step three: dehumanize

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide#Stages_of_genocide_and_efforts_to_...

Wow! The Jews were portrayed as cochroaches by the German Nazi movement. They don't even change the insect for propaganda. Somebody has a copy of Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler.

The fix is in. The brainwashing by the corporate controlled media has begun to ratchet upwards. God damned their souls to hell.

sonofabitch! That reminds me. I need to pick up a LAWN JOCKEY.

The modern witch hunt is alive and well. Amazing how many still subscribe to branding and obliterating.

Ah the Columbus Dog Patch. Of all the bad things about living in klumbus the Dog Patch ieditorial page is probably in the top 20. But doesn't that walking pool of dog vomit ramirez work for the LA Times and syndicated by the Tribune company?

Technically, cockroaches got TO water.

TYPO ... go TO water

Whoever did this cartoon doesn't know how to draw a cockroach, I doubt he has actually seen one in his life. Nor an Iranian for that matter, it makes it so much easier to dehumanize them.

Looks like Crawford, Tx.

What do you expect from Ramirez. His cartoons have been on the same comic level as the "1/2 Hour News Hour" for some time.

How do I subscribe?

Couldn't stand him when he drew this type of junk for the L.A. Times. I see he has gotten even more demented. Too much kool-aid for this sickie

Hrm. Does this mean that if we hit them with nukes, they won't be affected? The Iranian menace is more serious than I previously suspected.

Jeff @ 27:

i'd like a statement from the paper and from the artist. i'd like to know exactly what they are trying to say in this cartoon. maybe there is something we are missing.

You aint missing nothin Jeff. You obviously don't know what a sickie Ramirez is

I thought cartoons were supposed to be funny.

Looks more like the mass exodus from the Bush White House.

mudshark @ 29:

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/02/36b123ce-693b-448e-bf7d-a541e2a7bd12.html Iran ..

You decide.

It's part of a plan to sell war on Iran to the american public via corporate media ... guess where it originates?

They [the source’s institution] have “instructions” (yes, that was the word used) from the Office of the Vice-President to roll out a campaign for war with Iran in the week after Labor Day; it will be coordinated with the American Enterprise Institute, the Wall Street Journal, the Weekly Standard, Commentary, Fox, and the usual suspects. It will be heavy sustained assault on the airwaves, designed to knock public sentiment into a position from which a war can be maintained. Evidently they don’t think they’ll ever get majority support for this—they want something like 35-40 percent support, which in their book is “plenty.”

Here's an article on the New Yorker about (with the above quote):
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2007/08/if-there-were...

.. and an article about the New Yorker post:
Cheney Orders Corporate Media to Sell Iran Attack
http://adereview.com/blog/?p=24

Could be a busy Autumn for the blogosphere if this does show up in the MSM! Heads up y'all - pay 'tention!!

Just like U.S., more than 60% (maybe even more) of the Iran’s population doesn’t like it’s suppressive government. They can get rid of the extremists that are currently in power there, but why do that, when they can blow up Iran and then have Haliburton, etc., go there and charge the Iranians to build their country back up?"

and next the war begins....

Strawberry @ 21:

Kald @ 7:

"We must kill the Tutsi cockroaches" - Hutu Power Radio.

Or... does anyone rememberanymore?

paranoia @ 4:

Wow! The Jews were portrayed as cochroaches by the German Nazi movement. They don't even change the insect for propaganda. Somebody has a copy of Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler.

Yuppers. That's it, I'm going out to get a bottle of wine. I seem to have come out of the chocolate induced coma I ate myself into earliar.

Mmmmmmmmm......Chocolate...

FABabe @ 43:

I don't get it. Are Iranians supposed to be cockroaches because they're selling/giving arms to further their interests in the region? If that's the case, did our giving Saddam Hussein weapons to use against the Iranians in the war he waged against them in the 80's make us (the U.S.) cockroaches, too?

no were rats!

onama tin parden @ 39:

Dear Columbus Ohio,

You know that we Iranian's have no sense of humor.
This can only fan the flames of terror and hatred.

A cock-a-roche can live through anything mind you

No kidding. Anyone see that old episode of Married with Children dedicated to the Cockroach?

