Whose Skin, Rahm?
By Nicole Belle Monday May 26, 2008 8:45am
As we’ve noted before, members of Congress have recently decided that it would be a great thing ™ to make Iraqis pay for their reconstruction or as Rahm Emanuel stated "They have got to have some skin in the game."
Not surprising, this is not going over well in Iraq. Fatih Abdulsalam of Azzaman Iraq makes this very clear:
Demands like these are not only unacceptable but are in a sense meant to punish Iraqis for the destruction and devastation U.S.-waged invasion and occupation of their country has caused.
Does it mean that the U.S. Congress wants us to pay billions of dollars for the reconstruction of bridges, hospitals, schools as well as cities, towns and villages U.S. warplanes and military might have destroyed? (snip)
Iraqis have been made to pay with their blood which has been flowing like rivers since the U.S. invasion. And shockingly the U.S. would like them to pay for the destruction it has inflicted on their country as if their blood is not enough.
The U.S. is morally responsible for the construction of Iraq but it is doubtful whether its political leaders have any more morality left. The whole Iraq war is morally wrong. It is too much indeed to ask the U.S. to get it morally right. [..]
Skin in the game, Rahm? It seems the Iraqis are the ones getting skinned.
Video: Dr Dahlia Wasfi's testimony before the Democratic Congressional Forum on Iraq April 26, 2006 on the price the people of Iraq have already paid.
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We should do it they way the ancients did it: bring the conquered back home to be our house slaves. Then the American economy will pick up when americans won't be so busy with house chores.
I'm sorry, but I'm still predicting that the only PR cover the American political system will allow for leaving Iraq -- i.e., there cannot be any, any, any hint that the U.S. in any way lost anything or did anything really that wrong -- will be to blame the Iraqis.
Kerry picked up on that, and in the end that's probably what the propaganda system will settle around: "Maybe They Just Weren't Ready For The Democracy We Tried So Hard To Give Them, Oh Well."
A paraphrased GW Bush - "Rebuildin' is hard work. Just ask New Orleans. I'm a War President. I just blows the shit up. Besides, this is about economics...and I'm the business guy...blowin' shit up creates 'murican jobs in the defense industry and keeps us strong, if we pay to rebuild Iraq, that don't help no one. People need to stand up on their own. That's what democracy is about. You have to stand up when your buildings fall down."
I think Rahm should get some skin in the game first. There's a great need for grafts in the burn centers and amputation wards all over Iraq. Why doesn't Rahm put his skin in the game? Not all of it, just part that covers his hyper inflated ego and sense of American superiority.
Proving that, when it comes to Congress, stupidity can come with a (D) or an (R) next to the name.
At least he's looking to be fiscally conservative, I guess.
Tip--quit blowing shit up before worrying about fixing it.
What we really need is the threat that the skin of rich people's kids will get into the game. That would stop the war toute suite.
Since The Bush administration has filled every civilan/contruction/security job in Iraq with incompetent friends and familiy members of the GOP elite, then it may not be such a bad idea to have Iraqi's rebuild all the infrastructure in Iraq. Hey, they've done it before.
What are they complaining about? Corporate America is going to build luxury condos, a golf course, and Disney Middle East there. Ingrates.
Wow, what lobbyist brew of Kool-Aid is Rahm binge drinking?
He must be getting funding from someone still raking it in over there. But, whatever his motivation for being so disingenuously heartless and so morally compromised, he has left reality so far behind that he needs to be voted out at the earliest opportunity.
He has entered Liebermen World.
The dems lied to get reelected in 06 about stopping the occupation.
They funded it and own it too.
It is amazing watching Americans swoon over these politicians.
We get what we vote for.
Hey, we've given them freedom and democracy, what more do they want? snark.....
The only thing shrub co. has achieved with their war against humanity and their 'murder for oil' program is to insure there will be no shortage of enraged peoples who want to hurt anyone and anything associated with the 'merkan 'brand' [cause that's what it is now folks, thank the reslugs]. Basically shrubby has murdered his way into that world war and he couldn't be happier. But that's just because he's always happy when something makes darth cheney smile.
