I have been venturing into the politics forums, a little, but don't like the insults and other bad behavior that seems to go with the territory.
sumac, It's rather polite compared to other chat rooms. I guess it's a matter of relative "bad behavior." c.i.
Blatham, what a great way to counter the they, the people of Iraq, are not civilized blather we hear all the time from the President and the rest of the civilized world (those countries that support the Bush position). It seems like if you do not want to blow Iraq back to the stone age you are not civilized these days.
The people of Iraq are really people just like us. I have so much fear of this war not crying over it yet but it is so sad. Some days I just wish Bush would give the go ahead and get it over with. He is going to war anyway - no matter what so why wait another two weeks?
I agree, jd. This is really getting on my nerves. Let's get it over and done with, if that is the way it has to be.
JD, The majority of Iraqis are teenagers. I made the mistake of making the statement in another forum that over 50 percent were 15 years old. My point was to show that the majority of Iraqis were children, but an A2Ker wanted to show I lied. He was able to produce a recent census link that shows Iraqi's to age 14 represents 41 percent. I quit any discussions with his individual, because he refuses to understand the nuances of what I post. c.i.
BTW, I didn't make up the fact that the marjority of Iraqi's are children. It's impossible for me to create that kind of information without having heard it or read it in media. When I looked it up on Google, I found an older census that shows Iraqi's up to age 14 at 46.6 percent. That convinced me that what I heard was accurate enough. c.i.
This is very sad, c.i.........and never mind those who don't get the meaning of your posts. Some don't want to get it.
Isn't that the truth Lola it seems some individuals just have blinders on. They want this war and that is that. Just now I heard Bush on the morning news speaking to a group yesterday and he said that Saddam's recent compliance with UN inspectors was just a trick, It appears that our President has a one track mind and nothing about Iraq or Saddam is valid unless it is was he wants to hear.
And I am sick and tired of everyone calling Saddam by his first name, not that I like the creep but what if he just started calling our President George? What's with the name calling I feel like I am witnessing a school yard fight some times and not our leader conducting international policy.
c.i., if I ever figure out how to use my digital camera I will post pictures of prints my brother-in-law did during the Iraq/Iran was. It is a series called civilization and he portrays the children of Iraq carrying automatic weapons and dead on the battlefield.
JD, I doubt very much those children had a choice. Do you? c.i.
JoanneDorel wrote:the children of Iraq carrying automatic weapons and dead on the battlefield.
Does it not behoove humanity to rid itself of such monsters as practice such outrage, whether they be Arab, African, or Irish?
timber
timber, Good point. The practice of using children in war is a human outrage. Weren't children used in Viet Nam? c.i.
They were indeed, c.i., and in Afghanistan and in Angola and The West Bank and just about everywhere else by the uncivilized and cynical power fanatics consumed by notions of personal gain and cynically unconcerned with the welfare of their peoples.
timber
Or American, children fought in the Civil War in the US, for the South. It seems when any entity runs out of adult troops they go for the teens as a back up.
JD, That may have been a wee bit more acceptable when the life span was under forty years. One would think that in this day and age, humanity would have learned something from our past. c.i.
Leaders in time of war don't need to "run out" of adults. The Richmond Howitzers was a battalion of three batteries of artillery formed from boys taken from Richmond orphanages. They ranged in age from 12 to 17 years of age. The euphemism of referring to them as "men" was used, as well. At Antietam, at one point, the only thing standing between the Army of Northern Virginia and disaster was the furiously fast service of the guns by the Richmond Howitzers, who were, by themselves, holding off Burnsides corps as it tried to cross the middle bridge. More than 60% of the boys were shot down that day. One officer (i believe it was Harvey Hill, but i'm not certain) rode up to the battalion commander and said: "Sir, your men stand killing better than any i've seen." (my emphasis)
In the Normandy invasion, the 12th SS Panzergrenadier Division, the Hitler Jungen Division, opposed the Canadians on the Allied left. These were boys of a similar age to the Richmond Howitzers. They fought ferociously, with a fanaticism not usually found in adults. The Canadians suffered heavily. My mother, who landed at Normandy on June 22, was a nurse in field hospital which happened to take many of the German boys as casualties. Officers accompanying the boys taught her useful phrases in German, like "Don't pull at your stomach tube, that's an order!" They also taught her German lullabyes (all of this phonetically, my mother doesn't speak a word of German), which she would sometimes sing to us when we were small children. In the daytime, these proud young warriors were "tough men." But at night, when the darkness closed in, and their isolation and delerium got the better of them, a gentle woman rocking them back and forth and singing to them the songs their mothers sang them in infancy and young childhood was often the most effective, or only, sedative. My mother's hospital landed the day before the big gale took out the American dock facility--they operated for weeks on what they had brought ashore with them, and the German boys didn't rate expensive and scarce medications, and especially not sedatives, when there were wounded Americans nearby.
Set, Quite a story. Thanks for sharing. c.i.
Politics? I can't get enuff of it. When I'm not trying to overthrow the government I can talk the political hind legs of a donkey - and luckily I didn't vote one into office either.
This ability for political debate, is however, conditional on being persuaded to put the kittens and embroidery down first and stop writing inspirational verse entirely composed of smileys...
hi roz and wecome to the machine
be sure to tear down some walls while your here.
