• It don't matter who started it.
  It just matters who finished it
  
  
• Condimima's leading a circle jerk

8097. jexster - 8/16/2006 6:15:08 PM

Folks (and Concerned) this is not just your ever day We-won-every-battle-and-lost-Vietnam-EyeRakNRol type clusterfuck

Israel got beat..they retreated and got attacked from the sides, the advanced and got attacked up the ass from villages they'd "taken"

Their Merkava's got blowed up in kill boxes....they never swept to the Litani...they probably never had 30,000 troops across the border (certainly were nowhere to be seen on Monday-Tuesay and IDF now refusing to answer questions)..They didn't break Hizbollah..They didn't stop the rockets..they didn't even get their soldiers back (not that this had anything to do with anything to begin with!)

The Mighty IDF got whipped and doubly so because the whole idea behind the Bush-Olmert Plan to destroy Lebanon had as it's first objective to re-establish "deterrence" (ie oppression) over Hizbollah and Hamas and secondly to deal a body blow to Syria and Iran


Too bad Georgie..Schlomo done jewed you

8098. jexster - 8/16/2006 6:24:34 PM

About Those 'Birth Pangs': Try Death Throes"
Justin Raimondo

8099. jexster - 8/16/2006 6:29:35 PM

What we are witnessing in the Middle East is the sad spectacle of a once great nation dissipating its resources on a futile crusade to implant "democracy" in inhospitable soil. These aren't the "birth pangs" of a new, U.S.-Israeli regional hegemon, but the death throes of an American Empire that is expiring before it is even properly born.

8100. concerned - 8/16/2006 8:44:44 PM

I wonder who won...You have any ideas TD??

You mean Hezbollshit's war for the PR lowest common denominator?

8101. concerned - 8/16/2006 8:52:38 PM

[You'll Probably Be Labeled an anti-Semite, Hizbullah lickin, Allahu akbar'in sand nigger lover. But who the fuck cares what they call you]

Being additionally labeled: 'Delusional', 'Insane', and 'Fanatic' should bother anyone if the above doesn't.

8102. robertjayb - 8/16/2006 10:06:09 PM

Seymour Hersh has a long (of course) piece in The New Yorker telling of the bushies mucking about in the Israeli-Hezbollah cockup. Read it Here It appears to have been written before the truce but is well worth the read. He says the Israelis were spring-loaded for an attack and that the bushies were looking forward to a trial run of their expected attack on Iran.

8103. jexster - 8/17/2006 2:51:51 AM

Pictures are easier for TD...

Children pictured in the back of a car flying a Hezbollah flag just metres from the Israel-Lebanon border. The White House said that it would ultimately be up to the Lebanese government, with UN backing, to make sure that Hezbollah is disarmed and that the process would "take some time."

8104. jexster - 8/17/2006 2:59:52 AM

8102

Howdy Pard!

Permit me to quote me....

1. It doesn't matter "who started it". Israel intended these attacks all along and discussed them in detail with the US months ago. They were cleard on or before Olmert's visit to Washington and are part of Israel unilateral program of restablishing deterrence and pursuing convergence.

As part of Bush’s determination to create a “new Middle East” – one that is more amenable to U.S. policies and desires – Bush even urged Israel to attack Syria, but the Olmert government refused to go that far, according to Israeli sources.

One source said some Israeli officials thought Bush’s attack-Syria idea was “nuts”

8105. jexster - 8/17/2006 8:11:30 AM

A related question TD..a makeup if you will


Who lost IraQ?

No peaking at your notes

8106. jexster - 8/17/2006 8:11:51 AM

"peeking" either

8107. jexster - 8/17/2006 8:16:27 AM

Now back to our correspondent Bryan Scumball in the losers' locker room

For Many Israelis, a Bitter Homecoming
Border Areas Reflect National Sentiment Over Failure to Eliminate Hezbollah


TD tell the Moron next time you see him

8108. jexster - 8/17/2006 8:26:22 AM

The Notable and the Quotable

Ari Shavit, Ha'aretz


Chutzpah has its limits. You cannot lead an entire nation to war promising victory, produce humiliating defeat and remain in power. You cannot bury 120 Israelis in cemeteries, keep a million Israelis in shelters for a month, wear down deterrent power, bring the next war very close, and then say - oops, I made a mistake. That was not the intention. Pass me a cigar, please.


The Prophet Hosea:

{I thought Bush was a bible boy!}

For they sow the wind,
and they shall reap the whirlwind.
The standing grain has no heads,
it shall yield no meal;
if it were to yield,
foreigners would devour it.
Israel is swallowed up;
now they are among the nations
as a useless vessel.
For they have gone up to Assyria,
a wild ass wandering alone;

...
The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel,
shall be destroyed.
Thorn and thistle shall grow up
on their altars.
They shall say to the mountains, Cover us,
and to the hills, Fall on us.

8109. Max Macks - 8/17/2006 9:43:27 AM

Jex, I thought that the Hez bollha had hit
one Israeli tank with a grenage launcher
but somewhere and I wish I knew where I read
that the Hez had knocked out many of the Merkava
tanks and shot down one helicopoter

I wonder how one could get the number .

8110. jexster - 8/17/2006 9:55:52 AM

They killed or damaged muchos Merkavas...so many that the liars at IDF decided to stop reporting losses.

More than one helicopter but only one Jew Canoe



INF Eliat
Saar 5 Class Jew Canoe


Army of God
C802 shore-ship cruise missile

8111. jexster - 8/17/2006 10:13:08 AM

A New Nasser?
Basahr to Bushie; Kiss My Hairy Ass

8112. jexster - 8/17/2006 10:49:32 AM

Get Your Gear Here!

For example, In Syria, it is very common now to find trendy college girls in mini-skirts and Christian youth having Hassan Nasrallah’s photos as screensavers on their mobile phones and his most catchy phrases from his speeches as ring-tones. I was sitting in a café in Aleppo inside a Christian school (used to be the American missionary) when one mobile phone rang on the table next to me with Nasrallhah’s voice and all the fashionable ladies on the table jumped with joy. Suddenly, the bluetooth and infrared devices were transmitting and replicating the ring-tone.

8113. jexster - 8/17/2006 2:03:44 PM

The View From Nazareth

Lebanese Deaths, and Israeli War Crimes, Kept Off the Balance Sheet

During Israel's war against the people of Lebanon, our media, politicians, and diplomats have colluded with the aggressors by distracting us with irrelevancies, by concocting controversies, and by framing the language of diplomacy. In the fragile truce that is currently holding while Lebanon waits for Israel to withdraw, we are simply getting more of the same.

One example of the many distractions during the war that neatly reveals their true purpose is the "faked Reuters photograph" affair.



Unlike Ronski, I know bullshit. I smell before I swallow.

8114. jexster - 8/17/2006 2:05:05 PM

Maybe the dead have been airbrushed in as easily as a puff of smoke. Maybe too, were the smoke removed, we would still be able to see that Israel has "the most moral army in the world."


Permit me to quote me

2 myths DOA:

1. Moral Israel
2. Invincible Israel

8115. jexster - 8/17/2006 2:14:37 PM

How long would Israel's war have been allowed to continue if American audiences had seen those charred bodies or dead babies?



Airbrushed Out of US Media

Now Rick do you see? See why Ronski's crypto-racist kvetching piss me off so?

Were that PincherMartin and that IDF settler slug were here

8116. jexster - 8/17/2006 3:02:26 PM

Speaking of Total Fucking Morons who'll swallow anything


How ya hangin TD?

The Zarqawi Myth:

AlQ Two Rivers Gains Strength in Sunni Heartland
[The State - SC's newspaper]

8117. jexster - 8/17/2006 6:35:36 PM

Beat!

By William S. Lind



With today’s cease-fire in Lebanon, the second Hezbollah-Israeli War is temporarily in remission. So far, Israel has been beaten.

The magnitude of the defeat is considerable. Israel appears to have lost at every level—strategic, operational and tactical.

But these failures only begin to measure the magnitude of Israel’s defeat. While Hezbollah’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, is now an Islamic hero, Olmert has become a boiled brisket in the piranha pool that is Israeli politics. The cease-fire in Lebanon will allow camera crews to broadcast the extent of the destruction to the world, with further damage to Israel’s image. Israel’s “wall” strategy for dealing with the Palestinians has been undone; Hamas rockets can fly over a wall as easily as Hezbollah rockets have flown over Israel’s northern border.

Most importantly, an Islamic Fourth Generation entity, Hezbollah, will now point the way throughout the Arab and larger Islamic world to a future in which Israel can be defeated. That will have vast ramifications, and not for Israel alone. Hundreds of millions of Moslems will believe that the same Fourth Generation war that defeated hated Israel can beat equally-hated America, its “coalitions” and its allied Arab and Moslem regimes. Future events seem more likely to confirm that belief than to undermine it.

...




For America, the question is whether Washington will continue to demand that we go down with the Israeli ship.

8118. jexster - 8/17/2006 6:35:46 PM

Beat!

By William S. Lind



With today’s cease-fire in Lebanon, the second Hezbollah-Israeli War is temporarily in remission. So far, Israel has been beaten.

The magnitude of the defeat is considerable. Israel appears to have lost at every level—strategic, operational and tactical.

But these failures only begin to measure the magnitude of Israel’s defeat. While Hezbollah’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, is now an Islamic hero, Olmert has become a boiled brisket in the piranha pool that is Israeli politics. The cease-fire in Lebanon will allow camera crews to broadcast the extent of the destruction to the world, with further damage to Israel’s image. Israel’s “wall” strategy for dealing with the Palestinians has been undone; Hamas rockets can fly over a wall as easily as Hezbollah rockets have flown over Israel’s northern border.

Most importantly, an Islamic Fourth Generation entity, Hezbollah, will now point the way throughout the Arab and larger Islamic world to a future in which Israel can be defeated. That will have vast ramifications, and not for Israel alone. Hundreds of millions of Moslems will believe that the same Fourth Generation war that defeated hated Israel can beat equally-hated America, its “coalitions” and its allied Arab and Moslem regimes. Future events seem more likely to confirm that belief than to undermine it.

...




For America, the question is whether Washington will continue to demand that we go down with the Israeli ship.

8119. jexster - 8/18/2006 3:55:54 AM

A majority of Israelis in one poll wanted Defense Minister Amir Peretz to resign as a result of the inconclusive war on Lebanon. Some 41 percent wanted Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gone. I saw on cable television that Olmert's approval rating is only 40 percent now, and Peretz stands at 28 percent. The danger is that hardliner Bibi Netanyahu of the Likud Party (who recently openly celebrated the anniversary of the terrorist attack by Zionists in the 40s on civilians in the King David Hotel) has risen in popularity as a result of the debacle. The war could leave us with a strengthened Likud and a politically strengthened Hizbullah-Syria-Iran bloc, a recipe for further disaster.

Anyway, that's how you tell who won. The Lebanese are not demanding a commission to investigate the conduct of the war. In fact, Bashar al-Asad of Syria and Saad Hariri of Lebanon's reformist bloc are arguing over who gets to take credit for Lebanon's ability to weather the Israeli attack. (Neither is mentioning the Hizbullah footsoldiers who did so much damage to Israeli tanks and soldiers). Al-Asad is implying that Hizbullah could stand up to the Israelis mainly because of Syria's support, and that the 14 March reform movement had been wrong to kick Syrian troops out of Lebanon (their presence might have deterred such a massive Israeli attack). The Lebanese reformers are claiming credit for "steadfastness" (sumud) and are ridiculing Syria for cautiously staying out of the fight....

The BBC provides pictures of Lebanese returning to the rubble of their homes in the south, as a result of massive Israeli bombing of the civilian infrastructure. The stench of dead family members, women and children often greets the returnees as they sift through the ruins of their homes.

8120. Magoseph - 8/18/2006 4:34:56 AM

In this article in the NYT titled “Bombs Aimed at G.I.’s in Iraq Are Increasing “ Slate says there’s …this intriguing bit from a "military affairs expert" who recently had a sit-down at the White House: He said, "Senior administration officials have acknowledged to me that they are considering alternatives other than democracy."

Here is the excerp from the NYT article:

...some outside experts who have recently visited the White House said Bush administration officials were beginning to plan for the possibility that Iraq’s democratically elected government might not survive.

“Senior administration officials have acknowledged to me that they are considering alternatives other than democracy,” said one military affairs expert who received an Iraq briefing at the White House last month and agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity.

8121. Magoseph - 8/18/2006 4:51:33 AM

In THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN’s column today in the NYT, he, like me here, Message # 8028 think alike….don’t we? I know, I know we’re not the first ones…

If we could cut the price of crude in half, it would mean that all of Iran's oil income would go to subsidies - which would be unsustainable and therefore a huge threat to the regime. It would also make Iran's puppets, like Nasrallah, think three times about launching wars with Israel that might ravage Lebanon again.
Too bad we have a president who tells us we're "addicted to oil" but won't do anything about it. That sort of hypocrisy just makes Nasrallah's day.>

8122. jexster - 8/18/2006 8:13:22 AM

Yes. I posted that in lies Mago. Cole talks about that today, and David Corn has piece out "missing Saddam". "Won't work" he says. Too far gone. Army too weak. Populbation too armed and too mobilized. No gov't to speak of for strongman to run.

More interesting that such speculation is the report that the Bushies are dusting off what I understand the Pentagon calls "Plan C" - withdrawal under fire


But next time Bush gets on the horn to the Almighty, he can always ask,and perhaps he'll receive

Will mir die Hand noch reichen,
Derweil ich eben lad'.
"Kann dir die Hand nicht geben,
Bleib du im ew'gen Leben
Mein guter Kamerad!
Mein guter Kamerad!"

8123. jexster - 8/18/2006 8:16:39 AM

Message # 8121

Tom Friedman? I'd keep that quiet. In fact I'd axe Wabbit to delete

8124. jexster - 8/18/2006 8:31:39 AM

"Olmert has become a boiled brisket in the piranha pool that is Israeli politics....Most importantly, an Islamic Fourth Generation entity, Hezbollah, will now point the way throughout the Arab and larger Islamic world to a future in which Israel can be defeated. That will have vast ramifications, and not for Israel alone.... Israel only has a long-term future if it can reach a mutually acceptable accommodation with its neighbors"

William S. Lind

8125. jexster - 8/18/2006 11:49:30 AM

Lebanese Army at Ble Line
Jews Routed Back into Zion


Has absolutely nothing to do with the price of oil Mago

Merkava mashing rockets - 5000
Merkava - 4+ million

Hizbullah defends their homes...just ask a Southern boi what that means

In technical terms, Hiz had a vast advantage at the moral level

8126. robertjayb - 8/18/2006 11:56:05 AM

Pat Lang on France's opt-out:

France is in the process of opting out of a large troop commitment to the "international force" because the French government rightly sees that the mandate envisioned for the force does not match reality on the ground and probably never will. Without a lot of French troops the whole intention of the "international force" will be thwarted. France is the only European country with an expeditionary power projection capabilty sufficient to the job. I doubt if Israel will find the prospect of having its northern bvorder "secured" by Turks, Malaysians, Indonesians, etc. to be very attractive.

On a different but related subject, the Arab states have now declared at the UN that they want a new peace process to begin in the Middle East because the "road map" is dead. What they want is a new "Madrid," a new beginning in the everlasting attempt to find peace between the Arabs and Israel.

Will the United States want that? Probably not. Why? It is our policy to seek an end to the govenments that would be parties to such a peace, not to consolidate their positions as signatories of a peace that would bring them the approval of their people.

Pat Lang

8127. alistairConnor - 8/18/2006 12:43:21 PM

The "200 French soldiers" ploy is a sort of fist on the table, a demand that the rules of engagement be defined before deployment.

8128. Max Macks - 8/18/2006 1:12:50 PM

Jex,
any way to find out just how many Israli tanks
were destroyed by the Hez bollah?

8129. jexster - 8/18/2006 2:51:12 PM

As I watched Hizbullah's secretary general, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, making his frequent television addresses in recent weeks, especially on Monday night after the fighting had stopped, he seemed to take on the veneer of a national leader rather than that as head of a single group in Lebanon's rich mosaic of parties. In tone and content, his remarks seemed like those that a president or prime minister should be making while addressing the nation after a terrible month of destruction and human suffering. His prominence is one of the important political repercussions of this war.


Rami G. Khouri

Daily Star
Beruit


Me too Rami

8130. jexster - 8/18/2006 2:52:37 PM

Max..not possible

The Jews know
The Jews ain't sayin

Pat Lang some news reports....but you can't get the final # there

8131. jexster - 8/18/2006 4:22:36 PM

Clusterfuck of Catastrophe

Thanks be that somebody's doing SOMETHING about the KRUDish Menace....the Mossad's been operating in Kurdistan stirring shit now for 3 years...The Kurds are the bottom line cause of the Sunni mess in the first place.



What a bunch of numbnuts running this fuckt up operation








Kurds Flee Homes as Iran Shells Iraq's Northern Frontier


Only a matter of time before the Turk moves in to clean up the mess.

8132. jexster - 8/18/2006 11:26:51 PM

The Jewish Gestapo


Israel seizes top Hamas official 32 minutes ago



Israel seized Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Naser al-Shaer, a top official of the Hamas militant group, at his home in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, his wife and two lawmakers said.

Israel has more than two dozen Hamas lawmakers and several other cabinet ministers in custody since late June, after it launched an offensive in response to the kidnapping of a soldier in a cross-border raid from the Gaza Strip.

An Israeli army spokesman confirmed troops had taken al-Shaer into custody, saying it was "due to his membership in a terrorist organization."

Huda al-Shaer, the official's wife, said he was picked up at their home in the West Bank town of Ramallah before dawn.

She told Reuters that "several jeeps circled the house before dawn" then troops came to the door.

An officer told her after checking their identity documents, "'sorry Madame, but your husband has to come with us. He let him first say goodbye to our four children," al-Shaer said.


Let's not kid ourselves. This is what the American taxpayer is underwriting. This "outpost of democracy" and "western values" is a sewer of lies, oppression, and mass crime.

For America, the question is whether Washington will continue to demand that we go down with the Israeli ship.

William S. Lind

8133. jexster - 8/18/2006 11:37:31 PM

Lebanon Orders Army to Stand By Hizbullah

8134. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 8/19/2006 9:41:09 AM

Little Mo nails it again . . .

August 19, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist

Where Is Euphrates Etiquette?

By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON

You know W. is burned up at the Iraqis.

You know Rummy got disgusted with nation-building ages ago. (In Baghdad in April, Rummy doodled at a news conference while Condi went on about her hopes for Iraq’s future.)

You can tell that Condi has grown fed up with the intractable mess in Iraq because she’s so focused on the intractable mess in Lebanon.

And certainly Dick Cheney has given up on those obstreperous Iraqis to move on to the more gratifying task of plotting how to liberate Iran and Syria.

W., unschooled in Middle East quicksand politics, learned the hard way that too many Iraqis prefer jihad to Jefferson. The Iraqi forces can’t stand up so we can scamper out. The Shiites we gave the country to prefer Iran and Hezbollah to the U.S. and Israel. And our rebellious yet incompetent Iraqi puppets have had the temerity to criticize both the U.S. and Israel for brutal behavior in the region.

How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child, as the Bard said, and the Bush administration has always condescendingly treated Iraq as though it were an ungrateful child. Rummy, Paul Wolfowitz and Republican lawmakers liked to compare the occupied nation to a tyke on a bike. “If you never take the training wheels off a kid’s bicycle,’’ Wolfie would say, “he’ll never learn to ride without them.’’

Thom Shanker and Mark Mazzetti of The Times reported that the president seemed dissatisfied this week in a private meeting at the Pentagon with his war cabinet and outside Middle East experts.

“I sensed a frustration with the lack of progress on the bigger picture of Iraq generally — that we continue to lose a lot of lives, it continues to sap our budget,’’ one person who attended the meeting told The Times. “The president wants the people in Iraq to get more on board to bring success.” Another said that W. was confounded that 10,000 Iraqi Shiites would take to the streets to rally behind Hezbollah.

W. is sick of holding on to the bike as his legacy crashes. He wants to see some gratitude from his charges — pronto.

The Iraqis have no doubt offended W.’s keen sense of loyalty. He went back to sack Saddam to make up for his father’s lack of loyalty to the Shiites who were slaughtered after Poppy encouraged them to rise up, and now the Shiites show little loyalty to W.

Carole O’Leary, an American University professor who is working in Iraq on a State Department grant, told The Times that Mr. Bush offered the view that “the Shia-led government needs to clearly and publicly express the same appreciation for United States efforts and sacrifices as they do in private.”

Naturally, Tony Snow denied that President Resolute was frustrated. But if W. can behold how his plans have backfired and not be frustrated, then he’s out of touch with reality. And the reason W. is meeting with outside experts is to demonstrate that he is, too, in touch with reality. Even though he doesn’t use that expertise to reshape his plan in Iraq, which shows again that he’s out of touch with reality.

Reviewing Paul Bremer’s book in The New York Review of Books, Peter Galbraith wrote: “In Bremer’s account, the president was seriously interested in one issue: whether the leaders of the government that followed the [Coalition Provisional Authority] would publicly thank the United States. ... Bush had only one demand: ‘It’s important to have someone who’s willing to stand up and thank the American people for their sacrifice in liberating Iraq.’ ’’

You can take the boy out of Kennebunkport, but you can’t take Kennebunkport out of the boy. The erstwhile black sheep is now as obsessed with manners as his dad. He’s furious that he got no thank-you note from the Iraqis for the big present of allowing them the opportunity to be like us. They refused our gift, after everything W. did for them — invading their country under the false pretense of protecting our country, shattering their shaky infrastructure, and starting a shame spiral that’s led to civil war.

His foreign policy has been more force majeure than the noblesse oblige of his father and grandfather. But now he has embraced noblesse, and puzzles over why the poor Iraqis do not feel more obliged after being blessed with America’s philosophical, economic and political riches. How on earth do these benighted folk not understand the difference between the good guys and the bad guys?

8135. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 8/19/2006 9:41:49 AM

Toys, Jexster!

8136. jexster - 8/19/2006 10:23:39 AM

Eyeglasses Wizzer!

8137. Max Macks - 8/19/2006 12:09:53 PM

I've assumed Israel would try or suceed
in getting some incident in Lebanon to look
like Hezbollah caused it.

They didnt even try that often used trick
but broke the cease fire argreement by
fire a missale at bridge and killing one soldier. It is reported in news today

8138. jexster - 8/19/2006 1:26:13 PM

They don't give a shit..they've got a blank check from the US taxpayer

8139. jexster - 8/19/2006 4:33:39 PM

CNN is showing video my boiz at United Torah Judaism and other radical right Jews doing meditative chants and Jewish ritual dances for the Fighting "Men" of the IDF ...putting Jewish stickers on artllery shells and missiles...

Hosea 8:1-3


One like a vulture* is over the house of the Lord,
because they have broken my covenant,
and transgressed my law.
Israel cries to me,
‘My God, we—Israel—know you!’
Israel has spurned the good;
the enemy shall pursue him.

8140. jexster - 8/19/2006 5:39:02 PM

Cry "Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war,
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.--

Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene I

8141. jexster - 8/19/2006 7:03:19 PM

[not doctored]

8142. jexster - 8/20/2006 3:25:00 AM

Cole On the Nature and Motives of Israeli Raid points out that the cover story, going after arms, is an obvious lie. It was a raiding party not an air attack. They were trying either to kidnap a Hizbullah honcho or had some prisoner intel.


Olmert's looking every bit the brisket flopping n a pool of Jewish pirnnas

8143. Max Macks - 8/20/2006 11:20:44 AM

Iran cartoon show mocks Holocaust

Tehran exhibition attacks West's 'double standards' over religious satire

Robert Tait in Tehran
Sunday August 20, 2006
The Observer


Ariel Sharon, the incapacitated former Israeli Prime Minister, is wearing an SS uniform. A man with Jewish side locks is depicted as a vampire drinking from a container marked 'Palestinian blood'. An Arab figure is impaled to the ground by the absurdly long nose of a man in a black hat characteristic of orthodox Jews and marked 'Holocaust'.
At their worst, the images conform to lurid western stereotypes of Iran as a hotbed of anti-Semitism, as evoked by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's dismissal of the Holocaust as a 'myth'.

They are among the results of a competition run by the country's biggest-selling newspaper, Hamshahri, to find the 'cleverest' cartoons satirising the slaughter of six million Jews by the Nazis in the Second World War.

More than 200 images have gone on public display in an exhibition at Tehran's Palestine Contemporary Art Museum. The exhibition's opening was attended by the de facto Palestinian ambassador to Iran, Salah al-Zawawi, who has full diplomatic status in Tehran.

Organisers say they received about 750 entries from around the world, including America and Britain, as well as many Muslim countries. The winning entrant will be announced next month and will receive a prize of US$12,000 (£6,380).

The contest, condemned by Israel

8144. jexster - 8/20/2006 1:23:46 PM

ClusterFuck of Catastrophe
Piles of Pissant Penance Proliferating on the Potomac

Ken "KillKillKill" Pollack of Brookings and a guy from Georgetown are the lastest if not the most dire in today's WaPo

SEE link in Lies Have Consequences - The Thread for the De-Select Anti-Semites Amungus...


Money quote lead and last paras

The debate is over: By any definition, Iraq is in a state of civil war. Indeed, the only thing standing between Iraq and a descent into total Bosnia-like devastation is 135,000 U.S. troops -- and even they are merely slowing the fall. The internecine conflict could easily spiral into one that threatens not only Iraq but also its neighbors throughout the oil-rich Persian Gulf region with instability, turmoil and war

Unfortunately, in the Middle East, one should never assume that the situation can't get worse. It always can -- and usually does....

8145. jexster - 8/20/2006 1:35:20 PM

8146. alistairconnor - 8/21/2006 3:20:34 AM

What would Saint Augustine say about cluster bombs?

The bombs are ejected from artillery shells in mid-flight, showering a wide area with explosions that can kill within 10 metres (33ft). But up to a quarter fail to explode, creating minefields that kill civilians once the war is over. A decades-old campaign to ban them has failed.

Israel turned to cluster bombs in the last week of the war, apparently frustrated at the failure of conventional weapons to rout Hizbullah fighters from their foxholes. Mine-clearance teams are finding evidence pointing to their provenance: the US, the world's largest cluster bomb manufacturer, which gave Israel $2.2bn (£1.2bn) in military aid last year.

In Nabatiye, 15 people were injured in just one day along a bomb-strewn road. In Tibnin, 210 bombs were found around the town hospital. "That's about as inappropriate [a use of cluster bombs] as you can get," Mr Clark said.

In Yahmour, a hilly frontline village that has become a complex urban minefield, minesweepers from the UK-based Mine Action Group have cleared the main roads and some house entrances. But danger lurks everywhere. One elderly woman lost her leg in an explosion last Monday as she swept her yard.

8147. Jenerator - 8/21/2006 4:40:40 AM

Jexster,

Why on earth are you upset that Hamas' al-Shaer is in custody!???!

8148. alistairconnor - 8/21/2006 4:50:32 AM

After all, it's just the age-old Middle Eastern custom of hostage-taking.

Any elected representative of Palestinians is sort-of by definition a member of a terrorist organisation, and therefore subject to arbitrary arrest by Israel, any time they feel like it. Who could possibly object to that?

8149. jexster - 8/21/2006 9:39:36 AM

Jen

Because he is an elected member of the Palestinian Authority.

You see Jen, you may have believed all that bullshit about the undemocratic and corrupt Fatah, Israel never has

8150. jexster - 8/21/2006 9:44:53 AM

AC

If I am upset about the midnight knock on the door, you must be fit to butcher a whale over the environmental disaster which the Zionist criminals visited upon the coast of the Levant!

Another tip of the hat to Jacques for cutting BushOlmert's balls off and letting them twist slowly in the win

Visualize castration.

8151. jexster - 8/21/2006 9:47:05 AM

Jen...


Are these the events that Hosea prophesied? Lookin like divine retribution YHWH sytle to me!

8152. jexster - 8/21/2006 9:51:47 AM

8153. jexster - 8/21/2006 10:18:48 AM

"The terrorist is the one with the small bomb"

Brendan Behan

8154. jexster - 8/21/2006 10:34:12 AM

They Hate Our Values



Jewish State Arrests 25% of Palestinian MP's

Israel's Failed State Strategy

Jen..U a HipHop Fan? If yes do I have a deal for you! A PAL Student activist and his buddies have come out with a Palestinian HipHop CD!!! 15 bucks...proceeds for the Cause

8155. Max Macks - 8/21/2006 7:37:28 PM

Israeli troops shoot Hezbollah militants
CNN - 5 hours ago - JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli troops shot two or three Hezbollah militants Monday in southern Lebanon, the Israel Defense ...
Mail & Guardian Online

Can those fuckers get away with these
taunting provacations , as an excuse to
bomb some more . unbelievable .

8156. jexster - 8/21/2006 8:22:31 PM

That's what the Jewish State wants Max.
Olmert's like a lean boilded corned beef in a tank of pirahnas. Chirac fuckt BushIsrael but good. There will be no "robust" UNIFIL; Nasrallah's consolidating his gains in public support; replenishing his arms, and burnishing his image as Defender of Lebanon.


Meanwhile back in the Jewish Ghetto aka Israel

Ari Shavit "Ha'aretz":

"Chutzpah has its limits. You cannot lead an entire nation to war promising victory, produce humiliating defeats, and remain in power. You cannot bury 120 Israelis in cemeteries, keep a million Israelis in shelters for a month, wear down deterrent power, bring the next war very close, and then say, oops, I made a mistake."

8157. jexster - 8/21/2006 8:29:20 PM

Rogue Terrorist State

Israel Will Not Allow Unaccompanied Lebanese Troops Near Border

8158. jexster - 8/21/2006 8:52:36 PM

Rock the Casbah
Arabs claim victory

For America, the question is whether Washington will continue to demand that we go down with the Israeli ship.
William S. Lind




Al-Jazeera

Now the king told the boogie men
You have to let that raga drop
The oil down the desert way
Has been shakin' to the top
They shake it for his Cadillac
He went a' cruisin' down the ville
The muezzin was a' standing
On the radiator grille

CHORUS
The shareef don't like it
Rockin' the Casbah
Rock the Casbah
The shareef dont like it
Rockin' the Casbah
Rock the Casbah

By order of the prophet
We ban that boogie sound
Degenerate the faithful
With that crazy Casbah sound
But the Bedouin they brought out
The electric kettle drum
The local guitar picker
Got his guitar picking thumb
As soon as the sherif
Had cleared the square
They began to wail

CHORUS

Now over at the temple
Oh! They really pack 'em in
The in crowd say it's cool
To dig this chanting thing
But as the wind changed direction
The temple band took five
The crowd caught a wiff
Of that crazy Casbah jive

CHORUS

The king called up his jet fighters
He said you better earn your pay
Drop your bombs between the minarets
Down the Casbah way

As soon as Sharif was
Chauffeured outta there
The jet pilots tuned to
The cockpit radio blare

As soon as Shareef was
Outta their hair
The jet pilots wailed

CHORUS

He thinks it's not kosher
Fundamentally he can't take it.
You know he really hates it.

8159. Max Macks - 8/22/2006 10:12:46 AM

I have just read the New yorker article by Seymour
Hersh on US policy linked with Israel.

So far the Jewish population, outside of New york
Is still not 20% of total US population

since when has the foreign policy of the US been
dictated by Israel ? Have you any idea , Jex ?

