Lamis Andoni is a Middle East consultant for Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based news station. She has been covering the Middle East for 20 years. She has reported for the Christian Science Monitor, the Financial Times and the main newspapers in Jordan. She was a professor at the Graduate School in UC Berkeley.
Close.
Lamis Andoni
Doha, Qatar
Lamis Andoni is a Middle East consultant for Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based news station.
more »
http://pharmacy-drugs.1sthost.org Discount , generic name from our discount International pharmacy. Save Up to 70% On Generic - Buy and over 1100 other prescription drugs online.
http://pharmacy.1sthost.org Value Pharmaceuticals is an online pharmacy that provides cheap prescription drugs online with convenient ordering and confidential delivery to your door.
http://pharmacy-rx.allyouneed.pl Discount , generic name from our discount International pharmacy. Save Up to 70% On Generic - Buy and over 1100 other prescription drugs online.
http://pharmacy-ltd.allyouneed.pl Value Pharmaceuticals is an online pharmacy that provides cheap prescription drugs online with convenient ordering and confidential delivery to your door.
http://pharmacy-ltd.allyouneed.pl Value Pharmaceuticals is an online pharmacy that provides cheap prescription drugs online with convenient ordering and confidential delivery to your door.
http://ca-pharmacy.allyouneed.pl We work hard to bring your the cheap online pharmacy you desire. Whether you are looking to for cheap online pharmacy prescription or other low priced.
http://drugs.netfast.org Value Pharmaceuticals is an online pharmacy that provides cheap prescription drugs online with convenient ordering and confidential delivery to your door.
http://drugs.netfast.org Value Pharmaceuticals is an online pharmacy that provides cheap prescription drugs online with convenient ordering and confidential delivery to your door.
http://medicine.netfast.org We work hard to bring your the cheap online pharmacy you desire. Whether you are looking to for cheap online pharmacy prescription or other low priced.
No doubt, Either the terrorists surrender or they will get their virgins! Maybe, that's the only language they understand! They have started the war, therefore, they must surrender or they have to face the consequences!
I wholeheartedly agree with Karim, particularly about the nature of the "sectarian" violence in Iraq.
The Bushies make a huge blunder (typical) when they start making analogies with Hitler and WWII. If they knew their history better they wouldn't go there. Some Bushies don't even know that Hitler declared war on the US, positing the absurd notion that the US did so for altruistic reasons. They have no explanation for why the US waited more then two years to enter the fray. If the US hadn't been attacked by Japan, and had Germany not declared war in the same month (Dec 1941) they probably never would have, despite President Roosevelt's early recognition of the dangers of Nazi Germany.
You wouldn't believe it possible but Bushies claim that liberals in America were responsible for it's late entry into the war. Because they "Can't recognise evil"! In fact, it was American RW fascists (like Bush's grandfather Prescott) who didn't recognise evil in 1933, and still can't now, even though it is right under their nose.
Many previous bloggers have posited that the US is not responsible for the carnage in Iraq. These are mostly Bushies who have no concept of the Geneva Conventions. The conventions state unequivocally the an invading and occupying force becomes responsible, as a quasi-government, for everything that happens in the occupied territory. Period.
Besides the legal proscriptions, there is this: the deaths in an occupied country needn't be "at the hands" of the occupying force. The Germans knew this when they occupied Poland. Their first order of business (for the Einstatzgruppe) was to assasinate a small group of Polish Nationalists. Internecine violence between nationalists and ethnic Germans followed as sure as night follows day. Caught in the crossfire were "Jewish Bolsheviks" hated by almost everyone else. Of course the US Special Forces knows nothing of such tactics.
History correctly apportions blame for Nazi's genocide of Jews, Poles, Czechs, Gypsies, Hungarians, Romanians et al, whether they died at the hands of Nazi Germans or not.
And I assure you, dear reader, that America will be universally damned for what Bush has done in Iraq.
Im glad you think war should no longer be an option on the table (Fareed Zakaria should take note of this).
On the on-going Iraqi bloodbath, you should understand that "sunni vs shia" is not an accurate description of what it is going on. The Kurds are also Sunni but notice that they are not fighting the Shia.
