a similar economy, and so on….
I wouldn’t want to live in a world where I had to shoot my way to the grocery store and back…
They forgot “He tried to kill my daddy”
http://www.megnut.com/images/iraq_war_flow.jpg
-j
This is an invasion, not a revolution. Bush and Co. are forcefeeding their version of democracy, capitalism and christianity to Iraq. Oh yeah, we forgot the part about this being a crusade:
http://search.csmonitor.com/search_content/0417/p14s01-lire.html
And Bechtel wins the 1st of many multi-million dollar contracts in the privitization of Iraq:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030428&s=klein
It proves once and for all that this was not just about the oil. But what have U.S. troops focused on protecting during the last week’s chaos?
While museums, libraries, and ministries burned all around them, they guarded the Ministry of Oil with their lives.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/04/16/1050172643920.html
and
http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=397925
Unconfirmed, I heard on the radion today that the U.S. plans to have Rather, Koppel, and Jennings teach journalism to Iraqi’s. They did such a good job covering the liberation, it only makes sense.
Joshua, the CS Monitor article is about private groups, not the U.S. govt. We can’t control what private groups do. I dislike evangelism in all forms and think they’re headed down a nowhere road with this plan, but we shouldn’t imply crusade when we’re only talking about a few scattered groups, not U.S. policy.
That Nation article on privatization was shocking. Repulsive.
I can think of worse souls to to be teaching journalism than that lot. For now, as I understand it, the plan is to funnel feeds into Iraq so people can see what a “free” press looks like (and yes, it will be 100x freer than anything the Iraqi citizenry have seen in three decades).
Irfon, the Roy Orbison in cling-film tales are sublime, thanks. And so wonderfully out of place in the midst of this thread!
“I can think of worse souls to to be teaching journalism than that lot.”
do you mean the “lot” of Iraqi’s in general, or the one’s
in need of American broadcast journalism?
“For now, as I understand it, the plan is to funnel feeds into Iraq so people can see what a “free” press looks like (and yes, it will be 100x freer than anything the Iraqi citizenry have seen in three decades).”
I understand that Al-Jazeera beamed to Iraq as well.
Are you saying commercial TV in U.S. is freer?
hey dude,
sorry, i miss read your above comment about Rather et al as
“to that lot”
rather than
“than that lot”
big diffference!
a lesson in listening.
To be honest, I don’t know enough about Al-Jazeera to say definitively whether US news is freer or not. I suspect that it is. However, US mainstream news squanders its freedom by pandering to mainstream interests, which are generally diluted / sanitized interests.
Why do you hate America so much?
What part of “shall not kill” doesn’t America understand? I’m not even religious but the message is very clear. Over 70% of Americans ate the propaganda that was feed to them. “Operation Iraqi Freedom” yea that is about as good as “Shock & Awe” or the deck cards that’s been handed out. When did America become so blind again to believe the government and not see what they are really up to ($$$$)?
It’s funny – You’re not supposed to tell lies but when you don’t believe the truth; it’s even worse!