8160. jexster - 8/22/2006 11:34:14 AM

Jews Jewing Jews

Confusion Deepens in EU Over UN Lebanon Force

Happy as a pig in kreplach

For America, the question is whether Washington will continue to demand that we go down with the Israeli ship.

William S. Lind

8161. jexster - 8/22/2006 3:58:00 PM

Max [pdf]the Israel Lobby hijack of US foreign policy began with the Yom Kippur War and was completed during the Raygun administration.

It is sustained by the Big Guilt Scam the Infernal Whine of the Eternal Victims a veritable

Jewish Holocaust Industry
Norman Finklestein

Which is why I don't give a shit when the Zionists trot out their PC bilge and Existential angst

8162. alistairconnor - 8/23/2006 5:47:30 AM

Oh how the mighty have fallen... (snippet at end of article)

Israel has freed and sent back to Lebanon five people who were captured during a helicopter commando raid on Baalbeck in Lebanon. The Israeli military said it believed the five were Hizbullah members. But it now appears that one was a local grocer who shared the name of Hizbullah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, although he is unrelated.

Entebbe it ain't.

8163. jexster - 8/23/2006 6:07:23 AM

How the mighty have fallen and not just off the high ground overlooking Bint Jbeil either...

I'm a seguein fool


Israel's 'Moral High Ground'
It keeps getting lower…

Israel cries to me,
‘My God, we—Israel—know you!’
Israel has spurned the good;
the enemy shall pursue him.
For they sow the wind,
and they shall reap the whirlwind.
The standing grain has no heads,
it shall yield no meal;
if it were to yield,
foreigners would devour it.
Israel is swallowed up;
now they are among the nations
as a useless vessel.
For they have gone up to Assyria,
a wild ass wandering alone

8164. jexster - 8/23/2006 6:24:42 AM

One of my favorites in the once again ascendent "realist" school Kissinge-Brzezinski-Scowcroft is Andrew Bacevich.

Slam-Dunk Wars Don't Equal Wins
Middle East shows that victory that defeats the enemy but leaves issues intact is hollow.


ANDREW J. BACEVICH is professor of history and international relations at Boston University.

8165. concerned - 8/23/2006 7:30:54 AM

Alistair -

You must be tremendously embarrassed by France's farcical behavior wrt the UN 'peacekeeping' initiative in Lebanon. As a member of the UN Security Council, France has done more to damage the UN's credibility than the US ever could have by agitating to organize the Lebanon peacekeeping effort and then contributing a laughable 200 troops, an commitment that might be expected from a third world backwater like Gambia, not a nation with pretensions of global influence.

Btw, I understand France is considering changing its national flag to one having a broad yellow vertical stripe on a solid white background.

8166. alistairconnor - 8/23/2006 7:52:03 AM

Prodi has seized the opportunity for Italy's return to the global stage, after the ignominy of the Berlusconi years. He has effectively upstaged France, whose announcement of a token contribution was designed to ensure that rules of engagement were firmly defined in advance.

The spectres that haunt European troops in this sort of setup are numerous. They include :
* getting truck-bombed, as the French were in the 80s in Lebanon
* standing by helplessly (the Dutch in Bosnia) or being withdrawn (French in Rwanda) while terrible massacres are carried out
* getting shelled by Israelis (Lebanon, last month)

If you don't have clearly-defined rules before you go in, you will never get them, and really bad stuff lies ahead.

France does not want to engage its credibility in a foolhardy enterprise where its troops would be stooges or hostages of one or another party.

8167. Max Macks - 8/23/2006 10:07:34 AM

Here is a breath of fresh air

Amnesty report accuses Israel of war crimes

David Fickling
Wednesday August 23, 2006
Guardian Unlimited


The aftermath of an Israeli air strike on southern Beirut. Photograph: Mohamed Messara/EPA

Israel deliberately targeted civilian infrastructure and committed war crimes during the month-long conflict in Lebanon, according to an Amnesty International report.
The report said strikes on civilian buildings and structures went beyond "collateral damage" and amounted to indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks under the Geneva conventions on the laws of war.

Kate Gilmore, the Amnesty executive deputy secretary general, said the bombardment of power and water plants and transport links was "deliberate and an integral part of a military strategy".

"Israel's assertion that the attacks on the infrastructure were lawful is manifestly wrong," she said.

"Many of the violations identified in our report are war crimes. The pattern, scope and scale of the attacks makes Israel's claim that this was collateral damage simply not credible."

Amnesty called for an official UN inquiry into human rights violations on bot

8168. jexster - 8/23/2006 10:11:21 AM

Jim Clancy, CNN, has report on today featuring 5 year old Mehdi.

Anxious to show of his English and tour guide skills he took Clancy on a heart breaking tour of his neighborhood and what used to he his hoome even his room

Until Mom got a little weary of Mehdi's antics (kinda dangerous)

Really bitter sweet piece

8169. jexster - 8/23/2006 10:12:19 AM

Concerned embarrassed AC?!?!??!


I am embarrassed that Chirac took Bush's pants down in public

Aren't you?

8170. jexster - 8/23/2006 10:17:01 AM

That Euro excuse is all BS AC

They sandbagged OlmertCondiBushIsrael with that maneuver. They knew that Israel wanted out. They knew that the Arabs would explode with their first version of the UNSC resolution. They knew that Israel had lost and wanted out in the worst way. They knew that The situation would be too unstable for a force but they wanted Israel out of Lebanon.

Oh yeah I forgot..they knew they had idiot by the short and curlies.

It was all as I said back during the G-8 conference - a circle jerk with Condoleeza as the centerstage star.

8171. jexster - 8/23/2006 11:02:15 AM

The thing you need to understand about TD is that he is a Total Fucking Moron. TFM's are typically too stupid to feel pain, too dumb to know when they've been fuckt up the ass.

In an article on Iran Sanctions in the NyT, Trita Parsi (great appearance on NewsHour last night) explained what I believe to have been the dynamic underlying the treachery that the Euros have intended all along...

Now, “Lebanon has proven that there’s no military solution to the problem in the Middle East,” said Trita Parsi, the Iranian-born author of “Treacherous Triangle: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran and the United States,” which Yale University Press plans to publish next year.

While there is no talk among the world powers right now about hitting Iran militarily, European diplomats in particular said they worried about a downward spiral if the sanctions did not work. “They’ve been dragged into three wars over there by the U.S.,” Mr. Parsi said, referring to Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon. “They don’t want a fourth.”

8172. PelleNilsson - 8/23/2006 12:06:14 PM

Don't worry folks. We Europeans will take care of this little kerfuffle. Just sit back and enjoy your jerk.

8173. concerned - 8/23/2006 12:21:24 PM

Pelle - another 'uncalled for ad hominem' you missed.

The thing you need to understand about TD is that he is a Total Fucking Moron. TFM's are typically too stupid to feel pain, too dumb to know when they've been fuckt up the ass.

The working hypothesis is that you believe that Left Wingers need to have allowances made for their poor behavior, unlike others who can control such behavior.

8174. jexster - 8/23/2006 12:41:02 PM

Pelle we hope you do!

Somebody's gotta clean up Little Georgie's mess
It's your sphere of influence anyway

8175. jexster - 8/23/2006 12:44:38 PM

The TFM again....3 nice little wars...a LooserPalooza, clusterfuck of catastrophe and it is all yours Europe!

Gen Barry McCaffery well known left winger - "I don't think Bush administration realizes what a mess they're in"


Total Fucking Moron

8176. jexster - 8/23/2006 1:06:51 PM

I leave the Clusterfuck to Pelle and AC...we're in better hands!
(not saying much is it???)



Saab "Grippen"


Leclerc Main Battle Tank

The 'War President's' Latest Fiasco

by Eric Margolis

To date, the "war president" was asleep on guard duty on 9/11, involved the US in four lost wars, and has stirred up a hornet’s nest of anti-American hatred around the globe.


Defeat I: Afghanistan

Defeat II: Remember "Mission accomplished!"? President Bush’s war in Iraq is clearly lost, but few

Defeat III: Off in the strategic Horn of Africa, another dangerous fiasco is unfolding....Somalia.

Defeat IV: Lebanon is, of course, the fourth major American military disaster.

8177. jexster - 8/23/2006 1:32:31 PM

Kerfuffle of Katastrophe
The Levant

(from Bill Lind's "Beat!")

Unfortunately for states generally, Israel appears to have no good options when hostilities recommence. It can continue to grind forward on the ground in southern Lebanon, paying bitterly for each foot of ground, and perhaps eventually denying Hezbollah some of its rocket-launching sites. But it cannot hold what it takes. It may strive for a more robust U.N. force, but what country wants to fight Hezbollah? Any occupier of southern Lebanon that is not there with Hezbollah’s permission will face the same guerrilla war Israel already fought and lost. Most probably, Israel will escalate by taking the war to Syria or Iran, and what will be a strategy of desperation. That too will fail, after it plunges the whole region into a war the outcome of which will be catastrophic for the United States as well as for Israel.

Before that disastrous denouement, my Fourth Generation crystal ball suggests the following events are likely:



• Again, a near-term resumption of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, with Israel succeeding no better than it has to date. In the past, the IDF has been brilliant at pulling rabbits out of hats, but this time someone else seems to occupy all the rabbit holes.
  
  
• A fracturing of Lebanon, with a collapse of the weak Lebanese state and very possibly a return to civil war there (which was always the probable result of Syria’s departure).
  
  
• A rise of Syrian and Iranian influence generally, matched by a fall of American influence. If Israel and America were clever, Syria’s comeback could offer a diplomatic opportunity of a deal in which Syria changed sides in return for a peace treaty with Israel that included the return of all lands. The crystal ball says that opportunity will be spurned.
  
  
• A vast strengthening of Islamic 4GW elements everywhere.
  
  
• Finally and perhaps most discouragingly, a continued inability of state militaries everywhere, including those of Israel and the United States, to come to grips with Fourth Generation War. Inability may be too kind of a word; refusal is perhaps more accurate.
  
  

8178. concerned - 8/23/2006 3:30:31 PM

Re. 8176 -

According to jexster's demented excuse for 'reasoning', the US has lost WWII because there's still skinheads in Germany and Nazis in the USA.

8179. jexster - 8/23/2006 5:57:12 PM

No that's according to YOUR demented history

8180. jexster - 8/23/2006 5:58:37 PM

By your demented reasoning we can leave Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and leave poor Lebanon alone.

Reasoning is one thing

Facts another

Get it?

8181. jexster - 8/23/2006 6:00:18 PM

Total fucking moron - a conclusion based on fact and reasoning


Here's a fact -- the Good Ole USA (with a little help from Stalin!) whupped the Nazis in less time than we've already been mired in Bush Defeat II

8182. jexster - 8/23/2006 6:01:57 PM

8183. jexster - 8/23/2006 6:08:35 PM

William Lind, America's foremost expert on Fourth Generation Warfare, axes...

but what country wants to fight Hezbollah?

8184. jexster - 8/23/2006 6:16:07 PM

Liberte! Liberte Cherie!

8185. jexster - 8/23/2006 6:43:55 PM

Don't let TD get you down with his TFM white-stripe, freedom fries buffoonery AC.

I'll put some Made-in-EUA martial iron in your spine and with French brains and American spine, y'all will do jess fine



Dassault Super Entendard on Flight Deck
Charles De Gaulle

8186. jexster - 8/24/2006 9:10:27 AM

Time for Israel to Change Its Tune
The Forward

Time for America to stop paying for the same old song

8187. jexster - 8/24/2006 9:16:06 AM

Organ Grinder to Monkey....

Even the Forward gets it...

As it happens, every one of the target nations has sent urgent signals to Israel in recent weeks, making it clear that they want to do business. Israelis must now ask themselves what price they would have to pay to join the game, and what role they need their American ally to play to make it work.

8188. alistairconnor - 8/24/2006 9:34:17 AM

Good article. I've been wondering about a peace scenario. The Saudi deal. Withdrawal from the settlements, recognition of Israel by the entire Arab League. Sounds fair to me.

Not sure Olmert cuts it as a statesman. But who knows?

8189. jexster - 8/24/2006 10:24:50 AM

Poor Me the Israelite:
Boiled Brisket in the Piranha Tank

As Nasrallah consolidates his victory in Lebanon and the Arab Street, the Isralites rip each others eyes out....

Shin Bet Chief Blasts Government "Systems Collapse"

The Myth of the Invicibe IDF - RIP

8190. jexster - 8/24/2006 10:27:29 AM

8191. alistairConnor - 8/24/2006 2:07:01 PM

Le Petit Jacques has announced two battalions : 2000 French soldiers for Lebanon.

Claims to have obtained the necessary clarifications on the rules of engagement. And offers to continue French command of the force...

... upstaging Prodi?

8192. jexster - 8/24/2006 3:31:22 PM

Formez vos bataillions!!

You just can't give the man his due can you? Looks the Itis and frogs in another battle to colonize the Levamt

8193. jexster - 8/24/2006 3:39:52 PM

What I wanna know is - Will Le Grand Jacques help poor Fouad Siniora run the Jew Canoe blockade?


Sa'ar 5 Class
Jew Canoe


Dolphin Class
Attack Submarine

8194. jexster - 8/24/2006 4:16:59 PM

LoserPalooza: The Defeats of George. W. Bush


A Weaker Hand in the ME for the US [CSM]

The French plan all along TD...

BASTARDS!

8195. jexster - 8/24/2006 8:16:46 PM

Saving Israel from Itself
Harper's Jan 2005

8196. concerned - 8/24/2006 9:57:45 PM

Re. 8194 -

From jexster's excerpt:

Hizbullah is likely to see its newfound popularity fall as the physical and financial consequences of its actions sink in, he adds - and especially if unmet international demands, such as the disarming of Hizbullah, threaten another war.

IOW, jexster's Hizbullshit has a short half life.

8197. concerned - 8/24/2006 10:00:03 PM

Jexster and his antisemitism is a man out of his time and place. He belongs, as so many Lefties do, in Hitler's Germany.

8198. jexster - 8/25/2006 7:37:01 AM

8199. jexster - 8/25/2006 7:39:12 AM

8196-

So we have another failed state in the Middle East. That's "victory"??

No. Thats a clusetfuck of catastrophe

8200. jexster - 8/25/2006 7:42:57 AM

Hezbollah's War Wins Support Among Arab Pro-Democracy Reformers

8201. jexster - 8/25/2006 7:48:06 AM

War Crimes of the Zionist Terror State

Inquiry Opened Into Israeli Use of U.S. Bombs
NyT


WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 — The State Department is investigating whether Israel’s use of American-made cluster bombs in southern Lebanon violated secret agreements with the United States that restrict when it can employ such weapons, two officials said.

The investigation by the department’s Office of Defense Trade Controls began this week, after reports that three types of American cluster munitions, anti-personnel weapons that spray bomblets over a wide area, have been found in many areas of southern Lebanon and were responsible for civilian casualties.


The Israel Lobby will see that this goes nowhere fast.

8202. jexster - 8/25/2006 8:52:00 AM

Cluster Bomb Victim

8203. jexster - 8/25/2006 9:01:04 AM

No wonder 63% of the Jews want Olmert outta there..

Some victory.

Syria seems to have maneuvered well in the post war wrangle over Lebanon. Lebanon's PM Siniora says foreign peace keeping troops will not police the border with Syria. Chirac seems to have gotten guarantees from Israel that it will stop bombing Lebanon. He also says that on 6,000 and not 15,000 foreign troops are needed to police Lebanon. With no policing of the Syrian border and fewer foreign troops in Lebanon, Syria has diminished the likelihood that it will be challenged by Washington in the UN or Israel in the air.


Bashar and Siniora Both Come Out Winners in the Post War Diplomacy

8204. Max Macks - 8/25/2006 5:03:30 PM

Why should Hesbollah disarm and not Israel..

and I have been watching the news re. the UN
sending in peacekeeping force .
but nothing about whether Israel will be withdrawing
from Lebanon.

Only Americans seem to have the wool pulled over
their eyes regarding the real terrorist in the
Middle East.

8205. jexster - 8/25/2006 6:51:56 PM

8204 - Hizbullah's a threat to the nation-state system. But you do have a pernt Max. While kvetching about Hiz, Israel cut a deal w/ Germany(!) for two more nuclear capable submarines ...The guilt-ridden Deutchen are picking up 1/3 of the tab.

They got jewed

8206. jexster - 8/25/2006 7:34:55 PM

Clusterfuck of Catastrophe
Euros Fear the Big Bad Bush

From tonight's newshour...Phillip Gordon Sr Analyst for Euro Affairs at Brookings and Richard Norton, Boston U

European approach to Mideast

MARGARET WARNER: I'd like to ask you both finally to sum up on this other point. And I'll start with you, Professor Norton.

Today, the Italian foreign minister was in Israel, and he made some comments about how America's aggressive approach in the Middle East was really misguided, and seemed to be suggesting that the Europeans would offer a different way. And he said this. He said, "Success would be the active presence of international and European diplomacy in the region, a presence that has been missing for many years."

I'm wondering if you think part of the Europeans' willingness to step up to this does have to do with a certain desire to either show up the United States or offer an alternative to the United States in that part of the world.

AUGUSTUS RICHARD NORTON: Well, unfortunately, the U.S. has showed a proclivity in some places, like Iraq, to it seems make more enemies than it actually deals with initially. So I share the concern that was expressed by the Italian prime minister.

I think the Italians and other Europeans have a legitimate interest here in ensuring that Lebanon and the broader Middle East does not become more unstable and therefore a source of even more refugees and even more extremism and violence.

And let's remember that each of these European countries, Italy, France, for example, have significant Muslim populations, so they're also concerned about these Muslim populations and how they see the role of their government in the Middle East. So I think the position of Mr. Prodi is very, very lucid and, for the most part, very justified.

MARGARET WARNER: Quick final word for you?

PHILIP GORDON: Very briefly, absolutely it's about Europe stepping up to the plate, but I don't think that's a bad thing

8207. jexster - 8/25/2006 7:57:01 PM

Private Payback: Joker ain't never been in the shit. He thinks "The Bad Bush" is between old mama-san's legs.

8208. jexster - 8/26/2006 6:57:11 PM

Who's to Blame?
Israel on the Slide
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN

In the aftermath of the Lebanon disaster you can open up the Israeli press, particularly the Hebrew language editions, and find fierce assaults on the country's elites from left, right and center.

The overall panorama is one of chickens of all ages coming home to roost. Small pustules highlight larger rot.

...
Disfigured by its "special relationship" with the US arms industry, of which the US Congress is an integral component, the IDF has been morally corrupted by years of risk-free brutalization of unarmed Palestinians, many of them children. It's one thing to level an apartment building with a missile from a plane or crush a protester with a bulldozer or lob shells at a Palestinian family having a picnic on a beach or kidnap middle-aged and democratically elected Palestinian politicians. It's another confront a foe, with modest but effectively deployed weaponry, prepared to fight back.

Years of racism have taken their toll too. Think of Arabs as subhuman "terrorists" and you end up making a lot of misjudgments, tactical and strategic.

...."

As corrupted as the Israeli military who shove them around, Israeli politicians have grown accustomed to thinking that any outrage on morality and reason will get a lusty cheer from the US political establishment, press and entertainment industry.

They're right....

8209. jexster - 8/27/2006 10:02:09 AM

Only a matter of time TD...

Fox Reporters Freed in Gaza After They 'Convert to Islam'

8210. jexster - 8/27/2006 6:33:54 PM

8211. jexster - 8/27/2006 6:48:08 PM

"Every Generation of Arabs Hates Israel More Than the Last"
America's Rottweiler
By URI AVNERY

8212. jexster - 8/27/2006 9:47:29 PM

IDF Returns to Strong Suit



Israeli Army Kills Palestinian Boy, Wounds Five Throwing Stones

8213. jexster - 8/27/2006 9:50:42 PM

And Israel Lobby pawn, Rep[. Tom Lantos, who - to my great shame - represents the distict adjacent to mine, announced that he was introducing "bi-partisan" legislation to give the Jewish Entity an additional $2 Billion to pay for its depraadations in the Levant while, at the same time, denying any funds to Lebanon

8214. alistairconnor - 8/28/2006 6:21:21 AM

Hizbullah last night admitted it would not have captured the two Israeli soldiers last month had it known a war would follow.


Alright, Hassan has said he's sorry. Now it's your turn Ehud.Then you can shake hands and do what you should have done in the first place...




The leader of the militia said that talks were going on to return the two in exchange for Lebanese prisoners held by Israel. The Israeli government refused to confirm this, although officials have said privately that a prisoner exchange was probably the only way forward.

8215. jexster - 8/28/2006 9:45:13 AM

I believe in reparations....Clemenceau style

8216. jexster - 8/28/2006 9:51:51 AM

The Islamic Way of War


Muslims have stopped fighting on Western terms—and have started winning.

by Andrew J. Bacevich

8217. jexster - 8/28/2006 10:32:33 AM

Bacevich wrote an OpEd for the LA TImes earlier this summer entitled "What is an Iraqi Life Worth?"


Few Troops Tried in Deaths of Iraqi Civilians


Though experts estimate thousands have died at the hands of U.S. forces, only 39 service members have been formally accused, Post review finds.

8218. jexster - 8/28/2006 7:23:19 PM

Israeli Minister: Arab Towns Shouldn't Get Aid

Jewed

8219. jexster - 8/28/2006 7:40:39 PM

Margaret Warner is reporting from Iran (NewsHour) with a very tasteful scarf covering...


Call to Prayer(Salat)

8220. jexster - 8/28/2006 7:47:01 PM

1 Allah u Akbar, Allah u Akbar
-- Allah is Great, Allah is Great

2-Ash-hadu al-la Ilaha ill Allah - Ash-hadu al-la Ilaha ill Allah
-- I bear witness that there is no divinty but Allah

3 Ash-hadu anna Muhammadan Rasulullaah
-- I bear witness that Muhammad is Allah's Messenger

Ash-hadu anna Muhammadan Rasulullaah.
-- I bear witness that Muhammad is Allah's Messenger

4 Hayya la-s-saleah - Hayya la-s-saleah
-- Hasten to the prayer, Hasten to the prayer

5 Hayya la-l-faleah - Hayya la-l-faleah
-- Hasten to real success, Hasten to real success,

6 Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar
-- Allah is Great, Allah is Great

7 La Ilaha ill Allah
-- There is no divinity but Allah

________________________________
Adhan is now completed.

8221. jexster - 8/28/2006 8:14:39 PM

Israel It's Time to Change the Tune
The Forward

8222. jexster - 8/28/2006 9:13:38 PM

Yesterday was Galid Shalit's 20th birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GILAD!




Your country doesn't give a flying fuck about you

8223. jexster - 8/29/2006 7:39:09 AM

When will Bush get serious about terrorisses?

Endlösung der Kurdenfrage


As I have long advocated, it is high time for a Final Solution to Bush's Kurdish Problem

Cole:

Meanwhile, bombings rocked Turkey on Monday. A radical Kurdish group claimed credit, indicating it was trying to sabotage one of Turkey's major industry's, tourism.

The bombings are encouraging Turkey to step up its shelling of northern Iraq, where US-backed Kurdish politicians are harboring the terrorist PKK or Kurdish Workers' Party.

Bombings stretched from Istanbul to southern Iraq on Monday, in a new arc of crisis. This isn't going very well

8224. wonkers2 - 9/1/2006 3:17:11 PM

Grim Pentagon Report on Iraq

8225. jexster - 9/1/2006 10:01:20 PM

Not as grim as it should be...The Turk is passing bricks about now

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq - Kurdistan president Massoud Barzani has ordered the Iraqi national flag to be replaced with the Kurdish one in his northern autonomous region in what appeared to be another move toward more self-rule in the north, local officials said Friday.

8226. jexster - 9/1/2006 10:31:56 PM

Criticize Israel? You're an Anti-Semite!

How can we have a real discussion about Mideast peace if speaking honestly about Israel is out of bounds?

8227. wonkers2 - 9/2/2006 6:15:32 AM

Good piece. Several people are pointing out that the ADL and other Jewish organizations and individuals are too quick on the anti-Semitism trigger.

8228. jexster - 9/3/2006 10:47:44 AM

Die Juden Sind Unser Unglück


Israel plans for war with Iran and Syria
(Times UK)




THREATENED by a potentially nuclear-armed Tehran, Israel is preparing for a possible war with both Iran and Syria, according to Israeli political and military sources.

8229. jexster - 9/3/2006 10:55:11 AM

Dianne Feinstein wrote that Israel is an "critical source of stability in the Middle East".

I have contended ad nauseum that Israel, with powerful support from the Bush Pentagon, deliberately pursues a failed state strategy in the region.

Advocates of political engagement believe a war with Syria could unleash Islamic fundamentalist terror in what has hitherto been a stable dictatorship. Some voices in the Pentagon are not impressed by that argument.

“If Syria spirals into chaos, at least they’ll be taking on each other rather than heading for Jerusalem,” said one insider.

8230. jexster - 9/3/2006 2:05:23 PM

A Round of Schaedenfreude Schnapps for the House!

In case anyone has forgotten, within a few days of Israel going postal in the Levant, I foresaw the result - the demise of two myths World Jewry desperately needs the West to believe.... 1. Plucky little Israel with its 2. invincible IDF

Oy veh such a mensch, nay such an Ubermensch





Israel's navy (and other branches) in the war


Israel's hasbaristas (propagandists and apologists) have been out in force the past couple of weeks, here and elsewhere, desperately trying to shore up the confidence of Israelis and their friends around the world that the country's military services have not fallen into operational disarray. Yossi Melman, a purported journalist, has been one of the most active-- and far-fetched-- of these spinmeisters. (...

But the performance of the IDF's once-vaunted ground forces during the war was truly pathetic... And the navy got a nasty jolt in the war's early days, too, when a Hizbullah C-802 missile hit its flagship, the INS Hanit, killing four crew members, essentially disabling the ship, and sending it limping back to port...

By chance, today my colleague and friend Nick Blanford, an experienced reporter for the CSM and other media who stayed in Lebanon during the war, penned this, which I share here with his permission:

Despite US intelligence officers' assertions that it was Hizbullah's Iranian-assisted jamming prowess that enabled the Israeli flagship INS Hanit to be struck and disabled, there have been several articles in the Israeli media blaming the ship's crew for failing to switch on their defensive systems. The latest was by Zeev Schiff of Haaretz who wrote in yesterday's edition, "Even though the destroyer (Jew Canoe ))
entered a war zone and cruised along the Lebanese shores, the crew forgot to turn on the automatic operation system of the Barak [anti-missile system]. The result was that no effort was made to intercept the Iranian-Chinese missile, and unobstructed it struck its target."

8231. jexster - 9/4/2006 11:18:36 AM

Poll: Israelis believed Nasrallah over Peretz

Polls conducted by Dr. Udi Lebel, political psychology lecturer, found sad picture of Israeli PR

8232. jexster - 9/5/2006 10:44:07 AM

Another fatal day in the 'war on terror'


Patrick Cockburn, the award-winning journalist and author, has reported extensively from Iraq, Afghanistan and Jordan. Here, he explains how the 'war on terror' has fuelled resentment of the West and brought new levels of death and destruction

8233. jexster - 9/9/2006 1:56:32 PM

Securing the Zionist Realm
George W. Bush - Puppet of the Jewish Entity

[Lost Wars of GWB
link in Lies]

"As the slaughter [in Iraq] continues," according to an essay this week by Alon Ben-Meir, an Israeli international relations professor at New York University, "the Arab and Muslim world are increasingly enraged over the plight of the Iraqi people, with hatred toward the United States reaching new heights."

Adding to that fury, of course, was last month's war between Israel and Hezbollah, depicted in a speech this week by Bush as a proxy battle between the United States and Iran and an integral part of his "war on terrorism."

It succeeded not only in inflaming anti-U.S. opinion throughout the Islamic world, including, significantly, the Shi'ite majority in Iraq, according to most regional experts here, but also in weakening the Sunni-dominated governments – notably Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan – that, as before 9/11, remain Washington's only allies in the region.

While devastating Lebanon, whose 2005 "Cedar Revolution" had been hailed by Bush as a landmark in his efforts to "transform" the Middle East, the war effectively elevated Hezbollah to hero status – including, significantly, for the region's increasingly popular Sunni Muslim Brotherhood. It also bolstered the positions of its chief sponsors, Syria and Iran, which, along with Hamas and Hezbollah, Bush recently lumped together with al-Qaeda as "Islamic fascists."

To many critics, Bush's expansion of his terrorist target list beyond al-Qaeda, and particularly to Iraq and perceived enemies of Israel, has been one of the great strategic mistakes in the conduct of his war on terror by effectively transforming what was originally a terrorist criminal conspiracy led by al-Qaeda with the tacit support of the Taliban to a "wide war extending from Lebanon through Afghanistan," as Amb. James Dobbins, Washington's top envoy in negotiations during and after the Afghanistan war, recently put it.

"In a search for moral clarity, the administration has tried to divide the Middle East into good guys and bad guys," he told an audience at the New America Foundation (NAF) late last month. "America tends to treat Middle East diplomacy as a win/lose or zero-sum game in which Syrian, Iranian, Hezbollah or Hamas gains are by definition American losses and vice-versa."

"The result, of course, is the United States always loses, because if you insist that the population of the region choose between Syria, Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas, on the one hand, or the United States and Israel, on the other, they are going to choose the other side every time," said Dobbins, who currently directs international security programs at the RAND Corporation.

8234. jexster - 9/13/2006 1:17:59 PM

The Coming Collapse of Zionism

8235. jexster - 9/16/2006 5:01:23 PM

Another War of Neo-Con Spun BushShit:
Ronksi Drank the Kool-Aid Once Again


In an interview in the Ha'aretz newspaper, Gen Ya'alon rounded on the government for launching a costly ground invasion of Lebanon in the final days of the conflict. "It had no substantive security-political goal, only a spin goal," he said. "It was meant to supply the missing victory picture. You don't do that." Thirty-three soldiers were killed in the ground operation alone. Public pressure has mounted over shortcomings in the military action, not least the failure to score a comprehensive victory over Hizbullah or to retrieve the two soldiers whose capture on July 12 triggered the 34-day conflict.

The general said the current chief of staff, Lieutenant General Dan Halutz, should have quit immediately after the war, and was only slightly less tough on the defence minister, Amir Peretz, saying he should be replaced because he lacked military experience.

Yet he reserved his strongest criticism for the prime minister, Ehud Olmert. "Going to war was scandalous, and he is directly responsible for that. The war's management was a failure and he is responsible for that," Gen Ya'alon said. "He was warned and did not heed the warnings. Therefore he must resign."...

Yet he reserved his strongest criticism for the prime minister, Ehud Olmert. "Going to war was scandalous, and he is directly responsible for that. The war's management was a failure and he is responsible for that," Gen Ya'alon said. "He was warned and did not heed the warnings. Therefore he must resign."



Pressure Mounts on Old Merde to Resign

8236. jexster - 9/16/2006 5:05:59 PM

8237. jexster - 9/18/2006 8:09:40 AM

The Milk Carton Kids of Israel

IDF Knew Hezbollah Was About to Nab Troops
Ha'aretz

8238. wonkers2 - 9/18/2006 8:26:09 AM

Here's a good article on the destabilizing effects in the Middle East of radical Islamism. Islamists' Rise Imperils Mideast's Order

8239. jexster - 9/18/2006 5:38:58 PM

Only de-stabilizing to the established order. This is Bush's Revolution in action!