Aside from the invasion that created divisions among Iraqis (collaborator vs nationalist), the US government made it worse by promoting sectarian politics in a country where such system can only work with consensus not with the number of votes.
In the entire history of Iraq, no such in-fighting was ever recorded. War-mongering US officials and the cheer-leading mainstream US media love to tell people that they have nothing to do with the in-fighting but uses every opportunity to tell neighboring states to "stop interfering and creating havoc" in Iraq. Even Al-Jazeera was banned in Iraq (for 2 years now) because everything can influence what goes in Iraq except of course the US government: The God of this planet that is building the biggest US embassy in the world in Iraq.
The US government was warned about the dangers of invading Iraq, even by our coward Arab governments that are allied with the US government. Turkey refused to take part of this madness too.
It is not just the US government that is at fault here, you have the Fareed Zakarias, the Thomas Freedmans, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and of course all the think-tanks that lend their "expertise" (in war-mongering) to congressional hearings and meetings.
War decisions are largely made by select few (the above) and voters are fed propaganda to put a rubber stamp on it so they can do the actual fighting while Zakaria and Freedman are sitting in their offices lecturing people how great US power is.
This war must be stopped.
In you think you forgot, this is what war is. It is as brutal and as savage as it was before if not more (the new weapons are much more brutal actually):
This last one is the first post of yours that makes any sense at all.
I have repeatedly stated that I do not agree with the Iraq invasion or the reasons given for going in there in the first place.
As for the first Iraq war, I think if you are suggesting the the US was wrong in liberating Kuwait after the Iraqi attack, you may find five other people in the world who agree with you.
As for the "Highway of Death" I recall the fleeing Iraqi troops were like sitting ducks and -- too late -- but eventually someone called a halt to the shooting.
For me, it is beyond despicable that in the last decades of the 20th Century and the opening decade of the 21st, especially after learnig the lessons of Vietnam, war should be even an option on the table.
I would still like you to answer the question I posed earlier -- how is the US responsible for Iraqi killing Iraqi, Shi'a killing Sunni?
Please understand that I am not against America as a nation or as a country. My criticism is directed at the US government's policies that foreigners suffer from. I truly believe if the US government was bombing US cities the way it bombed Vietnam or Iraq, you wouldn't be accusing me of "blind hatred".
I am just tired of all these wars (that are sometimes cheered in America) and you should join us in condemning your own government for its blatant violations.
Every other independent Human Rights organization condemned harshly the brutality of the US government in these wars.
Your problem is that you have blind faith in your own government. No matter how many millions of people the US kills, you still attempt to argue that it was done in "good faith" or for a good reason. My answer to you is Jim Crow laws.
The US government is capable of evil just like any other government out there. Stop apologizing for it.
15 years ago I used to admire the US government. But since I saw what it did to Iraq and how brutal it was (highway of death, etc), I no longer have any respect for it. It bothered me a lot that a supposedly civilized government still cheers wars and the killing of human beings. In the end, I realized that it was like any other government out there. Considering its unmatched military power, and its record, we people of the world feels threatened by it today. THe US government can today bomb any country it wishes, literally anything anywhere anytime. You're not on the receiving end.
I'm a Kraut and I stand with the United States of America - the greatest Nation ever! If someone is against America, then he is against me too!
Here in Germany, and also in Europe, the NAZIS and Commmunists are still alive, therefore, it's no wonder, that anti-Americanism is wide spreaded across Europe. The reason is, is that the news-media are censored, so the people do not know, what's really going on. All news they get are one-sided.
However, Americans should give a big nothing about what the European hardheads are talking, because it's part of the NAZI-Propaganda here in Europe, especially here in Germany. In addition, Europe is a safe haven for terrorists.
America is doing great and there's nothing wrong with it! Iran is a dictatorship and the people over there cannot wait to get liberated. So what?
Thanks to the finest and brightest men and women of the United States - Our Troops!
In a funny way, I find your post even more offensive than Karim's.
Karim's comments come from ignorance, myopia and hatred.
Yours come from bigotry and intolerance.