Am I the only one who finds this ever-so-vaguely reminiscent of Terry Gilliam's film "Brazil" in which people whom the government has imprisoned as criminals (regardless of whether they really did anything wrong or not) are forced to shoulder all the costs of their own imprisonment -- including the electricity used to torture them in an attempt to force a confession?
It's their own fault for not greeting us as liberators. Also, shouldn't the Coalition of the Willing be held responsible?
I think they've got enough "skin in the game", thank you very much, you uninformed asswipe.
Go join K-Street, let the rest of the world help these folks, you stupid son-of-a-bitch.
Jeebus fucking christ.
Rebuilding Iraq will only make it easier for Iran to get nuclear weapons. Don't you see? You rebuild Iraq and the terrorist win. You don't want the terrorist to win do ya? Whose side are you on anyway? Where is your flag pin?
Nicole Glad you picked that story up.
Our congress critters have been singing the "Blame the Iraqi's" hit tune in congress for over three years now. They are a bunch of cowards for not accepting the responsibility of creating a quagmire in Iraq. After sending in too few troops, protecting the Oil industry but allowing the looting of Iraqi historical treasures, disbanding the Iraqi army, allowing the bombing of mosques, torture, 4 million refugees. Some believe that the Bush administrations fiasco has resulted in "Mission Accomplished". The destruction of Iraq, collective disorientation. More time to grab the goods via that very large U.S. Embassy that is being built.
It's as if our congress has the inability or just refuses to acknowledge just how much skin the Iraqi people have lost due to our criminal activities in their country. Just how much Iraqi skin was lost during the sanctions condoned by the Clinton administration, one million over half of them Iraqi children. How much Iraqi skin has been lost as a direct result of our illegal invasion over one million and let's not forget (the MSM barely ever touches this story) that there are 4 million Iraqi refugees as a direct result of the Bush administrations criminal disaster in Iraq. Skin Rahm Iraqi skin?
Rahm might as well have said We have now won the hearts, minds and skin of the Iraqi people. What a bunch of sick fuckers!
Considering just one example of a bridge, where a US company failed to repair it, after getting the contract over the original Iraqi firm who had built it, for 10 times the contract sum the iraqis offered to do it, this is a brilliant idea.
Have US forces come blow stuff up, then demand that the iraqis pay US firms to come and repair it, (shoddily).
Something tells me they will not get to choose who will actually be doing the repairing.
Who cares what that little traitor for Israel thinks?
He helped con this country into war for them.
He should be tried for treason!
It's not Bush's fault if the plan went wrong.
If the Iraqis had cooperated, greeted the troops as liberators etc, then we would have had one huge oil terminal as a shining star of western style corporate capitalism right in the middle east. Everybody would be so rich this wouldn't be an issue. The Iraqis could all have jobs at the new MacDonalds, Wal-Marts, Disneyworlds etc. The economy over there could be just as great as the economy over here....
(snark, of course)
Did these guys, Al Sadr and other "powerful clerics" exist before 2003? If so didn't they have power then? If they did than our war did nothing to change who is in power in Iraq. If they did not than our war put the power in the hands of the most evil force of all, religion.
This is similar to, but of course much worse than, this administration's (and its enablers') expectations that the American people will keep on paying for the theft of our common wealth, the destruction of our system of checks and balances, sending our soldiers to die in evil attacks on innocents, endless spying on us citizens, and widespread crimes against the republic and all rational ideas of fairness and justice.
Expecting the unwilling and nonparticipating to pay the price for crimes against themselves is a monstrous affront to humanity. "Let them eat cake" doesn't even come close.
May God have mercy on the architects of this invasion..........or not!
Every citizen of the US must hear this.............yet not one single network will even mention this.
Dr. Wasfi is remarkable!!! Donate anything you can.
Senate votes show GOP power vacuum
So according to this article the republicans are running scared and if you add to that the fact that 67% of the American public hates this war PollingReport.com I have just have to ask:
Why are the Democrats not holding a vote to END THE WAR IN IRAQ?