AL: Anyway, what I'm saying is, you didn't kill Jim. Good health
killed Jim. See, he purified his body so completely, that when finally called on to do
so, he couldn't handle the grease and sugar and toxic waste that we call food. He
rendered himself extinct. See, healthy people are like dinosaurs. They're not fit to
survive. Jim's body couldn't handle the burgers and bonbons and pastry suckin's like real
Americans. You see, Peg, WE are the truly strong.

PEGGY) You really think so, Al?

AL) Absolutely. See that cockroach over there?

PEGGY) [points] That one?

AL) [points] No, that one. Well, any one of them. You don't see them carrying of a can of
Wheat Germ, do you?

KELLY) Gurm, Dad.

AL) Thank you, Pumpkin. Anyhow, Peg, let's follow the example of our friend the cockroach.
They were before man, they'll be here after man. You know why? They eat crap. And I say,
if it's good enough for the cockroach, then it's good enough for my family!

Onscreen) "This show is dedicated to our brother, The Mighty Cockroach. Let him show us the way."

Yep, it must time to whip up some mass hysterical fear, loathing and hatred of another nation of people we know nothing about, so we can feel good about killing them for God and black Gold. As for nuclear weapons, why should we care if they make one in a year or ten years? We have thousands of them. The Israelis may have hundreds. A single Trident Submarine could turn Iran into radioactive glass, and the Iranians know it. They couldn't match us in the nuclear terror game of an arms race of a thousand years. Fearing Iran's "nuclear threat" is more ridiculous than an elephant fearing a mouse.

The next time a Ramirez cartoon is witty or insightful will be the first.

Artie Dash Lange @ 52:

A little perspective here.
It's a cartoon.
Just like the cartoons the Iranians drew about the Holocaust last year after the Danish cartoon row.

OK, so it's a sucky cartoon, too.

That is not really the point, is it?

We are once again being primmed to support yet another diasterous war (we currently have two in progress) and we can either sit here like fools and say and do nothing and let it happen or we can get pissed off and put a seop to it.

Ramirez is a flaming wing-nut. An excellent artist, but all his skills are in his hands, not in his heart.

One should remind such people as Ramirez and those who would think Iranians are cockroaches, that it has been said that when the world is devastated by nuclear war, only the cockroaches will survive.

sully18 @ 32:

I thought cartoons were supposed to be funny.

Come on, it is funny...for all the wrong reasons.Cockroaches depicted as sugar ants,Iran as Iraq and, or New Orleans.An Ohio publication (there REALLY is something in the ground water there).
I'm laughing so hard that I'm crying....oh wait...

xoites defends Constitution @ 53:

We are once again being primmed to support yet another diasterous war (we currently have two in progress) and we can either sit here like fools and say and do nothing and let it happen or we can get pissed off and put a seop to it.

The wingnuts are crazy, but they're not that stupid (I hope).
Iran has almost three times the population (and probably firepower) of Iraq.
And we don't even have the personpower.
The old-line patrician Republicans will not allow their sons and daughters to be drafted in order to fight a war with Iran.

Such thoughtful empty hate mongering on the Dispatch's part.

Exactly what have we turned Iraq into?

A few months back Herr Ramirez had a charming cartoon depicting a Marine with a giant knife sticking out of his back. The label on the knife: Congress. Dolchstoßlegende , anyone? I'm tellin' you these people know exactly what they're doing. They use as their historical antecedent, at least in media and propaganda, the most vile pieces of shit mankind has ever hocked up. They have no moral authority whatsoever to even tell the rest of our shoes are untied. Someone mentioned it earlier - an eternal "fuck you" screamed in their face is all these people deserve. Really.

sulphurdunn @ 50:

Yep, it must time to whip up some mass hysterical fear, loathing and hatred of another nation of people we know nothing about, so we can feel good about killing them for God and black Gold. As for nuclear weapons, why should we care if they make one in a year or ten years? We have thousands of them. The Israelis may have hundreds. A single Trident Submarine could turn Iran into radioactive glass, and the Iranians know it. They couldn't match us in the nuclear terror game of an arms race of a thousand years. Fearing Iran's "nuclear threat" is more ridiculous than an elephant fearing a mouse.

I agree. I've often thought along those same lines.

Any sovereign state attacking the U.S. or U.S. allies with nukes is risking total annihilation within hours and they know it. No one is that crazy. Mutually Assured Destruction worked for 50 years, it will continue to work with Iran or North Korea.