It is a pretty close call between the two of you, but, on balance, I think you are worse -- mostly because I think you are an American and should know better.
One can almost forgive Karim for his blindness, hatred and succumbing to propagandist hatred of America and anything American -- even as he reads that we do not condone violence and killing even when done by our government.
As for you ... well, you have been brought up with a Constitution that stands for equality, justice and tolerance. Yet, you write stuff which appears to come from an unthinking and unintelligent mind.
I find the islamic ideaology to be one of violence, distrust, and condemnation of humans rights. Islam needs to be destroyed in order for their to be peace in the world.
"It's one of the great strengths of the country's political system, in fact."
The above typically doesn't apply to foreign issues. One is supposed to rally behind the president.
On the issue of Iraqi victims of US-led UN sanctions, the figure was not disputed by Albright when she was posed the question.
The UN which was imposing the sanction is the one that came up with the estimation.
Saddam was of course going to try to exploit this issue for his own benefits but that doesn't mean tens of thousands of children weren't dying unnecessary because US policy believed "the price was worth it".
US officials have stated that among the goals of the sanctions was to "push" the Iraqi population to revolt against the Iraqi government....by starving them.
This is not what civilized nations do. Killing innocent people directly or indirectly can never be justified.
It is fascinating to see you get more hysterical as the facts elude you.
Let's take the Jim Crow (btw, it's Jim Crow, not Jim Craw)laws. I think most Americans -- and I mean by that 99%+ -- would agree that they represent among the most shameful in our history. At the end of this message is a brief paragraph I picked out of the introduction on Wikipedia for your edification. You can do an Internet search on "Jim Crow" and get a plethora of information including historical references.
Now, let me ask if you are willing to say that suicide bombings, the 9-11 attack, the attack on the WTC a couple years before 9-11, the shelling of Israeli towns by HisbAllah and Hamas, are equally shameful periods for the Arabs.
What about the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1991? When the Kuwaitis and Saudis and Gulf states appealed to the US to do something, was that Arabs asking for intervention or was the US Government hearing mystical voices from outer space?
When the Saudis and Sunni Arab governments say that if the US does not get a handle on Iraqi violence, they may intervene to stop the rise of the Shi'a crescent, is this appeal for more action by the US, a call from Arabs, or is it more voices from Pluto?
Look, you keep saying we get mad when you criticize the US Government. Not so. We criticize our own government.
Okay, Jim Crow laws. Women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia. Women in Afghanistan were beaten for exposing flesh on ankles. Men were beaten for not wearing beards. In Iran, women are forced to wear coverings. Education is not allowed for them.
Is this what you are praising as a model?
In Saudi Arabia, no religion is allowed other than Islam. Is this your idea of tolerance?
I think you do have it all wrong. It is clear that governments act out of economic and political self interest. Much of US and western policy vis-a-vis the Middle East was geared to maintaining stability, even at the expense of supporting totalitarian and dictatorial regimes. President Bush said this was a mistake and the US should be more actively trying to promote democracy.
One can argue with either philosophy - indeed, one can legitimately say the US should do neither.
However, neither is an evil motive.
The US has not sought territory or to expropriate without payment another country's resources. The US got out of Kuwait after driving the Iraqi forces out.
By the way, the Kuwaitis did not start killing each other or shooting and bombing US forces after the US drove the Iraqis away. Why not?
The US did not even try to use Iraqi oil revenue to pay for rebuilding the infrastructure. If the Iraqis had not gone on this killing spree and driven out 700,000 to 1.8 million of their fellow citizens, and set off roadside bombs, the country would likely have had a massive Marshall Plan like buildout with power plants, roads, schools, hospitals.
But no ... you and your people cannot stand the idea that one person is a Sunni and another a Shi'a without wanting to kill, kill, kill.
BTW -- I think it was implicit in what I wrote originally, but I do acknowledge that in the aerial bombing before the 2003 march of troops into Iraq, many Iraqis were killed by US bombs. I have already said that is something I did not and do not support.