Could it possibly be that my own party is playing politics with the lives of American Soldiers?
I think god will choose not in this case.
The Iraqis are getting skinned alive and this idiot has the nerve to say something like that? Is anybody running for Rahm Emanuel's seat. It's time to get a democrat in there, and he needs to be put to work at McDonald's
I guess Mr. Emanuel wants them to rebuild using the bones of the dead.
Don't worry the U.S. Taxpayers (ages 18 to 49) will be paying for it.
Are we not allowed to post links here anymore, I'm just wondering because I have tried to post something with links in it twice and it just vanishes but if I just post something without links it posts?
Thomas Mc@19 -- enough with the bullshit that we invaded Iraq for Israel. Unless you have documented proof, shut up with the propaganda.
Rahm needs to come down to earth, and realize that his sugar mamma Hillary is never going to be president.
Rahm is part of the entrenched DC problem.
There are so many good comments here about Emanuel's stupidity. Hear, hear to you all. I hope he does not speak for the rest of the Democratic Party leadership. I really try to keep a lid on my mouth about the AIPAC crowd, but to quote another famous idiot of ours, "It's hard work".
Dr. Acula @ 29:
What about documented proof that we invaded Iraq for oil or for Haliburton. Sadly, all the speculation and conspiracy theories have no documented proof. (Personally I think we invaded Iraq for the GOPs desire for glory.)
--edited from the musical Pippin
Here is the way it is going to be (If I were the decider). Every one of the shitheads who are saying that we should be in Iraq (The 28%s essentially) will go to Iraq and start building. They will sell everything they have here to pay for the shovels and hammers and stuff they will need and the Cheneys and the Bushes and everybody who has made more than $27.99 on the war and decided that we should be in this dumbfuck war will contribute every liquid asset they have to pay for the cement and steel.
So there will be less people (28%?) here in the good ole U.S. of A. to suck up our oil and our food and stuff so the economy will be nice and good. The Iraqis will be able to buy lawn chairs made in the good ole U.S. of A. by until now unemployed illegal immigrants and the Iraqis will be able to kick back and watch the dumbasses work.
This would not make me bitter.
L.A. Confidential @ 27:
Oh cool.
Bluestocking @ 13:
HA! My favorite scene is when they drop in the replacement ceiling sheetrock circle, and it falls to the ground. "Damn English to metric conversions..."
I thought we already spent all their money.
Weren't most of those pallets of cash that LP Bremer had delivered Iraqi oil-for-food money?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/feb/08/usa.iraq1
Who put her up on her high horse?
Rahm Emanuel is a war profiteering neo-con POS. Why would anyone expect him to act intellegently or morally?
Emanuel's stupidity aside, it does seem that the Iraqi government is lounging back and bleeding the US for this mess. They seem more interested in their internal squabbles and their personal fortunes than actually rolling up their sleeves and reforging a country.
As far as paying for this stuff goes, my dream would be to see Bush, Cheney, Rice, and everyone else who had a hand in planning this little cookout charged and convicted of war crimes against humanity and have their personal assets seized to pay for the mess they created.
It is worth mentioning, though, that even after the invasion, there were offers by other countries to aid in the rebuilding, France in particular. These were snubbed by a president who wanted total control. We see where that's gone.
"Instead of a war on terror, it is a war of terror"...how very succinct.
An AmeriKan war of terror.
What an idiotic thing to say! I am curious, though. Where does all of the billions of dollars go? Fifteen billion a month. What is it paying for?
Litabell @ 40:
It seems safe to assume that at least some of it -- perhaps even a goodly portion -- is lining the pockets of people who aren't entitled to it.
Well, speaking from the outside looking in (I'm a Canadian) I can say that the overall reaction to the idea that the U.S. was going to extract the cost of the war from Iraq has simply lowered the Rest Of The World's opinion of the U.S. even further.
I'm also finding the lack of even basic knowledge about Iraq society to be truly telling; Kyle, they were there, and they didn't have power, as Saddam Hussein was a sunni and the people you cite (al-Sadr and al-Sistani) are shia, who were more or less in the same social position as black people in the U.S. from the 1870s until the late 1960s.
