THE US, THE UN AND THE IRAQIS THEMSELVES, V. 7.0

The U.S. has already lost a large nimber of young men to the actions of terrorists on the roads and streets of Iraq. Overall our army is behaving with admirable restraint and discipline in a very difficult situation. It may be worthwhile to consider for a moment the comparative behaviors of other occupying armies in similar situations over the past century. We could start with the Franch in Algeria.

Everyone regrets the death of the Italian intelligence agent in this matter. However he knowingly put himself at risk in a foolish, ill-conceived and even worse executed effort to rescue a hostage. The bribe paid to the terrorists will very likely finance a good deal more death and destruction than occurred in this incident.

The focus on the soldiers at the checkpoint is wrong, wrong-headed. It completely ignores the far more significant other aspects of this sorry event.

To a Fish

You strange, astonished-looking, angle-faced,
Dreary-mouthed, gaping wretches of the sea,
Gulping salt-water everlastingly,
Cold-blooded, though with red your blood be graced,
And mute, though dwellers in the roaring waste;
And you, all shapes beside, that fishy be,--
Some round, some flat, some long, all devilry,
Legless, unloving, infamously chaste:--

O scaly, slippery, wet, swift, staring wights,
What is't ye do? What life lead? eh, dull goggles?
How do ye vary your vile days and nights?
How pass your Sundays? Are ye still but joggles
In ceaseless wash? Still nought but gapes, and bites,
And drinks, and stares, diversified with boggles?

A Fish Answers

Amazing monster! that, for aught I know,
With the first sight of thee didst make our race
For ever stare! O flat and shocking face,
Grimly divided from the breast below!
Thou that on dry land horribly dost go
With a split body and most ridiculous pace,
Prong after prong, disgracer of all grace,
Long-useless-finned, haired, upright, unwet, slow!

O breather of unbreathable, sword-sharp air,
How canst exist? How bear thyself, thou dry
And dreary sloth? WHat particle canst share
Of the only blessed life, the watery?
I sometimes see of ye an actual pair
Go by! linked fin by fin! most odiously.

#55

Lola wrote:

#55

#11

The essential fact here is that the Italians paid a bribe or ransom to the terrorists who held their journalist - a bribe that will be used to finance additional acts of terrorism against U.S. forces and the Iraqi people. Moreover they had done so before - in defiance of both common sense and our requested policy. They recovered their hostage in secret, without coordinating either the recovery or the movement of the former hostage with U.S. forces. They attempted a movement at night, after the curfew. In these circumstances their vehicle was fired on by U.S. forces while it was still in motion, approaching a checkpoint.

Given all this, the focus on just what were the procedures in use by the U.S. soldiers is quite absurd.

Ticomaya wrote:

Lola wrote:

#55

#11

Tico, could you provide a link for your statement ....

Pakistan, Indonesia and several African countries have also started to monitor and regulate what is taught in the schools sponsored by Saudi religious charities, or other Islamic radical groups. This is popular with parents, who don't like seeing their kids turned into terrorists, or little religious tyrants who criticize their elders poor religious habits. In Jordan, and all the other nations, the Islamic moderates have the support of most of the population. Now that support is being mobilized to stop the Islamic radicals. The fact that most terrorists operating today are Islamic terrorists is not something most Moslems are proud of, or sympathetic with.

Revel, the name you asked me about is Abdul Aziz al-Hakim.

Thursday, March 10, 2005Made--4--T.V. Revolutions


Lebanon's parliament nominated pro-Syrian Omar Karami as prime minister Wednesday, a decision sure to anger the anti-Syrian opposition that pressured him to resign in the first place.

The 70-year-old Mr. Karami resigned on February 28 amid some small protests, that the VOA describes as "mass protests over the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri". Opposition lawmakers, who hold about a third of the seats in the 128-member parliament, are not proposing a candidate for prime minister. Instead, they have a list of demands including an international investigation into the Hariri killing, which they blame on Syria. Damascus denies involvement.

Funny right?
:*)
hahahaha

All of the US propaganda about the falafel revolution in Lebanon, and the crap about the middle easterners getting their oh-my-god democracy, didn't work.

After weeks of the US mainstream media drawing the image of "These simple cute middle easterners, we are very happy for them. They are having revolutions and dreaming of democracy, sniff", the real revolution against illegal US interference in the Middle East happened. HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALF A MILLION AGAINST U.S. INTERVENTION.

HALF A MILLION said no to little bushy and his aggressive administration.

You know why?
No, not because we like the Syrian government..
No, not because we like the Iranian government..
We have been fighting against the mistakes and corruption in our national governments since decades, for tens of years. We lost many of our beloved people; We had good times and bad times living in our independent developing countries. My parents took a part in trying to kick the Syrian forces out of Lebanon. We fought against the Syrian presence for years.

BUT, these are OUR problems, and we'll solve them one day on our own.

When bush and his imperialist (oops a buzz word here) administration come in a week and hijack OUR fight for freedom and public participation, WE WILL STOP THEM.

I admire every one of the courageous half million people who went in the streets in Beirut to say "No" to the bush administration, and another "NO" to the French dirty double agent good-cop administration.

Most of us in the Middle East know that both bush and the French administration are not interested in our so called "freedom", the bush administration wants to cut the wings of Syria and Iran, after years of planning to do so. Iran, Syria, and Lebanon had one of the only victories in the 20th century against the US-Israel axis of evil when they kicked the occupying Israeli forces out of Lebanon. These attempts of destroying the Iran-Syria-Lebanon Alliance have been going on for decades; they are not new at all.

When the French administration plays humane and nice concerning Iraq, it is because they can't take a part of the cake. But as soon as they reach to a point where they and bushy can share a hunt, they'll change the name of their French fries to freedom fries too. The US administration is just interested in destroying the anti-US axes, and France is interested in Lebanon as the Middle Eastern francophone base.

It seems that the Syrian Government played their game the right way, and it seems that Newsweek and the Economist won't put the real big demonstration that happened on their first page, as they did with what happened in the 70,000 demo.

The re-appointment of Karami is hilarious and shameful defeat for the US illegal foreign policy. Yet, it doesn't mean that the bush administration cannot change this again, we shouldn't forget that the one with bigger tanks, stronger fighters, and WMDs will win the war at the end.

The real question is what happens AFTER winning the illegal wars? What is happening in Iraq after more than a month and a half of the sham early elections? What is happening after two years of the illegal occupation? What will happen when the US-made clerics start clashing with the occupiers?

Did we really have revolutions in the Middle East the last couple of months? Was the "cedar" and "purple finger" revolutions real or not?

I really believe these pop-up revolutions don't and won't work; they are out of context, with no roots and with no future.

The only true revolution will start by us.

Revel asks

Quote:

Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't someone die in this incident? Are you saying that they did it on purpose since they never miss?

No Revel, as I (and several others) have said several times now, the fact that all the occupants in the car are not dead is very good proof that the Americans did not intend to kill or harm them. If the intent had been to kill the occupants of the car, they would all be dead, and the Americans would not have taken the wounded to the hospital. If the U.S. solders had intentionally acted improperly, there would have been no 'witnesses'.

You have a group of highly trained U.S. soldiers, all armed with high powered weapons and plenty of ammunition. If they had wanted the occupants of the car dead, they would be dead.

_________________
--Foxfyre

I don't think, someone ever denied this.

However, you think, they really just missed the engine?

(I mean, we still hav for safe, what those soldiers said