Hell, even if 100 million crazed Iranian soldiers magically materialized on U.S. soil, we could still turn Iran into a glass desert at the push of a button just for spite.

The real threat is them giving a nuclear weapon or nuclear material to a terrorist group who wouldn't hesitate to use it.

Even so, if I was Iran, no matter how much I would want to hurt the U.S., I wouldn't think that would be in my interest. Nuclear material can be traced to country of origin and I would know that I'd risk getting nuked in response eventually anyway, when my involvement is known.

Plus terrorists aren't the most trustworthy people even if you are ideologically allied with them. Who's to say they wouldn't just turn around and threaten to use it against you. "Gee thanks for the nuke Iran, now unless you want to see Tehran wiped off the map, you better give me 5 more, or a billion dollars, or give me control of the country, etc."

That said, all this discussion is academic anyway cause I doubt they are even trying to develop nukes.

All this nuclear talk in the news lately has me wanting to play Defcon. Highly recommended. Nuclear holocaust at your fingertips, great fun :-) Now you too can fly B-52's with nuclear warheads across the country if you feel like it.

Gregg aus tx @ 63:

A few months back Herr Ramirez had a charming cartoon depicting a Marine with a giant knife sticking out of his back. The label on the knife: Congress.

Dolchstoßlegende , anyone? I'm tellin' you these people know exactly what they're doing. They use as their historical antecedent, at least in media and propaganda, the most vile pieces of shit mankind has ever hocked up. They have no moral authority whatsoever to even tell the rest of our shoes are untied. Someone mentioned it earlier - an eternal "fuck you" screamed in their face is all these people deserve. Really.

Thank you Gregg. Very well put. Here is the closing to my post on the subject:

We should all email them and, civilly of course, tell them that we find such warmongering and dehumanizing images unworthy of print in a serious news publication. And maybe remind them that by playing into this sort of propaganda campaign, they are falling in with a crowd that they do not want to be associated with.

Or do they?

(h/t Crooks & Liars)

Thank you Logan - I got to you before I got to David Swanson this evening. :)

Apologies for the html foul on #67. I will skulk away in shame now...

I am a professional investor who uses Investor's Business Daily ($500 per year), IBD eTables, ($200 per year), and Investor's Equity Research ($1200 per year), or at least I did until I saw this. I have always thought of IBD's editorial page as a joke, their viewpoint is so far to the extreme right I usually laugh my ass off at them over my morning coffee. But now I think it's time to stop giving my money to what is clearly a fascist propaganda sheet. There are plenty of sources of good financial information that can be had for the same money. I will even pay more, if it meant none was going to William O'Nazi. Too bad, because their research is pretty good. The free market is a bitch, isn't it?

lowly grunt @ 9:

I don't get what they are trying to say other than to insult a nation. What am I missing?

Only a small minority of homo sapiens will kill other humans unless there is no alternative. Therefore, when a group of murderous political leaders wants to motivate its populace to comit genocide one of the necessary steps is to 'dehumanize' the humans that are to be mudered. De human ize To make not human. Note: The propagandist will not make the humans into another desirable animal like a dog. He will always make the target humans into an un desirable form like a cockroach, a pig, a dirty rat. etc. This is culturally sensitive. Pigs are considered dirty in the U.S. but are beloved in China. We love dogs but the Koreans eat them. Arabs will sometimes refer to Americans as PigDogs. I guess they do not like pigs or dogs very much! Heck, I am sure there are people somewhere who love cockroaches! They would be immune to this Columbus Dispatch attempt at dehumanizing the Iranians. In fact, they would like the Iranians more after reading this cartoon, not less! Cute little cockroaches. Unfortunately, the only thing that might be left of Iran if Bush goes to war with them will be cockroaches. The horror, the horror... He is insane enough to do it.

I'm waiting for some rightwing bonehead to pull the freedom-of-speech card on this one.

As someone interested in Iranian culture, I'm utterly revolted by this cartoon, which inarguably (despite the paper's pathetic defense) depicts the entire country of Iran as a sewer with cockroaches teeming out of it.

Never mind that there's a thriving secular society in Iran. Never mind that there are millions of good, decent people living in Iran, trying to provide for their families, striving to create a free-er Iran, all while living under a repressive regime. Never mind that some of the most humanistic and life-affirming films I've seen in recent years have come from Iranian directors like Abbas Kiarostami and Bahman Ghobadi. No, to Ramirez, they all just roaches.