The Brothers Welcome Their Liberator...

8240. jexster - 9/18/2006 5:41:42 PM

Hezbollah cracked the code
Technology likely supplied by Iran allowed guerrillas to stop Israeli tank assaults


Newsday has a large collection of doctored photos here.

8241. jexster - 9/18/2006 5:45:21 PM

The Israelis mostly rely on a U.S.-designed communication system called the Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System

hehehe

8242. jexster - 9/20/2006 2:19:52 AM

Asham Was a Tootin Turk...

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said that the Middle East could not bear the problems that would ensue from a break-up of Iraq. He said that if the country did move further toward a breakdown in security, Turkey would protect the Iraqi Kurds.

I can't figure out whether that is an overture or a threat. [Cole]

8243. alistairconnor - 9/20/2006 3:31:51 AM

Somewhere in between.

The Turks have always made it clear that they won't accept an independent Kurdish state. But the emerging fait accompli means they have to find a way to live with it.

Given the likelihood of a complete US withdrawal from Iraq, including Kurdistan (after the next presidential election), the Iraqi Kurds may have no choice but to accept some sort of Turkish "protectorate".

8244. jexster - 9/20/2006 9:15:25 AM

I am sure the Kurds will welcome their protection. The Turk's boots on the ground stomping on their vile necks!

8245. jexster - 9/20/2006 9:19:42 AM

Bush v. Ahmadinejad
Egypt's Jamal Mubarak Rejects "New Middle East"
Announces Nuclear Quest
{Cole)

The speeches given at the UN by US President George W. Bush and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were mirror images of one another.

Bush accused Iran of seeking nuclear weapons and of supporting terrorism.

Ahmadinejad said that his own country's nuclear research program is purely civilian and that Iran is not seeking a bomb and remains committed to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. But he said that the real threat anyway was from countries that already possessed nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, and who insisted on continually increasing their stockpiles of these weapons and their sophistication. What, he asked, do they intend to do with these ever expanding arsenals? Why do they need them?

Bush said that the problem in the Middle East is authoritarian government, which breeds despair and terrorism.

Ahmadinejad said that the problem in the Middle East is the meddling in its affairs of a neo-imperialist power, which worked by dividing and ruling.

Bush said that Afghanistan and Iraq were great success stories and beacons of democracy.

Ahmadinejad said that Iraq is a mess and that he suspects that the US is deliberately keeping it that way so as to have a pretext to stay and dominate it. He said that Iraqi forces turned captured terrorists over to the US, but that the US often just released them after a few months.

Bush said Saudi Arabia's municipal elections were a step toward democracy. (Only half of the municipal councils are elected, the other half are appointed by the monarchy, as are the mayors).

Iran, for all the substantial faults of its electoral system, is far more democratic than Saudi Arabia.

Bush said that the Lebanon war came out of an unprovoked attack on Israel by Hizbullah.

Ahmadinejad said an aggressive Israel was a constant source of instability in the region.

But it is clear which speech resonated best in the Middle East itself, where Bush is extremely unpopular and deeply distrusted. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Jamal Mubarak of Egypt paid a very sincere compliment to Ahmadinejad Tuesday.

While Bush and Ahmadinejad were wrangling, Egypt's Jamal Mubarak unexpectedly entered the arena. He is the son and likely successor of President Hosni Mubarak.

Bush did not mention Egypt in his speech, but it is a soft military dictatorship in which the liveliest challenger to the government is the Muslim Brotherhood, which has authoritarian Islamist tendencies. Egypt is a close US military ally and receives $2 bn a year in US aid.

Jamal Mubarak announced that Egypt is trying to fill its energy gap with nuclear power plants. It was the first public admission that Egypt has a civilian nuclear powere research program. He said that the question of energy is pivotal to his country's economic development. (Egypt has had a small and desultory nuclear energy research program for many years, and has been criticized by the IAEA for trying to hide it.)

He rejected the "Greater Middle East" plan for Iraq of the Bush administration, which Washington says involves democratization but which many Middle Easterners view as a pretext for US dominance of the region. Jamal Mubarak said, "We do not accept initiatives that come to us every day from outside."

For more see New York Times reporting on the issue.

Even Bush's friends in the region are imitating Ahmadinejad

8246. jexster - 9/20/2006 9:21:59 AM

Perhaps the Turk will begin by mobilizing the Peshmerga

8247. jexster - 9/20/2006 12:05:02 PM

Cole reported Mossad activity a long time ago...

The Truth will out. Esp if the Dems get subpoena power



>Report: Former Israeli Commandos Secretly Trained Kurdish Soldiers

8248. jexster - 9/22/2006 7:31:59 AM

A Party of God
Hezbollah Floods Beruit Streets in Victory Celebration

BEIRUT (AFP) - Hezbollah supporters and fighters were filling the devastated southern suburbs of Beirut with a sea of yellow flags to celebrate "victory" in their month-long war against Israel.



The crowd, which Hezbollah's Al-Manar television said Friday was in the hundreds of thousands, was swollen by Amal supporters waving the green flags of the some-time rival but more recently allied movement which also fought alongside Hezbollah....

8249. jexster - 9/22/2006 10:30:42 AM

Saw it live.

Quite a stirring event

8250. jexster - 9/22/2006 11:50:03 AM

When's the Zionist Entity's parade?








>

8251. jexster - 9/22/2006 12:26:34 PM

Having Fun, Wish You Were Here



BEIRUT, Lebanon, Sept. 22 — Defying Israel and the United States, Hezbollah’s leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, appeared at a giant “victory’’ rally today and declared that the militant group had 20,000 rockets and would never disarm.

8252. jexster - 9/23/2006 6:40:37 AM

8253. jexster - 9/24/2006 1:35:36 PM

Pat Lang: The New Hizbullah

8254. Magoseph - 9/25/2006 8:08:06 AM

Crude oil has reached 60 this morning—the question now becomes whether it can hold in the 60 zone. The 100-dollar bulls have gone to the sideline--however, there’s no indication that drilling or production have dissipated to any extent. In fact, it appears that producers are quite willing to sell everything they can at current prices. If history is any guide, the market will not stabilize until the public speculators are washed out of the market. That may take the price significantly lower than it deserves to be. In other words, the 100-dollar bulls have to be shaken out of the market before the real market value can be established.

However at any rate, what has been accomplished can’t help but have delivered a sense of reality to those who have sponsored the Moslem revolution against the West based on the power of oil.

8255. alistairconnor - 9/25/2006 9:28:46 AM

High prices have dampened demand. Not so much in the US and Europe, but in places where they can't afford to generate electricity at such prices.

But forget about the moslem world, Mago. It's Russia which is now the world's biggest producer. And they have us over a barrel.

8256. jexster - 9/25/2006 10:26:49 AM

Mago..high prices are a function of Middle East and African instability, summer driving demand, and worries about Gulf Coast refinining capacity during the hurricane season.

Contrary to what Gary Hart believes, there will be no October Surprise. No war on Iran before the election.

Who can take tomorrow,
Dip it in a dream?

Separate the sorrow and collect up all the cream,
The Taliban? The Taliban can, the Taliban can

8257. Magoseph - 9/25/2006 10:34:17 AM

Ali, what I believe is that the high prices have brought out what could be called wildcatting by the majors, as exemplified in the Golf. Apparently, all they need is a big basin and they roll the dice with a big drilling program. I understand this is especially true of Russia. Recently, I saw or read somewhere that Russia was approaching the Europeans with long term deals, which they couldn’t refuse. The conclusion I came to was that Russia has huge supplies coming in and was determined to freeze the Arabs out of the European market.

The market, of course, will tell us the story. If oil hits 45 dollars, it’s probably true.

8258. Magoseph - 9/25/2006 10:45:49 AM

Mago..high prices are a function of Middle East and African instability, summer driving demand, and worries about Gulf Coast refinining capacity during the hurricane season.

That’s certainly true enough, Jex, and the psychology of the market place has certainly substantiated your points.

It’s possible, of course, that I’m a wishful thinker, but I do recognize what I believe is a modification of the positions being taken even by the most radical elements of the Moslem world and I attribute this to the potential of a gloated oil market and its loss of leverage.

8259. jexster - 9/25/2006 10:54:41 AM

I don't think the Moslem world is the problem part of your equation!


I still don't think that there will be a war with Iran before the election. Afterwards it depends on the election outcome. Bush certainly wouldn't want any oversight of his overflights

A number of experts have concluded that despite the Bush administration's desire to attack Iran, the aggression would be too rash and the consequences too dire even for the irrational Bush administration.

Military experts point out that at a time when generals are calling for more troops for Afghanistan and Iraq, it would be ill-advised for Bush to add Iran to the war theater. Experts note that Iran is well armed with missiles capable of attacking U.S. ships and oil facilities throughout the Middle East and that Iran can direct its Shi'ite allies in Iraq to assault U.S. troops there and set in motion terrorist actions throughout the Middle East.

Diplomatic experts point out that the U.S. is isolated in its desire for war with Iran and has no ally except Israel, thus validating Muslim claims that the U.S. is Israel's instrument against Muslims in the Middle East. Experts note that military aggression is a war crime and that American violations of international law isolate the U.S. and destroy the soft power on which U.S. leadership has been based. An attack on Iran could be the last straw for Muslims chafing under the rule of U.S. puppet governments in Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.

Economic experts point out that the impact on the price of oil would be severe and the economic consequences detrimental. With the U.S. housing bubble deflating, now is not the time for an oil shock.

It is difficult to take exception to this expert analysis. Nevertheless, the Bush administration continues to send war signals.


Crisis is Upon Us
Paul Craig Roberts

8260. alistairconnor - 9/25/2006 10:58:05 AM

No Mago, "wildcatting" by big companies does not exist.

That hyped-up Jack field in the gulf of mexico MAY come into production some time after 2011... but it's also possible that it never will. Nobody's produced oil in such deep water before, it's all experimental, and they haven't made any firm decisions yet, because it will be awfully expensive. Anyway, the testing has been going on there for several years, it wasn't inspired by the high prices of the past 18 months.

There are simply no big fields left to find. The world is fighting over the scraps. The Cantarell field in Mexico is in steep decline, and Mexico's economy will follow. I stand by my prediction that oil production will never be higher than in 2006...

8261. alistairconnor - 9/25/2006 11:00:26 AM

Also :
Putin has the US over a barrel :
Gaz from the far north likely to go to Europe, not the US

Sensible. You need long-term solvent clients for that sort of contract.

8262. jexster - 9/25/2006 11:23:53 AM

That's a trend I hear, a trend that could really fuck up the otherwise rather simple market analysis which depends on oil be fungible commodity.


Be nice to Hugo.

8263. jexster - 9/25/2006 11:25:47 AM

In fact AC, I have read a number of articles predicting the rise of a EurAsian PetroAxis of Russia/Iran - EU, China, India.

All built on pipelines and long-term supply contracts.

Forget the Persian Gulf. Pooty Poot was KGB

8264. Magoseph - 9/25/2006 11:29:13 AM

Ali, The bearish oil position is put forward by those who refer to the Atibiti tar sands or other tar sands, for example, or trumpet that the Stone Age didn’t last for ever—new technologies will evolve if prices stay high—therefore they’ll not stay high.

I don’t have a strong opinion at this level, but I’ll be influenced in the last analysis by the performance of the market.

8265. Magoseph - 9/25/2006 11:30:20 AM

I don't think the Moslem world is the problem part of your equation!

Jex, I just believe if oil was at 45 today, Iran would make a deal yesterday and if oil would be at 100, you’d have to bomb them out.

8266. jexster - 9/26/2006 7:01:57 AM

Non Mago. They won't give at any price. First because at any price the EU, Russia and China need them more than they need the EU et al and TWO, what you just don't seem to get, the threat of action is meaningless - either sanctions or attack will drive the price of to 100/bbl.



It is sort of like saying if there were no threat, the price of oil would be lower and Iran would suspend its nuclear reactor work


Iran is not the problem here Mago. Bush is...Bush drove the price up with his war on Lebanon and his Iran threats and he can drive it down but only if he does a 180


So will he or won't he?

Pat Buchanan Takes a Stab

One school contends that the White House has stared down the gun barrel at the prospect of war with Iran, and backed away. The costs and potential consequences – thousands of Iranian dead, a Shia revolt against us in Iraq joined by Iranian "volunteers," the mining of the Straits of Hormuz, $200-a-barrel oil, Hezbollah strikes on Americans in Lebanon, terror attacks on our allies in the Gulf and on Americans in the United States – are too high a price to pay for setting back the Iranian nuclear program a decade.

Another school argues thus: If Tehran survives the Bush era without dismantling its nuclear program, Bush will be a failed president. He declared in his 2002 State of the Union Address that no axis-of-evil nation would be allowed to acquire the world's worst weapons. Iran and North Korea will have both defied the Bush Doctrine. His legacy would then be one of impotency in Iran and North Korea, and two failed wars – in Iraq and Afghanistan – which will be in their sixth and eighth years.

Those who know him best say that George Bush is not a man to leave office with such a legacy. He will go to war first, even if no one goes along.


My old DC pal who handles govt relations in SEAsia for Chevron is off to Jakarta...BIG project...proven reserve...they don't "wildcat"

That's what Bush did. That was very first disaster in life

8267. jexster - 9/26/2006 7:43:59 PM

Bashar Didn't Do It


>Brammertz Report a Bust


Cause he looked at the wrong suspect. We call that a rush to judgment.

Of course, not a peep in the US media. The Israel Lobby got its licks in already

8268. jexster - 9/26/2006 7:44:22 PM

we call that toys

8269. jexster - 9/26/2006 7:44:45 PM

more toys sheet

8270. alistairconnor - 9/27/2006 3:37:46 AM

Mago : I no longer think that the price of oil will go to $150 or $200 in the next few years. There simply isn't a big enough market for oil at those prices. The price has come down because some players have been priced off the market at $75 or so (electricity cuts in Bangladesh and so on). Europe can afford oil at $75. Arguably, the US can. A lot of economies can't.

Oil sands are a loser at any price. Check out the news on delays and cost overruns in Canada. And there simply isn't going to be enough natural gas to power the extraction on a huge scale.

In the long run, you're right about substitution. But it will be slow and painful.

8271. alistairconnor - 9/27/2006 3:39:42 AM

And you're wrong about Iran... They are about the only major producer that openly acknowledges the finite nature of oil. They know they have 20 or 30 years of good income from it, and they want to ensure that their economy doesn't crash when it's in steep decline. That's what the nuclear program is largely about. They want to preserve their energy independence.

8272. Magoseph - 9/27/2006 10:32:24 AM

Your points are very well made, Ali, thanks.

8273. jexster - 9/27/2006 10:42:01 AM

Then why is Jacques acting so manly?

8274. concerned - 9/29/2006 7:21:33 PM

From USA Today: Al-Qaeda No. 2 calls Bush failure, liar



By Bassem Mroue, Associated Press Writer
CAIRO — Al-Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri called President Bush a failure and a liar in the war on terror in a video statement released Friday, and he compared Pope Benedict XVI to the 11th century pontiff who launched the First Crusade.
"Can't you be honest at least once in your life, and admit that you are a deceitful liar who intentionally deceived your nation when you drove them to war in Iraq?" Osama bin Laden's deputy said, appearing in front of a standing lamp and a small, decorative cannon.

Al-Zawahri also criticized Bush for continuing to imprison al-Qaeda leaders in prisons, including al-Qaeda No. 3 Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged Sept. 11 mastermind who was captured in Pakistan in March 2003.

"Bush, you deceitful charlatan, 3 1/2 years have passed since your capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, so how have you found us during this time? Losing and surrendering? Or are we launching attacks with God's help and becoming martyrs?" he said.

"What you have perpetrated against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other Muslim captives in your prisons and the prisons of your slaves in Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan and elsewhere is not hidden from anyone, and we are a people who do not sleep under oppression and who do not abandon our revenge until our chests have been healed of those who have committed aggression against us," he said.

"And we, by the grace of Allah, are seeking to exact revenge on behalf of Islam and Muslims from you and your soldiers and allies."

Al-Zawahri accused the United States and its agents of torturing Muslim prisoners seized across the Middle East.

"Your agents in the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan have captured thousands of the youth and soldiers of Islam whom you made to taste at your hands and the hands of your agents various types of punishment and torture," al-Zawahri said.

Must make you feel appreciated to have the top Al Qaeda goons using your lines, jexster. Ayman al-Zawahri, whom you've made clear you admire would probably appreciate your assistance in polishing his presentation a bit. However, a little hint. Don't let on to him you're gay, or he'll have your ass slaughtered. Of course, maybe you two have already connected, in which case, feel free to ignore this post.

8275. concerned - 9/29/2006 7:35:31 PM

An intelligence official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said U.S. experts view the latest video as a typical propaganda message, whose main thrust is a call for more people to join the jihad, or holy war.

Jexster - have you considered the possibility that when you post essentially the same garbage that Zawahri is spouting that you might be creating similar results? I know you're not Zawahri but it's the bullshit that counts with the reader here, not the bullshitter.

8276. concerned - 9/29/2006 7:39:25 PM

Jexster lies, Muslims die.

8277. concerned - 9/29/2006 7:53:15 PM

Very many people on the Left suffer from what Natan Sharansky calls a 'lack of moral clarity' when evaluating US policy in the Middle East. They go to unreasonable extremes in their criticisms and draw ridiculous parallels between the current administration and the Stalinist Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Pol Pot et al.

8278. concerned - 9/29/2006 8:03:29 PM

Make sure this guy gets read his Miranda rights.

Al-Qaida chief asks nuclear experts to join jihad
September 29, 2006 | DAVID RISING

ASSOCIATED PRESS

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Al-Qaida in Iraq's leader, in a chilling audiotape released Thursday, called for nuclear scientists to join his group's holy war and urged insurgents to kidnap Westerners so they could be traded for a blind Egyptian sheik who is serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison.

The fugitive chief of the terrorist group said experts in the fields of "chemistry, physics, electronics, media and all other sciences -- especially nuclear scientists and explosives experts" -- should join his group's jihad, or holy war, against the West.

"We are in dire need of you," said the speaker, who identified himself as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir -- also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri. "The field of jihad can satisfy your scientific ambitions, and the large American bases (in Iraq) are good places to test your unconventional weapons, whether biological or dirty."

8279. jexster - 9/30/2006 2:00:23 PM

Bushie UR Doin a Heckuva Job!

Isn't he TD!


US may have to cut funds for Iraqi police: report

The United States has reportedly warned Iraqi leaders that it may have to cut financial aid to Iraqi police because of a US law that prohibits the financing of foreign security forces that commit gross violations of human rights unpunished.

The New York Times said the US Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, said in an interview that "at this point" Iraq had not been formally notified that its national police were in violation of the legislation, known as the Leahy Law.

He said he remained optimistic that Iraqi officials would "do the right thing" and resolve the matter, the report said.

Nonetheless, he said American officials had begun reviewing programs that might have to be ended, according to the newspaper.

The issue centers on results of a joint Iraqi-American inspection of a prison in eastern Baghdad known as Site 4 that took place last May, the report said.

The investigators found clear evidence of systematic abuse and torture, including victims who had "lesions resulting from torture" as well as "equipment used for this purpose," according to a human rights report published by the UN mission in Iraq.

The prison, run by an Interior Ministry police unit, had more than 1,400 prisoners crowded into a small area, the paper said.

An American officer said some had been beaten or bound and hung by their arms, according to the report. At least 37 teenagers or children were in the prison.

8280. jexster - 9/30/2006 2:07:12 PM

Victory in Iraq will result in a democracy that is a friend of America and an ally in the war on terror

GWB
Sept 2006

It takes a very high level of ignorance to believe America can leave behind in Iraq any government that will not be anti-American


Lt Gen William Odom
Sept 2006

Odom spoke second and addressed points of argumentation that he hears too often and is tired of hearing, including being told to ignore the past and focus on the future, to ignore how we got into Iraq and only talk about what to do from here on. Unless, Odom said, we discuss whose interests this war served, we cannot decide what to do. It served no U.S. interests. It served the interests of al Qaeda and Iran....

Rep. Hinchey asked Odom "How do we get out?" Odom's reply came without a pause: "Well, the Constitution gives the House the right to impeach

8281. alistairConnor - 9/30/2006 7:00:08 PM

Con: Very many people on the Left suffer from what Natan Sharansky calls a 'lack of moral clarity' when evaluating US policy in the Middle East. They go to unreasonable extremes in their criticisms and draw ridiculous parallels between the current administration and the Stalinist Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Pol Pot et al.

When the Good Guys kill innocents or torture people, it's qualitatively different from when the Bad Guys do the same thing. Objective observers can't see this, because of their lack of moral clarity.

But God knows the difference, and absolves the good guys.

Have I got that right, Con?

8282. jexster - 9/30/2006 9:42:24 PM

How Bush Lost His Afghanistan War

Study hard TD..there'll be a test time you start cluckin bout Clinton..

Kabul Bombing Kills at Least 10
Zawahiri Condemns Pope - Cole

At least 10 are dead and 54 wounded in a bombing at the Ministry of the Interior on Saturday in Kabul. (Update: The death toll is rising. Karzai blamed it on foreign elements.

For those who want to read more about what has gone wrong in Afghanistan, the well thought of Senlis Council report on the return of the Taliban is here.

In a separate incident a guerrilla bomb killed a Canadian soldier. This was the tenth killing of a Canadian soldier this month.

A new videotape of Ayman al-Zawahiri has surfaced on the internet. He taunts Bush and dismissed Pope Benedict as ntothing more than a crusader.

8283. concerned - 10/2/2006 3:50:30 AM

Re. 8281 -

AC -

What can I say?

Your attempt at sarcasm shows that you are abjectly lacking in moral clarity by Sharansky's standard.

8284. jexster - 10/2/2006 4:06:59 AM

Thank heaven for little boiz....

8285. Max Macks - 10/3/2006 5:25:42 PM

I thought Afganistan had been made a land of peace
and democracy by Gods messenger ( not the Muslim
Mohammed but Bush who get gets advised by God

8286. jexster - 10/5/2006 11:53:18 AM

Nice place to visit but I wouldn't wanna live there

8287. wonkers2 - 10/6/2006 9:24:48 AM

Israeli Bomblets Plague Lebanon MADE IN THE USA. THIS REALLY MAKES ME PROUD!

8288. jexster - 10/6/2006 11:45:26 AM

Well Wonk I am glad that the Jewish evil in the middle east is finally finally breaking through the pc haze

8289. jexster - 10/8/2006 7:14:44 AM

The London Times reports that the Baker Commission will recommend a loose federal Iraq with 3 semi-autonomous regions.

This is a very bad idea for so many reasons it would take me forever to list them all. But here are a few:

1. no such loose federal arrangement would survive very long (remember the post-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States?), so the plan leads to the dismemberment and partition of Iraq. This outcome is unacceptable to Turkey and Saudi Arabia and therefore will likely lead to regional wars.

2. The Sunni Arabs, the Da`wa Party and the Sadr Movement are all against such a partition, and together they account for at least 123 members of the 275-member parliament. Some of the Shiite independents in the United Iraqi Alliance are also against it. I would say that a slight majority in parliament would fight this plan tooth and nail. The US cannot impose it by fiat.

3. The Sunni Arabs control Iraq's downstream water but have no petroleum resources. If the loose federal plan ends in partition, the situation is set up for a series of wars of the Sunni Arabs versus the Shiites, as well as of the Sunni Arabs and some Turkmen versus the Kurds. Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia will certainly be pulled into these wars.

It is not good for the region to have a series of wars over Iraq. It is not good for the security of the United States, since those wars will probably involve pipeline sabotage by guerrillas and will likely disrupt Middle Eastern oil flows. (Did Americans like $3.20 a gallon gasoline and $300 a month heating bills? Would they like to try $15 a gallon gasoline? What do you think would happen to the world economy?)

Finally, I just don't believe that the Arab and Muslim worlds would ever forgive the US for breaking up Iraq, and there are likely to be reprisals if it happens.


Iraqis do not give a flying fuck what Jim Baker thinks

8290. jexster - 10/8/2006 7:30:03 PM

Culture of Corruption: The Lost Wars of George Bush



The Israelis lost in Lebanon
Col Pat Lang

8291. jexster - 10/9/2006 11:48:57 AM

Hizb Allah, Party of God, by Nir Rosen. Why Hezbullah has become the most popular political party in the Middle East.

8292. Max Macks - 10/16/2006 5:17:50 PM

President of Israel charged with rape!!

what about the rape of Lebanon ??

8293. Jenerator - 10/17/2006 11:37:46 AM

Efforts to use parliamentary measures to impeach President Moshe Katsav stalled Monday, as most MKs refused to sign the necessary petition.

Only six MKs were willing to sign a petition that would begin proceedings in the Knesset House Committee to impeach Katsav. A minimum of 20 signatures are needed to begin the process

8294. alistairconnor - 10/17/2006 11:48:04 AM

Apparently he offered to resign in exchange for dropping the charges...

the justice system said no.

As I understand it, he has no immunity from prosecution. If they don't impeach him, they could have a president in prison.

8295. jexster - 10/17/2006 10:33:57 PM

How Hezbollah Defeated Israel
Part One: Winning the Intelligence War



How Hezbollah Defeated Israel
Part Two: Winning the Ground War

The entire war was fought by one Hezbollah brigade of 3,000 troops, and no more," one military expert in the region said. "The Nasr Brigade fought the entire war. Hezbollah never felt the need to reinforce it."...


Perhaps the most telling sign of Israel's military failure comes in counting the dead and wounded. Israel now claims that it killed about 400-500 Hezbollah fighters, while its own losses were significantly less. But a more precise accounting shows that Israeli and Hezbollah casualties were nearly even. It is impossible for Shi'ites (and Hezbollah) not to allow an honorable burial for its martyrs, so in this case it is simply a matter of counting funerals. Fewer than 180 funerals have been held for Hezbollah fighters--nearly equal to the number killed on the Israeli side.

But by any accounting--whether in rockets, armored vehicles or numbers of dead and wounded--Hezbollah's fight against Israel must be accorded a decisive military and political victory....Hezbollah's war with Israel over a period of 34 days in July and August has caused a political earthquake in the region.

Hezbollah's military defeat of Israel was decisive, but its political defeat of the United States--which unquestioningly sided with Israel during the conflict and refused to bring it to an end--was catastrophic and has had a lasting impact on US prestige in the region

8296. jexster - 10/17/2006 10:47:17 PM

OOPS

First link incorrect (but worthwhile report of public opinon survey of Southern attitudes Iraq War - surprising!!!)

8297. jexster - 10/17/2006 11:45:02 PM

The War Crimes of the Jewish War-State
Israeli / US Cluster Bombs Litter Lebanon


On September 26, the UN announced that the number of unexploded cluster "bomblets" left in southern Lebanon by Israeli forces may be three times higher than previous estimates. A million or more antipersonnel weapons may be strewn across a region one-third the size of Rhode Island.(1)

Israel has yet to respond to repeated requests for information about the locations of its cluster bomb strikes in Lebanon. UN demining experts say this has made their job 'far more difficult'.(2) Two hundred thousand people cannot return to their homes due to the severity of destruction and the massive quantities of unexploded ordnance and cluster bomblets covering their communities.(3) Since the beginning of the ceasefire less than two months ago, 20 people have been killed and 120 others have been injured by cluster bomblets and unexploded ordnance.(4)

UN humanitarian coordinator David Shearer wants to know why the IDF deployed 90 percent of its cluster bombs during the last 72 hours of the conflict, while the UN ceasefire resolution was being approved.(5) UN officials are reportedly "dumbfounded".(6) What could explain Israel's intention in such an act, when peace was at hand?
....

The Israeli commander who famously told Ha'aretz that, "in Lebanon, we covered entire villages with cluster bombs. What we did there was crazy and monstrous," was an officer in the IDF's Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) unit. He said the army had launched 1,800 rockets that dropped 1.2 million cluster bomblets on Lebanon.

Soldiers were ordered to "flood" target areas with the unguided rockets, ostensibly because they were inaccurate. Reservists were reportedly "surprised" that the army was using the MLRS rocket launchers. They had been told the rockets were "the IDF's 'judgment day weapons'" and were "intended for use in a full-scale war."(23)



The peculiarity of Israel's timing becomes acute when we consider how few targets were left for all those cluster bombs to kill. By the final week of the war, most people in the target zone had evacuated to escape Israel's relentless bombing and shelling, which had erased several villages from the face of the earth. Hezbollah fighters should have been able to ride out Israel's cluster bombing waves in the safety of their bunkers. Nonetheless, the IDF must have made an all-out effort to deploy nearly three million bomblets within 72 hours, probably involving all units capable of delivering such devices. What were they shooting at?

8298. jexster - 10/17/2006 11:57:40 PM

Lebanese - kill, maim as many as possible for as long as possible .


While investigations into Israel's use of these munitions is not yet complete, it now appears that the IDF deployed single-fused munitions. Recent reports in the Israeli press indicate that artillery officers carpeted dozens of Lebanese villages with the bomblets--as close to the definition of the "indiscriminate" use of firepower as one can get.

The Israeli munitions may well have been purchased from aging US stockpiles that were not double-fused, making the United States complicit in this indiscriminate targeting. Such a conclusion seems to fit with the time-line of the resupply of munitions to Israel on July 22. The IDF may well have been able to offload these munitions and deploy them quickly enough to have created the cluster-munitions crisis in Lebanon that plagues that nation still--and that started on July 24..... "There is a common misperception that the [US] Air Force was thrilled by the Israeli war against Lebanon," one Middle East expert with access to senior Pentagon officials told us. "They were aghast. They well know the limits of their own power and they know how it can be abused.

"It seemed to them [USAF officers] that Israel threw away the book in Lebanon. This wasn't surgical, it wasn't precise, and it certainly wasn't smart. You can't just coat a country in iron and hope to win."

8299. jexster - 10/18/2006 12:05:36 AM

600,000 Iraqis slaughtered...nation destroyed.



1 million cluster bombs in Lebanon, concentration camps in Gaza..


And Osama fancies himself a dealer of death and terrorizer of the infidels!

8300. jexster - 10/18/2006 1:00:52 AM

French forces: Stop Lebanon overflights or we'll open fire


Way to go! If only the Israeli cock sucking whores of the Israel Lobby had the balls to stick a demarche up Israel's ass.

Not since Ike. Keep it up France! Do the planet a mitzvah. Take out an F-16 or two.

8301. concerned - 10/18/2006 1:12:57 AM

That's the French for you. Sucking up Nazis, Islamofascists, whomever.

8302. concerned - 10/18/2006 1:13:18 AM

That's the French for you. Sucking up to Nazis, Islamofascists, whomever.

8303. jexster - 10/18/2006 2:00:50 AM

Sucking up?

Kicking some Jew ass

8304. alistairconnor - 10/18/2006 2:02:29 AM

Yes Con, they are definitely lacking in Mr Sharansky's moral clarity.

They probably think Israel's cluster bomblets are bad too. Lack of moral clarity.

8305. jexster - 10/18/2006 2:05:57 AM

Send em all back to Beylorus..plus a piece of Poland.

5000 year pain in the World's asshole

8306. jexster - 10/18/2006 6:39:36 AM

Achtung
Jude!