Esp. after the revelations about the torture meetings in the White House, the only way justice will be able to be served in this entire mess is if George W. Bush and the relevant members of his cabinet and their lawyers are impeached, charged with war crimes, and the US leaves Iraq and starts paying massive reparations to whichever government emerges from the mess a few years down the road.
If I were any of the people in on those meetings, I wouldn't do any international travelling (and yes, that does mean you Colin Powell); if they do they are quite possibly going to get Pinocheted.
I have many friends in the U.S. (mostly in an online sense, of course), and I am truly saddened and disturbed by what has happened to your nation.
You won't see her as a guest pundit on Fox or CNN ha ha.
Merkin @ 36:
She's a well spoken, intelligent person.
Better question: Who put Bush in the White House ...?
Watch a Bush vid ( if you can stand it) after listening to her ... and also:
Dont forget Bush is a'skeered of horses ....
Jack @ 42:
I can't help but wonder if other nations are prepared to follow through with War Crimes trials against Bush and his cronies. There are still a lot of people (a lot of gun-toting people) who would oppose their deportation and with violence if necessary. Are other nations prepared to invade the US for the sake of justice?
Litabell @ 40:
Paying to make the Shia and Sunni "love" each other, or at least not kill each other with such abandon.
Wow!
A pissed off American that is willing to yell out at a failed America.
Where is the rest of your voices?
Amen. Get out of Iraq now. What we OWE them can be argued forever except for one thing: the right for THEM do decide how to go forward. GET OUT NOW AMERICA.
Dr. Wasfi, I think I'm in love with you. If Hillary had spoken such truth and with your moral authority, we'd be on the way to our first woman President. Hillarymaniacs, that is what a "strong woman" sounds like.
The solution:
1. Get the troops and mercenaries out of Iraq, with the possible exception of a force in the north to protect the Kurds from Turkish aggression.
2. Set up a really big escrow fund for the reconstruction of Iraq by Iraqis, but with the stipulation that funds will be distributed only through a stable Iraqi government, relatively free of corruption. Still would be cheaper than staying in country.
3. Rebuild the American military. Reinstitute the draft (including rich kids,) pay for it by taxes on corporations and capital gains, and structure it for defence, not for occupation. And dump the ridiculously expensive hitech toys.
4. Emphasize diplomacy over military, in particular learning to listen rather than demanding, engendering respect by respecting others.
5. Market democracy by setting an admirable example. Make it work here before you try to sell it abroad.
6. In order to exit Iraq without looking like we were beaten, blame it all on Bush/Cheney (although 75% of the public supported the invasion.) Impeachment and criminal charges; make them the scapegoats. It's one way they can make a real sacrifice for their country.
Merkin @ 36:
WTF? She's an Iraqi-American. Who is more qualified than that? She knows what's going on both here and over there.
Get a life!
In a way, I think it's a shame that there's no way to tell who voted for whom in the 2000 and 2004 elections. That way, everyone who has aided and abetted the Bush presidency could start getting bills in the mail for the mess their boy has made.
"We've put about $45 billion into Iraq's reconstruction . . . and they have not spent their own resources," said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.). "They have got to have some skin in the game."
what a disgusting excuse for an imitation of a human being ..
And the Democratic Party wonders why those of us to the left of Adolph Fuckin Hitler remain disaffected ???
This Dr. Dahlia Wasfi is fantastic. Richard Peterson @49 what you say re her, and Hillary, and "strong women" is right on the money. But what gets me is, this is from April 2006, right?---I've been paying a lot of attention to this Iraqi situation since the beginning, and this is the first time I've seen or heard of Dr. Wasfi. Why? How absurd is that? This is a person that every American SHOULD have heard from, and even a person like me hasn't heard ANY of her eloquent words. Man, we are in BIG trouble in this "great land of ours." George Orwell, where are you?
The veil that MUST be ripped from every "progressives" eyes is the vacuous notion that the Fascists were defeated in World War Two.
The Fascists were NOT defeated.
The American Fascists who financed Hitler are alive and well.
