Let's Face it: It's DIRE STRAITS IN IRAQ: ‘LIVES FOR NOTHING’

Don Davis @ 1:

Let's Face it: It's DIRE STRAITS IN IRAQ: ‘LIVES FOR NOTHING’

nice lyrics.

haliburton and bushco can not make money if the troops are not willing to be
used and killed. anyone who supports this illegal war should be sent to gitmo
and forgotten.

The Post also ran a story, probably a year or so ago profiling a soldier who returned from Iraq who was seriously injured. He said the war is all about George Bush's ego and wasn't worth it.

C&L slams the Post from time to time. I get the Post daily and it appears to me there are more anti-war stories then pro-war. The editorials run even, but there seems to be more anti-war editorials then Pro-War. Charles Krautheimer(sp?), a pro-war hawk from the start, was quite a fixture in the Op Ed section when the war started. But he's been pretty quiet lately. But equally, the Post also has several routine Op Eds from EJ Dionne and others who are anti-war.

I can't recall before the war if the Post was pro-War or not.

The Post also covers every funeral at Arlington National Cemetary of local service personal who have died and includes even negative comments about Bush and the war from grieving relatives. They also do a "Faces of the Fallen" section every month with color photos of every fallen soldier who has been killed each month.

My point is that the Post seems to be well balanced covering the war, despite some of the comments from C&L on the contrary. True, there will be stories from the "other side" claiming success, but that is balanced out by other stories like this present one.

Bob in N. Thailand @ 3:

Don Davis @ 1:

Let's Face it: It's DIRE STRAITS IN IRAQ: ‘LIVES FOR NOTHING’

nice lyrics.

Thanks, Bob, I also play a mean air guitar.

From time to time the Guardian UK Online runs a story from "this date in history."

A few years ago the re-run du jour was an account of the difficulty the British government was having with the British people who were weary of the occupation of Iraq - sometime in the early 1920's.

Any society that forces its women to cover from head to toe can rot in hell IMHO.
Let me be clearer: Fuck Iraq.

Crushed Limpballs is an oxicontin and viagra addict who didn't serve in Vietnam because he was a chickenhawk with an anal cyst.

" It was our favorite street to go down because of all the hot chicks."

When the hot chicks are gone then the war has lost all purpose.

(In reality, more sex in the world would probably calm a lot of people down and minimize irrational aggression. Who wants to show up for war if you're too exhausted from the tenth orgasm of the morning?)

remember limbaugh's just a pill poppin unamerican. he's saving one for michelle warbelle.

Amato-

While I still consider C&L home- and there is no place like it, really- Cole cannot be topped when he decides to cut loose with the satire and sarcasm. He's my favorite read on the intertubes. Too bad he disappears fer days at a time to "grade papers"*.

*- the act of drinkin' too much Belgian beer

Marc @ 20:

Don Davis @ 1:

Let's Face it: It's DIRE STRAITS IN IRAQ: ‘LIVES FOR NOTHING’

cool, but for some original music and lyrics, check out Wackiavelli.

at Wackiavelli.com

Bob in N. Thailand @ 2:

It never WAS worth an American life, not from day-1.

It wasn't worth an Iraqi life either.

They didn't ask us to invade, they had no WMD, Sadam tried to make a deal with Bush/Blair before the war started.

This war is and always has been about extending "the empire" and controlling that resource rich region of the world.

Iran's threat isn't nuclear, its monetary . . . they have stopped selling their oil for dollars . . . that is the threat to the empire . . . . without a connection between the dollar to a barrell of oil, it has no value.

Keep your eye on the price of things . . . they are getting more expensive . . .the green paper is becoming just that.

Chip @ 7:

The Post also ran a story, probably a year or so ago profiling a soldier who returned from Iraq who was seriously injured. He said the war is all about George Bush's ego and wasn't worth it.

C&L slams the Post from time to time. I get the Post daily and it appears to me there are more anti-war stories then pro-war. The editorials run even, but there seems to be more anti-war editorials then Pro-War. Charles Krautheimer(sp?), a pro-war hawk from the start, was quite a fixture in the Op Ed section when the war started. But he's been pretty quiet lately. But equally, the Post also has several routine Op Eds from EJ Dionne and others who are anti-war.