If we're ever to survive as a species, we have to stop this primitive urge to classify all of a nation's inhabitants according to the actions and beliefs of their leaders.

I heard someone say that if the US attacks Iran he hopes Bush will be impeached. I was revolted by such an understatement. Nuremburg seems more appropriate.

The Columbus Dispatch, The Dayton Daily News, the Sprinfield News-Sun plus all of the local news channels in that area are very right wing biased. Makes me want to puke.

Artie Dash Lange@52:

A little perspective here.
It's a cartoon.
Just like the cartoons the Iranians drew about the Holocaust last year after the Danish cartoon row.

My poop don't stink as much as your poop. Well, let's face it, at the end of the day they're both poop. So take your pick, little-perspective boy. Which less smelly one are you?

You want perspective?

Put things in context, browse through a few pictures of the orphaned and maimed children in Iraq as a result of depleted uranium and what have you, now replace "Iraq" with "Iran" and give me the result. What do we get?

We get a guy, sitting in his home in West bumbf**k Idaho, typing away in a cozy room, sipping some hot cocoa while cartoons like this help sell a war that will kill hundreds if not thousands of innocent people. So, yeah, there's your "little perspective" you pretensious, arrogant f**k.

The paper has the 1920's eugenics movement mindset

On a positive note...
The editorial on the left of the picture seems to be on the need for health-care reform.

So, at least there's a little commone sense to balance the hate mongering.

"Send polite comments about this Nazi-style cartoon depicting Iranians as roaches fleeing a sewer..."

Polite comments - You would have recomended polite coments to hitler?
Why would anyone be polite to Natzis - Am I missing somthing here?

We get the shit goverment and the dumb fucking media we desearve.
No, I guess we get the dumb media they choose to give us and we should put our eyes down and be polite...

Baaahahhhaaa
We's be good sheep maser, we never gone raise our ugly voice, no sir maser - We gona pull our christian cheeks apart and smile as it slides up in us...
'cause else they make you disapeared and tortured...

So polite rejection of genocide
Polite rejection of the killing of an additonal half million INOCENT peoples...

Hey I get it! We wring our hands and they simply build and exucute the next mass murder to get rich scheme...

And the polite response to this kind of (as you indicated) Natzi shit would be what prey tell?

Yeah we's gonna whip us some Natzi ass and overcome them with our politeness and kindness...
Hey it seems to be working look all around the world!!

If we could all just be more polite to our opressors and thier hench men, propaganda arms and what not - It will just go away!

But sure tell them we don't like what they are 'selling' lol I am sure they will change it all right away.

I guess the folks in Dufar could have been more polite - It couldn't have hurt!

Are the oil pigs still mad that someone tried to stand up to them and their hedgemony? Maybe when congress and senate reconvene everyone can dress up in 'dom' gear ... That's how I imagine it from now on, they just want someone to suffer.

The cartoon is by Michael Ramirez, a conservative cartoonist. The original publication date I have for it is 6-22-07. (I featured it in a earlier installment of Right-Wing Cartoon Watch.) Ramirez and other conservative cartoonists use this sort of dehumanizing imagery pretty frequently. You're absolutely right about the Nazi analogy. In this specific case, conservative cartoonists have been accusing Iran of being a key instigator of violence in Iraq and have been urging Bush to bomb them.

[...] [image via CROOKS & LIARS] [...]

This cartoon is disgusting. I did send them a polite, but very direct e-mail. Hitler did cartoons of the Jews like this, in the 1930's. We know where that leads.

JPsy:

what was my point?
-I don't disagree with you about the issue of saudi arabia sponsoring and encouraging terrorism and fundamentalism.
-I don't find it "abhorrant" to compare cockroaches to people. I find it inaccurate and silly. Regardless. that comparison should be confronted and challenged. Doing so would dispel that belief more effectively than simply declaring it to be "abhorrant." Understand that other people will often not care whether or not you believe their opinion is offensive and stating you believe so will not change their minds. Address the accuracy of the issue, not the potential offensiveness and you will be more effective.

Is anyone who compared the cartoon to Nazi images of Jews aware of Ahmadimejad's attitude toward Israel? Puts a different twist on the easy analogy, doesn't it?

