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I’m So Excited, and I Just Can’t Hide It (I’m About to Lose Control, and I think I like it)

Aide to Top Iraqi Cleric, and 5 Others, Are Killed in Attack, the New York Times, January 13, 2005:

Ayatollah Sistani’s representative, Sheikh Mahmoud al-Madaini, was killed along with his son and four guards after leaving sunset prayers at a mosque in Madain, about 12 miles south of the capital, said an official in Ayatollah Sistani’s office.
In further pre-election violence that is predicted to escalate, seven Iraqis were killed and a Turkish man was kidnapped in front of a Baghdad hotel by a group of gunmen today, according to an employee of the hotel.

Gosh, what sort of downbeat attitude is that? Why would such violence be “predicted to escalate”? What we, the American people need, is some goddamned optimism! You know, the kind of peppy good cheer we heard one short week ago:
Bush Rejects Growing Pessimism on U.S. Foreign Policy, the Washington Post, January 7, 2005:

“The Iraqi elections, rather than turning out to be a promising turning point, have the great potential for deepening the conflict,” Scowcroft said at the New America Foundation luncheon, expressing a view increasing shared by both Democratic and Republican foreign policy specialists.
Asked if he shares Scowcroft’s concerns, Bush told reporters today, “Quite the opposite. I think elections will be such a incredibly hopeful experience for the Iraqi people.”
[…]
Bush said in response to a question, “I think we’re making great progress” in Iraq. He added, “And it’s exciting times for the Iraqi people. And it’s so exciting there are some who are trying to intimidate people from going to the polls.”

14 replies on “I’m So Excited, and I Just Can’t Hide It (I’m About to Lose Control, and I think I like it)”

I was really excited about Christmas, but I didn’t kidnap anybody about it, you know?

“I think elections will be such a incredibly hopeful experience for the Iraqi people.”
Yeah, hopeful that they make it out of the polling place alive…

And it’s so exciting there are some who are trying to intimidate people from going to the polls.
You know, vote by mail would make a lot of sense in Iraq right about now. Trust in Bush to do just the opposite.

and of course, these murderous thugs were farmers, bakers and crossing guards before the US entered the country.
if we left tomorrow, they would back to their virtuous life.
or, more to the point:
it would be brown people killing brown people again and who the hell cares about that right?

Do they have a reliable postal service yet?
I wonder who’s in charge of postal service in Iraq now?

Actually Horns, a lot of the insurgents were “farmers, bakers and crossing guards before the US entered the country.” Alright, probably not crossing guards, but farmers and bakers for sure. ALthough most of them weren’t: the rest were soldiers, until we disbanded the army. Most of them joined the army to find a better life and were simply ordered by their commanders to fight the Americans, an order many of them disobeyed. So how we do we respond to that, we take away their jobs. Wouldn’t you be pissed? For all of those low level soldiers life truly is worse then under Hussein. Many of them probably had debts or other financial comittments. I don’t know what you do for a living, or how much debt you have, but I can with some confidance that if you jsut lost your job for nothing, with no way to pay your bills, you also would be upset. For a minute, try to understand how the Iraqis might feel about our invasion.

actually, no. they weren’t farmers and bakers. you’re just hoping to believe that.
in the same way that you eblieve Fallujah was a sleepy quiet city before the war.
it wasn’t
it was a cesspool of crime and violence for decades. it was ALWAYS a problem spot and always an outlaw city. just the slightest bit of research will reveal that to you.
and how about those noble Iraqi army members who went into Fallujah to help calm the insurgents – they had a real good laugh at the expense of a lot of soldiers lives and their failure is a glowing demonstration of how corrupt most of the iraqi Baathist army members were.
and again – terrorism is not caused by poverty.
thats a delusion on the grandest scale and is in direct conflict with an exhaustive study the Kennedy center just finished that conclusively cements presents the facts that terrorism is caused by lack of political freedom. there are tens of thousands of instances worldwide where poverty exists without terrorism.
your statements in that regard harken marxism – that if we redistribute wealth evenly around the world, all of the conflict and strife would end.
it is a demented view that ignores everything society has learned about human nature through our history.
the insurgents are buoyed by the information provided by SOME of the former Iraqi national guard. the girth of the combatants are Syrians and militant Islamics.
One man who was found bound and gagged in a blood soaked chamber in Fallujah stated after his release that he though he didn;t even know he was still in Iraq. he thought he was in Syria because all of his captors were speaking Syrian.
he said other men came and went, but the Syrians called the shots.

1. To be honest, neither of us really know how many of the insurgents were farmers, bakers, etc.
2. I don’t think I ever said that Faluja was a beacon of peace before the US invasion, but it was violence that bin-Laden couldn’t use for recruitment.
3. Concerning the soldiers, I realize that many of them are foreign fighters, but many of them aren’t. At the end of the day, we don’t have the numbers; if you have them, I’d love to see them.
4. I never said I wanted to “redistribute wealth evenly around the world.” I did say that not losing your job makes you a more content person than having no employment.
5. I have two question. Do you have a link to that Kennedy Center study? I’m having trouble finding it online. And, couldn’t someone who had lived under a repressive regime for most or all of his life who has no employment, or any hope of finding employment feel that he didn’t have a political recourse? Don’t forget, these people haven’t had a lot of experience with democracy yet.

Thanks for the link. For the record, you didn’t answer my other question. I look forward to your answer. 🙂

I’ve got a quote for you…
“The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality [applause], and if we ignore this sobering reality, we will find ourselves organizing “clergy and laymen concerned” committees for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy.”
Martin Luther King, from the “Beyond Vietnam” speech

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