Anti-Semitism: Infernal Whine of the Eternal Victim


Israel alerted the world to another wave of anti-Semitism in the early 1980s, just as it came under unprecedented criticism for its invasion and occupation of Lebanon. What distinguished the new anti-Semitism from traditional anti-Jewish racism of the kind that led to Germany's death camps, said its promoters, was that this time it embraced the progressive Left rather than the far Right.

The latest claims about anti-Semitism began life in the spring of 2002, with the English-language Web site of Israel's respected liberal daily newspaper, Ha'aretz, flagging for many months a special online supplement of articles on the "New Anti-Semitism," warning that the "age-old hatred" was being revived in Europe and America. The refrain was soon taken up the Jerusalem Post, a right-wing English-language newspaper regularly used by the Israeli establishment to shore up support for its policies among Diaspora Jews.

Like its precursors, argued Israel's apologists, the latest wave of anti-Semitism was the responsibility of progressive Western movements – though with a fresh twist. An ever present but largely latent Western anti-Semitism was being stoked into frenzy by the growing political and intellectual influence of extremist Muslim immigrants. The implication was that an unholy alliance had been spawned between the Left and militant Islam....

"International terrorism is a mistaken term," Netanyahu added, "not because it doesn't exist, but because the problem is international militant Islam. That is the movement … that operates terror on the international level, and that is the movement that is preparing the ultimate terror, nuclear terrorism."

Faced with the evil designs of the "Islamic fascists," such as those in Iran, Israel's nuclear arsenal – and the nuclear holocaust Israel can and appears prepared to unleash – may be presented as the civilized world's salvation.



There's one sure way to shut these whining Yids up.


"Arbeit Macht Frei assholes.

PS - we don't give a shit what happened to your granny in Poland"


Nothing a little pogrom wouldn't fix. The world needs an enema from time to time

8307. jexster - 10/18/2006 6:41:35 AM

Ah Masada time

8308. jexster - 10/19/2006 6:51:08 PM

France: Revise UN Rules of Engagement
We Wish to Shoot Jews in Flight


Bon! Put a little peur in their hard hearts.

The only thing they understand is force. A little blood and they'll fall in line

Always have

8309. jexster - 10/19/2006 7:00:27 PM

Bon Chasse General!

8310. jexster - 10/20/2006 10:08:56 AM

AMEN BROTHERS!



BAGHDAD (AFP) - More than a thousand Iraqi Shiite protesters have taken to the streets of Baghdad, Basra and Najaf to condemn Israel and demand that Jerusalem be handed over to Palestinian control.


God destroyed their temple and drove their asses out for a reason and meant it

8311. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 10/21/2006 2:10:22 PM

Medics Beg For Help as Iraqis Die Needlessly

As many as half of the civilian deaths, calculated at 655,000 since the 2003 invasion, might have been avoided if proper medical care had been provided to the victims, they say.

[..]In the first 14 months after the 2003 invasion almost $20bn (£11bn) was spent on reconstruction by the British and American funds, including hundreds of millions on rebuilding and re-equipping the country's network of 180 hospitals and clinics.

But billions went missing because of a combination of criminal activity, corruption, and incompetence, leaving Iraqis without even the essentials for basic medical care.

[..]In March, the campaign group Medact said 18,000 physicians had left the country since 2003, an estimated 250 of those that remained had been kidnapped and, in 2005 alone, 65 killed.

Medact also said "easily treatable conditions such as diarrhoea and respiratory illness caused 70 per cent of all child deaths", and that " of the 180 health clinics the US hoped to build by the end of 2005, only four have been completed and none opened".

And here are some horrifying stats:

68 percent of Iraqis with no access to safe drinking water.

19 percent of Iraqis with sewerage access.

And yet, Dick Cheney can say with a straight face to Rush Limbaugh, "If you look at the general overall situation, they're doing remarkably well."

8312. Jenerator - 10/21/2006 3:13:47 PM

What percentage of these dead civilians were killed by suicide bombers? Anyone know where to find that statistic?

8313. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 10/21/2006 3:46:37 PM

Focus on the relevant facts in the story, Jen, but, please–not on a wishful distraction that tries to rationalize the tragedy of the the Bush Administration's utter failure in Iraq.

8314. Jenerator - 10/21/2006 3:53:57 PM

I seriously want to know what percentage of Iraqis have been killed by their own people. It's more than relevant, Wizard.

The suicide bombers usually kill 3 times the amount of innocent civilians than the soldiers they're supposedly targeting.

8315. judithathome - 10/21/2006 4:09:29 PM

the soldiers they're supposedly targeting.Z

Will you at least admit that of the soldiers they kill, they were actually (not supposedly) targeted?

8316. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 10/21/2006 5:21:11 PM

You're looking like a stubborn, thick-headed fool in utter denial of the facts, Jenerator.

Your response isn't relevant at all in terms of that article. Changing the subject isn't argumentation–it's E-vasion!

8317. jexster - 10/22/2006 6:24:24 AM

Cole:

The Mecca Declaration, a joint ruling of Shiite and Sunni clerics from Iraq, forbidding a Muslim to shed the blood of another Muslim, is in danger of going unheeded, according to close analysts of the region.

Be that as it may, the declaration is historic. According to al-Sharq al-Awsat [Ar.], it maintains that the differences between Sunnis and Shiites are a matter of personal interpretation (ta'wil), not a difference over basic principles (usul). To have such a declaration sponsored by Saudi Arabia, which adheres to the Wahhabi branch of Islam that was historically negative toward Shiites is a conceptual revolution. The statement has implications for Sunni-Shiite relations in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc.-- not just in Iraq.

Events in Iraq demonstrated that Western Powers could use the Sunni-Shiite divide to help overthrow governments, dominate major countries in the region, and even break up whole countries. The regional elites are increasingly deciding that Sunni-Shiite ecumenism is necessary to avoid more of these disasters.

8318. Jenerator - 10/22/2006 7:54:46 AM

8316

What facts am I denying Wizard? I am wanting to KNOW the facts about the suicide bombers. Yet when I bring up this relevant part of the death toll, you get mad. Why don't you want to acknowledge civilian deaths caused by suicide bombers? I bet the number is high - if only I could find where exactly to look to get the current figure.

8319. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 10/22/2006 10:12:56 AM

I'm not "mad," just tired of your tedious tactics to change the subject–which you still don't acknowledge doing.

You evade the salient points of of every post. You are entitled to your own opinions, but not your own version of the facts.

Address the issues discussed, Jen, rather than seeking out your own while you ignore the ones presented.

8320. Jenerator - 10/22/2006 10:40:33 AM

Wizard,

Let's say that 650,000 Iraqis have died since 2003. Of that number, let's say that 100,000 are 'collateral' deaths, 200,000 are military targets/deaths and 450,000 are suicide bomber related.

That is worthy of knowing.

Suicide bombers play an integral role in the death toll.

This is part of the big picture. I suspect you see it as a distraction because you want Bush to blamed for the total figure rather than dissecting the figure into the many parts that need to be looked at.

8321. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 10/22/2006 12:25:04 PM

Nothing you have posted and nothing that you want to focus attention on has anything to do with the issues in the linked article above. Irrespective of deaths caused by suicide bombers, that article clearly points to the failures of the people you voted into power and are now unwilling to admit that those people are responsible for more murder and mayhem in the world.

Debate with you is such a waste of time and effort because you only respond to the echoes of your own ideology and ignore the facts completely.

You leave me no other choice but to pass over your narrow-minded and biased drivel, Jen.

8322. jexster - 10/22/2006 12:56:43 PM

Bet you Jen didn't know that 3 independent researchers - including the Israeli and Saudi Governments - have established by extensive study that suicide bombers aren't religiously motivated but rather act rationally against their oppressors


I think she's Christ Killer, spawn of the Evil One

8323. Jenerator - 10/22/2006 12:56:59 PM

That's fine, Wiz. This place is a waste land anyway.

8324. Jenerator - 10/22/2006 12:58:16 PM

Jexster,

Suicide bombing isn't acting rationally. Furthermore, thir 'rationality' has jack shit to do with how many innocent civilians they've killed.

I bet you a million dollars that suicide bombers have killed more innocent people that the Coalition forces.

8325. jexster - 10/22/2006 1:07:16 PM

You want to read the studies?

No you don't

You don't because you are a bigot, a venemous hate filled, willfully ignorant bigot

Want the info???

Just let me know

8326. jexster - 10/22/2006 1:12:47 PM

It wouldn't matter that you were a bigot but for the fact that the poison you spew is the bedrock of US foreign policy and the reason for its failure - a failure of catastrophic proportion for the US

8327. jexster - 10/22/2006 1:17:56 PM

The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism
Robert Pape PhD
University of Chicago


Abstract

Suicide terrorism is rising around the world, but the most common explanations do not help us understand why. Religious fanaticism does not explain why the world leader in suicide terrorism is the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, a group that adheres to a Marxist/Leninist ideology, while existing psychological explanations have been contradicted by the widening range of socio-economic backgrounds of suicide terrorists. To advance our understanding of this growing phenomenon, this study collects the universe of suicide terrorist attacks worldwide from 1980 to 2001, 188 in all. In contrast to the existing explanations, this study shows that suicide terrorism follows a strategic logic, one specifically designed to coerce modern liberal democracies to make significant territorial concessions. Moreover, over the past two decades, suicide terrorism has been rising largely because terrorists have learned that it pays. Suicide terrorists sought to compel American and French military forces to abandon Lebanon in 1983, Israeli forces to leave Lebanon in 1985, Israeli forces to quit the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in 1994 and 1995, the Sri Lankan government to create an independent Tamil state from 1990 on, and the Turkish government to grant autonomy to the Kurds in the late 1990s. In all but the case of Turkey, the terrorist political cause made more gains after the resort to suicide operations than it had before. Thus, Western democracies should pursue policies that teach terrorists that the lesson of the 1980s and 1990s no longer holds, policies which in practice may have more to do with improving homeland security than with offensive military action.

People who are attacked, occupied and oppressed fight back with whatever means are at their disposal. If they're fortunate and financed, they have F-16's and cluster bombs

If not, they use their bodies to defend themselves.

Pape's work has been replicated
Saudi Arabia
Israel

8328. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 10/22/2006 1:17:57 PM

Jen, regardless of whether this place is a wasteland or not, you've just unconsciously exposed your own bias with: I bet you a million dollars that suicide bombers have killed more innocent people that the Coalition forces.–which has NOTHING to do with the link you responded to.

You can't admit to your own flawed misconceptions of reality-through-ideology–just like the Goddamn prideful and reckless fools you continue to mindlessly support.

If you believe in God then you and the rest of the Christian dupes will pay for your sins– along this administration–for the innocents you've condemned to death by invading Iraq for all of the wrong reasons.

Jesus has never been about war and he isn't called The Prince of Peace for nothing, you poor misguided soul!

8329. jexster - 10/22/2006 1:24:28 PM

It is absurd to use the word but I will anyway for purposes of illustration

What is more noble?

The terror of the MLRS rocket launcher units spewing 2 million cluster bombs over South Lebanon after a cease fire had been agreed to

or

The suicide bomber who straps c4 around her belly

8330. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 10/22/2006 3:33:21 PM

These cartoons illustrate the kind of denial and hypocrisy that has been rampant in America ever since these gangsters were elected. Moreover, if we're betting millions here, I'll bet Jen doesn't see it whatseover in these images. Their blindspot is an affliction of pettiness and pride. If they truly believed in Christ's teaching rather than Jerry Falwell's propaganda, they'd have the courage and humility to admit it.

8331. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 10/22/2006 3:35:17 PM

These people have destroyed America, Christianity and any hope for peace in the world.

8332. poipual - 10/22/2006 7:20:10 PM

Did tiu see where a bunch of Islamic clerics in Iraq said that god did not allow muslims to kill muslims. Seems they've been doing a good job of it since the 7th century.

Now mayber what they should do is go to a non-muslim country, perhaps N. Korea and kidnap a bunch of young men and train them to kill their enemy muslims. that worked pretty well for centuries.

For a peaceful group of people, they seem good at killing, don't you think.

8333. poipual - 10/22/2006 7:34:50 PM

The answer to ending problems with muslims in simple; just take the muslim oath and agree to live under their rule. they will settle for nothing less. Just listen to what they say.

This summer I read Hitler's Mein Kampt and The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Nothing that happened between 1933 and 1945 in Europe was a surprise. Sometimes is helpful to pay attention to what people say they intend doing.

8334. judithathome - 10/22/2006 8:17:09 PM

Jen, how many of those suicide bombers would have been in Iraq has we not invaded? How many would have killed civilians had they not been there...because if you really think about it, they didn't start doing that in Iraq until we moved in.

8335. poipual - 10/22/2006 9:13:51 PM

judith
post hoc ergo hoc

After this because of this. We weren't in Algeria and thousands were killed. We're not in the Sudan and thousands are being killed.

If we leave do you think the killing will stop? Perhaps the only reason they didn't have a civil war before is Saddam kept the lid on thight by killing thousands.

8336. poipual - 10/22/2006 9:18:37 PM

posthoc ergo propterhoc

8337. poipual - 10/22/2006 9:18:40 PM

posthoc ergo propterhoc

8338. poipual - 10/22/2006 9:21:25 PM

If you want a clear view of Islam, read The Legacy of Jihad by Andrew G. Brown. Not an easy or fun read, but since it is mostly Muslim written, a real eye opener.

8339. alistairconnor - 10/23/2006 5:23:29 AM

We weren't in Algeria and thousands were killed.

That's right. The French did it.

The problem is not the US, the problem is the colonial mentality.

8340. alistairconnor - 10/23/2006 5:24:32 AM

If you want a clear view of Islam, talk to some Moslems.


You can find anything you like in "Islam". It's a broad church.

8341. alistairconnor - 10/23/2006 8:18:41 AM

Hey, remember Scott Ritter?

The UN weapons inspector that everyone had written off as crazy... self included... who claimed Saddam had no WMD, no nuclear research, nothing?

The guy who turned out to be completely on the money?

Well here's what he has to say about Iran.

Lots of interesting stuff :

What an eye-opening experience to be on your own in a nation that has been called an Islamic fascist state. I have been to dictatorships in the Middle East. I have been to nations that have a high security profile. Iran is not one of these nations. I’m a former intelligence officer who has stated some pretty strong positions on Iran, and yet I had full freedom of movement in Iran with no interference whatsoever. And as a result, although I didn’t have the approved agenda, I had my own agenda, which allowed me to interview senior government officials, senior military officials, senior intelligence officials, and to visit sites that were deemed sensitive. The conclusion is that the American media has gotten it wrong on Iran. It’s a very modern, westernized, pro-Western, and surprisingly pro-American country that does not constitute a threat to the United States whatsoever.

[...]

Well, there can be no doubt that Iran has plenty of oil, but that oil is the only thing Iran has going for it, in terms of a viable world-class economy. In 1976, the Shah of Iran came to the United States, sent his representatives to intercede and say, “Look, we’ve done an analysis, and we’ve got a finite amount of oil. And right now we need to export it. And if we don't export it, we don't make money, etc. We don't have enough oil to sustain this. We need to come up with an indigenous energy policy that frees up our oil for exportation. We want to use nuclear energy.” And the U.S. government went, “Good idea, Shah. We're all for it.” That was Gerald Ford.

The chief of staff of the White House at the time was Dick Cheney. The Secretary of Defense was Donald Rumsfeld. So, this argument that both Cheney and Rumsfeld put out today that Iran is a nation awash in a sea of oil, there is no need for a nuclear energy program, they both supported Iran's goals of achieving nuclear energy in 1976. Not only nuclear energy, but they also supported the Shah when he said, “We cannot allow a nuclear energy program’s fuel to be held hostage by the vagaries of sanctions and war. We need an indigenous fuel-manufacturing capability inclusive of the full uranium enrichment process.” And guess what the U.S. government said in 1976. “No problem, Shah. Good deal.” Of course, in 1979, the Islamists come in and suddenly we change our opinion. The bottom line is, Iran has every right legally to a nuclear energy program, and economically, we’ve already deemed it a responsible way to go.

8342. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 10/23/2006 1:39:20 PM

8343. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 10/23/2006 1:42:31 PM

8344. jexster - 10/23/2006 1:58:15 PM

For a peaceful group of people, they seem good at killing, don't you think.


655,000 Iraqis dead
2800 US Soldiers


What was the name of that theory you had about Arabs Al? You know the one show em a little whip and they'll behave.

The Horse Theory of Sand Nigger Control

Didn't work

8345. jexster - 10/23/2006 2:12:38 PM

1. The Logic of Suicide Terrorism
American Conservative Interview With Robert Pape

2. Video Intro to Pape's Work

8346. poipual - 10/23/2006 2:54:56 PM

alistair
I don't have much time-playing tournament on full tilt in 10 min., want to comment on your post about Algeria. Are you claiming that muslims were,nt doing the killing over the last ten years. You know better than that. by the by, Wiz called me a moran for typing moslum. Of course he will probably say he never did. He's known for that.

8347. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 10/23/2006 3:09:59 PM

Wiz called me a moran for typing moslum. Of course he will probably say he never did. He's known for that.

I'm no one to throw stones when it comes to typing, spelling or hitting the post button too hastely. Were you always "poipul?" And it's moron, not "moran" . . . or did I call you a "moran"–which is quite possible with me being lexdysic!

If I did call you a moron it may have just been an excuse to insult you for being really mean or ugly on the board. I rarely attack first and I tend to admit to bad behavior when I'm called on it. I suspect that you're miffed for being ignored, and this may well be a cry for attention–but I may also be mistaken of course.

Nevertheless, your snarky little attack seems out of the blue, unprovoked and worth discounting, so I will.

8348. judithathome - 10/23/2006 6:01:26 PM

If we leave do you think the killing will stop? Perhaps the only reason they didn't have a civil war before is Saddam kept the lid on thight by killing thousands.

If we leave, the killing of American soldiers will stop...that's a given.

8349. jexster - 10/23/2006 6:33:41 PM

Saddam kept the lid on and we busted down the door, broke the pot, smashed the kitchen, and killed the family goat.

The US occupation and military operations have make the situation worse. Social and political structures have been destroyed. The US occupation is a crutch for puppet politicians playing one side off of the other 7. In cities and towns where US troops have conducted offensive operations, the violence has increased.

This has been going on for over 3 years. Finally people are waking up to what 80% of the Iraqi people now know - the violence will subside as the US departs and the Iraqis are forced to live with each other.

The utter absurdity of the situation is vividly illustrated in reports from the latest Bush strategery session. If the Iraqis don't get their shit together, Bush is threatening sanctions(!!!)

That'll learn em.

The chaos and lack of proper facilities is resulting in people being buried without a trip to the morgue or the hospital. During American military attacks on cities like Samarra and Fallujah, victims were buried in their gardens or in mass graves in football fields. Or has that been forgotten already?


We literally do not know a single Iraqi family that has not seen the violent death of a first or second-degree relative these last three years. Abductions, militias, sectarian violence, revenge killings, assassinations, car-bombs, suicide bombers, American military strikes, Iraqi military raids, death squads, extremists, armed robberies, executions, detentions, secret prisons, torture, mysterious weapons – with so many different ways to die, is the number so far fetched?


There are Iraqi women who have not shed their black mourning robes since 2003 because each time the end of the proper mourning period comes around, some other relative dies and the countdown begins once again.

-Riverbend

8350. jexster - 10/23/2006 6:50:17 PM

8341 - Ritter describes NeoCon Imperial war fantasies to a tee. CheneyRummyBush would if they could but they can't. They're trying. They're trying to lay the ground work, keep options open, but luckily, death is no longer an option.

Ahmadinejad is likely to dick around until Bush leaves office. If the GOP retains control of Congress, I put the odds 50-50 of military action. If one House goes demo, 20-80. But do not think I am claiming any special wisdom for the Democrats here. Sizeable pluralities in both Senate and House are WarParty members. Most of them are Israel Lobby pawns. They'd bomb Iran in a minute. But they're too afraid of the consequences. Bush doesn't scare them any more but the American people do

8351. jexster - 10/23/2006 7:10:16 PM

Did tiu see where a bunch of Islamic clerics in Iraq said that god did not allow muslims to kill muslims...[since the 7th c]

Seems that Al is a history buff!

Seems that Al doesn't know much about the history of Islam.


I recommend This and This



The Mecca Declaration, a joint ruling of Shiite and Sunni clerics from Iraq, forbidding a Muslim to shed the blood of another Muslim, is in danger of going unheeded, according to close analysts of the region.

Be that as it may, the declaration is historic. According to al-Sharq al-Awsat [Ar.], it maintains that the differences between Sunnis and Shiites are a matter of personal interpretation (ta'wil), not a difference over basic principles (usul). To have such a declaration sponsored by Saudi Arabia, which adheres to the Wahhabi branch of Islam that was historically negative toward Shiites is a conceptual revolution. The statement has implications for Sunni-Shiite relations in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc.-- not just in Iraq.

Events in Iraq demonstrated that Western Powers could use the Sunni-Shiite divide to help overthrow governments, dominate major countries in the region, and even break up whole countries. The regional elites are increasingly deciding that Sunni-Shiite ecumenism is necessary to avoid more of these disasters.

8352. poipual - 10/23/2006 9:20:16 PM

alistair
I don't have much time-playing tournament on full tilt in 10 min., want to comment on your post about Algeria. Are you claiming that muslims were,nt doing the killing over the last ten years. You know better than that. by the by, Wiz called me a moran for typing moslum. Of course he will probably say he never did. He's known for that.

8353. poipual - 10/23/2006 9:24:34 PM

I did not re-post the above on purpose, and please ignore it Wiz, and it seems you don't know who I am. I once posted as Alda vis

8354. jexster - 10/23/2006 9:31:16 PM

Wiz that's no way to treat your old foe!

AlDavis didn't much care for em but word is poipuAl's a huge fan of WizzerArts

8355. jexster - 10/23/2006 9:45:56 PM

AL....

You might enjoy The Power of Nightmares

It is a 3 part BBC documentary comparing and contrasting the parallel histories of neoconservatism and militant islam

Your comments about Algeria reminded. Very good bit on that...one thing about dem jihadis, they're very much like true-believer revolutionaries everywhere. Like the Terror in the French Rev., War Communism etc. the radical groups define everything in such stark terms - either you're a good Muslim or you must die. In Algeria the Islamic revolution soon caught a downward spiral of killings as each radical group declared its cousins traitors and heretics until only one was left


The orgy of violence was so horrific that the Algerian people who broadly supported the movement at first, rose up and turned the country back to the corrupt fascist BUT secular military.....

History as you know doesn't fit on a bumpersticker

8356. jexster - 10/23/2006 9:54:10 PM

8357. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 10/23/2006 11:13:55 PM

8358. alistairconnor - 10/24/2006 4:48:22 AM

Al : I see Jexster got in first, and answered very well, on Algeria.

I originally thought you were talking about the Algerian war of independence, in the 1950s/60s. That had nothing much to do with Islam, it was about throwing out foreign occupiers.

Vietnam threw out foreign occupiers too, first French then American, and they aren't even Moslems.

About the Algerian civil war : it actually started when the corrupt, secular government lost the elections to an islamic opposition party, and instead of rolling over (which would have given an interesting experiment in islamic democracy, which the world needs more of), they staged a military coup to hold on to power. Bad stuff happened on all sides, and in the end, the islamists were the baddest of the bad.

But Islam didn't have very much to do with the whole process. People's disgust with corruption is what kicked it off, and the whole thing snowballed out of control.

8359. Wombat - 10/24/2006 8:15:59 AM

Alistair:

After the first round of elections, which the Islamic Aliiance did startlingly well, the Islamic Alliance suddenly got very cagey and evasive about whether or not they would change the Algerian constitution away from the "secular" and to a sharia-based system.

Since Algerian society (particularly in the urban areas, and among the educated, middle class, military, and government sectors) was more angered by corruption and misrule than a lack of piety, the imposition of Islamic rule (with the fairly recent experience of what happened in Iran) was not something they wished to see happen.

8360. alistairconnor - 10/24/2006 9:06:22 AM

Yeah, there was a definite disconnect between the French-speaking secular elite and the Arab/Moslem proletariat (to simplify). The kleptocratic one-party mode of government, born of the national revolution, had burned its legitimacy, and sought to renew itself through free elections. Unfortunately they had co-opted or marginalized all effective political opposition, and Islam was all that was left... it became a rallying point for the disposessed.

How it might have evolved without the coup, nobody really knows. The best case would have been the Turkish model : an elected government can govern, but the army guarantees the secular constitution and can step in if things go too far.

It was a dirty war, in any case. Many atrocities were apparently committed by government forces and blamed on the GIA.

And it's not over, there has been an increase in attacks and deaths in recent months.
I heard something on the radio, that the FLN (former single party) was negotiating with the islamist guerillas, to reserve seats in parliament for them on the FLN list... grotesque but plausible.

8361. jexster - 10/24/2006 10:53:48 AM

On what'd happen if George had more brain than ego and the course changed

The reality is that that strategic country has been plunged into chaos through this invasion and this occupation. The reality is, first of all, no one knows for sure what will happen when U.S. troops leave....We can't predict with any specificity, and anyone who says, "I know exactly what would happen," is lying.

RAY SUAREZ: The original goal of the U.S. invasion was to achieve regime change, get rid of the Saddam Hussein government, and create a stable democracy in the heart of the Middle East. It's been suggested quite often that leaving now and leaving quickly would negate the value of the thousands of American lives lost and the hundreds of billions of dollars spent toward that end.









Justifications for lost lives


PHYLLIS BENNIS: Not to mention the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives that have been lost, as well. But I think that that really misses the point. It's true that we were told at the end that the reason for the invasion and the occupation had to do with democracy. That was after the earlier justifications had been proved false -- weapons of mass destruction, nuclear weapons, et cetera, ties with al-Qaida that did not exist at that time.

The problem that we face now, I think, is how to respond to this reality. Killing more people, more young U.S. soldiers, more Iraqi civilians does not give credit to those who have already died; it simply increases the number of victims. And that's not something that I think anyone in this country should be proud of.

8362. jexster - 10/24/2006 10:56:38 AM

Make the Pyre Higher

8363. jexster - 10/24/2006 11:15:53 AM

We owe Iraq a great debt, but we can't make good on that debt as long as the occupation continues

Lies Have Consequences

8364. jexster - 10/24/2006 3:07:21 PM

The War Criminals of Zion
Cluster Fuck of Jewish Terrorism



Kosher Clusterbomb Terrorists
Shards of agony in southern Lebanon



By Megan K. Stack, LA Times Staff Writer
October 24, 2006


HALTA, LEBANON — There were no fireworks or feasts this year. Instead, it was the funeral of a child that ushered out the holy month of Ramadan in this tiny village of olive farmers.

Ashraf Shibli was 11 years old, and his family remembers him as a clever and curious boy. On Sunday afternoon, he set off a cluster bomb while foraging for pine cones in a sun-dappled grove. The first thing the villagers heard, echoing over the hills, was the explosion. Then they heard his older brother's screams; Ashraf died instantly, his father said.


This village of poor farmers buried his body in the rich soil Monday. The buzz of helicopters rattled the skies overhead. On what should have been one of the most joyful days of the Muslim calendar, this village was like much of south Lebanon: suffused with sadness.

"The war is not over for us," said Ali Hussein Shibli, father of the child, his face grizzled and dazed.

"In the end, nobody really looks after you — not [Saad] Hariri, not Walid Jumblatt," he said, naming two of Lebanon's sectarian leaders. "Not Hezbollah. Who is going to give me back my son now that he's dead?"

8365. wonkers2 - 10/24/2006 3:53:58 PM

This morning I heard on NPR an interview with a man who has just published a book on Cheney. He said his book documents that around two years before the invasion of Iraq, the presidential advisory committee on energy (Ken Lay, Exxon, et al)whose meetings were convened by Cheney, pored over maps of Iraq's oil fields as if to divide them up as if they were choosing sides for a softball game. At this time oil from Iraq was under embargo and the country was only allowed to sell a limited amount on the world market. Of course, the implication is that oil was a big factor in the Bush administration's decision to invade. Surprised anyone?
In the interest of completeness, the author, whose name escapes me at the momemt, acknowledged in response to a question from the interviewer that the advisory committee looked at oil maps from other countries in the region as well as those from Iraq. Not a smoking gun perhaps, but close.

The author also pointed out a couple of other interesting facts. Cheney's office has the largest number of people of any VP in history. The names of all but a few of the people who work there are not public information. Cheney refused to give an interview to the author and does not generally give interviews. Cheney's staffers read all messages to and from the President's office on national security. But the President's staff is not allowed to read the messages on security to and from Cheney's office.

8366. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 10/24/2006 5:03:15 PM

"Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency" by Lou Dubose, Jake Bernstein

I heard it to, wonk and it made my blood boil. Cheney is a truly evil fuck!

8367. wonkers2 - 10/24/2006 5:32:01 PM

That's the one.

8368. wonkers2 - 10/24/2006 5:32:59 PM

Evil incarnate. As I recall he was a supporter of apartheid in South Africa. Or at least he opposed sanctions.

8369. jexster - 10/24/2006 8:18:17 PM

Most Republicans did. The Leader of the Pack - Jesse Helms


That was back in the day when I was molesting pretty pages on the Floor

8370. Ulgine Barrows - 10/24/2006 9:10:37 PM

rolls eyes, unimpressed

8371. jexster - 10/26/2006 3:56:36 PM

Heckuva Job!

George W. Bush - Bashar's New Best Friend

DAMASCUS, Syria -- Horror at the bloodshed accompanying the U.S. effort to bring democracy to Iraq has accomplished what human rights activists, analysts and others say Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had been unable to do by himself: silence public demands for democratic reforms here.

8372. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 10/26/2006 4:14:13 PM

This is an excellent video piece (by Michael Ware of CNN) that explains the many factions in Iraq that are kicking our ass and making the DOD look like the lightweights they are.

Exactly Who Are We Fighting In Iraq?

8373. jexster - 10/26/2006 5:46:36 PM

A: A Dead-enders in their last throes.

8374. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 10/27/2006 12:55:22 AM

8375. jexster - 10/27/2006 11:20:46 AM

A Jewish Hitler?
The rise of Avigdor Lieberman

8376. robertjayb - 10/27/2006 12:43:16 PM

Report says Halliburton cheated...Big Whoop! (HouChron)

WASHINGTON — The Halliburton subsidiary that provides food, shelter and other logistics to U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan exploited federal regulations to hide details on its contract performance, according to a report released today.

The special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction found that Houston-based Halliburton's Kellogg, Brown & Root Services routinely marked all information it was giving the government as proprietary, whether it actually was or not. The government promises not to disclose proprietary data so a company's most valuable information is not divulged to its competitors.

By marking all information proprietary — including such normally releasable data as labor rates — the company abused federal regulations, the report says.

In effect, Kellogg, Brown & Root turned the regulations "into a mechanism to prevent the government from releasing normally transparent information, thus potentially hindering competition and oversight."

8377. jexster - 10/29/2006 10:01:18 AM

This is Baghdad. What could be worse?

By Anthony Shadid

8378. jexster - 10/30/2006 3:30:45 AM

Olmert "Sorry" as Germany Confirms Another Lebanon Clash With Israel


Better stop messin with the Germans Schlomo

8379. jexster - 11/1/2006 2:58:44 PM

How to cut and run

We could lead the Mideast to peace, but only if we stop refusing to do the right thing

[Lt. Gen. WILLIAM E. ODOM (Ret.) is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a professor at Yale University.]