I can't recall before the war if the Post was pro-War or not.

The Post also covers every funeral at Arlington National Cemetary of local service personal who have died and includes even negative comments about Bush and the war from grieving relatives. They also do a "Faces of the Fallen" section every month with color photos of every fallen soldier who has been killed each month.

My point is that the Post seems to be well balanced covering the war, despite some of the comments from C&L on the contrary. True, there will be stories from the "other side" claiming success, but that is balanced out by other stories like this present one.

"Balance" is the problem, certainly when the counterweight is not a fact but a GOP talkin' point. The WaPo isn't as bad at borrowin' the Faux News "Fair & Balanced" doctrine when it comes to Iraq as it is when "reportin'" on inside-the-beltway politics, where the real co-option by the Republican spin machine glares out at ya on a weekly basis.

If that paper gave Dan Snyder the same pass it gives the GOP, my bet would be that its sales in metro DC would be severely curtailed.

they deserve whatever hell they wish to unleash on each other.

-burnt

I think it was the Bush administration that has unleashed hell there.

Marc @ 29:

they deserve whatever hell they wish to unleash on each other.

-burnt

I think it was the Bush administration that has unleashed hell there.

I disagree. read the wikipedia article if you don't want to take my word for it.

burnt @ 28-

I mean - they’re an occupied country, and all they have to do is unite, take a sort of 1776 revolutionary america camaraderie approach - and get to the point where “they stand up, we stand down.”

Uhm, is it really necessary fer someone to point out- 4+ years after the invasion- that Iraq was cobbled together by the Brits in the '20's in the worst of all possible ways? Iraq isn't a natural entity in the same sense that the 13 rebellious colonies were. Those colonies shared populations that were uniform in their common heritage- that of the English and Scots, and to a lesser extent the (Ulster) Irish and Welsh. The colonists were cousins to not only each other but also to those in the UK.

The tribal Sunni Arabs, city dwelling Shi'ite Arabs and the (mostly Sunni) Kurds had/have little in common but their histories of bein' dominated by the Byzantine, Persian and the Ottoman Empires. These "Iraqis" share little but hatred fer each other.

as another old local Iraqi man once said of Saddam Hussein, “It takes a criminal to lead a nation of criminals.” of course they’re fighting amongst themselves once their dictator was illegally removed.

Criminals only because of corrupt systems in which only the corrupt succeed. Hussein was effective because he was just as brutal as those afforementioned Empires that proceeded his regime. Because it takes a strong arm to force different nationalities to live together when their disputes with each other are so heated and bloody.

after Saddam, Iraq is a mess. we can’t pull out now, or it will be a mess. the longer we stay there attempting to create a society that embraces diversity and equality, the longer the various classes will attempt to stomp each other so they can win some kind of centuries-old class war.

Yeah, well travel back in time about 5 years and shout it out loud to Bushco. They'll laugh at ya back then as much as they'd laugh at ya back then. Know why? Because it's never been about the people who make up Iraq. It's always been about the oil in Iraq. And the oil in Kuwait, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Iran. You and yer friends may believe differently. But yer friends would never have been in Iraq if that country wasn't sittin' on top of all that petroleum. NEVER!

"...all of Iraq's problems..."

GNA!

burnt-

I should be sleepin' right now, but....

I agree with nearly everything yer sayin', but I've gotta bring up a few things.

nobody in the region wants equality. the problem is it gets messy when the different factions start battling over who gets to be the top dog.

I don't think this is necessarily true. The Kurds are quite democratic, a slightly socialist. I think you could say the same fer the Shii'a and Sunnis, too. But they want their equality in homogeneous states. Sunnis don't want to be dictated to in a nation where they're in the minority, and the Shii'a don't want to give the Sunnis more power than they deserve. I don't think any of the three factions would much mind if they had their own states- if all of the resources(agai, oil!) could be divvied up proportionately. That's where ya hit a big snag....

not until they learn to respect other classes’/factions’ lives.