They are the Military Industrial Complex - THEY won the Second World War.
They took over the American Government.
World War Two was a RACKET that put the American Fascists in charge of the largest Military-Industrial Complex the world has ever seen.
What we see in Iraq - and Palestine - today is no different from what Hitler did.
IT IS GENOCIDE.
Didn't we already give billions to this effort once? What's happened to all of that money? Just how many times do we have to pay for this supposed reconstruction?
And I'm not blaming the Iraqi's here ...
"The U.S. is morally responsible for the construction of Iraq but it is doubtful whether its political leaders have any more morality left. The whole Iraq war is morally wrong. It is too much indeed to ask the U.S. to get it morally right. [..]"
Dear Fatih, I hate to be the one to tell you this but the American men that brought you this nightmare started out with ZERO MORALITY. I hope this clears up any further questions you may have on that subject.
Truly yours, an American who is ashamed by, and as disgusted with my government as you.
Wow, amazing speech, gets it all right, and succinct.But, more importantly, what about Rachael Ray's scarf?
Careless, ignorant and cruel remark. Rahm never ceases to NOT surprise me.
*
What a blithering idiot. Rahm demonstrates again and again how hopeless the Democrats are.
By the way, if you think things are really going to change under a Hillary or Barack presidency, even with Democratic majorities, forget about that shit.
[George in Toronto, your racist comments will earn you a ban. There's a reason your comments are moderated before they go on the board-Sitemonitor]
Rahm is an Israel-born, Chicago Congressman. How about asking him to have an American perspective for a change rather than an Israeli perspective of the Iraq war? Or how about we ask him to have a Democratic party's perspective (which says the Iraq War is Immoral) when he speaks for Chicago? It's a shame we have turncoats in the media and in Congress who no longer even bother to hide their true colors since they are absolutely certain that nobody is going to call out on them. We, the people, need more diversity in our media and in Congress if we are not going to be dominated by a certain ethnic minority's view on all things American. What about the remaining 98% of our people who don't have a great affinity for the Middle East or Israel? What about the majority? Silent and cowardly.
Friday it's Hillary excusing herself on the grounds that someone might relieve her of her little opponent problem on the way to her "rightful" station in life, ignoring that it's only rightful when we say it is, and now it's Rahm equally ignore-ant of the Iraqi population. Skin in the game? I'm so sick of monsters in high places.
That is an amazing piece of video. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. what an incredible woman.
Funny how in the end it all comes down to money
It is not like we invaded their country, bombed their infrastructure to smitheries, and de-stabilized the country enough for a de facto civil war to star. Those damn Iraqis! need to start paying them bills, eh?
Fuck you Rahm...
Rahm is Mossad.
What's happened in Iraq these last 6 years, will haunt the USA for the next 100 years!!!!! Probably more.
66 The Dude Says: Funny how in the end it all comes down to money
=================================
It's always all about money. I tell students, if you want to study American history or politics, put an American dollar bill on the table and keep looking back at it. It explains EVERYTHING.
Why would Gen Betray us tell the congress things were going better then anyone could have ever imagine. Who is lying.
Edwin Hussein the Appeaser @ 69:
Indeed, the Iraq war will end as soon as the average American has to pay a single increase in taxes.
Same shit happened with VietNam, the civil war, etc... heck the independence of this country can be reduced to a single cause: taxes.
This video was in 2006, and nothing has changed since. Pathetic.
Are there any public meters on the oil wells? People are making $$ coming AND going and still others are dying.
Rahm Emanuel stated “They have got to have some skin in the game.”The fact that a lightning bolt didn't strike him dead is all the proof you need that there is no God.
Well said Dr. Dahlia Wasfi.
If we wanted to help the Iraqi people, we would leave.
Dylan wrote and sang, "well, there is fist fights in the kitchen. It's enough to make me cry. The mailman comes in, even he's got to take a side. Even the butler he's got something prove. And you ask why I don't live here, Honey, why don't you just move.
War is stupid. Impeach, fine and imprision the shameless war criminals: Cheney and Bush.
America has a great constitution. Let's use it.
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