8380. Jenerator - 11/3/2006 7:22:03 AM

Hamas uses women as shields in latest clash against Israelis.

The religion of peace gives equal opportunity for martyrdom. Men, women and children are all viable in terms of jihad against the 'oppressors'.

Go Islam - you're an equal opportunity killer!

8381. Jenerator - 11/3/2006 7:24:56 AM

Somali Islamists test rockets in preparation for suicide attacks on Americans and neighboring countries.

8382. Jenerator - 11/3/2006 7:27:26 AM

Arab militias at it again in Sudan killing around 31 children.

8383. Jenerator - 11/3/2006 7:27:43 AM

I'm seeing a trend here...

8384. jexster - 11/3/2006 1:59:54 PM

I'm seeing a trend here...

Bush "Would Understand" Jewish Attack on Iran
JewRusalem Post

I don't think the 150,000 US troops in Iraq would but who gives a shit?

Anything for his Zionist masters

8385. jexster - 11/3/2006 2:01:57 PM

8381 -

Somalia - that's the Fifth war Bush lost...bet you didn't know that

Now you do

8386. Max Macks - 11/3/2006 7:57:21 PM

fucking Israel shot women , but then said
someone was shooting at them.

of course they Israeli thugs were in a tank

8387. jexster - 11/3/2006 9:14:25 PM

They Shoot Unarmed Women Don't They?

The IDF fascists trapped alleged "gunmen" in a Mosque who alerted the women of the village.

The women streamed to the mosque in a Ghandi-esque confrontation with the Oppressor. The Jews killed two.

The women fled but quickly returned streaming over the 20 foot p9les of dirt that the Jewish killers had erected.

The IDF were dumfounded as the women ran into the mosque.

The alleged gunmen escaped.

This recall for me a conversation I had with an Israeli undergrad exchange student recently. She now back home in a kibbutz is a big advocate of just this sort of tactics, non-violent, like Ghandi

"If the Palestinians would all burn their Israel ID cards, the Occupation would fall apart. The IDF controls by fear. They don't have enough soldiers or enough will to deal with civil disobedience"

I told her "Yeah but who is going to be the first Palestinian willing to get shot at one of those checkpoints"

"That's what it takes. But when it happens, the whole thing will fall apart"

8388. Jenerator - 11/3/2006 9:25:42 PM

BEIT HANOUN, Gaza (Reuters) - Israeli troops shot and killed two Palestinian women acting as human shields between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen during a clash at a Gaza mosque on Friday, witnesses said, before the gunmen escaped.

The dramatic events came on the third day of an Israeli assault on the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, the largest operation it has conducted in the Gaza Strip in months, designed to put a stop to militants firing homemade rockets into Israel.

The 60 gunmen holed themselves up in the al-Nasir mosque on Thursday evening. On Friday, around 50 veiled Palestinian women, answering an appeal on local radio, marched toward the mosque, attempting to act as a shield against the Israeli troops.


The Israeli army said it had fired at armed Palestinians. It said it was investigating whether it had also shot the women. A spokeswoman said the army had television footage showing armed men mingling among the women as they approached the mosque.

In the melee, the gunmen fled the shrine and Hamas, the Islamist militant group that heads the Palestinian government, said they had also managed to escape from Beit Hanoun, which is almost entirely surrounded by Israeli troops.

The Israeli army confirmed the gunmen had escaped.

-----------

So, this tactic worked. Just send in women. Next time, send in children. Let the terrorists flee while women shield the terrorists. Then again, the women were willing. All part of martyrdom in the jihad against the oppressors.

8389. judithathome - 11/3/2006 10:11:41 PM

Bush is sending in America's sons and daughters to be slaughtered in a senseless war...how is that any better?

8390. Jenerator - 11/3/2006 10:21:38 PM

...rolls eyes...

8391. jexster - 11/5/2006 7:49:17 AM

Jews Open Fire on Unarmed Women

8392. jexster - 11/5/2006 7:49:30 AM

I can relate Jen

8393. alistairConnor - 11/5/2006 9:29:33 AM

Arab militias at it again in Sudan killing around 31 children.

Well make up your mind Jen. Is it Arabs, or is it Islamists? Or is it the same thing?

8394. alistairConnor - 11/5/2006 9:31:30 AM

The Israeli army claimed for several hours that a news agency had video footage of a Palestinian gunman using women's dress to evade capture. This claim was later withdrawn.

Choose your atrocities carefully, Jen.

8395. Jenerator - 11/5/2006 10:01:05 AM

Alistair,

If it is proven that these women were doing nothing, I will gladly retract my statement.

I am somewhat suspicious, though, given the Palestinian propensity for disguising militants as civilians and for initiating certain types of conflict and then claiming innocence.

8396. alistairconnor - 11/6/2006 5:37:52 AM

No, Jen, they weren't "doing nothing". They were trying to protect Palestinian fighters. Whether that merits shooting or not, you'll have to determine for yourself.

It's clear from the detailed accounts (e.g. in the Telegraph) that those killed were on their way towards the mosque, i.e. there is no possibility that they were hiding gunmen at that point.

8397. alistairconnor - 11/6/2006 5:38:15 AM

In any case, Tsahal is an equal-opportunity killer.

8398. wonkers2 - 11/6/2006 9:21:59 AM

It was a preemptive strike.

8399. concerned - 11/6/2006 9:42:56 AM

Re. 8396 -

Interesting that women will work so much against their self interest - in this case, they are throwing their lives away for a cause that also subjugates them and denies them their rights as human beings.

8400. alistairconnor - 11/6/2006 10:35:04 AM

You're right that it's often a destructive force, and often seems to win out over individual self-interest. It's called "patriotism".

8401. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 11/6/2006 10:43:49 AM

Israel, our Gangster-Nation ally.

8402. concerned - 11/6/2006 11:17:32 AM

Re. 8400 -

Actually, no. Merriam-Webster defines patriotism as 'love for or devotion to one's country'.

Since the Palestinians' fight for Israel territory is largely religiously based, however you define what the Palestinians are doing, 'patriotism' is not the right noun for it.

8403. jexster - 11/6/2006 11:20:30 AM

Well that's a nice big circle to nowhere.

Of course, the PAL's are nationalistic

Jews stole their land in 1948

8404. jexster - 11/6/2006 11:20:58 AM

Called "ethnic cleansing" nowadays

8405. concerned - 11/6/2006 11:24:00 AM

As usual, jexster, you're full of fecal matter.

Most of the so-called Palestinians and their ancestors never lived in Israel which already is home to over a million Muslims.

8406. concerned - 11/6/2006 11:29:33 AM

Why don't Palestinians get lives and earn livings like other people have to? Nobody takes their permanent welfare deal with so-called refugee camps seriously, except for LW fools or those with agendas.

8407. jexster - 11/6/2006 11:29:55 AM

You wanna bet?


See generally (Smith, C.O) Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict

See map p.187 "UN 1947 Partition Boundaries"


NOWHERE do Israelis own more land than Palestininians. In Jaffa, 39% was the most.

This despite a steady and British facilitated effort of international Zionists that had steadily eroded Arab ownership for 40 years

8408. jexster - 11/6/2006 11:35:05 AM

OH HAPPY DAY!


This map (en francais) shows the status in 1945. The only difference is this one covers all land - Arab, Jew, public
while the Smith map is only private land and show the situation 2 years later

Maybe TD, before you open your pie hole, you should ask yourself

"Do I know what the fuck I am talking about"?

8409. alistairconnor - 11/6/2006 11:48:29 AM

Since the Palestinians' fight for Israel territory is largely religiously based

What a load of crap. The PLO is an explicitly secular national liberation organization. Christian Palestinians have always been prominent in the struggle. The emergence of religious-based groups (Hamas, Islamic jihad) is a relatively recent occurrence related mostly to the inability of the secular organisations to deliver peace and prosperity.

8410. concerned - 11/6/2006 11:55:30 AM

Why should Muslims oppose Israel the right to their land, anyway? I thought both religions accepted the Old Testament verses that promised Palestine (Canaan) to Jews in perpetuity, or until Judgment Day, whichever comes first.

If Muslims are opposing Israel's right to exist, that would mean that Muslims are repudiating the scriptures of their own God.

8411. concerned - 11/6/2006 12:03:56 PM

Roughly half of the promised land of Canaan is outside the present-day boundaries of Israel. I say, give this half (Palestine) to the so-called Palestinians, which would be perfectly equitable, IMO.

8412. alistairconnor - 11/6/2006 12:43:05 PM

Why should Muslims oppose Israel the right to their land, anyway?

What a pathetic strawman. Since it's a nationalistic struggle, the religious angle has no relevance.

Of course, it is precisely the Israeli religious obsession with possessing every bit of the Middle East that Jews have ever inhabited (Eretz Israel) that constitutes a large part of the problem. Though a majority of Israelis do not wish to live in a religious state, the religious nuts have often dominated the agenda. The West Bank colonies being an obvious case in point.

8413. alistairconnor - 11/6/2006 12:44:13 PM

Gee, are you proposing to "give" Palestine to the Palestinians?

That's remarkably generous of you. I wonder why no-one ever thought of it before.

8414. concerned - 11/6/2006 12:58:40 PM

That's right. Just the part of Palestine that's not within Israel's borders.

Sound good to you?

8415. jexster - 11/6/2006 2:41:37 PM

Roughly half of the promised land of Canaan is outside the present-day boundaries of Israel.

Abigdor Lieberman wants it all.

The Newest Ugly Face of Jew Fascism

PS God chased their asses out for good when they killed his only Son.

8416. jexster - 11/6/2006 2:42:23 PM

Palestine free from the Jordan to the Sea


Just as God intended

8417. jexster - 11/7/2006 10:15:10 AM

Bush and Israel - Midwives to Radical Islam

8418. jexster - 11/9/2006 4:47:33 PM

EU BUrns Bush on Syria

8419. jexster - 11/9/2006 11:20:40 PM

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A Palestinian official accused Israel on Thursday of "state terrorism" in an attack in Gaza that killed 18 civilians and said Israeli apologies for such incidents were insincere and no longer acceptable.


"This is terrorism, this is state terrorism," Palestinian U.N. Observer Riyad Mansour told an emergency Security Council meeting. "These are war crimes for which the perpetrators must be held accountable under international law."

8420. Jenerator - 11/10/2006 6:39:09 AM

i Since it's a nationalistic struggle, the religious angle has no relevance.

I complteely disagree. It *ultimately* comes down to who the land belongs to via God.

8421. Jenerator - 11/10/2006 6:39:57 AM

Let me try this again.

Since it's a nationalistic struggle, the religious angle has no relevance.

I completely disagree. It *ultimately* comes down to who the land belongs to via God.

8422. jexster - 11/10/2006 6:54:18 AM

Bullshit

God kicked em out for killing his Son if you wanna play that game

Now we see the ugly face of the Evangelical evil....

8423. jexster - 11/10/2006 6:55:07 AM

No Guts, No Gloire AC

PARIS (Reuters) - French peacekeeping troops in Lebanon recently came within two seconds of firing missiles at Israeli fighter jets that approached as if to attack them, French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said.



Speaking to the lower house of parliament on Wednesday night, she said this was the latest in a string of incidents in which Israeli warplanes had "adopted a hostile attitude" to French and German forces and said it was "not tolerable."

"A catastrophe was narrowly avoided by our troops," Alliot-Marie said, according to a transcript of her comments. She did not say exactly when or where the events took place.

8424. jexster - 11/10/2006 7:14:23 AM

8425. alistairconnor - 11/10/2006 7:21:15 AM

I completely disagree. It *ultimately* comes down to who the land belongs to via God.

If that's the case, can you ask him to make up his mind and settle the matter? It's playing hell with my nerves.

But seriously. Nationalism trumps religion every time. Just look at the way the Hezbollah, a quintessentially religious organisation, is lionized by the entire Lebanese nation.

On the other hand, if the war between Palestinians and Israelis is a religious war, then
1) I guess the majority of Israeli Jews are not concerned by it at all, since most of them are atheists
2) the war is between Judaism on one side, and Islam and Christianity on the other. Oh, did you forget about the Palestinian Christians? (fervent nationalists, just like the Moslems)

8426. jexster - 11/10/2006 7:21:34 AM

On the Road to Armageddon
How evangelicals became Israel's best friend.

8427. wonkers2 - 11/10/2006 7:37:46 AM

Maybe dispensationalism is why the U.S. savings rate is so low!

8428. jexster - 11/10/2006 7:46:15 AM

Now I have to wonder....was the Connerly Freedom Ride worth it?

8429. Max Macks - 11/10/2006 7:11:42 PM

The Fucking Israel are reported on major
news media that they are thinking of bombing
Iran to stop Iran from getting nuclear power.

Let them do it , this time the fools will find
out what Iran can do that Hezbollah could not do.

Israel is like a mad dog. bombing and killing
Palestianians with the Bush govt doing nothing
to stop them . tho they could easily
stop them by stopping all the billions of dollars
they send

8430. Jenerator - 11/11/2006 3:52:40 PM

Jexster,

God kicked em out for killing his Son if you wanna play that game

God kicked the Jews out of Israel because of Jesus' crucifixion? That's a first I hadn't heard before. Still, it's a stupid conclusion. God promised that land to the Israelis and gave it to them. Read the Old Testament for once in your life.

Now we see the ugly face of the Evangelical evil....

You're paranoid.

Alistair,

Nationalism trumps religion every time.

I don't know. I bet Nationalism can come from religion and vice versa,

8431. wonkers2 - 11/12/2006 12:03:41 AM

There was a long and fascinating article on Ahmad Chalabi in last Sunday's NYT Magazine (Nov. 5). The article provides insights into how we got into the mess in Iraq and Iraq's relationship to Iran. Chalabi is an interesting character. Chalabi

Chalabi:

"America's big mistake was in failing to step out of the way after Hussein's downfall and let the Iraqis take charge. The Iraqis, not the Americans, should have been allowed to take over immediately--the people who knew the country, who spoke the language, and, most important, who could take responsibility for the chaos that was unfolding in the streets. An Iraqi government could have acted harshly, even brutally, to regain control of the place, and the Iraqis would have been without a foreigner to blame. They would ahve appreciated the firm hand. there would have been no guerilla insurgency or, if there was, a small one that the new Iraqi government could have brought Moktada al-Sadr, the populist cleric, into the government and house-trained him. The Americans, in all likelihood, could have gone home. They certainly would have been home by now.

"We would lhave taken hold of the country. We would have revitalized the civil service immediately. We would have been able to put together a military force and an intelligence service. There would have been no insurgency. We would have had electricity. The Americans screwed it up."

Comment: This strikes me as wishful thinking. Nothing Chalabi said shows how the fight by the Sunnis to retain their controlling position and the determination of the Shiites to take control away from them would have been avoided if the U.S. had withdrawn or pulled back from the situation after the invasion. Once Hussein was deposed, a huge American force would have been required to avoid or subdue the Sunni-Shia conflict and stop the infiltrators from other countries.

8432. jexster - 11/12/2006 10:15:14 PM

Wait six months...

Saudi Arabia: Iraq a major terror base

Saudi Arabia's interior minister on Sunday called Iraq a major base for terrorism, a sign of growing alarm over the neighboring country where U.S. forces are struggling to prevent Sunni-Shiite violence from escalating into full-scale civil war.

Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif said the situation in Iraq is deteriorating daily and the country has become a threat to the whole region.

"There is no doubt that Iraq now forms a main base for terrorism," he told the pan-Arab Al-Arabiya television station in the capital Riyadh.

"The situation in Iraq is changing day after day, and this situation has numerous threats," he said before his departure to the United Arab Emirates to attend a meeting on security issues in the Gulf states.

The minister also said Saudi youth were being lured to fight in Iraq. U.S. and Iraqi officials have long complained about Saudi extremists crossing into Iraq to join the battle against American and coalition forces. U.S. officials announced last April that Saudis were one of the top five nationalities among foreign fighters captured by coalition forces in Iraq.

The oil-rich kingdom has been moving forward with plans to build a fence along its frontier with Iraq to prevent militants from crossing the border.

8433. jexster - 11/13/2006 12:14:57 PM

Time is NOW AC

Mr. Arens, the former defense minister, said of the Europeans: “They don’t like us — what can we do? What else is new? We would like to be liked by everyone, of course, but it’s the relationship with the United States that really matters.”

Pas de guts, pas de gloire

Blast the assholes out of the sky

Zionists Pissing Pants
NyT

8434. jexster - 11/14/2006 2:11:31 PM

Holy Horseshit

For Evangelicals, Supporting Israel Is ‘God’s Foreign Policy’

Which entirely explains every post about Israel, every slur of Moslems, support for the IraQ War, in short everything Jen has posted here

8435. jexster - 11/15/2006 10:14:19 AM

The "conversion" of the Evangelical Right Wingers from Jew-baiters to Arab-Haters by the Zionists though quite interesting is just a footnote

The largely atheist, mostly Jew, ex-Trotskyite neocons were the ones that really made the difference.


The fundies were just their pawns...



The neocons' attachment to the Israeli right naturally carried with it a whole series of assumptions about the Middle East, about terrorism, about Arabs, about the Palestinians, about Islam, and about how American should conduct its Mideast policy. The neocons, following the eminent pro-Israel Arabist Bernard Lewis, argued that the Arab world had only itself to blame for its backwardness. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict was trotted out by a moribund Arab culture as an excuse. In any case the Palestinians had lost any moral claim because of their recourse to terrorism. America should stop trying to placate the Palestinians and impose a Pax Americana on the region. The Arabs, who respected only force, would fall in line.

Under Bush, these assumptions became U.S. policy -- notwithstanding their significant departure from traditional U.S. Mideast policy,


The salient features of that war are these: 1) "Terrorism" is itself the enemy. It is soft-minded and immoral to consider historical context or grievances. Any group that practices terrorism is to be smashed into submission. 2) All militant Islamic groups, from al-Qaida to Hamas and Hezbollah, are essentially the same. They all subscribe to a totalitarian ideology and must be destroyed. 3) Force works. If you smash the Arab world in the mouth hard enough, it will get the idea. If it doesn't, it will be necessary to continue smashing it indefinitely. 4) The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not that important, and the United States should not interfere with Israel's actions, however harsh. 5) The war on terrorism is so crucial that it merits suspending civil liberties, establishing secret prisons and using rendition of suspects in order to torture them. ...


Link in Lies

8436. jexster - 11/15/2006 10:16:49 AM

If the Evangelicals think that's "God's foreign policy", so much the better for the NeoCons and Zionist right wingers.....The Meta Myth aka Big Lie is the Straussian centerpiece of the neoconservatism that has now wrecked US power and influence in the ME and the world for decades to come

8437. jexster - 11/16/2006 6:40:59 PM

Remember Me?



The Jews haven't

Gilad Shalit's Father Visits Bombed Out Palestinians


Sweet Balm of Gilead!

8438. jexster - 11/17/2006 12:27:47 PM

Hit Em Where It Really Hurts

CNN reports that Israeli youth are in a state of high anziety.

Seems that in their RUSH to destroy Lebanon, the IDF neglected to consider the effect on the price of pot and fine Lebanese hash on its population

This is a very stressful place. We need something to help stabilize said one.

Poor things


Hit the Jew in his stash and his pocketbook.

Can be peace be far behind?

8439. jexster - 11/17/2006 12:31:40 PM

8440. jexster - 11/17/2006 8:44:23 PM

International Outlaws

UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. General Assembly called for an end to Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip on Friday, overwhelmingly passing a resolution in an emergency special session the Israeli ambassador blasted as a "farce" and a "circus."



The Arab League had asked for the session after the United States vetoed a similar, but watered-down U.N. Security Council draft resolution against Israel's actions last weekend — its second veto on the matter this year.

There are no vetoes in the 192-member General Assembly and the chamber's resolutions are nonbinding, considered more a reflection of international opinion.

The resolution passed Friday by a vote of 156 to 7, with six abstentions

8441. jexster - 11/21/2006 12:08:48 PM

IN my country there is problem
and that problem is the Jew
They take everybody money
They never give it back

Borat Sagdiyev

8442. jexster - 11/21/2006 1:30:13 PM

I only caught the last 30-45 min of the 2 hrs but do not miss rebroadcasts on Discovery Times Channel of Ted Koppel's Iran: The Most Dangerous Nation

Very nice

8443. Ronski - 11/21/2006 1:42:49 PM

Israel to Recognize Gay Marriages Performed Elsewhere

8444. Ronski - 11/21/2006 1:43:29 PM

8445. Ronski - 11/21/2006 1:44:02 PM

Toys

8446. jexster - 11/21/2006 1:51:01 PM

I've always wanted to marry a hot jewish boy....either that or a little Russian teddy bear


Poor me..ever the bridesmaid, never the bride

8447. judithathome - 11/21/2006 8:58:40 PM

Taunting Iraqi children with drinking water is bad enough.

Laughing about it and putting it up on YouTube?

Despicable.

I suppose these are just a few bad apples? Is this what we're turning young soldiers into?

8448. jexster - 11/22/2006 10:44:01 AM

That's what war does judith...kill maim and turn green apples rotten

8449. jexster - 11/22/2006 10:49:18 AM

Called collateral damage

Speaking of which..you gotta luv these Bushies crying crocodile tears and proclaiming their support of the Lebanee government

Rat bastards

Cole: Bush's Cedar Revolution Collapses in Yet Another Policy Failure

Everything Bush touches turns to ashes, bombings, assassinations.

8450. jexster - 11/22/2006 1:10:47 PM

Remember the Arab Spring?

"Just recently we have had the Lebanese revolution, the Egyptian announcement about electoral changes, the Iraqi elections, the Afghan elections," wrote Charles Krauthammer in the spring of 2005. "Kuwait has just extended suffrage to women, and Syria has announced, however disingenuously, that they are moving toward legalizing political parties, purging the ruling Baath Party, sponsoring free municipal elections in 2007, and formally endorsing a market economy." He concluded: "What we have seen in the last six months has been simply astonishing -- well, astonishing to the critics."



Arab Winter

8451. jexster - 11/22/2006 1:11:36 PM

Boy some really stupid people get a paid a lot of money just for being really stupid people

8452. jexster - 11/22/2006 4:42:41 PM

No comment necessary....


Iraq war was good for Israel: Olmert

8453. jexster - 11/22/2006 9:28:40 PM

Elections bring forward Islamists - Feel The Power Flowing Out

RAY SUAREZ: Joshua Landis, Hisham just put a lot on the table, but a couple of things stand out: his suggestion that we're seeing the beginning of the end of a Western-leaning Lebanon and that it's a direct challenge to American influence in the region to push Lebanon in that direction. Do you agree?

JOSHUA LANDIS: I agree only partly. I think that he's drawn this very black-and-white picture of good and evil, and I don't think that's correct.

Syria is demanding a number of things. They're demanding the Golan Heights back that was occupied in 1967 by Israel. They want influence in Lebanon, and they don't want Iraq to fall apart. They want to be engaged in dialogue to find a solution to these problems.

And, you know, the United States and Syria have dealt together for two decades. And the U.S. in '91, when it first went to war against Iraq in the Gulf, had Syria on its side, because in a sense it said, "You can keep Lebanon in your sphere of influence." And Syria said, "Yes," they kept Lebanon in their sphere of influence.

And what happened to Lebanon during that period? It repaired itself in the civil war. It grew. Hariri was an ally of Lebanon, and he rebuilt Lebanon. It was pro-Western.

Because of Syrian influence and Syria's in Lebanon does not mean that the country turns into an Iranian -- you know, a small Iran on the Mediterranean. It means that Syrian interests are taken into concern, and it doesn't mean the end.

But I do think he's right on the sense that we see the tide flowing out of U.S. power. In 2003, the United States thought it was going to remake the Middle East, destroy its enemies, and build up friendly Western allies throughout the Middle East.

What have we seen? We've seen that all the elections that America has encouraged have brought forward Islamists who are angry at America -- that's in Palestine, in Egypt, Iran, in Iraq itself, and in Lebanon, with Hezbollah's gaining seats through elections.

Now those people want to push their advantage. The United States tried to destroy them in this war in the summer, and they failed. Now, what is the United States going to do? Are they going to go back and bomb these people? They can't. They don't have any more power.

And in a sense, Syria is letting them know that. Their allies are letting them know that, saying, "You come and talk to us. And concede some things to us, and we can stabilize this situation."

NewsHour Interview
Joshua Landis, SyriaComent
Univ of Oklahoma

8454. jexster - 11/23/2006 9:55:12 AM

The Gemayel Assassination
Joshua Landis

8455. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 11/23/2006 11:48:21 AM

Iran Hawks Reorganize

Unchastened by the catastrophe of the Iraq war or the setback delivered to the White House and Republicans in the midterm elections in part as a result of it, Iran hawks have organized new efforts to promote U.S. support for regime change in Tehran.

Among the latest efforts is the creation earlier this month of the Iran Enterprise Institute, a privately funded nonprofit drawing not just its name but inspiration and moral support from leading figures associated with the American Enterprise Institute. The Iran Enterprise Institute is directed by a newly arrived Iranian dissident whose cause has recently been championed by AEI fellow and former Pentagon advisor Richard Perle. Amir Abbas Fakhravar, 31, served time in Iran’s notorious Evin prison before arriving in Washington in May, with Perle’s help. Fakhravar, who advocates U.S. intervention to promote secular democracy in Iran, now seeks Washington’s backing to lead an organization that would unite Iranian student dissidents.

8456. Jenerator - 11/23/2006 12:03:47 PM

The Religion of Peace strikes again and kills 145 civilians, wounding 238 others.

Now, Wizard. I thought of you yesterday when NPR featured UN statistics saying that sectarian violence accounted for more deaths than anything else. They didn't offer any final statistics, just said that more than 3,000 innocent people have died because of suicide bombers, etc.

8457. jexster - 11/23/2006 12:16:16 PM

It was the largest single attack since the Christian Soldiers shocked and awed the world


Bush is now responsible for another 150 deaths or as one WH aide put it off record

"for Saddam like numbers"

8458. jexster - 11/23/2006 12:18:50 PM

Iraq Slaughter Grows

8459. jexster - 11/23/2006 12:20:51 PM

8460. jexster - 11/23/2006 1:24:25 PM

Moral Consequences of the Occupation


The Nation




It may be an old saw, but it remains true: power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And this, ultimately, is why occupation is so pernicious. The occupier is at once all powerful, able to arrest and berate the occupied at will, but also powerless, for he knows that his security and safety are largely outside his control. He knows he is hated.

The result is this .

There's a lot of talk about the mounting toll in Iraq: in blood , in treasure , in the lives of innocent Iraqis. But one of war's darkest legacies is the moral corrosion it inflicts on those who wage it. The longer we stay in Iraq, the worse it will get.

Next time that little boy will be wielding a rock. Later, a bomb.

8461. Jenerator - 11/23/2006 1:55:32 PM

Baghdad - A gunman, left, shoots an Iraqi election worker during an attack on Haifa Street, a base of Sunni Arab insurgents. About 30 men attacked a car carrying five of the workers, executing three at point blank range. (Photo by AP stringer, December 19, 2004.)

8462. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 11/23/2006 2:10:41 PM

That was a year ago Jen; things a 10 times worse now.

All brought to you by a reckless, misguided fool to whom God (and a bunch of arrogant NeoCons) spoke directly.


Happy Thanksgiving!

8463. jexster - 11/23/2006 2:59:28 PM

Throughout its history at least over the past 500 years or so, this region has known sporadic Sunni Shia conflict but nothing remotely on the scale we see as the result of the US invasion and occupation.

Is it any wonder then that

Past surveys have hinted at this result, but a new poll in Iraq makes it more stark than ever: the Iraqi people want the U.S. to exit their country. And most Iraqis now approve of attacks on U.S. forces, even though 94% express disapproval of al-Qaeda.

At one time, this was primarily a call by the Sunni minority, but now the Shiites have also come around to this view. The survey by much-respected World Public Opinion (WPO), taken in September, found that 74% of Shiites and 91% of Sunnis in Iraq want us to leave within a year. The number of Shiites making this call in Baghdad, where the U.S. may send more troops to bring order, is even higher (80%). In contrast, earlier this year, 57% of this same group backed an "open-ended" U.S. stay.

By a wide margin, both groups believe U.S. forces are provoking more violence than they're preventing -- and that day-to-day security would improve if we left.

Support for attacks on U.S. forces now commands majority support among both Shiites and Sunnis. The report states: "Support for attacks on U.S.-led forces has grown to a majority position—now six in ten. Support appears to be related to widespread perception, held by all ethnic groups, that the U.S. government plans to have permanent military bases in Iraq and would not withdraw its forces from Iraq even if the Iraqi government asked it to. If the U.S. were to commit to withdraw, more than half of those who approve of attacks on US troops say that their support for attacks would diminish."

The backing for attacks on our forces has jumped to 61% from 47% in January.

2309 The strict conditions for legitimate defense by military force require rigorous consideration. The gravity of such a decision makes it subject to rigorous conditions of moral legitimacy. At one and the same time:
- the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;
- all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;
- there must be serious prospects of success;
- the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated.

The power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.
These are the traditional elements enumerated in what is called the "just war" doctrine. The evaluation of these conditions for moral legitimacy belongs to the prudential judgment of those who have responsibility for the common good.

8464. jexster - 11/23/2006 3:04:55 PM

The fact is that there have been about 500,000 excess deaths caused by the violence unleashed from invasion and occupation including 4 marines who won't be enjoying next Thanksgiving.


George Bush is responsible. Those who supported this war are responsible and will be held to account before God

8465. jexster - 11/23/2006 3:07:11 PM

They died for nothing save the gruesome political ambitions of George W. Bush who in 1999 told his Dallas Morning News biographer that if given an opportunity he would invade and occupy Iraq because "it is as commander in chief that a president gains power to do what he wants"

8466. jexster - 11/23/2006 3:14:31 PM

Bush and his henchmen have destroyed not only a governement but a state, not only a nation but civil society and order.

This is what that looks like




IF you've not seen them, make a point of seeing Iraq in Fragments and CNN's "Combat Hospital".


Couldn't watch the latter in one sitting, not because of the considerable gore but because I couldn't get the nagging question "Why?" out of my head.

Why does that soldier's leg look like a piece of an animal carcass?

Why is that orderly mopping up pools of blood from the ER floor?

Why is this boy crying (from Fragments)

8467. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 11/23/2006 3:44:44 PM

This is poignant and I'm thankful this kind of kid is still in the military.

.November 21, 2006, 10:30 pm

Thoughts of a Landlocked Sailor

By Jeremie Lucia

What kind of person wants to know about Jeremie Lucia? I’ve won no prestigious awards, am no actor or famous personality, nor have I invented anything significant like shoes with roller-skates in them, or something you might find on a late night Ronco infomercial. So what would compel a person to read about the life and adventures of Jeremie Lucia? I suppose once you add the element of my service to the United States Navy and my deployment to Afghanistan with the Army, I then seem to be a little more interesting to the average reader!

Approaching my 30th birthday this December, I sometimes stop to evaluate my life and how I ended up in Afghanistan (of all places) when I should be floating merrily somewhere in the Pacific Ocean on aircraft carrier CVN 72, the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. While working as an administrative assistant to the ship’s executive officer, I received a message from the U.S. Army requesting augmentees to help relieve their stretched-thin active and reserve components for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. My heart and soul took a long hard look at the implications this one little message carried with it.

