Tag: Antiwar movement

Remind Us: Why Did the U.S. Government Invade and Destabilize Iraq?

Thanks to Strike the Root for the link

Tom Burka on loyalty and staying the course:

Bush Says Umbrella Working “Just Fine”

President Bush said that his present umbrella was “working perfectly” and rejected calls for a new one.

“This umbrella is perhaps one of the finest umbrellas this country has ever had,” said Bush, “and I stand firmly behind it.”

Critics said that Bush’s umbrella was “ineffective, severely flawed, and just as bad as no umbrella at all.” In response, Bush said that was “just people playing politics,” and that he was not “all wet,” as many have alleged.

“That’s exactly what you’d expect them to say,” said Bush.

But, of course, some people will never be happy, no matter what. Like Giblets:

Giblets is angry! Giblets is outraged at the firing at George Tenet! Personal reasons, Giblets’s magnificent ass! And Giblets and his ass are apalled at the firing of George Tenet – an indeed strong and superb and resolute and kind-of-servant-you-like-to-work-with Director of Central Intelligence! More importantly, he was OUR Director of Central Intelligence, the SAME Director of Central Intelligence, and by changing leaders now we have sent our country’s leadership into unsteady waters.

What this country needs is steady leadership in times of change. Not intelligent leadership, not correct leadership, but steady leadership. Steadiness. Resolve. The resolve to keep doing what you are already doing, even if it is hopelessly boneheaded and wrong. In the face of such resolve, the terrorists will be cowed, fleeing into their terrorist hidey-holes, terrified by the tenacity of an opponent so fiercely determined to keep losing to them in the exact same way.

But if we fire incompetant officials, we are not using steady leadership. We are attempting to “correct” our leadership. We are not staying the course. We are suggesting that there is some better course. Well Giblets for one is quite happy with this course! He knows it quite well and if it happens to veer into that ravine, he will be the first to inform you that his course is getting us to the bottom of the ravine swifter and surer than any other course out there! What’s your problem? Are you a ravine-hater? Are you objectively anti-ravine?

I hope Giblets doesn’t find out skippy is telling jokes like this.

Soldiers in Iraq are scared, and they want to come home. There are two trailers here at Warblogging.com (Baghdad Freestyle and Star-Spangled Banner, Baghdad Style, both QuickTime) for a movie called Gunner Palace that Michael Tucker,an American in Berlin, is shooting. They give a poignant glimpse into the lives of the American teenagers who’ve been shipped to Iraq to fight a war and ended up occupying an alien people. Many of them have packed their bags to come home more than once, but they’re still there.

A month short of going home, 2/3 was extended for 90 to 120 days. In May, they headed south to Najaf as part of reaction force sent to deal with Mehdi’s Army. As I write, they are still there. Dodging RPGs. Making contact. Getting mortared. Bags packed, ready to go home.

This face brings tears to my eyes and makes me want to parachute the Naked Emperor into the middle of Baghdad alone, dressed like this. Photo from Sadly, no!

A history lesson the neocons should have learned.

Since Nagasaki,the US military has bombed 21 countries. Turn your volume up for this link.

Now that so many Bushies, and the Maximum Leader himself are all Chalabi who? Rodger Payne has put a post together to keep their memories fresh.

Topping the memeorandum list of most-talked-about articles in the blogosphere today is the article from Capitol Hill Blue describing Bush as undergoing a Queeg-like meltdown.

Bush was late for the campaign photo op audience with the Pope that he begged and pleaded to get.

The debate on this thread is still alive after all this time and I have no idea what it’s about because about half of it is in Arabic and some other languages, but almost all the debaters appear to be from the Middle East, mainly Iraq. Some of the posts are pretty harsh, but I’ve left them all up because it really isn’t my thread anymore.

UPDATE: Uh-oh. Adam Felber is going straight to Gitmo for this one.

Critics of the antiwar movement are constantly singing praises about the good things that are happening in Iraq and berating the media for not reporting on the wonderful progress being made in painting schools, and patching up bridges and sewer systems blown apart by American bombs. I have to admit though that the following post does bring back some fond memories of my own 1950s childhood of sleeping on the porch during hot summer nights before the advent of air-conditioning. Of course, childhood memories have usually been conveniently stripped of the misery and discomforts which accompanied them.

Listen to Riverbend, the Iraqi girl blogger, tell you firsthand of the real progress being made in Baghdad to return the city to at least the shape it was in the day before the war started.

Hot. It’s hot, hot, hot, hot.

The weather is almost stifling now. The air is heavy and dry with heat. By early noon, it’s almost too hot to go outside. For every two hours of electricity, we have four hours of no electricity in our area- and several other areas. The problem now is that the generators in many areas are starting to break down due to constant use and the bad quality of the fuel. It’s a big problem and it promises to grow as the summer progresses.

I have spent the last two days ruminating the political situation and… washing the roof. While the two activities are very different, they do share one thing in common- the roof, and political situation, are both a mess.

The roof of an Iraqi home is a sacred place. As much planning goes into it as almost anything else. The roofs are flat and often surrounded by a low wall on which one can lean and look out into the city. During this last year, a certain sort of special bond has formed between your typical Iraqi and the roof of his or her home. We run out to the roof to see where the smoke is coming from after an explosion; we gather on the roof to watch the helicopters flying over head; we reluctantly drag ourselves out to the roof to fill the water tanks when the water is low; we hang clothes to dry on the clotheslines strung out haphazardly across the roof; we sleep on the roof during the endless, powerless nights. … read more

Alexander Cockburn asks, “Has Bush Gone Over the Edge?”

I thought he went over the edge long ago, but this is really bad.

Oh, and Tony Blair is also insane.

UPDATE: Here’s the Capitol Hill Blue article Cockburn references.

Iraq’s Sunni Clerics:

Iraqi Sunni Muslim clerics Friday rejected the newly appointed Iraq interim government, charging it is a U.S.-shaped and dominated administration.

The clerics used their Friday sermons t criticize Prime Minister Iyad Allawi for declaring the new government will sign security agreements with the United States for extending the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq.

Leaflets distributed by Sunni groups, including the Islamic Liberation party, compared the interim government to the dissolved U.S.-sponsored Iraqi Governing Council.

There is no difference between the IGC and the transitional government. They are two sides of the same coin, one leaflet said