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

Are you kidding, that's where we got him .....

sorry it took so long to get backo you Ican, my anwer is yes, but we must maintain decorum so we should walk ..... that way we can also claim victory just like Nam.

ican711nm wrote:

dyslexia wrote:

sorry, I didn't see a name attached to your post. I am easily confused.

Ok! Now if I'm not confused on this point, we have a quorem.

Is that the same as a quorum? Bad speiilin confusus me.

Gelisgesti wrote:

Are you kidding, that's where we got him .....

sorry it took so long to get backo you Ican, my anwer is yes, but we must maintain decorum so we should walk ..... that way we can also claim victory just like Nam.

What do you mean we can also claim victory just like Nam?

The US cut and run (i.e., fled) from Nam, and left behind more than a million South Vietnamese to be murdered by the North Vietnamese. While a few fools claimed victory, the rest of us knew it was a defeat for both the South Vietnamese and the US.

You now want the US to cut and "walk" (i.e., flee) from Iraq, and leave behind more than a million Iraqis to be murdered by the Baathist and al Qaeda terrorists. So then, while a few more fools would claim victory, the rest of us would know this too would be a defeat for both the Iraqis and the US.

Your tax dollars at work folks ...... every roadside bomb that takes the life of someone's baby .... the good old U.S.A..
Your tax dollars at work folks.

Quote:

World > Global Issues
from the March 17, 2005 edition

Why graft thrives in postconflict zones
A report issued Wednesday said Iraq could become 'the biggest corruption scandal in history.'
By Mark Rice-Oxley | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
LONDON – Five Polish peacekeepers are arrested for allegedly taking $90,000 worth of bribes in Iraq.
...
The report cites weak government, haphazard law and order, armed factions that need appeasing, and a scramble for rich resources as factors that render a country prone to corruption.
...

After peace was declared in 1995, the world community was wary of upsetting the status quo. It's still unclear how much of the $5 billion spent on aid after the war ended up in the pockets of shady characters.
...

But it is not just about Iraqis dividing up the cake. US audits of its own spending have found repeated shortcomings, including a lack of competitive bidding for contracts worth billions of dollars, payment of contracts without adequate certification that work had been done, and in some cases, outright theft.
...

"Public works and construction are singled out by one survey after another as the sector most prone to corruption - in both the developing and the developed world," says TI chairman Peter Eigen.
...

So how to battle corruption? Good governance is clearly the No. 1 priority, but TI identifies several other initiatives that can help improve probity.

These include vetting contractors and blacklisting those with shady records, ensuring competitive bidding for deals and assuring independent auditing and multilayered monitoring involving local communities, rotating staff in sensitive positions, and encouraging donors to disburse funds in a timely fashion to reduce pressure on local officials and prevent accounting trickery.

"We are simply making the case that a series of norms should be applied which make it much more feasible to avoid the kind factors driving corruption," says Lawrence Cockcroft, chairman of TI UK.

• Dan Murphy in Baghdad, Beth Kampschror in Sarajevo, and Peter Ford in Paris contributed to this report.

Berlusconi denies Iraq climbdown

17.03.2005

AFP and Turkish Press

ROME - Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi denied Thursday that his allies had forced him to revise his plans to withdraw Italian troops from Iraq, saying the press had misinterpreted his comments.

"I have no reason to correct myself," the prime minister said, a day after he appeared to soften a previous statement that he would begin withdrawing troops from Iraq in September, following a telephone conversation with US President George W. Bush.

"It's been a completely invented story, the result of disinformation," he told reporters while campaigning in northern Italy for next month's regional elections.

"In what I said there is no possibility of seeing a U-turn, a change, something which conflicted with what I have always told the allies," he said.

Berlusconi went from announcing he would begin withdrawing troops from Iraq in September in a television interview Tuesday night to saying a day later -- after a phone call from Bush -- that he "hopes" he will be able to withdraw troops.

Bush and British Prime Minister Blair Wednesday reacted to Berlusconi's announcement by saying that no troop withdrawal from Iraq has been ordered and that the Italian leader would not act unilaterally.

"Ours are not occupation troops, they are training the Iraqi security forces," said Berlusconi.

"When Iraq, with its democratically elected government and parliament, will have the ability to defend itself on its own, we will progressively reduce our presence. That this can begin at the end of the summer is something linked to the training programme."

The prime minister said it was obvious "the hypothesis of reducing the multinational force, and therefore the Italian contingent, can only occur in the closest agreement with the Iraqi government and the allies."

"Our positions correspond perfectly to those of our main allies with whom we are involved in Iraq."

Ican!!! how can you be so negative? Don't you know you should back your Government and present yourself as a flag waving patriot come hell or high water!!!
Why I'll bet you are one of those 'closet liberals'. For shame for shame

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Mintaka

Neither...
Mintaka. Delta Orionis; HR 1852; HD 36486
My happy place.

Neither...
Mintaka. Delta Orionis; HR 1852; HD 36486
My happy place.

It's finally dawned on me why you have the number of disagreements with most people. Your definitions do not even come close to reality. If your foundation is wrong, any building that you build on it will be unsafe and not practical.

Gelisgesti wrote:

Neither...
Mintaka. Delta Orionis; HR 1852; HD 36486
My happy place.

I always thought you were "out there."

Here, ican, try the following link. It's a good beginning. Read well. http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/econ101/neoliberalDefined.html

"Liberalism" can refer to political, economic, or even religious ideas. In the U.S. political liberalism has been a strategy to prevent social conflict. It is presented to poor and working people as progressive compared to conservative or Right-wing. Economic liberalism is different. Conservative politicians who say they hate "liberals" -- meaning the political type -- have no real problem with economic liberalism, including neo-liberalism.


"Neo" means we are talking about a new kind of liberalism. So what was the old kind? The liberal school of economics became famous in Europe when Adam Smith, an English economist, published a book in 1776 called The Wealth of Nations. He and others advocated the abolition of government intervention in economic matters. No restrictions on manufacturing, no barriers to commerce, no tariffs, he said; free trade was the best way for a nation's economy to develop. Such ideas were "liberal" in the sense of no controls. This application of individualism encouraged "free" enterprise," "free" competition -- which came to mean, free for the capitalists to make huge profits as they wished.

...

But the capitalist crisis over the last 25 years, with its shrinking profit rates, inspired the corporate elite to revive economic liberalism. That's what makes it "neo" or new. Now, with the rapid globalization of the capitalist economy, we are seeing neo-liberalism on a global scale.

I claim that:

A PRESBY-LIBERAL BELIEVES
All people are designed equally endowed by their Designer with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

A NEO-LIBERAL BELIEVES
All people must possess equal shares of the available wealth, plus anything else that all people value, in order for true justice to prevail.

Here, ican, try the following link. It's a good beginning. Read well. http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/econ101/neoliberalDefined.html

Poll Shows Bush Popularity on Iraq Plummeting

A new ABC/Washington Post poll shows the number of Americans who approve of Bush's handling of Iraq way down.

Gary Langer tells us:

* ' [Bush's] approval specifically on Iraq was 75 percent as the main fighting ended [in 2003]; it's 39 percent now, a career low. '

* 70% of Americans say that the level of US casualties in Iraq is "unacceptable."

* ' 53 percent, on balance, say the war was not worth fighting. '

* 41 percent say the Iraq war has made the US weaker in the world. Only 28 percent say it has made the US stronger. These numbers are a reversal from the year before.

* 2/3s of Americans oppose military action against Iran
Thu, Mar 17, 2005 11:18