So, let us look into the future -- Iraq has lost 700,000 to 1.8 million, mostly Sunni people with means to get out. These are professionals and skilled people. Most of the Sunnis and Shi'a who intermarried -- according to press reports -- have been killed or displaced. This leaves a Shi'a society to rule most of Iraq -- other than the Kurdish areas.
What will you do with the remaining Sunnis? Share with them, all things, oil revenue, government? Or subject them to death squads as you have been?
What if the US had not stopped Saddam Hussein in Kuwait? Would Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, etc. be around?
___________
You have some legitimate complaints about US policy. Most Americans accept that and want to see us do better.
But your blind hatred based on ignorance and disinformation, is not acceptable.
Have a good life!
__
The Jim Crow Laws were state and local laws enacted in the Southern and border states of the United States and enforced between 1876 and 1965. They mandated "separate but equal" status for African Americans. In reality, this led to treatment and accommodations that were almost always inferior to those provided to white Americans. The Jim Crow period or the Jim Crow era refers to the time during which this practice occurred. The most important laws required that public schools, public places and public transportation, like trains and buses, have separate facilities for whites and blacks. (These Jim Crow Laws were separate from the 1800-66 Black Codes, which had restricted the civil rights and civil liberties of African Americans.) State-sponsored school segregation was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education. Generally, the remaining Jim Crow laws were overruled by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act; none were in effect at the end of the 1960's.
"Would the United States military gladly welcome the day that they can fight wars without killing innocent(foreign) civilians? I bet you my life and the lives of my family they would."
If the military that you praise cared about the loss of innocent life, its shameless generals wouldn't have openly stated that "they don't do body counts"....of foreigners of course, US casualties are counted in well kept records, am I wrong?
Unfortunately, you are describing an ideal defense force, not an imperialist force that travels 5000 miles away to bomb civilian cities, destroy basic infrastructure (that killed sick and elderly people..but who cares, your military doesn't do body counts), and of course tortures people in prisons etc, not to mention daily psychological torture on children and women, etc.
The US military killed with impunity so many innocent people in check-points alone. US soldiers just sprayed people with bullets..because they are not so sure if an incoming car is hostile or not..well better kill them all to be sure, if they happen to be innocent, well tough luck..this is a war...pick up the corps and give them to their families if they have any left, and move on.
Please enough with the propaganda. The US army is guilty of war crimes.
I am not sure when Arabs asked for help from the US government in the last 30 years or so. Would you mind listing few examples?
Everyone in the Middle East knows what the US government did to Iran before the Shah was installed by the CIA, before most Arabs or Persians (for the matter) knew what America was. In case you attempt to deny, here is the full disclosure of the CIA operation:
The involvement in this coup by the CIA was denied for least 40 years until it was declassified in the 90s. During those years, we heard from people like you the same excuses that you are posting today: That the US government does not do these things deliberately, that the US government's policy can never be evil or disingenious.
On Jim Craw laws, I only brought it to show readers what the US government is capable of doing and because one poster continue to claim that the US government's wrongdoings are never intended.
All my criticism, harsh (and well deserved) sometimes because of all these deaths, is directed at the US government exclusively. For some reason, you get offended when people criticize your government. You can criticize Arab governments all you want and I will not defend them as long as you don't turn it into some justification of racism and bigotry.
No other country except South Africa had anything close to Jim Craw laws. Name me one nation that forbad a minority of its own citizens from drinking from the same water faucet as the majority because of their skin color in the 60s?
One of the common myths in America is that if America made some mistakes (like in Jim Craw laws), other nations must have and would have done worse. That's what explains your reaction to Jim Craw laws. You believe that if America did such a horrible thing, other nation must have done worse. It is in my opinion a racist belief (we are better than everyone else). Yes some other nations could have done worse but its always true.
I wouldn't want to single out America for such things either unless they try to repeat it again.
But these wars waged by the US government don't seem to come to an end. It seems to me that the US government has too much leeway at the wanton killing of foreigners and destruction of their properties and that as long as the US government uses slogans (Operation Iraqi Freedom), most of the population is willing to look the other way when it comes to all these deaths.
The US government invaded Iraq against the will of the entire world and most importantly against the will of most people in the Middle East including the people of Iran (Iraq's enemies).
