The US, UN & Iraq III

Yet another warning by GWBush about al Qaida terrorist attack today. Anybody counting? c.i.

Counting? Counting the days, CI, counting the days...

Blatham, more like Dali wouldn't you say?
Or better .. a hybrid Dali/Escher......

Bed
Bed time story:

Baghdad Blogger

How can Saddam's family expect a proper burial for their sons, when they have denied thousands of others?

Wednesday July 30, 2003
The Guardian

I can not really say it was very wise to go to Tikrit with foreigners two days after the death of Uday and Qusay was confirmed. They are not very friendly up there in Saddam's home town at the best of times, and now they border on the hostile. I am now Salam "the spy" Pax in Aujah.

That village is the weirdest of places, it is like a ghost town. I had never been there before and although they tell you it is a village, there is nothing village-y about it. The streets are better than the streets of downtown Baghdad and the houses are huge. Did you know that Aujah in Arabic means "the twisted one"? That was the unspoken joke: how is he going to straighten up his act when he comes from a place called Twisted?

His actual birthplace is a small mud hut. It had fallen down and Saddam had it rebuilt in brick, then covered with mud. The funny thing is that there is an American army base right beside it and they had no idea what that "tool shed" was. They just told us that they have been here for a long time and nobody gave them that piece of information. Well, I bet there is a lot they are not telling you about.

The question in Aujah now is how the family is going to get the bodies back "to bury them properly". Someone in Baghdad later told me that proper burial for these two is to dig a hole somewhere in the desert and have the family look for them for years. How can they expect a proper burial for people who have denied it for hundreds of thousands? I know, we need to start dropping the hate and concentrating on our future.

After spending an hour with the friendly Aujah people we went to Tikrit. Right at the entrance to the city, where a Saddam mural used to be there is a piece of graffiti saying, "Saddam is in the heart not on the walls". Oh dear. We had lunch at a chicken place. It seems to be very popular with the Americans based in Tikrit because we had to wait 30 minutes for our grilled chicken.

The Americans were taking out 20 meals. The waiter told me that they come sometimes and order up to 40 grilled chickens, but they never go in. Maybe it is better that they never go in; they would see two pictures of Saddam on the walls inside that restaurant. Saddam is still on the walls despite Mullah Bremer's fatwa concerning the images and propaganda of the old regime. Back in Baghdad, military personnel were standing in long queues waiting for their pay cheque while Saddam's new tape was being aired on al-Jazeera. Saddam is calling for his army to reform while they are waiting for hours to get paid by "the infidel invader".

So, now, disgruntled military personnel can be struck off the list of possible resistance members. That leaves Ba'athists and Islamic extremists. While dealing with these two groups, the Americans will manage to piss off the rest of the population. Take for example the Task Force 20 raid a couple of days ago in Mansur. They got some "intelligence" and surrounded an area that they had bombed with bunker-busting bombs just four months ago. They were not even being shot at or anything. These are people who were driving in their cars through their neighbourhood streets. And got the sheikh of the biggest tribe in Iraq angry in the process. Great job.

Sure hope they don't do this type of thing in Falluja. They would go ballistic there. Demonstrations would be the least of everybody's worries.

Talking of demonstrations, I would like to put in a plug here for the Cafe Demonstration, right in the middle of Firdaws Square in front of the now famous Palestine Hotel. Someone with a sense of humour set up a tent for a couple of days and offered tea, coffee and political banners for demonstrations. Good business sense, as this is the place where all demonstrations take place. Why bother with your own banners and flags? Just go to Cafe Demonstration for a chat, while the owner paints your anti-American banner. Instant demo accessories available. Unfortunately he didn't stay long enough for me to go and ask for a "Salam Pax for president" Banner.

Special report
Iraq

Guardian book
The War We Could Not Stop - the real story of the battle for Iraq, published by Guardian Books and Faber. Buy it from Amazon.co.uk

So, you all got the quick news about the elimination of air marshalls on transcontinental and overseas flights, in order to save money on costs of over night stays? Due to budget cutting. This announcement came right after the alert given about the possibility of new attacks by airplanes.

The order was reversed within a day of its delivery. (The way the air marshalls found out was by way of emails or messages that their services wouldn't be required on those assignments.)

Now, if I peer closely at all this, it sure looks like spin. Another factor is the fact that the only place Bush's figures are holding close to the 50 mark now is in this defense area, so that's the card to play.

Also, tonight on PBS Newshour, there was an interview of Condoleeza Rice, in which she was questioned about that security report (and some other things). She was smilingly evasive about what happened to the information the shrubbery said they had about actual sites. She gave a very convoluted explanation about those everlasting tubes, and sounded strange about yellow cake. She did, however, strongly suggest that the 9/11 perpetrators could be tied to Iraq (without ever explaining how - although she did mention fleetingly that some of them had apparently been born in Saudi Arabia).

It's getting really fascinating to watch how they put spin on everything now. If these people ever knew how to tell the truth, they've long since forgotten it.

GWB ..... he said he was not going to be a nation builder and so far he has kept his promise!


"The warlords, of course, as friends of the "coalition", are also part of the government. They have private armies, raise private funds, pursue private interests and control private treasuries. None of these do they wish to give up. All of them threaten the long-term future of Afghanistan, the short-term prospects of holding elections, the immediate possibilities of reconstruction and the threadbare credibility of Hamid Karzai's government."


Dubya

Will GWB be responsible for the deconstruction of the American nation and democracy?

Tartar, Look how long of struggles it took to bring this country to this level of democracy for its citizens, and it took GWB less than three years to destroy it.

From foxnews:

So, 41% of US-Americans seem to believe, establing a government in an independent state is worth going on war?

And back in October 2002, sixty-six percent of Americans believed Hussein was involved in the 9/11 attacks.

October 2002 opinion poll by the Pew Research Center
http://people-press.org/reports/print.php3?PageID=644

The American public wanted a war of revenge. They couldn't give a flying flip about Iraqis, they wanted to turn Iraq into a parking lot.

How easily manipulated the American herd is.

Walter


Is it possible you are misinterpreting ? The reasons for going to war and the need for establishing a government in Iraq are two different things. For Instance I was against the preemptive attack however at this point I believe the establishment of a viable government is preeminent. As for the finding of WMD's if they exist I hope they find them. If they do not It is to late to agonize over them.

InfraBlue

Yes, depressingly manipulatable. So it seems a prudent course to try and understand how this manipulation is being effected.

The only poll that counts is 11/02/04

I wonder if you'll still think it counts if the results aren't what you had hoped.

Scrat, We don't have a choice do we, except for our one vote? c.i.

Well, not if you are Republican - you lose but that can be changed!

Scrat
The possibility, a real one, of Bush winning another term to finish the destruction of America, makes me shudder.

I'm not terribly thrilled with the job Bush has done while in office, though some or most of my disappointment could be laid at the feet of the Republican led house and senate. But at the end of the day I'd rather have a soft conservative in office than any flavor of liberal I've seen to date.

I will comment that there's nobody running or who might run that I would say makes me "shudder". You might want to consider how reasonable that point of view is. Bush may be flawed, but he is not the demon you seem to want to make him, anymore than Clinton was the demon many conservatives claimed. Both are men with a vision for this country. I prefer Bush's vision to Clinton's, but that doesn't make Clinton the antichrist. It just means he didn't get my vote.

Bush is evil incarnate! Soft conservative - give me a break, we are in a Fascist government situation - any harder and he would be a dictator.

How are those new meds working out for you, Bill? Any chance you can have your doctor check the dosage?