911

“And he gave the wind
My wedding ring:
And he circled us
With everything.”
-Leonard Cohen, By The Rivers Dark

Back to the future, Robert Fisk reporting on this week in October 2003.
“In Baghdad, the message of the past two days was simple: it told Iraqis that the Americans cannot control Iraq; more important, perhaps, it told Americans that the Americans could not control Iraq. Even more important, it told Iraqis they shouldn’t work for the Americans.” http://www.counterpunch.org/fisk10292003.html

In the slide show, American soldiers have a more self-confident expression, although serious, because they are well-trained and seasoned, at this point, to deal with whatever happens. Their expressions, as they looked at the grieving father exposes that level of emotional detachment while experiencing the event. (One wonders at their thoughts, later, when they come home and remember.)
The Iraqi men, by contrast, look extremely anxious and worried: they need the work and the money for their families, and yet, they have not enough experience, nor faith in the loyalties of their fellow policemen to show the same level of confidence.
Imagine, if we had left the Iraqi army in place after the invasion, if we had offered money for rebuilding, using the genius of the Iraqi’s as well as their vast human and psychic energy, instead of hiring Halliburton and the contractors, how different this might have been. Instead, we opted for the paternalistic arrogance of the “Americans know better than the rest of the world, what’s good for you” attitude.

When a foreign country has its army in another country, it occupies the country, so Americans are occupiers. There are no “benevolent occupiers.” Only Iraqi people will be left to live with the results of the destruction of their country because of the occupation, and for some Iraqi it will last their entire lifetime…Future generations of Iraqi will inherit the consequences of the occupation.
The allegiance of Iraqi is to their country and not to the foreigners – occupiers, who with mouth full of honey words and thoughts full of bias and lies try to dictate to Iraqi “the way to freedom.” And, if it does not work, then there are army tools to do the job…
My comment to “Imagine” by Margaret: It was not right for the US to invade Iraq in the first place. It does not seem to me right to judge by the outcome whether the war on Iraq was right or wrong! The war was wrong and nothing will change that. As long as some people try to say it could have turned better, that to me seems delusion at best.
As long as one superpower has the notion that they have the right to “straighten others” and impose their will, nothing will change!

thank you Lytom
why mince words though. stronger language is necessary
this : @mericans are @holes.
the ones that did this are evil @holes and the ones that permitted them to invade are @holes as well.
@merica, a total UGLY @hole of a nation.

“The United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has told the BBC the US-led invasion of Iraq was an illegal act that contravened the UN charter..the decision to take action in Iraq should have been made by the Security Council, not unilaterally.”
1) Is the USA a Rogue State ?
2) Are US soldiers “unlawful combatants” ?

“The north and the west and the south are good hunting ground, but it is forbidden to go east. It is forbidden to go to any of the Dead Places except to search for metal and then he who touches the metal must be a priest or the son of a priest. Afterwards, both the man and the metal must be purified. These are the rules and the laws; they are well made. It is forbidden to cross the great river and look upon the place that was the Place of the Gods—this is most strictly forbidden. We do not even say its name though we know its name. It is there that spirits live, and demons—it is there that there are the ashes of the Great Burning. These things are forbidden—they have been forbidden since the beginning of time.”
BY THE WATERS OF BABYLON
by Stephen Vincent Benét
And so it ends….

your type Mari, would do well in America. It is dominate by people like you. You would fit right in.

The first photo in the slide show almost made me cry…….the father reduced to a small lump of cloth over the death of his son and the soldiers like mannequins standing to either side. Why are they so heavily armed? Do they expect the dead to take some revenge or the father to lash out in his grief. It is so incongruous. Even when mourning one of their own, the guns take over the scene. And this is the “green zone” in Baghdad!
As for The Bag’s point, the Iraqi ‘policemen’ have the expression of: Oh, yeah, me too, what he said. If what we have heard is true, and I’ve no reason to believe it is not, they must be thinking that their lives and that of their families are being put in danger just by being in the company of the US soldiers and/or wearing the uniforms, uncoordinated as they are.
To jonst: America is not dominated by people who think everybody else is an “@hole” but they are concentrated in one region and they are very vocal because they constantly think no one is listening. Which they aren’t. As for mari: Get a grip!

The first picture reminds me of the way this goverment views the world, with high definition but little depth. The camera view tranforms the soldiers and their superior into modern Cyclops, powerful and inmense, but unable to see beyond the two-dimensional. Yet reality lives in three dimensions and for this WH thats one dimension to many.

“Bottom line, our “last best” strategy of “clear and hold” isn’t working because American forces can’t trust the loyalty of Baghdad’s police, and Iraqi Army forces refuse to serve in the city.”
This make sense based on what the author said earlier, that an armored vehicle is what is considered to be a police car in Baghdad. It shows how Badghdad’s police doesn’t trust Americans too. You can’t expect much from them when many Americans have felt that it was completely wrong to invade them. Who would want to take orders from someone who has been attacking them and killing their people? Nobody.

About the first picture… from what I’ve read, the morgues are controlled by Shias, and when Sunni relatives go to pick up bodies at the morgue, they’re often taken and killed, too. Many families have taken to sending their women to try to get the bodies.
This father is wearing a brown and gold overgarment (called a bisht here) that usually means that he has a position of respect; maybe he’s a sheikh or something and has ties to the U.S. military, which is why they’re guarding him while he waits for his son’s body.
Does it say that this is in the Green Zone?

Iraq for sale:
Watched “Iraq for Sale” last night at our local Dem party movie night – no way we’re leaving as long as the Bushies are in charge – the crooks selling “services” in Iraq are stealing too much money.
Powerful film – get a copy.
http://iraqforsale.org/

Politics right now is between:
( ) AMERICAN EMPIRE
and
( ) America, the nation state. Brother of other worldly nations. Peace and prosperity to the best of our abilities. Working on the pressing climate and energy issues in the open, honestly, and with persistance. Restoring justice, guaranteeing the freedoms our forefathers faught and died for.
******
O and Rafael, the BY THE WATERS OF BABYLON quote blew my soxx off.
huge h/t
******
jt from BC – timely and powerful question. turned it right around. bush is war criminal #1. unlawful combatant supremé. may his dreams be of butterflies and daisys after he passes out from the waterboarding(s)
oh, and speaking of Kofi Annan, Kofi needs some respect, world. harder than you think for us to do from within the US. our elections are being broken and stolen, so democracy is gone. our communications are being monitored, so resistance is sketchy. repeat:note to world:please help.

Chaos and decimation. You would almost believe that was the plan from the very beginning.
Unless you’re like me, and absolutely believe that was the plan from the beginning.