If this is not an authoritarian government, then please tell me what it is.
Satyakama write: [quoting me] "...the U.S. is hardly perfect..." The art of understating...
----------
Two things to follow-up. I'm not sure that Americans should have problems admitting their mistakes. It's one of the great strengths of the country's political system, in fact.
Second, I don't think you've been reading enough of the propaganda out of the region, perhaps. If you haven't, you will note that there is a strong tendency to put the USA up on a pedestal, just to knock it down, on human rights, on this or that. It's done over and over. Don't believe me? I'm sure it will show up on this forum enough to be proof for anyone who doubts.
Last, Karim writes about the 500,000 children, but he skips over this important fact. Why would he/she do that? Draw your own conclusions.:
[From the Dailty Telegraph] "The "baby parades" were a staple of Saddam Hussein's propaganda machine for a decade. Convoys of taxis, with the tiny coffins of dead infants strapped to their roofs - allegedly killed by United Nations sanctions - were driven through the streets of Baghdad, past crowds of women screaming anti-Western slogans.
The moving scenes were often filmed by visiting television crews and provided valuable ammunition to anti-sanctions activists such as George Galloway, the Labour MP, who blamed Western governments for the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children.
But The Telegraph can reveal that it was all a cynical charade. Iraqi doctors say they were told to collect dead babies who had died prematurely or from natural causes and to store them in cardboard boxes in refrigerated morgues for up to four weeks - until they had sufficient corpses for a parade."
Patriot: I agree with you that Karim is kind of a hypocryte, but in some regards so are we. We are all hypocrytes sometimes. Despite all that we have done to help the world, we are not perfect and as a patriotic U.S. citizen I will admit that the U.S. has done some wrong things in the past, but so do all countries and peoples/races etc. But Karim, comparing the U.S. to the nazis is insanity. And any sane person who has historical knowledge will say the same thing. Either you are angry at the U.S. for something we did in the past or you just hate us because we are Americans and we are the strongest military and economic power the world has ever seen.
As many comments above have stated over and over again. The United States military does NOT deliberately target civilians! It is against the just laws of war and those in our military who do commit the horrible acts of killing unarmed civilians are punished. If civilians are hit by a bomb they are either 1. coopertaing with the enemy, 2. are accidently hit based on bad intelligence or a missfire, or 3. They are just terrorists who are dressed up like civilians which a great deal of terrorists are in order for everyone to express outrage when they are killed. Would the United States military gladly welcome the day that they can fight wars without killing innocent(foreign) civilians? I bet you my life and the lives of my family they would. But unfortunatly we live in an era where that is simply not possible and currently beyond the technological and military intelligence limits. If we had known that the first house hit in the war was occupied by civilians and not Saddam before the strike, then I guarantee you that they would have called it off. If you somehow have trouble believing me then ask yourself this question. Is there any tactical objective accomplished from killing onnocents in war? The answer is an emphatic NO. The United States' military leaders know this and they know the only way to win a war is to kill the enemy.( who, by the way is trying to kill us)This is hard to accomplish when you are fighting a bunch of cowardly men who hide in civilian clothes.
"Anonymous, (by the way, why don't you use a handle?), Karim has beaten you with facts. Stop trying to defend the indefensible."
Okay, there you go, I'm using "A Handle" as you requested. The point is that The Post knows who I am either because I am registered with them, or because they have my computer MAC address. IOW, I'm not really anonymous to anyone but the posters and for all I know, Karim is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or perhaps even Arnold Schwarzenegger, and you, Anonymous? could be Jenna Bush for all I know!
So, let's get to the substance and see with what "facts" if any, Karim has "beaten" me.
Karim writes:
"You claimed the US government did not kill foreign people on purpose, without providing any evidence."
Actually, I did no such thing. I wrote in response to Karim's lament that Americans are killing Iraqis in Iraq. What I wrote was:
"That being said, once US troops marched in, they did not seek to kill Iraqis.
Iraqis killed Iraqis and continue to do so."