Here we are as a nation, at war, with troops numbering in the tens of thousands constantly being deployed. These include troops with families and children, dogs in the yard, white picket fences — the complete “American Dream” package. And there I sat: no kids, no cats, not even a girlfriend or possible prospects for something that might feasibly resemble a girlfriend. My heart, my mind, and the deepest parts of my soul compelled me to answer the call if it would save just one person from being separated from their family. After a mild struggle convincing my command of release for this duty, I found myself in the company of nearly 30 seafaring brothers in Fort Bragg, N.C. This is where I met FC1 McCloskey, one of my fellow writers here, and a true friend and comrade.

There aren’t many people I’ve met in my life who have been “fast friends.” Too often have I made acquaintances where the relationship came with some tariff or cost, but there was something in my gut telling me this was anodyne, free from any personal sacrifice except for that which comes with true friendship.

Tony helped pass the time while going through Civil Affairs (C.A.) training, as well as the “warrior training” we received at Fort Bragg in preparation for our tour in Afghanistan. The gist of C.A. is to win over “hearts and minds” and inspire a positive opinion of coalition forces among the local populace. Direct from the C.A. field manual, the definition of civil affairs is, “activities of a commander that establish, maintain, influence, or exploit relations between military forces and civil authorities, both governmental and non-governmental, and the civilian populace in a friendly, neutral, or hostile area of operations in order to facilitate military operations and consolidate operational objectives.” Basically we give people a warm fuzzy deep in the cockles of their hearts while we maintain a presence in their country. It’s a humbling and rewarding job and one I’m proud to be a part of.

This is the first time in military history the Navy has been part of Civil Affairs. Upon our arrival in Afghanistan there was a short adjustment period and — bam — right into doing what we were trained to do. My body attuned itself to new weather and terrain — mainly the 7500-feet-above-sea-level thin air — in short time. It was the culture shock that took some time to adjust too. How could a country be so … so… destitute? People live in mud houses, work to eat from meal to meal, have very few possessions and an 20 percent literacy rate. The roads and infrastructure are little more than dirt trails, and corruption fuels daily life (of course, anyone would be corrupt if they had literally nothing). I don’t blame or hold a grudge against the Afghans for the way they live, but rather pity them.

As most people know by now, the story of Afghanistan’s recent history is a sad one. Once a proud and progressive nation, 30 years of war have decimated any trace of its former glory. The educated and skilled fled to Pakistan or the U.S. — basically any country that would take them — leaving the uneducated and poor to run, or ruin, the country. The Soviets certainly played their part, as did the civil war that followed and raged over decades. Then Taliban emerged from Pakistan to oppress the country even further.

The American public has grown accustomed to associating Iraq with the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. I think if we really wanted justice for what happened on our soil, the number of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq would be reversed, and Osama would be the one with a death sentence over his head, not Saddam. The Taliban would be eradicated, and Afghanistan could start to finally heal and bounce back from the ravages of 30 years of war. But it is not my place to speculate. We do what we can and carry out offensive missions regularly with the scant number of troops each base employs.

The Gardez Direct Support Civil Affairs team consists of a Submariner Lieutenant, Navy Chief, a Submariner First Class Petty Officer, and myself, a Third Class Petty Officer. We have done many good things to help the local government establish legitimacy, building schools to further education of the next generation, constructing wells to help alleviate the pains summer droughts have on communities and their crops, as well as handing out numerous items of humanitarian assistance (H.A.). Doing these things as an American whose complaints might be limited to the lag of my internet connection, or the quality of my fast food order, I often feel my heart fill with the sadness of injustice. How can anyone live under these conditions? How do they tolerate it? The thanks and praises, the smiles and hand shakes we receive from people as we leave their village after handing out H.A., or completing a project make my heart want to burst. It’s a shame that we live so well, and they live so… so… underprivileged.

I wish there were more I could do to help, but these things take time and I know we’re doing all we can to help as individual soldiers carrying out single missions… but perhaps a stronger long-term plan might need to be thought about? Again, it’s not my place to speculate. After all, I’m just Jeremie Lucia; winner of no prestigious award, star of no fantastic film, inventor of nothing significant. I’m just a lonely sailor in a landlocked country trying to do as best I can.

8468. jexster - 11/23/2006 3:46:42 PM

no kids, no cats, not even a girlfriend or possible prospects for something that might feasibly resemble a girlfriend

Here I am....let's git hitched

8469. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 11/23/2006 3:52:41 PM

LOL! Here's his picture from the NYT webpage . . .

8470. Jenerator - 11/23/2006 5:18:19 PM

It's Bush's fault that Sunnis are killing thousands of Muslim people?

8471. jexster - 11/23/2006 5:28:07 PM

Yes. It is Bush's fault. That's what happens when you destroy a country

This is what happens when you destroy a country..think of swarms of wilding Dallas negroes and no pohleess


It is called civil war and Bush isn't alone in guilt. You're with him.

Pathetic indeed that you should even think of blaming the victims of your bigotry and abysmal ignorance



249 Dead After Deadliest Attack of Iraq War


The War you supported and cheered

8472. jexster - 11/23/2006 5:28:41 PM

Take responsibilty.

8473. jexster - 11/23/2006 5:30:20 PM

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised "for the good of its victims" may be the most oppressive.
– C. S. Lewis

8474. jexster - 11/23/2006 5:34:34 PM

Have the Shia Won the Civil War?

While the fighing continues in Iraq and bodies pile up, the Shia leaders are acting like they have won and are taking steps reflective of their perceived victory. Prime Minister Maliki moved quickly this week to advance Iranian interests in the region while continuing to request that U.S. forces stay in Iraq to help protect the Shia-dominated government from the Sunni insurgents.

Today's announcement that Iraq and Syria re-establshished diplomatic relations after 28 year old break up is a dramatic signal that Iran's dominance in the region is spreading at the expense of the United States. Quite a counterpoint to the spectacle of the Bush Administration officials, like John Bolton, condemning the Syrians and the Iranians for meddling in Lebanon. Wild gesticulations by angry Bush Administration folks were met by a collective yawn among the Shia in the Middle East.

8475. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 11/23/2006 5:35:45 PM

The President of The United States of America made a rash, uninformed decision after he was warned by many: "that if you break it, you own it."
He trusted arrogant, ruthless old men who turned out to be incompetent Sorcerors' Apprentices. Bad decision after bad decision, death after death, corrupt profiteers and emboldened extremist Countries picking over the carcass that is now Iraq.

So who is responsible for the situation there, Jen? The Devil? The Great Satan?

Stop the denial and face the truth not the illusion that makes you feel better.

8476. jexster - 11/23/2006 5:47:08 PM

Liar. 'Liar?'
Eric Alterman




The Nation -- Once upon a time, only people with bad manners took note of the fact that George W. Bush was an inveterate liar. One such person, pundit Michael Kinsley, observed back in April 2002, "Bush II administration lies are often so laughably obvious that you wonder why they bother." Back then it was undeniable but all but unsayable in the mainstream media. Even when addressing himself to the very topic of Bush's myriad lies six months later, Washington Post scribe Dana Milbank combed his thesaurus and came up with "embroidering," "taken some flights of fancy," "taken some liberties," "omitted qualifiers," etc. But even this artful linguistic circumlocution so infuriated Karl Rove & Co. that the White House pressured the Post to reassign the reporter. When asked to comment on an incontrovertible, unarguable, prime-time presidential lie--Bush publicly claimed that Iraq would not allow inspections, when in fact the UN inspectors had to be kicked out for his war to begin--on CNN's Reliable Sources program, Milbank said, "I think what people basically decided was this is just the President being the President." What, after all, is the big deal about lying about why you started a war?


Now we know what the big deal is...Worse the entire world nkows..worse still the poor Iraqis know better than anyone who is responsible for their misery.

Bush is responsible for more dead Iraqis than Saddam

8477. Jenerator - 11/23/2006 5:52:50 PM

The animals that blow themselves up and cut off heads were there before we got there.

Bush didn't create those animals - but you exalt them Jexster.

8478. Jenerator - 11/23/2006 5:56:03 PM

President Bush forced the 'extremists' to simultaneously detonate car bombs and kill 133 innocent civilians. Yes, Bush was right there holding a gun to all of their heads.

8479. Jenerator - 11/23/2006 5:57:42 PM

President Bush, after threatening the extremists with death and forcing them against their will to kill innocent people, then successfully hid in the desolate terrain, stalking the rest of the insurgents.

8480. Jenerator - 11/23/2006 6:00:21 PM

"I will make Al Qaeda kill people!" shouted President Bush from his penthouse in Anbar "Yes, that's what I'll do. I will *make* them kill people! Those Muslims only want peace, but I'll change their image!"

8481. Jenerator - 11/23/2006 6:18:49 PM

If an insurgent blows up a car and intentionally kills a family of 7, whose fault is it?

8482. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 11/23/2006 6:20:17 PM

It's easier for Jen, to address Jexster's hyperbole than to deal with the reasons behind all of the mayhem and murder.

Keep ignoring and denying the chain of events that brought us to this tragic state of affairs and that continues to destroy world peace.

You're the perfect example of the American Norman Rockwell Christian Republican. Deny and exploit whatever can be exploited in your rationalization to let the immorality of this situation continue. The truth will can you free, Jen.

8483. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 11/23/2006 6:21:19 PM

The truth can set you free!

8484. Jenerator - 11/23/2006 6:25:14 PM

Wizard,

Who's responsible for bombings that killed 133?

8485. arkymalarky - 11/23/2006 7:16:37 PM

When you dismantle a government and its institutions, providing no transition or control, no matter how bad that government is, this is what happens. It would happen here, too, eventually. The Iraqi invasion was an ill-conceived, single-minded, and incompetently orchestrated action. Because of that, no other outcome was possible. Leaders are responsible for the consequences of their policy decisions. You can blame the individual murderers and no one will argue with you. But that hardly helps the victims, and you fully understand that. So exactly what is your point, Jen?

What do you think should be done to get these murderers under control? What course of action should we take now?

What I find even sadder is that there did seem to be hope deteriorate as well.

8486. arkymalarky - 11/23/2006 7:17:43 PM

Hm. Lost part of a sentence there. I meant there seemed to be hope for better things in Afghanistan, at least for a while.

8487. jexster - 11/23/2006 8:04:27 PM

See the truth in the Timeline:

From the Daily Telegraph:

Factbox: Iraq's worst atrocities




Curfew as 150 killed in Baghdad bombings
Aug 29, 2003: A car bomb kills 83 people, including leading Shia politician Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim, outside one of Shia Islam’s holiest shrines in Najaf

Feb 1, 2004: 117 people are killed when two bombers blew themselves up in Arbil, north Iraq March 2, 2004: 171 people are killed in twin attacks in Baghdad and Karbala on Shia festival-goers

Feb 28, 2005: A car bomb in Hilla, south of Baghdad, kills 125 people. It was previously Iraq’s worst single blast

July 16, 2005: A suicide bomber in a fuel truck kills 98 near a Shia mosque in Mussayib, near Karbala

Sept 14, 2005: At least 128 people are killed as a suicide bomber targets labourers in the Baghdad Shia district of Kadhimiyah

Sept 29, 2005: A triple car bombing claimed by al-Qa’eda in Iraq leaves 99 dead in Balad, a primarily Shia town north of Baghdad

Jan 5, 2006: Suicide bombers kill 53 people killed in Karbala and 70 in Ramadi

April 7, 2006: Ninety people killed when three suicide bombers, two of them disguised as women, attack worshippers at a Shia mosque in Baghdad

Nov 23, 2006: Six apparently co-ordinated car bombs and a mortar blast in different parts of the Sadr City neighbourhood of Baghdad kill at least 154 people

8488. jexster - 11/23/2006 8:05:40 PM

Who's responsible for bombings that killed 133?

George W. Bush
The Founder of the Charnel House
Destroyer of Civilization

8489. jexster - 11/23/2006 8:12:10 PM

Aghanistan's lost as well. They're sense of time is a bit slower but failure is every bit as inevitable.

See what you've missed Jen out of your willful blindness is the fact that Bush destroyed a nation and with all civil control and by persisting in his crime, his Occupation makes things worse literally by the day.


The bombs would not have exploded but for his lies, his invasion, and his occupation and this was foreseen and foreseable from the very start.

Right here Jen. You were told right here in 2002

8490. Jenerator - 11/23/2006 8:20:22 PM

What kind of nation did he destroy, Jexster. The head leader was a murderer and a thief.

8491. jexster - 11/23/2006 8:25:26 PM

It was a nation at peace Jen and he no cause to do it other than his lust for power

8492. jexster - 11/23/2006 8:26:55 PM

Breaking News: Mass Slaugher in Baghdad
[Cole}

A string of car bombings in Sadr City and Kadhimiya (Shiite neighborhoods) wrought vast slaughter and destruction, leaving a death toll creeping toward 150 and over 200 wounded. Shiite guerrillas fired mortars at Sunni neighborhoods in response.

I just saw the news conference of President Jalal Talabani, Vice President Tariq Hashimi, and Shiite leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim on Aljazeera. They called for an end to this violence and a new vision. Hashimi, a Sunni, called on the Resistance to join the political process. They all looked dejected and bowed, reminding me more of prisoners on death row than vigorous leaders of a country. Hashimi was the least bowed.

You have to ask yourself, where is the US military? Where is the Iraqi Army? Where is the Iraqi police?
It is as though nobody was home except the Sunni Arab guerrillas, who seem to be closing in on a takeover of the Green Zone.


And that is in fact murder..mass murder.

Bush is now responsible for more dead Iraqis (500,000) than Saddam Hussien (300,000)

8493. jexster - 11/23/2006 8:27:52 PM

He didn't destroy the leader Jen. He destoyed an entire society

8494. Jenerator - 11/23/2006 8:29:26 PM

Arky,

You can blame the individual murderers and no one will argue with you.

I am relieved to read this because I honestly thought I was talking with people who found no fault with the insurgents.

But that hardly helps the victims, and you fully understand that. So exactly what is your point, Jen?

I don't see how blaming Bush (solely) is helping either. I don't know what a winning strategy is at this point. We have an incredible military force but one that is obviously not equipped in dealing with IEDs. And this lack of any real cohesive or strong governmental power in Iraq is allowing the monsters to come out. How do we get rid of the sectarian killers (on both sides?)

8495. Jenerator - 11/23/2006 8:31:59 PM

I'm inclined to think that the Sunnis want civil war. They liked it under Sadam - when men could rape women and steal to become rich. Where might ran the country, not civility or freedom.

And excuse my language but what the fuck is going on with the Iraqi army and police forces??!!

8496. jexster - 11/23/2006 8:34:41 PM

You blamed Iraqis JEN!

Most outlandish crap I have heard and we have a heard a ton during this 5 year jaunt into hell

And that is what the Head of the Arab League foretold before the invasion, "You will loose the gates of Hell"


Everyone knew it save though who were deluded or deceived.



What you have is anarchy, a war of all against all with no hand strong enough to win Toby Dodge an Iraq expert at Queen Mary, University of London

8497. jexster - 11/23/2006 8:36:06 PM

You cannnot hope to deal with the consequences unless first you understand the lies that spawned them

8498. jexster - 11/23/2006 8:38:14 PM

A friend asked me in mid March 2003 just as the invasion had begun what I thought would happen.


"Civil war. Think Lebanon only worse, slowly but surely worse"

He opposed the war but he didn't believe me.

8499. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 11/23/2006 9:39:37 PM

8484. Jenerator - 11/23/2006 6:25:14 PM

Wizard,

Who's responsible for bombings that killed 133?

That's how you answer a question after I answered yours?

Address the questions and don't change the subject. Bush is responsible for the present situation in Iraq. You can argue yes or no, but don't evade it, Jen.

The murderers are running wild as a result of bad decisions from the Bush Administration. yes or no? Why or why not?

Focusing on a current incident and saying how terrible the Sunnies or the Shiites are is like dwelling the a boil on a dead smoker with lung cancer. It's the cigarettes that killed the patient–the boils came because the cancer made his immune system weak at the end.

Wake up, woman!

8500. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 11/23/2006 9:43:46 PM

International Herald Tribune:


The oil-rich Persian Gulf used to be safe territory for former president Bush, an oil man who brought Arab leaders together in a coalition that drove Saddam Hussein's troops out of Kuwait in 1991.

But gratitude for the elder Bush, who served as president from 1989-93, was overshadowed by the foreign policy of his son, whose invasion of Iraq and support for Israel are deeply unpopular here.

"We do not respect your son. We do not respect what he's doing all over the world," a woman audience member bluntly told Bush after his keynote speech.

Bush appeared stunned as the audience of young business leaders whooped and whistled in approval.

The retired president had just finished a folksy address on leadership by telling the audience how deeply hurt he feels when his son the president is criticized.

8501. arkymalarky - 11/24/2006 12:44:08 AM

I am relieved to read this because I honestly thought I was talking with people who found no fault with the insurgents.

I think we all assume it goes without saying that the insurgents are bad people. The question is how they're able to do so much damage in the first place. The answer is that Bush's "strategy" didn't figure in what it would take to keep Iraq stable and transition into a new government. The Iraqi police and military are in a difficult spot because they've been so infiltrated with insurgents that there's no security in their forces and we're essentially providing arms and uniforms to insurgents as well as Iraqis who are wanting to help stabilize the country. This can never work. And remember when we discovered that thousands of tons of explosives were unaccounted for? Remember when job calls for Iraqi police simply resulted in a concentrated target of Iraqis to be hit with suicide bombers or gunned down? And what about the most recent kidnapping of 150 Iraqis? The kidnappers were wearing uniforms. How are we going to help stabilize anything with that shit going on? Bush's dad was responsible and did the right thing in the Kuwaiti situation. His son has fubarred everything now to the point it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to stabilize things. It will take a VERY different, international strategy to recover the mess this administration has made, and even then it is much less likely to work now. Things have gone too out of hand for too long.

And the American soldiers on the ground know this. They just know they have to keep trying, against the odds and with things getting more dangerous for them with each passing day rather than less. What else can they do? This is an administrative disaster, not a military one, but the military will be the ones to pay.

8502. jexster - 11/24/2006 9:00:00 AM

Cole


How bad the situation is in Iraq is suggested by this email I just got from a professional who used to be in Iraq but now is in a nearby country:

' It is desperate in Iraq, worse then ever and there is no end in sight. I had lunch with [a former high ranking medical educator in Iraq] two days ago. [He]noted that Iraq no longer has neuro-surgeons, no cardiac surgeons, few pediatric doctors - they are all gone, killed or fled to neighboring countries like him. He was given seven days to get out or be killed. He is one of the lucky ones. He and his family have an opportunity for a new life in the US. But what about all the others. Where are they to go?

Another friend, a Sunni sheikh of the Shammar tribe noted to me that thousands of former officers are prepared to assault the G[reen] Z[one]. It is no longer a matter of can they do it, they are only mulling over the timing. The breach of the Green Zone security the other day was a test of their ability to get in, and not a real attempt at a coup, though it is reported as such. Every Iraqi I talk to says unambiguously that the resistance attached to the former regime would take out the Shiite militias with barely a fight, but that the resistance will not commit wholesale revenge against the Shiite population. They just want to get rid of the "carpet baggers" from Iran. '

8503. jexster - 11/24/2006 9:17:44 AM

They let Israel destroy the country and now they're shocked at the blowback

Lebanon crisis reflects fading U.S. clout

The White House saw the nation as a model in its bid to spread democracy in the Middle East.


You're now seeing the last strand" of failed U.S. policy endeavors, said Nathan Brown, a specialist in Arab politics at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former United Nations consultant.

Lebanon's "Cedar Revolution," which gave power to anti-Syria forces, was heralded along with the 2005 elections in Iraq, Egypt and the Palestinian territories as part of a new movement that was going to be "as important as the fall of the Berlin Wall," Brown said.

8504. jexster - 11/24/2006 9:20:36 AM

Here's another civil war. I count 5.

Sunni face new conflict in Iraq war
By Maher al-Jasem in Hiyt, Iraq







With Baghdad shaken by daily outbreaks of sectarian violence, in Iraq's western al-Anbar province, groups of former Iraqi Baathists are battling armed Islamist groups for control of this largely desert region near the Syrian border.



This increasingly bloody conflict may signal the start of a new phase in the country's three-year old war.

8505. jexster - 11/24/2006 9:40:22 AM

Iraq Death Toll Rises; Shiite Bloc Threatens Boycott

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 24 — As the death toll from a series of devastating car bombs in a Shiite district here rose today to more than 200, a powerful legislative bloc loyal to firebrand Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr threatened to boycott the government if Iraq’s prime minister attends a scheduled meeting with President Bush in Jordan next week.

The legislators met in an office in Sadr City, the neighborhood hit by the explosions on Thursday, and angrily denounced the American military, saying the presence of the foreign forces was galvanizing the violence roiling Iraq. ....“I stayed up the entire night talking with friends and neighbors about what happened,” said Ghaith Qassim, 35, a clothing vendor at a funeral. “We’re so angry and sad over this. The people here blame the leaders of the government.”

American officials say that Mr. Sadr’s engagement in politics is necessary for any hope of a peaceful disarmament of his thousands-strong militia, the Mahdi Army, which is accused of involvement in waves of retaliatory killings of Sunni Arabs.

Saleh al-Igaili, a member of the Sadr parliamentary bloc, said in a speech at the main Sadr office in Sadr City that “if Maliki insists on going to meet Bush, we’ll walk out of Parliament and the government

I would think a "Law and Order" Republican would understand the implications and consequences of destroying all formal and informal sources of law and order in a society.

Then again we're talking about a member of the Church of God in the Burning Bush.....

As Mo Dowd would say, "break out the butterfly nets"

8506. jexster - 11/24/2006 10:11:23 AM

Greatest Strategic Disaster in US History:
Gemayel Assassination Blowback
Joshua Landis


It seemed clear before the Gemayel murder that President Bush was determined to thwart efforts to open up dialogue with Syria and Iran. The assassination will harden his resolve to isolate both countries and to "win in Iraq", as he insists he will. Instead, Washington seems intent on returning to the Palestinian problem to look for a way to defuse Arab passions and shore up Egyptian, Saudi Arabian and Jordanian support in confronting Iran and Syria.

This strategy is bound to fail. Saudi, Egypt and Jordan have little interest in combatting their neighbors. They can do nothing to help Washington win in Iraq. And Washington has proven that it is incapable of solving the Palestinian issue, let along fooling Arabs into thinking it is serious about pressuring Israel to withdraw from settlements. Bush's strategy will only further radicalize the region, exacerbate the blood letting in Iraq, and speed up the decline of its influence in the region.

8507. jexster - 11/24/2006 10:11:23 AM

Greatest Strategic Disaster in US History:
Gemayel Assassination Blowback
Joshua Landis


It seemed clear before the Gemayel murder that President Bush was determined to thwart efforts to open up dialogue with Syria and Iran. The assassination will harden his resolve to isolate both countries and to "win in Iraq", as he insists he will. Instead, Washington seems intent on returning to the Palestinian problem to look for a way to defuse Arab passions and shore up Egyptian, Saudi Arabian and Jordanian support in confronting Iran and Syria.

This strategy is bound to fail. Saudi, Egypt and Jordan have little interest in combatting their neighbors. They can do nothing to help Washington win in Iraq. And Washington has proven that it is incapable of solving the Palestinian issue, let along fooling Arabs into thinking it is serious about pressuring Israel to withdraw from settlements. Bush's strategy will only further radicalize the region, exacerbate the blood letting in Iraq, and speed up the decline of its influence in the region.

8508. jexster - 11/24/2006 10:48:57 PM

Tremblez, tyrans et vous perfides
L'opprobre de tous les partis
Tremblez!

France Authorizes Troops to Fire on Israeli Jets Over Lebanon

8509. jexster - 11/24/2006 10:53:13 PM

Accoure à tes mâles accents
Que tes ennemis expirants
Voient ton triomphe et notre gloire!

8510. jexster - 11/25/2006 5:10:41 AM

On a more somber note..

8511. jexster - 11/25/2006 12:34:49 PM

And that {10 days after the liberation of Baghdad], of course, was the beginning of the disaster. Nobody came to work that day, or the next, or the one after that, because we failed to understand what our intervention would do to Iraqi society. We failed to anticipate that in taking out Saddam, we would also remove government and order and authority from Iraq.


Link in lies

8512. jexster - 11/25/2006 12:35:27 PM

They failed to anticipate...not everyone did

8513. jexster - 11/25/2006 1:03:00 PM

Times UK

'In Saddam's time I never saw a friend killed in front of my eyes. I never saw neighbours driven out of their homes just for their sect. And I never saw entire families being slaughtered and killed'

8514. Jenerator - 11/25/2006 1:28:49 PM

HamasPeace activists at it again!

Grandmother in first Hamas suicide attack in two years

The mother of nine and grandmother of 41 became the oldest Palestinian suicide bomber at the age of 57, selecting as her target troops operating near her northern Gaza home in Jabaliya.

8515. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 11/25/2006 2:14:30 PM

Maybe that will give you some idea of the outrage and hopelessness the Palestinians feel after being robbed of their country and suffering countless injustices for more than half a decade by Zionist thugs who should know better than to act like the Nazis.

8516. Jenerator - 11/25/2006 2:17:02 PM

Spare me. That woman led a productive life. Do you see how many grandchildren she left behind? What a freaking lunatic. She blew herself up (hoping to take out a few Jews) in protest to Hanoun. She willingly left her children and grandchildren motherless/grandmotherless to wage jihad for a terrorist organization.

The only sympathy I feel is for the poor kids she thought little of.

8517. jexster - 11/25/2006 2:26:09 PM

Jen is the most intellectually myopic person I have ever encountered.



Must be cause Jaysus is for Israel

8518. jexster - 11/25/2006 2:28:36 PM

NATO Chief: Taliban Could Regain Power in Afghanistan

No shit Sherlock

8519. jexster - 11/25/2006 2:31:44 PM

In the murderous logic of Zionist Judaism, creating chaos and death among Israel's neighbors means victory

Forthe American Evangelicals it means Raputure

8520. Jenerator - 11/25/2006 3:06:02 PM

Wizard,

If the US Government handed over all of the states to the Indians, I would not blow myself up in protest, hoping to kill some Indians along the way.

8521. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 11/25/2006 5:45:11 PM

Your example is as ludicrous as your perception of what you think I'm saying, Jen. Your lack of empathy, compassion and awareness of injustice makes you the worst kind of American Christian–one who goes through the motions of Christianty caring about appearances and security.

I'm not saying what she did was right, I'm saying try to understand the desperation and hopelessness in the act.

8522. jexster - 11/25/2006 5:47:23 PM

OK Jen you can stop giving now....

Insurgency Now Financially Self-Sustaining

$ 8 Billion/mo..too bad we aren't

8523. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 11/25/2006 5:47:27 PM

And of course you don't feel any sympathy, you're saving that for the hypocrites who do their bidding in God's name–Bush, Rumsfeld, Haggard, et al.!

8524. jexster - 11/25/2006 6:15:33 PM

I have found the "Silver Bullet"!!!!


“In fact, if recent revenue and expense estimates are correct, terrorist and insurgent groups in Iraq may have surplus funds with which to support other terrorist organizations outside of Iraq.”



We'll send em George Bush and a few of those defeated Congressman and Senators!

8525. jexster - 11/25/2006 6:17:47 PM

8526. jexster - 11/25/2006 6:43:28 PM

Is Saddam Available or Is He Still Mad?


If Norah O'Donnell Says So, It Must Be a Civil War
by
Larry C Johnson

Gee, pundits and news folks asking the question, "could Iraq have a civil war"? Attention world. It is a civil war and has been underway for some time. Here's what I wrote one year ago (November 20, 2005) (and yes, I get an "I-told-you-so" victory lap):

The multiple threats we face in Iraq will not be solved by an election. The differences dividing the ethno religious groups in the territory of Iraq cannot be bridged by a group hug or a sit down around a conference table. We have ripped the scab off of an ancient wound and unleashed a beast that cannot be calmed through diplomacy. We do not have the force structure in place in Iraq to contain the burgeoning civil war. Instead, we are becoming pawns that each side of this ethnic quagmire will use to justify their particular agendas. The British learned the hard way in the 1920s. It remains to be seen if we are willing to learn anything from history or just destined to repeat it.

We now know the answer. There is no learning going on at the White House or among many in the news business. Speaking of learning. Pat Lang almost had an aneurysm listening to Norah O'Donnell pretending to be a blond bimbo on Hardball today. Here are Pat's answers to questions posed by O'Donnell:

Norah O'Donnell asked the following on "Hardball."

Question. What has happened in the last 48 hours to make the situation so much different in Iraq?

Answer. Nothing. This civil war has been building gradually ever since the end of direct US rule (CPA) as the communities fight it out for power and wealth. It was inevitable that they would do so. Why people could not see that is a continuing mystery. The civil war has simply reached this level in its process of "organic growth. It has little to do with us.



Question. Is this our worst nightmare?



Answer. Hell No! The civil war and the insurgencies will continue to develop. Our worst nightmare would be a total disintegration of Iraq into a war of all against all, and the situation is headed in that direction. We should look to the security of our forces and embassy. NOW!!


As an unsolicited bit of advice I would suggest to the Bush Administration that they stop thinking of Maliki as a national government head and start thinking of him as a Shia partisan leader seeking the benefit if his community at the expense of others. NOW!!

8527. jexster - 11/25/2006 6:57:09 PM

Hold off on that Victory Lap Larry. Make way for the lead runner with the torch.

"The Americans seem to have gotten them­selves into an intractable mess in Iraq. They must now choose between a historical debacle if they hang on and a temporary setback if they let go.

"We cannot leave Iraq before it is stabilized," declared a former CIA officer. But to maintain a prolonged foreign occupation of Iraq is to destabilize it only further. Once the invader departs, there will no doubt be a civil war, which will accelerate the dismemberment of the nation, giving rise to a fundamentalist regime, which will make at least some people miss the era of Saddam.

On the other hand, if the occupation persists, one can foresee a multifaceted terrorist es­calation eating away at U.S. forces and aggravating ethnic and religious divisions. The Americans will bring in reinforcements, including Fijians and Norwegians. They'll talk of the final fifteen minutes and of last gasps. A coup d'etat or uprising will be inspired in Teheran (terrain more favorable to the West than Iraq is) but with irritating repercussions in Najaf, which will be transformed into a base of retreat for vengeful ayatollahs. The Americans will cling to Iraq as "useful" and ensconce themselves inside supposedly unbreachable bastions. Then, as the death toll mounts by the hundreds, the "bring the boys home" movement will spread like an oil slick across the United States, and a new, Democratic administration will make the prudent decision to stop the hemorrhaging when the vital interests of the United States are not at stake. But how many lives will be ruined in the meantime?"

8528. Max Macks - 11/25/2006 7:15:31 PM

I often wonder if the UN making a State for
the Zionists , was the main cause of 60 years of
blood, injustice, and turmoil in the entire Middle East.

8529. jexster - 11/25/2006 7:41:29 PM

DOA by June TD!!!

(via Cole)
Harith al-Dhari, Secretary-General of the Association of Muslim Scholars said in Cairo that the Arab League and the United Nations should withdraw their support from the Shiite-dominated government of PM Nuri al-Maliki.

8530. jexster - 11/25/2006 7:41:56 PM

Needn't wonder Max

8531. jexster - 11/25/2006 8:34:56 PM

Coulda Woulda Shoulda - DID

“It’s stunning; it should have been called a civil war a long time ago, but now I don’t see how people can avoid calling it a civil war,” said Nicholas Sambanis, a political scientist at Yale who co-edited “Understanding Civil War: Evidence and Analysis,“ published by the World Bank in 2005. “The level of violence is so extreme that it far surpasses most civil wars since 1945.”

