US, Israel and Syria.

That seems to be true enough. I'm sure Bush is happy to sacrifice many more American lives, secure in the knowledge that neitehr he nor any others in his circle will have to fight.

And the news media is being manipulated by Saddam as planned.

Ah, the steady drip, drip, drip of meidiarhea.

Ahhh..the steady drip drip drip of US military blood. But is doesn't matter, does it? They are mostly lower middle class, and undereducated. WHo cares of they die, right?

Nothing about that part is good. Most people care but helpless to do anything about what is in motion.

What are you smokin'?

Hobitbob


That is so much nonsense. First because the service does not enlist the uneducated and secondly a good portion of the military in Iraq are from the reserves and National Guard. The service is no longer made up of the uneducated. There is no need to try and turn this into a class struggle. What next will you play the race card.

I was being sarcastic.

Ignore him AU----he's hooked up directly to the al Jazeera propaganda hate machine.

Frank:

Need I remind you of the manner Ho Chi Minh won the war in Vietnam by manipulating the US news media and Hollywood celebs like Jane Fonda. He rightly determined that the US public could not stomach stories of the body bags.

The news media always manages to get the most mileage out of every soldier killed by saying things like-" another soldier died in Baghdad today" Tomorrow they will use that same soldier this way " 3 American soldiers have been killed in the past 4 days. Tomorrow it will be this " In the past 5 days 4 American soldiers have been killed bringing the total since May 1 to so and so. Is this not allowing themselves to be manipulated by Saddam?
He is hanging on by his finger nails saying that if he can just last another week he will win. Of course you and I know he always has misread US political posturing and rhetoric. The fact remains that if we presented solidarity instead of dissention there is a good chance the resistance would decrease. Every act of dissent gives the appearance of decay in our political will.

It has been said many times, by many different people, that in order for an insurgency to be successful, all the insurgents have to do is outlast the invading force. This was true in North America against the eighteenth century, it was true in the various African and South American colonies in the early twentieth century,and it was true in South East Asia in the mid twentieth century. The Afghans taught this lesson to the Soviets in the 1980s. The US would do well to heed the lessons it and other nations have learned and avoid becoming further entangled in Iraq. More efforts need to be made to replace the military forces with multinational peacekeepers (who do a better job at being policement than American soldiers do) and rapid train-up of Iraqi forces for both police and military duties.
Reporting the deaths of US soldiers isn't "pandering to Saddam," it is reporting the news in the manner a free press should be expected to. Instead, it should serve as a warning to the American citizenry that they are embarked in what will likely turn out to be a costly endeavour if changes are not made immediately. I actaully doubt Hussein has much say in anything in Iraq anymore. Between ordinary Iraqis tired of swapping one dictator for another and equally sick of their treatment at the hands of the American savages, and the various factions that are attempting to seize power for their various indigenous groups, Hussein would not have to do much "organizing." This "pacification" was lost before it even began due to poor planning.
I reccomend the following interview with Robert Perito, who was brought in during the planning stages to help prepare a plan to restore civil order, and was completely ignored. We appear to be in a "you broke it, you bought it" situation with Iraq as far as the rest of the world is concerned.

I know on thing Hobit----If I were actively engaged in fighting this war instead of sitting on the sidelines I would want you on the other side preaching defeatism.

But then they would shoot you as a traitor instead of politely listening to your trash talk.

Glad to see the far right still believes in "fredom and democracy!"

You need not remind me of anything, Perception, I am perfectly capable of remembering stuff on my own.

But all this stuff you just posted does not bring us any closer to understanding why you suppose Saddam is manipulating our media. So why don't you just cut to the chase -- and show us the proof you have that Saddam is doing that. In fact, perhaps you could show us the proof you have that Saddam is able to take a dump in the same place two days in a row.


As for your comment: "Every act of dissent gives the appearance of decay in our political will" ...

...well, I have long suspected that avid American conservatives simply do not understand the principles upon which this country is based. You have reinforced that suspicion. I thank you for doing so -- but I was pretty sure I was right anyway.

There's more danger of totalitarianism coming from the right then the left.

Three Americans murdered in Gaza...
Hamas and the latest PA spokesman barely get their clothes on this morning to run out and say they didn't do it.

Who did it?
Will we become involved militarily now?

This latest attack is very odd. First of all Hamas and ilk generally apologize if they kill an American, they have a weird sense of morality in which they think they are justified in killing Israelis but not Americans.

I can recall, off the top of my head, several times in which Palestinian terrorists have apologized for killing Americans or other foresigners when they were targeting Israelis.

This attack seems to have targeted Americans intentionally. It's atypical in the extreme. Furthermore Hamas and ilk so don't ever deny their attacks. They are in a perverse competition and relish the infamy. They are like the people whose dog farts and they claim it.

I am following this one closely.

Lightwizard




Explain that to the people of China, the defunct Soviet Union,Cuba and the eastern European nations.


Totalitarianism can be associated with the right,left, religion and wherever democratic ideals do not exist.

Sophia:

Give the conspiracy theorists a couple of minutes and they will have the Moussad and the CIA doing it simultaneously.

Did you notice how the 'Good"Palestinions were cheering the deaths of these people.