I see the cartoon as noting Iran's support and exportation of terror to other countries in the region. While I in no way support another incompetent war, that premise is sort of hard to dispute.

idiotland:

from what i can tell, judaism is a religion, not a race. Saying that a particular belief/belief system is superior to another is not the same as saying that one race is inherently superior to another. In that sense, all races are equal. However, not all beliefs are equal. Some beliefs are accurate, some beliefs are stupid bullshit (pardon my francois). Also, it is important to seperate a system of beliefs from those who follow it (or claim to). I would never say that any person(s) is subhuman.

Yes, the intent of portraying jews as rats by the german propogandists was mostly likely to give others the impression that jews were subhuman. If the intent were to portray muslims or persians as subhuman as well, your analogy would seem accurate. Again, the best way to find out the intent is to ask the cartoonist.

AGAIN, my suggestion is to stop the knee-jerk reactions and actually ask questions. Admit that you, as a human being, are capable of being mistaken and your understanding of the issue may be flawed.

They say roaches could survive a nuclear attack. So maybe the cartoonist is actually opposed to nuking Iran. "Look - they're cockroaches! It wouldn't do any good!"

Yeah, that's probably it.

Michael Ramirez is one of the main reasons we invaded Iraq in the first place. He draws very well, but his politics are delusional.
He, like all other right-wing propagnists, spread lies and deceive the public. How he keeps getting published in my local newspaper is beyond me.

Ramirez must be related to Gonzalez, at least politically.

I understand your reasoning in saying "polite comments" but I gotta say I'm not sure polite works with people that would print such filth.

Well then, I guess we don't have to worry about taking in any of their refugees.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXZxzgnnMTo

From Der Ewige Jude

Straight Shooter @ 56:

Ramirez is a flaming wing-nut. An excellent artist, but all his skills are in his hands, not in his heart.

One should remind such people as Ramirez and those who would think Iranians are cockroaches, that it has been said that when the world is devastated by nuclear war, only the cockroaches will survive.

And the scorpions too - don't forget the scorpions!

IraqIsDisaster @ 75:

It just dawned on me that perhaps the intent of the cartoon was to portray the exportation of terrorism from Iran as cockroaches, not to portray all Iranians as cockroaches. This is quite a different take. Look at where most of the roaches are going: Iraq and Afghanistan. Perhaps a roach represent a terrorist, not just any Iranian.

To the best of my educated knowledge, Iran does not export terrorism.

It'd be better if you included the CONTEXT of the editorial cartoon. It may have been vile and it may have not been; we can't tell since there's no caption or text included.

Tell me, are you just rabidly anti-administration / anti-Bush, or are you one of those people who have to denounce anything that isn't pro-any-islamic-anything?

It hasn't been established that Iran exports terrorism. Now they have helped their Shia peers in Iraq (apparently), but they share a border with Iraq and have a vested interest in the outcome, if only for state security concerns. They've help (allegedly) finance Hezbollah and Hamas, but we also supported death squads in El Savadore and else where.

How do you draw an exacting dividing line between exercising foreign policy concerns and exporting terrorism?

[...] Write To This Newspaper About Its Racist Cartoon September 7th, 2007 — RickB (Via Lenin’s Tomb & Crooks & Liars) [...]

Well, it was either this or the cartoon depicting Ohio as a giant asshole emitting shitloads of pollution:

"Ohio leads the nation with 83 million pounds of acid gases emitted every year. In addition, the Buckeye state ranks fifth in releases of arsenic (8,400 pounds), sixth in chromium (11,000 pounds), eighth in dioxins (19 grams) and ninth in lead (8,200 pounds), according to the report. 'It's quite a toxic hit parade,' said Jack Shaner, spokesman for the Ohio Environmental Council. 'Unfortunately, Ohio is at the top of the list.'"

paranoia @ 4:

Wow! The Jews were portrayed as cochroaches by the German Nazi movement. They don't even change the insect for propaganda. Somebody has a copy of Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler.

The Iranians haven't been any better at they're portrayal of Jews than the Germans or the portrayal of them in this story! So, you'll forgive me if I don't care to shed any tears for Iran. Remember, not long Achmadinajad (sp?) sponsored a contest to see who could come up with the best comic to debunk the holocaust!

Maybe they like a swig of their own medicine!

mudshark @ 5:

WTF....where do these people (and I use the term loosely) come from?

Ohio. Believe me, I grew up there, it's a weird place. Crazy people get to run the government. I have never seen a population more close-minded than those folks living in Ohio.