I also acknowledged the role and responsibility of the US government in the process:
"I oppose my government's incursion into Iraq and am willing to say that in the causal chain, it bears responsibility for setting into motion events that caused the sectarian killing, but for you to say that the US did the killing is just plain wrong. "
Karim wrote:
"I quoted Albright to show you that the government you defend does indeed kill people, and with impunity. Albright was by the way the US ambassador to the UN and she threatened many times to veto any attempt to lift the harsh sanctions."
Please note that I did not defend Madeline Allbright's statement. I merely pointed out that Karim was obfuscating the issue he raised in his first post -- that Americans were killing Iraqis since the 2003 invasion, with an ENTIRELY separate issue which is the claim that over 500,000 Iraqi children died as the result of sanctions on Iraq.
Now, I have some comments on this: (i) the claim of 500,000 children dying based on malnutrition and premature death is challenged as exaggerated. Regardless, even if the number is 100, I deplore that it happened; (ii) the sanctions imposed as a result of Iraq's unprovoked attack on Kuwait were UN sanctions, not US sanctions; (iii) Saddam Hussein could have ended the sanctions quite easily; and (iv) in my opinion, a policy of active engagement and mutual aid with Iraq would have been far more productive than the confrontational approach that was taken.
Karim writes:
"Even Kuwait, the victim's of Iraq, wanted the sanctions lifted. EVEN KUWAIT! Europe wanted the sanctions lifted."
I think you need to check your facts here. The issue was how much oil for food should be countenanced, not the lifting of sanctions or the no-fly zone, or the protection of the Kurdish area.
Karim writes:
"But your MURDEROUS zealot government refused. Explain to me why?"
The fact is that up until 2003, the US did not kill a single Iraqi, as far as I can tell, once the hostilities from the first Gulf War were over -- with the exception of an Iraqi aircraft that might have been shot down or a ground emplacement knocked out.
I think the use of epithets like "murderous" and "zealot" simply reveals the close-minded mentality on which I commented earlier.
"Did the US government inherit the middle east? Did the people of the middle east supported its effort in there?"
These are legitimate questions -- by the way, these are NOT "facts." If you mean by "inherit" that the US has no inherent right to any territory or resources in the ME, you are correct. However, the US has not, at least in the modern context, sought to expropriate territory or resources. In fact, the price of oil has gone up steadily and the US pays for it.
Did the people of the ME support US efforts there? The answer is yes and no ... some did and some did not. Obviously, the use of bases throughout the area is some evidence of support. You can question the degree of support or even say it was bought or coerced, but it is support. If you mean that the "Arab Street" opposes US policy, sure, you are correct.
"Most Arabs do not want your government to be involved in their nations. How hard is it for you to understand that? Why don't you respect the wish of other people?"
See my comment above. It is pretty remarkable that Iraqis were rejoicing when Saddam Hussein was toppled and days later started killing each other.
But, in general, I actually agree that the US should not be trying to create "democracies" in Arab countries. This is not so much because "democracy" is a bad idea, but because the consequences will be the formation of theocracies and power shifts to fringe and lunatic elements.
I want to be careful that you don't misunderstand. I think reasonable Arabs are as embracing of freedom and democracy as anyone else. However, there is an undercurrent of hatred and violence and tolerance of abuse committed in the name of religion.
"Please enough with the propaganda in defense of your government. If you have fallen to their propaganda, well don't think that we will too."
Well, actually, I don't think I am the one engaged in propaganda. I am quite prepared to say that I disagree with my government and I can do that. Try that in an Arab country and see how long before you are tortured and imprisoned.
The whole point is that you made a false accusation -- which by your later admission that Iraqis are killing Iraqis -- you admitted.
Now, you come along and spew more epithets and hatred and try to obfuscate and falsify what I said.
Karim, you also said:
"Less than 40 years ago, the US government supported by its supreme court enforced racist laws against millions of its black citizens when the only other nation that had similar laws was Apartheid South Africa. Was it also a "good government" that didn't harm people ON PURPOSE? what was the purpose of Jim Craw laws? it must have been part of a plan to save black people from themselves, to liberate them just like the millions of slaughtered vietnamese."