Ya've used the word "classes" a few times now, and yer correct in doin' so. What a lot of folks haven't noticed is that the Sunni regimes that controlled Iraq since its birth had a quality educational system- but only Sunnis had real access to that system. A lot of Sunni Arabs distust Shii'a governance not only fer the obvious religious reasons, they also see the Shii'a as not bein' educated enough to govern. So, in some sense, it's the politics of the elites versus the politics of the slums. Or, in a way, the politics of New York City, but with the politics of the Thirty Years War thrown in. Try to untangle that knot!

Okay, I've gotta be up in six hours....Goodnight!

you know that the wingnut blogs are working overtime trying to dig up some dirt on the guy and his family

these people are sick, twisted fucks

raymond @ 13:

Any society that forces its women to cover from head to toe can rot in hell IMHO.
Let me be clearer: Fuck Iraq.

Women in Iran didn't have to walk around in burkas prior to 1979 either. Thanx to the US meddling in the Middle east the past 60 years, most of the region is now Muslim fundamentalist.

justabill @ 6:

LIMBAUGH: "Save the -- keep the troops safe" or whatever. I -- it's not possible, intellectually, to follow these people.

CALLER: No, it's not, and what's really funny is, they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media.

LIMBAUGH: The phony soldiers.

CALLER: The phony soldiers. If you talk to a real soldier, they are proud to serve. They want to be over in Iraq. They understand their sacrifice, and they're willing to sacrifice for their country.

LIMBAUGH: They joined to be in Iraq. They joined --

This is a joke. When you join the military you aren't seperated into phony and real soldiers. Everyone is equal. In training everyone is equal. Everyone goes into a mission as a real soldier. There are no phonies.

I'm not in the military although I do contact work for the Pentagon. From my experience working with the armed forces there are no phony soldiers.

But these people are human. Extended tours and people going back 4 or 5 times takes its toll. The longer the war lingers on the worse it is for morale. These guys are on the front lines. It's not the soldiers its the policy and the overall mission which many aren't sure what it is anymore.

burnt @ 28:

its a terrible blanket statement to make.... but its fair. the place just isn't worth our soldiers' lives. they don't deserve democracy because they don't believe in democracy. they deserve whatever hell they wish to unleash on each other.

Yea, one thing the administration didn't take into account or glossed over was. "How do you democratize a country who doesn't know what democracy is like?" The British tried what we are trying to do now in 1917 and it didn't work.

Now the whole country isn't run amuck with Islamic Neandrathals and it's not all Shia against Sunni in all parts of Iraq. I saw an eye-opening documentary focused on some Iraqi citizens, mostly young professionals, who didn't really care either way whether they were Shia or Sunni. They just wanted to work and focus on their careers and hang out with their friends at night like most young people here do. The biggest issue for them was finding a place to go out to that wasn't closed or under curfew. Most places closed early so they would have to go back to their homes or apartments.

The news media makes the Iraqis out to look like a sub-human culture. We've put them on a lower level then us. If we invade Iran this would be the third Muslim country we've invaded. This will only create more hatred and will bring on more terrorism.

I had another eye-opening experience today. A Russian and Bulgarian crew from Dish Network came out to upgrade the system. I asked them point plank what they thought it was like here. They said that it was nice but the people here are always busy. He noticed that many neighbors here don't know each other and where they came from they shared more with their neighbors. He also said people are people everywhere. Which got me thinking that Americans are so insular and seem to forget that we aren't the only ones on this planet. We have this superiarity(sp?) complex.

I bet if more right wingers traveled the world and saw for themselves other cultures they wouldn't be so insular. It's more then just the "white" race. All the neo-cons are a bunch of paranoid old pasty white guys who probably lock themselves in their homes and aren't aware of other people or care. They just want everyone to be like them or they want us to be number one. They believe there can only be one Alpha Male in the world and that is US. All that brings out is more discrimination on our part and more hatred on the part of our adversaries who we have put on a lower plane. The Bush Adminstration is responsible for partisianship not only in the US but in the world. It's more us against them all over the place now.

any soldier who has the courage to speak out against the bush regime must be supported for they surely will be crucified by the right. in supporting them it will give impetus for others to garner the courage to also speak out.

So Sgt. Alarcon doesn’t think Iraq is worth another soldier’s life. Well, Alarcon dont get to make that call. If Alarcon wants to make US policy he needs to run for office and get elected President. Soldiers need to shutdafuck up, do their job, and abide my the US Military Code of Justice.