For those asking, I think the cartoon is meant to communicate:

- Iranians are now spreading into the regions around them (Iraq), where they will be very hard to get rid of. A smart home owner (the US owns the Middle East naturally) would act now to prevent an infestation.

- Iranians are filthy, vile insects, that are crawling out of their hole-of-a-country to infect the surrounding regions with their diseases (like radical Islam, etc)

Bonus: Cockroaches are really hard to kill. You’ve got to hit them with everything you got. Maybe ever nukes. I once heard cockroaches can survive even a nuclear holocaust…

In summary--KILL KILL KILL!

"Fox’s New York Post runs cartoons like this all of the time. Here’s one from yesterday portraying New York cabdrivers (who are these days usually non-white immigrants) as chimpanzees.

http://www.nypost.com/delonas/.....amp;day=06

Obviously you didn't get the point of this cartoon...which is that since the cab drivers were on strike they had to be replaced by chimpanzees...You love to see racism anywhere, even when it ain't there. Lighten up.

Yet another reason I left the midwest 33 years ago.

First, this cartoon is far less abrasive and bias hate propoganda then ANYTHING published in the skewed hate-fueling media machines over there. What causes this hatred over there (and in general)? RELIGION...especially a religion that condones violence against non-believers (whom they value as less than cockroaches). Thier government ideology is founded on these principles and anyone who believes this without thinking critically has lost their humanity...and is therefore no better than AN INSECT. That's my interpretation.

How in the hell can so many of you all talk so bad about America. Do you all understand that Iran has already said that once they get a Nuke it is going into Tel Aviv. Now lets back up for a second, first of all the Iranian govt has stated so many times that they are only trying to get Nuclear Technology for energy purposes, then they make a statement like this. #2 in charge in Iran has said that it would be worth killing 350 million muslims to wipe out Isreal, oh but Iran is such a peaceful country. Iran is a Terrorism Sponsored State, read, read, read.

Bryan @ 140:

How in the hell can so many of you all talk so bad about America. Do you all understand that Iran has already said that once they get a Nuke it is going into Tel Aviv. Now lets back up for a second, first of all the Iranian govt has stated so many times that they are only trying to get Nuclear Technology for energy purposes, then they make a statement like this. #2 in charge in Iran has said that it would be worth killing 350 million muslims to wipe out Isreal, oh but Iran is such a peaceful country. Iran is a Terrorism Sponsored State, read, read, read.

Bryan
http://www.racinsite.com

Look kid when you get older you will realise that not everything is black and white.

Maybe the black and white helps but that really is like something you'd imagine in a Nazi-era newspaper. Recently had a phone leech for the Democratic Committee try to tell me that we _really_ DO need to "do something about Iran." That's when I hung up on him. It's all one party. MILCOP. Military Industrial Complex Party.

Jake @ 139:

The point of the cartoon is that Iran is a breeding ground for terrorists and extremists that are spreading across the Middle East. The point of the cockroaches is that the extremists are all but impossible to wipe out. I'm not saying that this is correct; however, the artist is not attempting to depict Iranians as cartoonists. The simplest of analysis reveals this to be a poor interpretation.

God, finally someone got the interpretation of the cartoon correct. How were there 1 comments and it took until 137 to get it right?
The cartoon is saying the following:
1. There are terrorists in Iran.
2. Iran allows terrorists to hide within their borders.
3. Terrorists are free to travel within Iran and move to neighboring countries.
4. You can never get them all.

Check your far left tendencies at the door people. This isn't as bad as it seems. In fact, it really isn't that bad at all, and the meaning (when correctly interpreted) is not a radical idea and taken as fact by a whole lot of people.

Smart Buckeyes @ 147:

The something is leaking out of Iraq... is it good things?...They are crawling into Iraq.

The government of Iraq is doing nefarious things that are not good for the region, and are making the middle east

Do you know the difference between Iraq and Iran? I seriously couldn't follow whatever point you were trying to make.

Ruthless People @ 34:

Looks more like the mass exodus from the Bush White House.

Couldn't have said it better, Ruthless. Mark the date because we will soon be asking ourselves how long it took to go from dehumanizing the Iranians to bombing them. You know that Bush painted himself into a corner -- he cannot leave behind a nuclear armed Iran. We will go to war with them. The Millennialists on both sides will not be denied their Armageddon.