Now, you reveal, not only your ignorance, but also your lack of analytical ability. There is no congruity between Vietnam and racism in America.
In case you don't remember, the issue of slavery was one of the major issues in the civil war. There was the issue of the Union too, but let's not confuse your little mind with that for now.
Did the US continue to have discriminatory practices? Absolutely, yes. That's what the "separate but equal" theory propagated and it was rejected. That's what Brown v. Board of Educ. in Topeka rejected. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the amendments of 1991 made major remedies available -- BTW, extending what had been enacted in the 1870s -- to housing, employment, health care and other laws.
Is America perfect? Far from it. But, I think we are trying.
I am an immigrant to this country - was born in Africa.
Trust me, there is no way I'd want to live in the hell that you people call home.
In America, if you say Muhammad was the last prophet and someone else says it was Ali, or another Imam is coming, everybody says, "hey, good luck to you and we can still be friends and neighbors." In the Arab world, you get killed for lesser transgressions. Just recently, there was a protest because Saudi Arabia is deporting Ahmadis.
You write:
"American ideals have simply become slogans to be cheered in Hollywood movies, no more no less."
For some, yes. For the vast majority, they are our guide in daily life.
"An Alien force need to come save us from this modern-day Nazi government that enjoys widespread support among the population and that kills with impunity. "
Actually, if you would just stop killing each other, US forces would likely withdraw sooner.
Sadly, for those of us who don't think the US should have gone into Iraq in the first place, one of the principal arguments for not getting out is that it will lead to a sectarian rage of killing unlike anything we have seen.
Also, the Bush Administration does not enjoy widespread support. 71% of Americans think the country is on the wrong track, at least 65% and probably more think the Iraq situation is being mishandled by Bush; 80+% oppose the surge, etc., etc.
Karim, I think you need a serious dose of reality. It is one thing for you to oppose US policy -- you are free to do that and in some instances I agree with you. However, not facing facts and propagating falsehoods will not get you any support from Americans and Iraqis and Arabs can blame the US all they want, but it does no good to turn a blind eye to the truth which is that Iraqis are killing each other -- Sunni kills Shi'a and Shi'a kills Sunni.
If you have anything substantive to say, I'll respond. If you have epithets, save them for Al Jazeera.
Karim: Why is the middle east always complaining about how America doesnt do enough? Yet when we try to accomplish something on their behalf in iraq, they now complain that we shouldnt be there.Karim the hypocrasy you preach is almost unbearable. Judging by your name I would guess you are from the middle east. And above you are complaining about the jim crow laws. And your country is any better today? The Jim crow laws are behind us, yet the middle east is till very, very racist and intolerant of westerners/ non muslims how can you accuse the United States of anything when that is going on?
Can I have an answer that is free of insults, etc. or are you too immature even for that?
You claimed the US government did not kill foreign people on purpose, without providing any evidence. I quoted Albright to show you that the government you defend does indeed kill people, and with impunity. Albright was by the way the US ambassador to the UN and she threatened many times to veto any attempt to lift the harsh sanctions. Even Kuwait, the victim's of Iraq, wanted the sanctions lifted. EVEN KUWAIT! Europe wanted the sanctions lifted. But your MURDEROUS zealot government refused. Explain to me why? Did the US government inherit the middle east? Did the people of the middle east supported its effort in there?
Most Arabs do not want your government to be involved in their nations. How hard is it for you to understand that? Why don't you respect the wish of other people?
Please enough with the propaganda in defense of your government. If you have fallen to their propaganda, well don't think that we will too.
Less than 40 years ago, the US government supported by its supreme court enforced racist laws against millions of its black citizens when the only other nation that had similar laws was Apartheid South Africa. Was it also a "good government" that didn't harm people ON PURPOSE? what was the purpose of Jim Craw laws? it must have been part of a plan to save black people from themselves, to liberate them just like the millions of slaughtered vietnamese.
American ideals have simply become slogans to be cheered in Hollywood movies, no more no less.
An Alien force need to come save us from this modern-day Nazi government that enjoys widespread support among the population and that kills with impunity.