8532. robertjayb - 11/25/2006 9:50:12 PM

Insurgents raising plenty of money..(NYTimes)

BAGHDAD, Nov. 25 — The insurgency in Iraq is now self-sustaining financially, raising tens of millions of dollars a year from oil smuggling, kidnapping, counterfeiting, connivance by corrupt Islamic charities and other crimes that the Iraqi government and its American patrons have been largely unable to prevent, a classified United States government report has concluded.

8533. jexster - 11/25/2006 9:53:01 PM

Ahem 8522 8524

8534. jexster - 11/25/2006 10:12:27 PM

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Shiite and Sunni clerics, among the last vestige of authority in a country rapidly losing faith in politicians, charged Saturday that Iraq's plight was the result of U.S. mistakes and pleaded with their faithful to stem the bloodshed that followed a devastating attack on a mainly Shiite Baghdad slum.

In interviews Saturday and recent sermons, clerics articulated one message that appears to be gaining traction on both sides of Iraq's civil war: The U.S. presence is making matters worse, and the Americans should go home.

Iraq to Bush: GO HOME
LAT

8535. jexster - 11/26/2006 9:53:45 AM

Blame Bush?

You bet


WASHINGTON - Jordan's King Abdullah said Sunday the problems in the Middle East go beyond the war in Iraq and that much of the region soon could become engulfed in violence unless the central issues are addressed quickly.

"We could possibly imagine going into 2007 and having three civil wars on our hands," he said, citing conflicts in Iraq, Lebanon and the decades-long strife between the Palestinians and Israelis.

"Therefore, it is time that we really take a strong step forward as part of the international community and make sure we avert the Middle East from a tremendous crisis that I fear, and I see could possibly happen in 2007," he said.

Speaking on ABC's "This Week," Abdullah said he remained hopeful a summit he will host this week in Amman with President Bush and the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, will somehow lower the sectarian violence that threatens to push Iraq into all-out civil war.

"We hope there will be something dramatic. The challenges, obviously, in front of both of them are immense," the king said.

"We have to make sure that all parties in Iraq understand the dangers of the ongoing escalation. I hope Prime Minister Maliki will have some ideas ... on how he can be inclusive in bringing all the different sects inside of Iraq together. They need to do it now," he said, "because, obviously, as we're seeing, things are beginning to spiral out of control."

The king spoke of the urgent need for a change in course in Iraq.

"There needs to be some very strong action taken on the ground there today," he said. "I don't think we're in a position where we can come back and revisit the problem in early 2007. There needs to be a strategy. There needs to be a plan that brings all the parties together, and bring them today and not tomorrow."

8536. Jenerator - 11/26/2006 11:20:58 AM

Hamas now packing children's toys with explosives.

8537. Jenerator - 11/26/2006 11:21:41 AM

8538. jexster - 11/26/2006 1:34:46 PM

The Bush Revolution: Islamists Dominate Bahrain Elections


Thanks be to Allah we have a major Navy Base there

8539. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 11/26/2006 3:01:01 PM

Jen, you dishonest, lazy creepette! You can't respond to the debate, so you have to revert to fearful and shocking examples of terrorism from a biased Israeli propaganda source? Not only that, you failed to include the picture of the assassination pictures from the missiles that the Israelis used to actually destroy Hamas people. Can't you debbate and ask the questions that need to be asked about the problems that fuel the hatred behind the terrorism–like injustice and Israeli brutality?

This is what the Israeli missile did to a car and street in Nablis . . .



How much damage can a never used toy do with a few ounces of explosive?–especially compared to thousand pound missiles that flatten city blocks filled with innocent people? You're pathetic, Lady and oh so typical of the fools who share your ignorant and myopic perspective.

8540. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 11/26/2006 3:01:53 PM

You can count on Jexster!

8541. arkymalarky - 11/26/2006 4:58:10 PM

I personally think we should be giving more consideration to our precious bodily fluids.

8542. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 11/26/2006 5:48:07 PM

You're strange, Love!

8543. arkymalarky - 11/26/2006 9:46:09 PM

I try

8544. jexster - 11/28/2006 8:42:58 PM

WHAT MAKES A MUSLIM RADICAL?
By John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed
{Foreign Policy

A new Gallup World Poll of more than 9,000 interviews in nine Muslim countries reveals that Muslim radicals have much more in common with their moderate brethren than is often assumed. If the West wants to reach the extremists and empower the moderate Muslim majority, it must first recognize who it’s up against.


I've referred approvingly to Esposito b4.

Someone who actually knows what he's talking about.

8545. jexster - 11/29/2006 12:52:48 PM

Letter from Israel:
Who Makes the Middle East?

Global reporting on the Middle East is thus in the hands of a very small number of (mostly American) editors who rely on a handful of international news agencies and set the tone for the entire Western media. It goes without saying that their selection of what's news and what's not is not objective nor even representative.



The fact is, Luyendijk argues, that we actually know nothing about the Arab world

8546. jexster - 11/30/2006 7:51:38 PM

Message # 8514


Palestinians Are Being Denied the Right of Non-Violent Resistance?
By JONATHAN COOK
in Nazareth

If one thing offers a terrifying glimpse of where the experiment in human despair that is Gaza under Israeli siege is leading, it is the news that a Palestinian woman in her sixties -- a grandmother -- chose last week to strap on a suicide belt and explode herself next to a group of Israeli soldiers invading her refugee camp.

Despite the "Man bites dog" news value of the story, most of the Israeli media played down the incident. Not surprisingly: it is difficult to portray Fatma al-Najar as a crazed fanatic bent only the destruction of Israel.

8547. jexster - 12/1/2006 12:01:17 PM

'Kill Them! Kill Everyone!
All of Them!'
A primer on Lebanese politics
by Uri Avnery

8548. Max Macks - 12/2/2006 3:04:26 PM

Jimmy Carter does it again. Risk the smear machine
that anyone critical of Israel's war crimes , is sure
to receive,

He has written a new book on the the horrendous
treatment of the Palestininas by Likud Israel

and even the Liar News hour had an interview with
Carter , Of coursse Lehr himself would probably
have met him , and Iwas very surprsied that
this interview would be boradcast.

8549. jexster - 12/3/2006 3:02:21 PM

Mideast allies near a state of panic
U.S. leaders' visits to the region reap only warnings and worry.
Los Angeles Times

8550. wonkers2 - 12/3/2006 7:33:13 PM

Nothing in the NYTimes paper or Book Review about Carter's book.

8551. jexster - 12/4/2006 6:58:45 PM

I wonder why that is Wonk?

Have any ideas?

8552. Magoseph - 12/4/2006 7:24:24 PM

Well, this what I think--The only possible reason that this book is avoided is that, if it is discussed, it becomes apparent that Israel has to make a deal with the Palestinians and that pressure should be put on them by the US to do so. This should be easy to accomplish, I’d imagine, if the polls out of Israel are correct.

The hang-up is with the Jewish lobby and the religious promoters—if you’re selling anything such as newspapers or books in this country, it’s prudent to avoid that whole area.

8553. wonkers2 - 12/4/2006 7:51:35 PM

Palestine is one of the few issues on which the NY Times is not completely trustworthy, in my opinion.

8554. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 12/4/2006 7:58:26 PM

Look at how these biased right-wing bastards portrayed Carter. You won't belive what Scarborough asks his guest following the video of a dyslexic crackpot-caller on Cspan . . .

MSNBC makes a story out of a caller from CSPAN that slams Jimmy Carter


[Click on the video]

8555. Max Macks - 12/4/2006 8:06:37 PM

re. the "no Civil War , Civil War in Iraq

just why do almost all comentartors say
we MUST stay longer or unrest will occur?

What ever they call the bloody chaos.
I think it would get better if we pulled
all troops out ,, leave some in Kuwait .

Do you think John Murtha has any influence ?.

I don't think that Gates study group is going
to amount to much.

8556. jexster - 12/4/2006 8:21:07 PM

Smooth Move Georgie

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - One of Iraq's most powerful Shi'ite leaders told President Bush on Monday that civil war could only be staved off if U.S. forces struck harder against Sunni-led insurgents


The Baker Study Group there Max....

I think FUBAR


You think things suck now..wait a few months

Georgie's just begun to screw up

8557. thoughtful - 12/6/2006 2:15:18 PM

I've been so stunned by the few photos I see of iraq these days. I wish someone would do a photo essay of iraq then, under hussein, and iraq now after years of bombing and fighting. As I recall from the first photos a few years back, baghdad was still i vibrant city with traffic and people on the streets and lots of economic activity. Now all you see is rubble and burned out buildings and streets blocked off with remains of the latest bombing.

So horrible.

Concrete evidence of what Operation Iraqi Freedom has wrought on these people.

And then I wish someone would make w look at the photos, somehow force him into a corner where he has no choice ... none ... but to see and acknowledge what his policies have led to. So that at the deepest level, he will know exactly what he is responsible for.

Fat chance, eh?

8558. jexster - 12/6/2006 2:47:16 PM

Gergen gets it...

We'd better prepare for Iraqis hanging from helicopter skids
David Gergen
CNN

8559. jexster - 12/6/2006 3:24:44 PM

The next milestone on this road to Hell is the report of the Iraq Study Group. I have little hope for decisive recommendations from this collection of retired politicos. If they fail us, then we must wait for the American citizenry to wake up and protest.

8560. jexster - 12/7/2006 5:02:42 AM

Cole: Reprint Edn.: 10 Things Congress Should Demand on Iraq

In the light of the issuance of the Iraq Study Group report, I thought readers might be interested in comparing it with the 10 suggestions I made in August of 2005 for a course change in Iraq. Alas, I no longer think that the US military can plausibly play the role I suggested for it below, and I had no idea of how vicious the civil war could get with nighttime death squads. They don't need set piece battles to kill 60 a day in the streets of Baghdad. But, it seems to me that these suggestions track pretty well with those of the Baker-Hamilton commission.


"1) US ground troops should be withdrawn ASAP from urban areas as a first step. Iraqi police will just have to do the policing. We are no good at it. If local militias take over, that is the Iraqi government's problem. The prime minister will have to either compromise with the militia leaders or send in other Iraqi militias to take them on. Who runs Iraqi cities can no longer be a primary concern of the US military. Our troops are warriors, not traffic cops.

2) In the second phase of withdrawal, most US ground troops would steadily be brought out of Iraq.

3) For as long as the elected Iraqi government wanted it, the US would offer the new Iraqi military and security forces close air support in any firefight they have with guerrilla or other rebellious forces. (I.e. we would replicate our tactics in Afghanistan of providing the air force for the Northern Alliance infantry and cavalry.) I concede that this tactic will get some US Blackhawks shot down from time to time, and won't be painless. But it could prevent the outbreak of fullscale war. This way of proceeding, which was opened up by the Afghanistan War of 2001-2002, and which depends on smart weapons and having allies on the ground, is the major difference between today and the Vietnam era, when dumb bombs (and even carpet bombing) couldn't have been deployed effectively to ensure the enemy did not take or hold substantial territory. [I am not advocating bombing civilian neighborhoods of cities; I am talking about intervening in set-piece battles of the sort that will become possible in the absence of US ground troops.]

4) With the agreement of the elected Iraqi government, the US would prevent any guerrilla force from fielding any large number of fighters for set piece battles. Such large units of militiamen attempting to march from Anbar on Baghdad, e.g., would be destroyed by AC-130s and other US air weaponry suitable to this purpose. This tactic cannot prevent the current campaign of car bombings, but it can stop a full-scale Lebanon or Afghanistan-style civil war from erupting.

5) In addition to the service of its air forces, the US would offer targeted military aid to ensure the stability of the Iraqi government. It would help protect key political figures from assassination, and it would give the Iraqi government help in preventing pipeline sabotage so as to increase Iraqi petroleum revenues and strengthen the new government.

6) The US would help rapidly build an Iraqi armor corps. The new Iraqi military's lack of tanks is almost certainly because the US is afraid they might be turned on US troops in a crisis. Once US ground troops are out, there is no reason not to let the Iraqi military just import a lot of tanks and train the new Iraqi army in using them.

7) The US should demand as a quid pro quo for further help that elections in Iraq henceforward be held on a district basis so as to ensure proper representation in parliament for the Sunni Arab provinces. This step is necessary if there is to be any hope of drawing the Sunni Arab political elites into the new government.

8) The US should demand as a quid pro quo for further help that the Iraqi government announce an amnesty for all former Baath Party members who cannot be proven to have committed serious crimes, including crimes against humanity. Former Baathists who have been fired from the schools and civil bureaucracy must be reinstated, and no further firings are to take place. (This step is key in convincing the old Sunni Arab elites that they won't be screwed over in the new Iraq.)

9) Congress must rewrite the laws governing US reconstruction aid to Iraq so as to take out provisions that Iraqis must where possible use US companies or materiel. All of the reconstruction money should go directly to Iraqi firms, so as to help jump-start the economy.

10) The US should join the regular meetings of the foreign ministers of Iraq's neighbors, with Condi Rice in attendance, along with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, employing a 6 + 2 diplomatic track to help put Iraq back on its feet through diplomacy and multilateral aid. This step will require that the Bush administration cease threatening regularly to bomb Tehran or to overthrow the governments of Syria and Iran. For the sake of getting out of Iraq without a world-class economic disaster, the US will just have to deal with the real world, which contains Iran and Syria. The US is now a Middle Eastern Power, not just a New World one, and as such it needs to use Iraq's neighbors to calm their clients within Iraq. This goal cannot be achieved through simple intimidation, more especially since, with half of all fighting units bogged down in Iraq, the US is in no position to follow through on its threats and everyone knows it.

I can't guarantee that these steps will resolve the crisis in the short or even medium term. But I do think that, if taken together, they would allow us to get the ground troops out without risking a big civil war or a destabilization of the Middle East. Once Iraq can stand on its own feet, I am quite sure that the Grand Ayatollah in Najaf will just give a fatwa for complete US withdrawal, and the US will have to acquiesce, as it did in similar circumstances in the Philippines."

8561. jexster - 12/7/2006 10:57:02 AM

Loose Lips Gates....


Gates Says Israel Has Nukes
Jews Pissed He Violated Secret Understanding

8562. wonkers2 - 12/7/2006 4:46:06 PM

Jex, if you convert to Judaism you can get married! Conservative Jews Allow Gay Rabbis and Gay Unions

8563. Magoseph - 12/8/2006 6:58:41 AM

Who are the politicians who warned us about invading Iraq and were vilified for doing so? Krugman tells us today in the NYT.

Representative Ike Skelton, September 2002: “I have no doubt that our military would decisively defeat Iraq’s forces and remove Saddam. But like the proverbial dog chasing the car down the road, we must consider what we would do after we caught it.”

Al Gore, September 2002: “I am deeply concerned that the course of action that we are presently embarking upon with respect to Iraq has the potential to seriously damage our ability to win the war against terrorism and to weaken our ability to lead the world in this new century.”

Barack Obama, now a United States senator, September 2002: “I don’t oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other armchair, weekend warriors in this administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.”

Representative John Spratt, October 2002: “The outcome after the conflict is actually going to be the hardest part, and it is far less certain.”

Representative Nancy Pelosi, now the House speaker-elect, October 2002: “When we go in, the occupation, which is now being called the liberation, could be interminable and the amount of money it costs could be unlimited.”

Senator Russ Feingold, October 2002: “I am increasingly troubled by the seemingly shifting justifications for an invasion at this time. ... When the administration moves back and forth from one argument to another, I think it undercuts the credibility of the case and the belief in its urgency. I believe that this practice of shifting justifications has much to do with the troubling phenomenon of many Americans questioning the administration’s motives.”

Howard Dean, then a candidate for president and now the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, February 2003: “I firmly believe that the president is focusing our diplomats, our military, our intelligence agencies, and even our people on the wrong war, at the wrong time. ... Iraq is a divided country, with Sunni, Shia and Kurdish factions that share both bitter rivalries and access to large quantities of arms.”

We should honor these people for their wisdom and courage. We should also ask why anyone who didn’t raise questions about the war — or, at any rate, anyone who acted as a cheerleader for this march of folly — should be taken seriously when he or she talks about matters of national security.

8564. wonkers2 - 12/8/2006 8:35:17 AM

Krugman's Iraq Honor Roll

8565. jexster - 12/8/2006 1:04:12 PM

Dreyfuss on the ISG

There's good news and bad news in the long-awaited report of the Iraq Study Group. Happily, it starts the United States down the path of withdrawal. Unhappily, its most basic premise--that the United States can somehow support the nonexistent Iraqi government and bolster its viciously sectarian armed forces--is fatally flawed.

.... But regardless of the ISG's seventy-nine options, things are moving fast in Iraq. Much of Iraq, of course, is moving toward a bloody civil war, pitting sect against sect and Arab against Kurd. But there is also an Iraqi movement for a nationalist republic, one free of the American occupation imposed on it by George W. Bush in 2003. Either way, it's likely that the pace of that movement will accelerate in the weeks and months ahead.

As a result, the real value of the ISG report is that it starts the United States down the road toward a withdrawal of a major portion of the occupation army, and toward a diplomatic effort in its place. That's all to the good--and for most Americans, who won't bother reading all seventy-nine recommendations, the only thing they will get from the news of the ISG's work is that a bunch of smart people say it's time to get out of Iraq. The rest is details. And things in Iraq are moving so fast that few, if any, of those details will ever have any impact in the real world.

8566. robertjayb - 12/8/2006 10:05:48 PM

Jimmy Carter pushes back...(LATimes)

The many controversial issues concerning Palestine and the path to peace for Israel are intensely debated among Israelis and throughout other nations — but not in the United States. For the last 30 years, I have witnessed and experienced the severe restraints on any free and balanced discussion of the facts. This reluctance to criticize any policies of the Israeli government is because of the extraordinary lobbying efforts of the American-Israel Political Action Committee and the absence of any significant contrary voices.

It would be almost politically suicidal for members of Congress to espouse a balanced position between Israel and Palestine, to suggest that Israel comply with international law or to speak in defense of justice or human rights for Palestinians. Very few would ever deign to visit the Palestinian cities of Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron, Gaza City or even Bethlehem and talk to the beleaguered residents. What is even more difficult to comprehend is why the editorial pages of the major newspapers and magazines in the United States exercise similar self-restraint, quite contrary to private assessments expressed quite forcefully by their correspondents in the Holy Land.

8567. jexster - 12/9/2006 1:09:53 PM

Damn you Robert!

He ain't wrong. Wolf Blitzer did a Swift Boat number on him yesterday..feeding his comments in an earlier interview to Israel Lobbyists without fact check and without any opportunity for surrebuttal.

What a bunch of scumbags these Zionists are

8568. wonkers2 - 12/9/2006 2:01:52 PM

Iraq Study Group re: Palesting/Israel

"The United States will not be able to achieve its goals in the Middle East unless the United States deals directly with the Arab-Israeli conflict.

"There must be a renewed and sustained commitment by the United states to a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace on all fronts: Lebanon, Syria, and President Bush's June 2002 commitment to a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. This commitment must include direct talks with, by, and between Israel, Lebanon, Palestinians (those who accept Israel's right to exist), and particularly Syria--which is the principal transit point for shipments of weapons to Hezbollah, and which supports radical Palestinian groups.

"The United States does its ally Israel no favors in avoiding direct involvement to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict. For several reasons, we should act boldly:

-There is no military solution to this conflict

--The vast majority of the Israeli body politic is tired of being a nation perpetually at war.

--No American administration--Democrat or Republican--will ever abandon Israel.

--Political engagement and dialogue are essential in the Arab-Israeli dispute because it is an axiom that when the political process breaks down there will be violence on the ground.

--The only basis on which peace can be achieved is that set forth in UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 in the principle of "land for peace."

--The only lasting and secure peace will be a negotiated peach such as Israel has achieved with Egypt and Jordan.

"This effort would strongly support moderate Arab governments in the region, especially the democratically elected government of Lebanon, and the Palestinian Authority under President Mahmoud Abbas.

"RECOMMENDATION 13: There must be a renewed and sustained commitment by the United States to a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace on all fronts: Lebanon and Syria, and President Bush's June 2002 commitment to a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.

"RECOMMENDATION 14: This effort should include--as soon as possible--the unconditional calling and holding of meetings under the auspices of the United States or the Quartet (i.e. the United States, Russia, European Union, and the United Nations), between Isael and Lebanon and Syria on the one hand, and Israel and Palestinians (who acknowledge Israel's right to exist) on the other. The purpose of these meetings would be to negotiate peace as was done at the Madrid Conference in 1991, and on two separate tracks--one Syrian/Lebanese and the other Palestinian.

"RECOMMENDATION 15: Concerning Syria, some elements of that negotiated peace should be:

--Syria's full adherence ot UN Security Council Resolution 1701 of August 2006, which provides the framework for Lebanon to regain sovereign control over its territory.

--Syria's full cooperation with all investigations into political assassinations in Lebanon, especially those of Rafik Hariri and Pierre Gemayel.

--A verifiable cessation of Syrian aid to Hezbollah and the use of Syrian territory for transshipment of Iranian weapons and aid to Hezbollah. (This step would do much to solve Israel's problem with Hezbollah.)

--Syria's use of its influence with Hamas and Hezbollah for the release of the captured Israeli Defense Force soldiers.

--A verifiable cessation of Syrian efforts to undermine the democratically elected government of Lebanon.

--A verifiable cessation of arms shipments from or transiting through Syria for Hamas and other ridical Palestinian groups.

W2 Comment: "What about U.S. arms shipments to Israel?"

--A Syrian commitment to help obtain from Hamas an acknowledgment of Israel's right to exist.

--Greater Syrian efforts to seal its border with Iraq.

"RECOMMENDATION 16: In exchange for these actions and in the context of a full and secure peace agreement, the Israelis shold return the Golan Heights, with a U.S. security guranantee for Israel that could include in international force on the border, including U.S. troops if requested by both parties.

"RECOMMENDATION 17: Concerning the Palestinian issue, elements of that negotiated peace should include:

--Adherence to UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 and to the principle of land for peace, which are the only bases for achieving peace.

--Strong support for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority to take the lead in preparing the way for negotiations with Israel.

--A major effort to move from the current hostilities by consolidating the cease-fire reached between the Palestinians and the Israelis in November 2006.

--Support for a palestinian national unity government.

--Sustainable negotiations leading to a final peace settlement along the lines of President Bush's two-state solution, which would address the key final status issues of borders, settlements, Jerusalem, the right of return, and the end of conflict."

8569. jexster - 12/10/2006 6:04:35 AM

Nice Try Schlomo




Nyt Week in Review...


THE day after the Baker-Hamilton report on Iraq was released, Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, rejected the part that urged the United States to refocus on the Israeli-Arab conflict because all Middle East issues were, it said, “inextricably linked.”

Mr. Olmert responded, “The U.S.’s problems in Iraq are entirely independent of the problems between us and the Palestinians.”

Yet Mr. Olmert’s own recent statements and actions belie his argument.

8570. jexster - 12/10/2006 6:09:45 AM

Israel Is Not Linked to Iraq, Except That It Is

8571. jexster - 12/10/2006 6:16:26 AM

Third Time Charmed

Sleazy muthafuckas make me angry

8572. thoughtful - 12/12/2006 4:03:37 PM

Some hard truths on iraq:

Truth No. 6: It is simply not possible to prevent more tragic Iraqi deaths in Iraq.

Many pundits and politicians – particularly those who howled for the invasion of Iraq in 2002 and 2003 -- posture about human rights abuses that will occur if U.S. troops are withdrawn rapidly. The way to have avoided moral responsibility for these abuses was not to invade in the first place.

8573. jexster - 12/12/2006 9:11:13 PM

Anyone seeking to understand what has become the central conundrum of the Iraq war—how it is that so many highly accomplished, experienced, and intelligent officials came together to make such monumental, consequential, and, above all, obvious mistakes, mistakes that much of the government knew very well at the time were mistakes—must see beyond what seems to be a simple rhetoric of self-justification and follow it where it leads: toward the War of Imagination that senior officials decided to fight in the spring and summer of 2002 and to whose image they clung long after reality had taken a sharply separate turn. In that War of Imagination victory was to be decisive, overwhelming, evincing a terrible power—enough to wipe out the disgrace of September 11 and remake the threatening world.


NyT Review of Books

State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III
by Bob Woodward
Simon and Schuster, 560 pp., $30.00

The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11
by Ron Suskind
Simon and Schuster, 367 pp., $27.00

State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration
by James Risen
Free Press, 240 pp., $26.00

8574. jexster - 12/12/2006 9:11:45 PM

NYRB

8575. jexster - 12/13/2006 9:29:52 AM

Juan Cole has a lengthy post up on the new cold war in the Middle East

8576. jexster - 12/13/2006 10:13:19 AM

The Indictment
Method Behind Baker-Hamiliton??

{I}f the Study Group’s pitiless description of America’s dilemma in Iraq is to be believed—and it is—then the hope of anything resembling a positive outcome is extremely slim

8577. jexster - 12/13/2006 1:11:46 PM

Six Brutal Truths About Iraq
Lt. Gen William Odom

8578. jexster - 12/17/2006 9:49:40 PM

The Trap of Recognizing Israel

by Jonathan Cook

Nazareth



For all our sakes, we must hope that the Palestinians and their Hamas government continue refusing to "recognize Israel's right to exist."

8579. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 12/17/2006 11:04:28 PM

Carter is dead on, it is, indeed, apartheid, and like Joe Jewish and President Stupit, Israel doesn't like to hear the truth.

8580. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 12/17/2006 11:10:15 PM

[toys!]

"The Indictment" is just beating a dead horse.

I've always trusted Odom's insights, he's always been correct and never afraid of truth's consequences.

8581. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 12/18/2006 4:35:36 AM

Excerpted transcript of David Brooks & Tom Friedman on MTP . . .

MR. RUSSERT: It’s been an interesting week in terms of the media and our coverage of Iraq. Both the first lady and the secretary of defense made suggestions as to what we should be doing. Let’s watch the first lady first on MSNBC.

(Videotape, December 14, 1006):

MRS. LAURA BUSH: I do know that there are a lot of good things that are happening that aren’t covered, and I think the drum beat in the country from the media, from the only way people know what’s happening, unless they happen to have a loved one deployed there, is discouraging.

(End videotape)


MR. RUSSERT: The drum beat that is discouraging. Here’s the secretary of defense on Friday.

(Videotape, December 8, 2006):

SEC’Y DONALD RUMSFELD: I mean, if you, if you just watched what’s happening every time there’s a bomb going off in Baghdad, you’d think the whole country’s aflame. But you fly over it, and that’s just simply not the case. There are people out in the fields working, and there’s cars in the gas lines waiting to get fuel.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT: What do you think?


MR. BROOKS: Get off of it. I mean, we’ve got a hero in our newspaper, John Burns. Another hero, Dexter Filkins, there’s a whole series of heroes over there. They’re not biased about this. They want the best for the Iraqi people, they want democracy. Listen to what they’re reporting, they’re reporting chaos. You have 100--I don’t know what it is, 1.6 million people leaving Iraq. You’ve got 9,000 Iraqis every week who are moving to their Shia homeland, or to their Sunni homeland. This is a country—it’s not civil war, it’s just disintegration. So the idea that this is some media concoction, you—I said that a year ago, two years ago. But at some point, face reality.

MR. RUSSERT: Face reality?


MR. FRIEDMAN: You know, Tim, if I can share with you another rule I had about the Middle East, it was that any general going to the Middle East—or reporter—should have to take a test, and it would consist of one question:

Do you believe the shortest distance between two points is a straight line? If you answer yes to that question, you can’t go to Iraq. You can go to Korea, you can go to Germany, you can go to Japan. You can’t go to Iraq.

And the problem is, when you hear the first lady, when I think of the way Bush is running this war, he thinks that in the Middle East the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. It’s all straight, it’s a matter of just add a little more force here, and a little more, you know, give another speech there. It’s insane. I wanted this to succeed, you know, as much as anybody, all right, because I thought it was really important. But I thought it was really important and really hard. And to me, what history will damn these people for is they thought it was really important and really easy.

8582. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 12/18/2006 4:07:52 PM

8583. jexster - 12/18/2006 4:36:56 PM

Ex-soldiers "break silence" on Israeli excesses
Yehuda Shaul :`something rotten' is going on in Gaza and the West Bank

8584. wonkers2 - 12/18/2006 6:00:08 PM

Election set-back for Ahmadinejad. Good news from Iran!

8585. jexster - 12/18/2006 9:48:42 PM

In a strange inverted fashion, I am most compelled by the readings that have emerged from the far right. They understand the document for what it is: an abject admission of total failure. Rush Limbaugh summed it up best when he mocked the document as "The Iraq Surrender Group Report."

ISG: Defeat With Honor
The Nation

8586. jexster - 12/22/2006 4:18:38 PM

GRENADE!

Target: Iran
Scott Ritter
Seymour Hersh

One of the big problems is - and here goes the grenade - Israel








No shit Schlomo!

8587. wonkers2 - 12/22/2006 5:11:12 PM

Interesting and scary commentary by Ritter and Hersh on U.S. intentions toward Iran.

8588. jexster - 12/23/2006 4:56:47 AM

Archbishop of Canterbury Christians suffer for Iraq
Rowan Williams warns of war's deadly backlash - Thousands of believers in Middle East 'at risk'

8589. jexster - 12/24/2006 3:26:37 PM

Jews Ruin Bethlehem Christmas - Again

8590. jexster - 12/25/2006 5:46:12 AM

Christmas in the Middle East
Juan Cole

Silent night,

Al-Zaman reports that "The Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad appeared almost deserted on Christmas Eve. Christian celebrations of Christmas were limited to private homes. Iraqi Christians had announced last week that they would suspend official celebration, out of solidarity with the tragedy of the Iraqi people." Iraqi Christians, who had enjoyed relative freedom under the regime of Saddam Hussein, now face fear of attacks by powerful Islamic groups or Shiite militias. Few are making any use of the Christmas lights and decorations of yesteryear. There were some 600,000 Iraqi Christians in a population of 27 million, but some say the number is now less than 450,000. Thousands have been forced to flee to Syria. The Archbishop of Canterbury has argued that the policies of the British and American governments in Iraq have endangered Middle Eastern Christians and that nothing is being done to protect them.

holy night,

The Archbishop of Canterbury, in Bethlehem, sharply condemned the Israeli government for the Separation Wall it is building on Palestinian, West Bank land, which is having a deleterious effect on Bethlehem:

' "The wall which we walked through a little while ago is a sign not simply of a passing problem in the politics of one region; it is sign of some of the things that are most deeply wrong in the human heart itself," Williams told his fellow church leaders, according to Britain's Press Association. "We are here to say that security for one is security for all. For one to live under threat, whether of occupation, or of terror, is a problem for all, and a pain for all," he was quoted as saying . . .

Bethlehem Mayor Victor Batarseh says the barrier separates residents of this town of 30,000 from jobs, studies, medical facilities and relatives in nearby Jerusalem. He told the visiting clergy the town had been "transformed into an open prison" by the barrier. "Your presence is challenging this ugly wall," Batarseh was quoted as saying. '

8591. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 12/25/2006 11:17:14 AM

8592. jexster - 12/31/2006 1:39:59 PM

Downtrodden Shia Masses to their Liberator:

Bushie You're Doin a Heckuva Job (tip of the hat to your pal Scholmo too!)



