"It can be tempting to look at the challenges in Iraq and conclude our best option is to pack up and go home. That may be satisfying in the short run, but I believe the consequences for American security would be devastating..."
When is dumb dumb? When is criminal criminal?
I could go on and on about that....but I already did that last year.
So this year I thought I would do something different. By telling the simple story of the war in three short videos. Through the eyes of Iraqi children.....
Once upon a time American soldiers invaded Iraq. Many Iraqi children were glad to see them. They loved their tanks, and their chocolate, and their chewing gum.
But soon the cheers turned to tears. As the soldiers acted like conquerors instead of liberators...
And then the tears turned to jeers...when instead of helping the kids...they tortured them...
Until at last even the children turned against them....
But of course it wasn't funny. Because then everybody turned on everybody... and because George Bush didn't know the difference between the Sunni and the Shia.
And ignored the lessons of history.
Everybody lost the war....the soldiers and the children...
The End...of the beginning...
Because when you don't learn from your mistakes.
You really are condemned to repeat them...
8 comments:
look at the PTSD / depression / etc stats for the soldiers coming home & still serving...
and try to imagine what it will be like for the Iraqis living in a war, the children who are having to grow up in this mess...
~Jay
Still better than having your entire family murdered or thrown off a building with your arms tied behind your back or having your entire village gassed by Saddam.
Anonymous--
Try asking Iraqis, assuming you aren't one yerself.
More and more are saying that they felt safer before Saddam was overthrown.
Saddam and his cadre were horrible murdering shits, no argument. But what is happening now is on a whole different level, and on a larger scale.
It's looking less and less likely that Iraq will return to any reasonable level of stability in the next 5 to 10 years. Sunni countries in the region are supporting the Sunni militias. Iran is supporting the Shia militias. The US, in trying to support militia groups in other countries, is funneling support to both militia sides by proxy.
Entire villages haven't been gassed, but have been shelled & bombed to dust. A major city was nearly obliterated in a storm of war crimes committed by the US units involved-Fallujah. Troops aren't throwing families off roofs with arms tied behind their backs, but accounts are coming out of indiscriminate killings--including at least one that was a family killed after their daughter was raped by-I believe-Marines.
It isn't even a lesser evil going on there right now, just a new one. To imply otherwise shows a tremendous lack of insight at the least.
I m just stating the facts about Saddam's ruthless reign, killing at least 300,000 of his own countrymen, the only people that thought things were better are the sunni's that saddam treated well.
Keep on painting the worst possible picture , never see any of the good, and there are good things as well, whether you believe it or not.
I know it's a shithole of a problem
but action is needed now, not counter slander to the coalition that is there now trying to deal with the problem.
You think the coalition forces should leave now?
There would be mass murder on a scale the world has never seen before. That is what the loonie lefty's want, I hope they can sleep well when they get it.
,
For kids there, I guess it's comparable to the kids in Afghanistan in the 80's and 90's. Those kids didn't know anything but war, so in spite of how bad the taliban gov't was, the country was at least stable (relative to the recent past).
It's the same now for kids in Iraq. Now that it's on a roll, the civil war will go on for at least a decade regardless of what the US does. Eventually the Shia south might join with Iran. The Sunnis will either flee to Syria (many already have) or possibly be wiped out.
More Iraqis have already died in this war than that bastard Saddam ever killed. The difference is that now, instead of blaming Saddam, the people can blame America. Great, more fodder for bin laden.
Meanwhile, because the Afghanistan ball was dropped to concentrate on Iraq, that whole area is heating up again. Pakistan's government is teetering and could be overthrown. Who takes over if it's overthrown? Islamic fundamentalists, friends of bin laden. And guess what, Pakistan really does have nukes.
That's progress?
Anonymouse--
I"m not trying to paint the worst possible picture, I'm just trying to portray the situation as it really is. The truth is, there's only varying degress of shit options at this point. As much as it pains me to see ((well, not really given the media controls, but you get the idea I think)) coffins draped in flags and mangled soldiers coming back to the US, and a lesser degree Canada ((but come spring it's looking to be bad for us in the 'Stan)), I fully understand that the worst option is to pull out ASAP. I have never, ever considered that to be a valid option no matter how strongly I wish it was.
However, the current surge is a fucking joke. Even with all the promised troops on the ground, the levels will still be lower than the peak troop levels--which were also unable to have any significant impact on the violence. And now with British units being phased out of their area of responsibility, I fear there is a very high chance that violence will start there again.
Sadly, there needs to be far more troops in all provinces, not just in Baghdad. Troops from different nations. Troops with some grasp of the languages and religions and tribal cultures. THere needs to be more accountability from administration both at home and in Iraq. There needs to be much more emphasis on reconstruction as well as security. The current plan seems to be more of the same, with a side order of poking Iran with a pointy stick. Bad ideas. Hopefully whichever factions in Iran are stirring the pot will be brought to heel before much longer, though I don't have good feelings in that regard.
Your comment that things weere better for the Sunnis under Saddam has some truth to it, however to imply that it is only Sunnis now that feel they were safer nder Saddam is out of step with reality on the ground.
As for charactizing all "lefties" as loonies, shit man, that's so third grade. You're obviously capable of better.
And perhaps the reason for the amount of "counter slander" out there is that so many people - lefties and righties - are seeing how much of a clusterfuck has been made of the region and are sick and tired of governments that are refusing to be held accountable to the people they ostensibly are supposed to serve for their errors.
Hi everyone! I'm feeling a little weak tonight after one of my blood draining treatments...a bit like Iraq itself...so if you don't mind I'll just speak to you all and keep it short. I thought you all made some good points...and managed to keep it pretty civil too :)
So I would just say this...yes Saddam was a butcher...but the war against him was based on a lie. The real terrorists were in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia...some U.S. soldiers are really decent and thought they were doing the right thing. I know that for sure coz I've been there several times. And although some things have changed for the better, most Iraqis (at least in the south) feel that because of the security situation they are worse off now. So I really do feel sorry for everyone. I'm still hoping for the best. Today I saw a report on tv about a teacher trying to do his best in a class full of little Sunnis, Shia, and Christians who haven't learned to hate each other yet. It was such a hopeful sight it almost made me cry. Even though the teacher said that most of the kids don't come to the school anymore because their parents are too afraid to let them leave their homes. So I'm still hoping for the best. I hope that peace will soon come to that poor shatttered land, but now that the monster of religious hatred has been let out of its cage...it's really hard to be optimistic...
As for Hecho con Jarabe del Arce...thanks for teaching me something. I thought I spoke Spanish reasonably well...and I knew what jarabe was...but I didn't know what arce was...and now I do!! :) Ahora lo que necesitamos es un jarabe para la paz...
Oui, frere. Peace syrup on some peace waffles, and some fried peace chicken. For the record, that and ordering beer & peanuts is about the extent of my Spanish. And I've been too busy to brush up on my French yet this semester. Merde! This summer for sure. Hopefully by the time I go back to Saskabush to visit the famn damily I'll be back on my game and can make them feel like unilingual rubes! ;)
Sorry you're pooped, Si. Drink some oj, eat some of that infamous Montreal smoked meat, and have Sebastien get some chocolate chip cookies. As for me, I'm going to my favourite Thai restaurant, but only because it's about 10 minutes closer than my favourite Chinese restaurant. And there are no other good restaurants in this backwards town. And no distributors that cn bring me Unibroue. :,(
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