BEIRUT, Lebanon - Iraq's Shiites owe their new power over the government to the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein nearly four years ago. Many Lebanese Shiites would similarly like Israel's summer war with Hezbollah to be the seed of their political ascendancy.Hezbollah's performance against a far superior Israeli army has bolstered the militia's standing within Lebanon's Shiite community, and across the Arab world.

Now, filling the center of Beirut with daily rallies, Hezbollah is pressing for a larger say in the running of Lebanon and an end to the Shiites' history of being poor and oppressed.

8593. alistairConnor - 1/13/2007 5:16:30 AM

Chilling report from behind the lines in Sunni Baghdad

from Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, friend of our old friend Salam Pax.

In Ramadi there was still jihad against the Americans because there were no Shia to fight, but in Baghdad his group only attacked the Americans if they were with Shia army forces or were coming to arrest someone.

"We have been deceived by the jihadi Arabs," he admitted, in reference to al-Qaida and foreign fighters. "They had an international agenda and we implemented it. But now all the leadership of the jihad in Iraq are Iraqis."

My opinion is that, insofar as any of the actors has an actual strategy, it's Al Qaida. Unifying the Sunnis by separating them from the Shia; tying down the US in Iraq for as long as possible, thereby poisoning the entire Middle East and hastening the day of fundamentalist revolutions which they believe will bring about a new Caliphate.

8594. jexster - 1/13/2007 9:38:19 AM

The Shia and Kurd have had a strategery for a long time....Get the US to wipe out the Sunnis for them..I think you're right about the Sunnis though...they were are(?) in the main too nationalist to think in such Machiavellian terms but soon I think it became apparent that they'd benefit their strategery being to be the one's Iraqis turn to for order (there's no Rule which says a strategery has to be a sound strategery - Bush, Osama, Saddam, Olde Merde, M. Maginot)

8595. concerned - 1/17/2007 10:21:16 PM

I got some news that's Rough on Rats:

We're going to go straight to hell in Iraq if we follow the Democrats' prescriptions of cutting and running or attempting to dialogue 'em into submission. And they're all too cowardly to come out and admit that this is all they're really advocating.

Really fucking pathetic.

8596. concerned - 1/17/2007 10:38:22 PM

Just like the resident fascists to gang up on Israel and ignore the nuclear nutcases running Iran.

8597. wonkers2 - 1/17/2007 10:39:01 PM

"The Democrats' position?" A big majority of Americans, generals, foreign policy experts and quite a few Republicans. Chuck Hagel was quite impressive today at his news conference with Levin and Biden.

8598. wonkers2 - 1/17/2007 10:39:36 PM

Iraq is no longer a Dem v. GOP political issue.

8599. concerned - 1/17/2007 10:42:40 PM

Prettying up 'Cut and Run' is like gilding a piece of runny shit, wonkers.

8600. wonkers2 - 1/17/2007 11:00:18 PM

"Cut and run" is a bullshit slogan dreamed up by Dick Cheney and mindlessly mouthed by Bush.

8601. alistairconnor - 1/19/2007 8:15:03 AM

Cutting your losses is never pretty, Con.

But throwing good money, and lives, after bad, has never been a smart option.

8602. alistairconnor - 1/19/2007 8:16:34 AM

Sometimes, when you've painted yourself into a corner, you have to accept that you have to walk out, leaving ugly footprints.

Because that paint isn't going to dry any time soon.

8603. alistairconnor - 1/19/2007 8:17:19 AM

Hey, I'm on a roll here.

Let's have some new clichés about Iraq. Competition!

8604. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 1/19/2007 8:42:19 AM

If we don't stop them there, they'll soon be blowing up our cities here!

If your only tool is a shovel, keep digging the hole deeper.

If it ain't fixed, break it more.

If your concerned, then just think that your thinking!

8605. wonkers2 - 1/19/2007 8:50:10 AM

Variant: Would you rather fight the war on terror over there or over here?

8606. jexster - 1/19/2007 11:05:20 AM

Over here?

8607. jexster - 1/19/2007 11:06:54 AM

Cheney blew off Iran in 2003
For the Love of God Impeach this Man
Cole

Lawrence Wilkerson, an aide to Colin Powell when he was secretary of state says that Iran in 2003 offered to help stabilize Iraq and to cut off aid to Hizbullah in Lebanon and to Hamas. ...

8608. jexster - 1/19/2007 11:08:37 AM

Could we compromise?


Could we put our boots on the ground in Provence?

8609. concerned - 1/19/2007 11:18:58 AM

Mideast weather forecast: Sunni with a 100% chance of a Shi-ite storm.

8610. jexster - 1/19/2007 11:31:30 AM

Very good

8611. wonkers2 - 1/19/2007 11:58:28 AM

Concerned, that was your best post to date! Funny, actually.

8612. jexster - 1/19/2007 12:50:18 PM

George Bush, Crusader
Scorecard 2001-2007

8613. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 1/21/2007 2:17:18 PM

8614. jexster - 1/21/2007 9:57:05 PM

Yo Crazy...


That new Chinese fighter the Jian-10...

Almost 20 years in development, the Jian-10 is a latest-generation multi-role fighter bomber believed to have been developed with Israeli help using the U.S. F-16 fighter as a template. The plane was reportedly being manufactured by the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Corp. in southwestern China,...

8615. jexster - 1/28/2007 10:30:49 PM

Iran For Dummies
New York Times Magazine

8616. jexster - 1/30/2007 5:21:38 AM

Cole in Salon.com: Bush's Anti-Iran Fatwa

8617. jexster - 1/30/2007 12:40:04 PM

With Iran Ascendant, U.S. Is Seen at Fault
Arab Allies in Region Feeling Pressure

Shadid via TPM

8618. jexster - 1/31/2007 12:53:06 PM

Martin van Creveld: Make a Deal With Syria

8619. jexster - 1/31/2007 11:14:50 PM

Greatest Strategid Disaster in US History


a world historical shit sandwich....


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Violence in Iraq and instability in Lebanon are driving hundreds of thousands of people abroad in an upheaval not matched in the Middle East since the exodus of Palestinian refugees when Israel was created in 1948.


We ain't seen nothin yet. Refugee floods are where the fun begins.

8620. jexster - 2/3/2007 12:28:32 PM

Greatest Strategic Disaster in US History


Apres Bush, le deluge


DAMASCUS, Syria - Decades after the Middle East was hit by the mass uprooting of Palestinians, it is again struggling with a gigantic refugee problem — this time from Iraq.

The exodus — one million to neighboring Syria alone, according to the U.N. — is another unforeseen byproduct of the 2003 Iraq invasion. When it might peak, nobody knows, but if it continues at its present rate, the consequences for the region would be profound.

8621. jexster - 2/5/2007 11:33:44 PM

[via Iraq Slogger]

Assad to Bush: "Stop Looking for Scapegoats"
Tells ABC's Sawyer: "This is the Last Chance to Start Helping Iraq"
Posted 12 hr. 36 min. ago
ABC News
Sawyer, Assad"What's the benefit of democracy if you're dead?"

In an exclusive Iraq-focused interview with ABC News's Diane Sawyer, Syrian President Bashar Assad says the U.S. should "stop looking for scapegoats" and instead seriously engage in regional discussions aimed at bringing peace and security to Iraq. He says, "This is the last chance to start helping Iraq." He says the Bush administration "is not interested in peace at all." Assad says he admires Bush's father, the 41st US president, and former president Bill Clinton because of their engagement, solution-oriented policies. In the wide-ranging interview, it gets personal, with Assad talking about what's on his iPod and what movies he's watching.


A must-read transcript

8622. jexster - 2/8/2007 12:38:40 PM

Good News and Bad News for the Jews

Shilbey Telhami and PPIRA have just finished the latest periodic survey of opinion in 6 arab nations.


First the Good News for da jews

For the first time ever, the prime minister of Israel is not the most unpopular foreign leader in the world. George W. Bush beats Olmert and Sharon COMBINED


Now the bad news....


The most popular with support twice that his nearest competitor - Hasran Nasrallah

Sunni, Shia don't matter for to a great extent it appears that outside Lebanon and Iraq, the Shia/Sunni "split" does not exixt except in the dreams of Bush, Israel, and perhaps 6 autocrats who aren't very big on democracy these days especially.

8623. wonkers2 - 2/8/2007 9:16:22 PM

Jex, interesting interview. Tnx. Diane Sawyer interviews Bashar al Assad Feb 5

8624. jexster - 2/8/2007 10:40:00 PM

BushWar on IraN

Terry McAullife, Billary's Campaign Manager, looked as if he were for his marmot holewhen Chris Mathews asked what's up with Brunhilde's boob thumping about IraN. He'd just returned stateside and was catching up on the truckloads of campaign staff and their mischief.





"Well she has to seem strong"



Well DUH....We already figgered that triangultion out.


Can The Neocons Really Get Us Into a Second War? (TPMC, Vanity Fair article)

8625. jexster - 2/9/2007 12:40:01 PM

New PA Gov't Creates Real Problems for Jizzrael Ha'aretz

8626. concerned - 2/10/2007 7:47:08 PM

Iran's Obsession With the Jews

The Iranian regime can court the Jewish Israel- haters of Neturei Karta all it wants, but anyone who makes Jews responsible for the ills of the world--whether calling them Judas or Zionists--is clearly driven by an anti-Semitism of genocidal potential. Demonization of Jews, Holocaust denial, and the will to eliminate Israel--these are the three elements of an ideological constellation that collapses as soon as any one of them is removed.

Ahmadinejad inhabits a delusional world that is sealed off from reality. The louder the liberal West protests against Holocaust denial or the Islamists' demands for the destruction of Israel, the more conviced Ahmadinejad becomes of Zionist domination. In a conversation with the editors of the German newsweekly Der Spiegel, the Iranian president reacted as follows to the remark that the magazine does not question Israel's right to exist: "I am glad that you are honest people and say that you are required to support the Zionists." Only when we too finally realize that the Holocaust is a Jewish lie--only when we too want to annihilate Israel--only then will Ahmadinejad be convinced that we are academically credible and politically free. It is this lunacy that makes the revolutionary mission of the Iranian leadership so dangerous.

8627. wonkers2 - 2/10/2007 8:43:19 PM

It goes both ways.

8628. concerned - 2/10/2007 9:04:54 PM

The article provides a fascinating, but at the same time repellant insight into the warped, totally illogical mindset of Islamists regarding Israel and Jews. I believe that it amounts to a form of institutional insanity in the case of the Iranian government. Holocaust denial is dishonest, disreputable and the motives of those who deny the Holocaust are deeply suspect, as is strikingly illustrated in the article I linked.

I give Israel much the benefit of the doubt simply because of the extremely small numbers of its populace and land occupied relative to its neighbors.

8629. wonkers2 - 2/10/2007 9:24:23 PM

You're also giving them your share, as a taxpayer, of the $4 billion or so a year that the U.S. sends to Israel.

8630. jexster - 2/10/2007 9:24:48 PM

Helping Israel Die
Ray McGovern

Thank you Georgie...a heckuva job

8631. jexster - 2/12/2007 2:23:23 PM

Israeli experts have come to the realization that American policy in the Middle East is not merely an immense failure but also a decisive inhibition to Israel reorienting its foreign policy to confront the realities of the region that the Jews have chosen to live in.

Three's a Crowd: Israel, Iran, and the Bush Administration

8632. wonkers2 - 2/12/2007 4:36:08 PM

What do terrorists want? Louise Richardson, Harvard terrorism expert.

8633. alistairconnor - 2/20/2007 11:36:24 AM

Georgie's ready to rumble

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says the trigger for such an attack reportedly includes any confirmation that Iran was developing a nuclear weapon - which it denies.

Alternatively, our correspondent adds, a high-casualty attack on US forces in neighbouring Iraq could also trigger a bombing campaign if it were traced directly back to Tehran.

Two-pronged justification.

Why are we going to war with Ira*?
- Because of their weapons of mass destruction
- Because they support terrorists
- For some other reason that we'll think up after the fact.

Sound familiar?

Reminds me of the Middle Eastern proverb, to the effect of : Never hesitate to beat your wife. Even if YOU don't know what she's done wrong, SHE knows.

8634. jexster - 2/20/2007 12:28:27 PM

Joe Cirincione probably the most knowledgeable and level-headed of US experts on nuclear proliferation was just on CNN saying the obvious "there is no military option to take off the table"...but will that stop a maniac like Bush?


Ken Silverstein has a correct view of the situation as it now stands.

France had better be careful how close they get to our delusional imperator.


As I said last yeat, if the Reps had kept Congress, we'd be bombing right now.

8635. jexster - 2/22/2007 11:57:14 AM

US and Iran "natural allies" - CNN

8636. alistairconnor - 2/23/2007 6:04:01 AM

Much of the intelligence on Iran's nuclear facilities provided to UN inspectors by American spy agencies has turned out to be unfounded, according to diplomatic sources in Vienna.

Sound familiar?

A comical footnote to the tense US/Iran standoff : there is no actual credible evidence, let alone proof, that Iran is actually engaged in nuclear-weapons research, as distinct from nuclear power research.

Perhaps it's time to revive the Ackroyd/Connor Conjecture (which turned out to be completely on the money) : we hypothesised that Saddam had indeed destroyed all his chemical weapons, but, while claiming that he had, was successfully leading the US to believe that he hadn't, because the threat of them was his best defense...

8637. jexster - 2/23/2007 3:39:48 PM

On the money...now..what does your crystal ball say about BushWarIV (Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, IRAN)?

CNN is sounding alarms on Staits of Hormuz, $8 gal gas today

Would Bush do it in an election year? Might be the only way he gets invited to address the REpublican Convention

8638. jexster - 2/24/2007 7:25:04 PM

Apartheid Looks Like This

by Jonathan Cook
Nazareth

8639. jexster - 2/24/2007 7:36:55 PM

US Stops Israel from Talking to Syria

Just think what might happen if we told them "Get out of the West Bank and E. Jerusalem NOW SHLOMO or we'll cut you assholes off without a shekel"

8640. jexster - 2/25/2007 5:25:07 AM

Here it is...the long awaited Sy Hersh article


THE IRAN PLANS
Would President Bush go to war to stop Tehran from getting the bomb?
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH

8641. jexster - 2/25/2007 5:30:28 AM

A government consultant with close ties to the civilian leadership in the Pentagon said that Bush was “absolutely convinced that Iran is going to get the bomb” if it is not stopped. He said that the President believes that he must do “what no Democrat or Republican, if elected in the future, would have the courage to do,” and “that saving Iran is going to be his legacy.”

One former defense official, who still deals with sensitive issues for the Bush Administration, told me that the military planning was premised on a belief that “a sustained bombing campaign in Iran will humiliate the religious leadership and lead the public to rise up and overthrow the government.” He added, “I was shocked when I heard it, and asked myself, ‘What are they smoking?’


Good God.

8642. jexster - 2/25/2007 5:47:22 AM

I warned you revanchistes AC....now is not a time to rebuild Imperial France


The Europeans are rattled, however, by their growing perception that President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney believe a bombing campaign will be needed, and that their real goal is regime change. “Everyone is on the same page about the Iranian bomb, but the United States wants regime change,” a European diplomatic adviser told me. He added, “The Europeans have a role to play as long as they don’t have to choose between going along with the Russians and the Chinese or going along with Washington on something they don’t want. Their policy is to keep the Americans engaged in something the Europeans can live with. It may be untenable.”

“The Brits think this is a very bad idea,” Flynt Leverett, a former National Security Council staff member who is now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center, told me, “but they’re really worried we’re going to do it.” The European diplomatic adviser acknowledged that the British Foreign Office was aware of war planning in Washington but that, “short of a smoking gun, it’s going to be very difficult to line up the Europeans on Iran.” He said that the British “are jumpy about the Americans going full bore on the Iranians, with no compromise.”


Better back away from Bush soon

8643. jexster - 2/25/2007 6:29:42 AM

US Generals Will Quit if Bush Attacks Iran

That's why they've been leaking to Sy Hersh all these months.

8644. jexster - 2/25/2007 6:37:38 AM

Where R the Pont l'Eveque-Eating Surrender Monkeys When You Really Need Em?

8645. jexster - 2/26/2007 3:15:51 PM

Good news from Iraq!

Cabinet Approves Draft Oil Law


Current and future oil revenues collected by central govt and redistributed on the basis of population

8646. jexster - 2/27/2007 12:26:47 AM

If you thought Bush's latest gambit to save his Iraq adventure - AID to ALQaeda Lebanon thru Prince Bandar's Terrorist Slush Fund - was squirrely...check this out...


Bush, as Gen Patton put it, is in so far over his head that memos are delived in a diving bell.....But the US media's coverage of the ME still sucks and even Sy Hersh falls prey to Bush Regime Ignorance and spin...


So we still have to work for accurate reporting..Now you know what Russians had to deal with under the Soviets

Josh Landis Oklahoma U is a good source for Lebanon and Syria



A Lebanon analyst sent this note on the Hersh and Saab articles copied in the previous two posts. He prefers not to use his name. The following is his:
_____

Allow me to add a number of comments to the fine discussion initiated by Bilal Saab (Brookings) on Seymour Hersh's New Yorker piece.

Lebanese Sunnis Deeply Divided over Relations with Hizbullah

**
Just a final note on Seymour Hersh: he may be very good at researching the US side of a story and exposing bureaucratic debates and infighting over important policy issues. His research and analysis on foreign countries is less impressive.

8647. alistairconnor - 2/27/2007 7:55:19 AM

From Hersh:
Iran could also initiate a wave of terror attacks in Iraq and elsewhere, with the help of Hezbollah. On April 2nd, the Washington Post reported that the planning to counter such attacks “is consuming a lot of time” at U.S. intelligence agencies. “The best terror network in the world has remained neutral in the terror war for the past several years,” the Pentagon adviser on the war on terror said of Hezbollah. “This will mobilize them and put us up against the group that drove Israel out of southern Lebanon. If we move against Iran, Hezbollah will not sit on the sidelines. Unless the Israelis take them out, they will mobilize against us.” (When I asked the government consultant about that possibility, he said that, if Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel, “Israel and the new Lebanese government will finish them off.”

... on what planet?

Israel has recently been fought to a standstill by Hezbollah. And they could "finish them off"?

They already used their "Armageddon weapon" (cluster bombs), to little effect. What have they got left to "finish the job" with?

Oh yes. Tactical nukes. Sounds like fun.

8648. jexster - 2/27/2007 11:19:09 AM

Conservatives and Reformers Alike Blast Ahmadinejad's Latest Bellicose Belching


Nimrods like Bush and Ahdmadine have a shelf life of about 2 years unless some idiot gives em a trifecta

8649. jexster - 2/27/2007 11:20:35 AM

8476 - That's why we pray for the Surrender Monkey's recovery until the Fourth Reich gets its act together

8650. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 2/27/2007 11:27:52 AM

8651. jexster - 2/27/2007 3:24:10 PM

Credit Where Credit Is Due


A major shit sandwich for the WarHawks....


U.S. launches new talks to secure Iraq


The United States and the Iraqi government are launching a new diplomatic initiative to invite Iran and Syria to a "neighbors meeting" on stabilizing Iraq, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday.

"We hope that all governments seize this opportunity to improve their relations with Iraq and to work for peace and stability in the region," Rice said in remarks prepared for delivery to a Senate committee. Excerpts were released in advance by the State Department.

The move reflects a change of approach by the Bush administration, which previously had resisted calls by members of Congress and by a bipartisan Iraq review group to include Iran and Syria in diplomatic talks on stabilizing Iraq.

"I am pleased to announce that we are also supporting the Iraqis in a new diplomatic offensive: to build greater support, both within the region and beyond, for peace and prosperity in Iraq," Rice said, adding that U.S. and Iraqi officials agree that success in Iraq "requires the positive support of Iraq's neighbors."

...

"I would note that the Iraqi government has invited Syria and Iran to attend both of these regional meetings," Rice said. She also noted that the Iraq Study Group, headed by former Secretary of State James Baker and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, had recommended inviting Iran and Syria to such a neighbors meeting. At the time of that recommendation in December, President Bush rejected that diplomatic approach.

8652. jexster - 3/8/2007 10:05:37 AM

Et Tu Jizzrael?

An Israeli newspaper is reporting that a retired Israeli officer has been exporting high-powered weapons to Iraqi guerrillas.

8653. jexster - 3/9/2007 9:02:40 PM

Isolation of Syria Breaking
US Ambassador Obstructing Lebanon Settlement

8654. jexster - 3/14/2007 4:36:55 AM

From the we-already-knew-that-was-a-lie Dept

Olmert Reveals the Real Goal of War in Lebanon


Israel's supposedly "defensive" assault on Hezbollah last summer, in which more than 1,000 Lebanese civilians were killed in a massive aerial bombardment that ended with Israel littering the country's south with cluster bombs, was cast in a definitively different light last week by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

His leaked testimony to the Winograd Committee – investigating the government's failures during the month-long attack – suggests that he had been preparing for such a war at least four months before the official casus belli: the capture by Hezbollah of two Israeli soldiers from a border post on July 12, 2006. Lebanon's devastation was apparently designed to teach both Hezbollah and the country's wider public a lesson

8655. wonkers2 - 3/14/2007 9:59:10 AM

He sounds like Bush and Cheney on reasons for Iraq invasion.

8656. jexster - 3/14/2007 10:40:57 AM

No coincidence that

8657. jexster - 3/17/2007 5:17:50 PM

The United States has given Israel $51.3 billion in military grants since 1949, most of it after 1974 – more than any other country in the post-1945 era. Israel has also received $11.2 billion in loans for military equipment, plus $31 billion in economic grants, not to mention loan guarantees or joint military projects. But major conditions on these military grants have meant that 74 percent of it has remained in the U.S. to purchase American arms. Since it creates jobs and profits in many districts, Congress is more than ready to respond to the cajoling of the Israel lobby. This vast sum has both enabled and forced Israel to prepare to fight an American-style war. But the US since 1950 has failed to win any of its big wars.

In early 2005 the new chief of staff of the Israel Defense Force, Dan Halutz, embarked on the most extensive reorganization in the history of IDF. Halutz is an Air Force general and enamored with the doctrines that justify the ultra-modern equipment the Americans showered upon the Israelis. Attack helicopters, unmanned aircraft, advanced long-range intelligence and communications, and the like were at the top of his agenda. His was merely a variation of Donald Rumsfeld’s "shock and awe" concepts.

The 34-day war in Lebanon, starting July 12 last year, was a disastrous turning point for Israel


Israel's Last Chance

8658. jexster - 3/17/2007 6:35:31 PM

Act Like a Normal Nation or Else


Kolko's article discusses another War Clouds Gather Over the Golan
by Martin van Creveld

8659. concerned - 3/26/2007 12:52:20 PM

Don't know if it's been posted here yet, but it appears that the Iraq coalition has figured out how the Islamic nutjobs were downing US helicopters with truck mounted heavy machine guns. Apparently, such a tactic has subsequently been neutralized.

8660. jexster - 3/26/2007 1:42:54 PM

Well that's nice


As some of you know, I am a BIG fan of the LeClerc MBT and the Military Channel


MC is sponsoring "Operation Reconnect America" whose mission is to reconnect America..the current charity


GIve til it fucking hurts asshole...Suppor the troops as fervently as you supported BushWars





Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors

for the grieving beloved who die for nothing in the ever expanding list of lost BushWars

Juan Cole today:

Sunni Arab guerrillas deployed roadside bombs to kill five US GIs on Sunday. Clashes erupted between local guerrillas and Iraqi security forces in the working class Fadil District of Baghdad. Police found 22 bodies, most of them in Baghdad. Another ten persons died in other violence. Reuters gives details of other political violence, including a Shiite attack on Sunni mosques in Haswa in reprisal for Saturday's attack on a Shiite mosque.

McClatchy describes the violence in Haswa:


' In retaliation for yesterday['s] bombing in the mixed city of Haswa (50 Km south of Baghdad) gunmen burned 4 Sunni mosques and attacked the Iraqi Islamic party (IIP) headquarter in the city. Around 1 p.m. and during the funeral of yesterday bombing victims, Shiite gunmen attacked and burned two mosques, Abdullah Al Jubouri and Hiteen mosques. The gunmen set a bomb in Usama bin Zaid mosque and burn it. The fourth mosque, Al Anwar mosque, gunmen bombed the Minaret and burned the mosque after no resistance were noticed. Almost at the same time the gunmen attacked the IIP headquarter in the city and a clash started between the guards and the attackers till around 4:30 p.m. The three hours continues clashes and sectarian violence stopped after the arrival of the American and Iraqi troops. Police said 2 men were injured only but sources of the IIP said 15 of the attackers were killed. '
The Iraqi Islamic Party sits in parliament.

Marid Abd Hasun, a political conselor to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, held a reconciliation meeting in Basra in an attempt to resolve the disputes between the Islamic Virtue Party (Fadilah) and the Sadr Movement-- quarrels that led to open fighting last Thursday. The conference ended without achieving any real reconciliation.

90 Iraqi members of parliament called on prime minister Nuri al-Maliki to allot emergency funds to care for the intellectuals and artists inhabiting the famed al-Mutanabbi Street, favorite site of booksellers in Iraq, which was recently blown up by guerrillas.

The facilitator for the assassin in the attempt on the life of vice premier Salam al-Zawba'i was a distant relative of the official who had fought alongside Sunni Arab guerrillas but been pardoned at al-Zawba'i's request. Some reports are saying up to three of his bodyguards were involved in the plot. Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that the Iraqi government is blaming the assassination attempt on the Baath Party. (Note that the Western press was almost unanimous in blaming "al-Qaeda;" but the Iraqi government is better placed to know who is trying to kill its officials). Al-Zawba` is a Sunni Arab clan, the leader of which has, like the vice premier, been willing to cooperate with the Americans. The incident shows the ways in which ideology is sometimes more powerful than kinship ties in today's Iraq. The hope sometimes expressed that tribes could step up and stop the guerrillas founders on such data.

Al-Hayat also says that the "Islamic State of Iraq," the fundamentalist guerrilla group active in western Iraq, has demanded that the city of Tikrit accept its rule, in return for which it would release Sheikh Naji Jabarah al-Juburi, the chieftain of the powerful, largely Sunni Arab Jubur tribe.

KarbalaNews.net, a Shiite web site, argues that the attempts of former appointed prime minister Iyad Allawi to form a new parliamentary bloc have foundered. Allawi, an ex-Baathist and old time CIA asset, was attempting to group political forces against the Shiite fundamentalist majority. The leader of the Iraqi National List (25 seats in parliament) billed himself as seeking a non-sectarian alliance, though in fact it would have been an anti-Shiite one. Among the coalitions he hoped would join is that Sunni fundamentalist Iraqi Accord Front, and Adnan Dulaimi, a high official in that group, had seemed to signal its willingness. But now Iyad al-Samarra'i, the no. 2 man in the Iraqi Accord Front and a leader of the Iraqi Islamic Party has denied that the fundamentalist Sunni MPs (44 out of 275 in Parliament) are interested in allying with Allawi. He said that Dulaimi had been too hasty in his pronouncment on the issue. Then Dilshad Miran, a spokesman for the Kurdistan Regional Government, denied that Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani had indicated any interest in joining the new bloc. Then Izzat al-Shabandar, a leader of Allawi's Iraqi National List, admitted that the effort had been unable to garner any American support. Finally, Nadim al-Jabiri, the leader of the Islamic Virtue Party (Fadilah), said that his group had no interest in bringing down the al-Maliki government. Virtue (15 seats in parliament) had recently withdrawn from the Shiite fundamentalist United Iraqi Alliance, and there was speculation that it might join up with Allawi. That seems unlikely in light of al-Jabiri's statement. So, in short, the whole effort appears to have fallen apart. Nor was there any real prospect that such a diverse coalition could have held together for very long even if it had been formed. And, any success Allawi would have had in marginalizing and sidelining the Shiite fundamentalist majority would have just thrown Iraq into greater turmoil. You can't mobilize people politically and then just tell them to sit down and shut up. That's how revolutions are created (e.g. Algeria 1991)

The prayer leader of the shrine of Ali in Najaf, Sadr al-Din al-Qubanji, visited Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani on Sunday. Sistani urged politicians to sacrifice sectorial, personal and sectarian goals for the sake of Iraq's national interests.

Barack Obama said Sunday, according to this site, that 'the Iraq war is diminishing America's standing in the world and diverting millions of dollars that should be spent on health care, education and alternative energy research in the United States . . . "We have to recognize that if we don't make some fundamental changes right now that we could be the first generation in a very long time that leaves an America behind that is a little poorer and a little meaner than the one we inherited from our parents, and that's unacceptable . . ." '

8661. jexster - 3/26/2007 1:44:19 PM

Bushevik Nimrods...you can run..but you cannot hide..



Where's that small size jizz-filled condom AceOfSpades and his closet-fag Tonto...aka 109109?

8662. concerned - 3/28/2007 9:50:22 PM

Hello Muddah

Hello Faddah

George Bush fucked over

Fat Moqtada

It was very

Entertaining

To see his militia

Disintegrating.

For Sadr, a Fracturing Militia
Divides Helping U.S. in Iraq Now but Could Cause Harm Later

By Ann Scott Tyson and Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, March 29, 2007; Page A14

Iraq's most powerful Shiite militia is increasingly splintering as radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr -- now believed to be in Iran -- faces fresh challenges to his leadership, according to senior Pentagon and administration officials.

In the near term, the deepening divides in Sadr's movement have contributed to a lull in fighting that is benefiting U.S. and Iraqi operations to secure Baghdad, where Shiite militia and death squads fomenting sectarian violence are considered the greatest threat to Iraq's stability, the officials said.


Yet the group's fracturing in the long run could make it harder to defeat militarily and could also complicate political reconciliation, they said.

Of course, that may make them easier to deal with in the long run as their activities can be dealt with by Iraqi civilian authorities.

8663. Wombat - 3/29/2007 6:21:24 AM

Concerned:

Considering that many of the Iraqi civilian authorities are affiliated with Al Sadr, or with other Shiite militias, they certainly will "deal" with them.

You are so far out of your depth here, Concerned.

8664. jexster - 3/29/2007 7:48:21 AM

So what else is new today Wombat?


Time's up!!!

The Saudis are pissed that Bush has turned Iraq over to the Shiites and King Abdullah has canceled a state visit next month to BushVille.

8665. jexster - 3/29/2007 9:44:31 AM

The Greatest Strategic Disaster in US history
continues to unfold.

Barry McCaffery back from Iraq with a report - situation grim and grimmer for dumb and dumber

Heckuva Job Georgie!
Arab League Summit: Arabism Back, Syria's In


PSFYITD - That story about the militias - a USG report which OMINOUSLY concludes that the Mahdi militia has gone to ground and is no longer under the control of Muqtada. They have no idea where he is. They want to bait him but the part about the militia going rogue in large numbers - that's been common knowledge for almost a year - you'd know if you regularly read LHC

8666. jexster - 3/29/2007 2:11:59 PM

Flying FuckWad Gets a Taste of the 88's


PARIS (AFP) - Already feeling the heat at home to pull out of Iraq, US President George W. Bush was under mounting international pressure Thursday to bring American troops home


Lying Sack of Texas Steer Shit Takes Flak From All Sides on Iraq