The quote from Madeline Albright is from 1996 -- the invasion of Iraq we are talking about is 2003. The Leslie Stahl question to her was about sanctions imposed since Iraq invaded Kuwait, sanctions under Pres. Bush, Sr. and Pres. Clinton. The estimates of 500,000 children killed were based on Saddam Hussein's diversion of resources to the various programs he pursued -- the war with Iran, the attempted conquest of Kuwait, etc.
Let's talk about 2003 onwards. You write "The US government destroyed most of Iraqi infrastructure before Iraqis started killing each other."
You are absolutely correct. The US did destroy a good part of the Iraqi infrastructure and I have already said that I did not agree with or support the invasion of Iraq.
Now, please explain how and why, the destruction of the infrastructure of Iraq justifies Iraqis killing each other.
At least you have conceded that Iraqis are killing each other.
What kind of perverse mind do you people have that you can blame someone else because you kill each other -- and the reason you do so is because 1100 or 1200 years ago, someone argued about who was the successor to the guy who claimed to be the messenger of Allah (PBUH).
Wow! When you wake up and understand that you are all living in an asylum run by lunatics, maybe there will be a chance for peace.
But, most likely, no, you will continue to fester and foster hatred and ignorance.
However, I will give you this -- you admitted that Iraqis are killing each other.
What more do you need to know to begin to put a stop to it?
I feel sorry for the Iraqi people. They have been a killing ground for generations.
Bush has stated more than once that he took the war to Iraq because he didn't want it on American soil.
Saddam Hussein was a bloody petty dictator. I figure the other Arab countries allowed him to stay in power because: 1. He was Sunni Arab like them, 2. He kept Shiite Persian Iran from becoming powerful, 3. They had no one better/stronger to replace him with. I don't think they liked him any more than Bush did. Which is why they didn't stop Bush.
Arabs need to realize we Americans mostly didn't realize what Bush was doing, or that he'd make such a mess of it. We, like everyone else in the world, want to believe that our government is great, or at least moderately competent. If Bush had been up for reelection in the last election, he wouldn't be in power now. We're still trying to figure out how to work on fixing the relationships he messed up. It's going to take time, & meanwhile the troublemakers are still out there.
The Arab countries are going to have to start helping get rid of the violent scaremongers more and fixing Iraq. Like you said, what's happening there isn't affecting us as much as it is you, so regardless of who or where it started, it won't just go away until you make it go. I actually don't think Bush can fix this. It didn't start with Bush. And try to remember the majority of the people are not behind Bush on this. Look at the polls. Even if Bush decides to do something right, he's not going to find it easy because the majority of the people don't trust him any more.
"The United States has been one of the most gracious and nonviolent superpowers since the begining of human history. You gotta be kidding me. I advise you and Americans to look in the mirror before saying that."
I did look in the mirror and guess what I saw. I saw a country that has, not once, pursued world conquest like the empires of ancient past. A country that devotes tens of billions of dollars a year to the less fortunate countries. I saw a country whose gracious citizens dontate hundreds of millions of dollars(as well as the government who not only donates billions of dollars but people too sometimes) whenever a massive earthquakwake strikes Iran or a massive tsunami hits indonesia. How much foreign aid do we get when a natural disaster hits us? that's what I thought. The fact is that most of the world owes the U.S. a helluva lot for all that we've done and accomplished, and also for not being like the Romans or convert/land hungry muslim caliphates of years past. I cannot stand the hypocrasy all the foriegners look at is our faults and not what good we've done.
"If it weren't for us you'd definetly be saying Heil to someone"
"When the so called terrorist brought down the twin towers" this is insanity at its worst how can you not call Osama Bin Laden a terrorist? Is this the kind of brain washing that goes on in the muslim world all the time? If you are opposed to the war in afganistan then you are a complete nut, the United States has a right to defend itself and considering Bin Laden was not on U.S. soil we had to go get the TERRORIST.
Karim, it is obvious that you do not view Foxnews and cnn regularly. In fact the mainstream media in the U.S. is one of the reasons for the opposition to the war at home. I remember it was just a couple of months ago that cnn decided to show to a national audience an enemy propaganda film about iraq. The mainstream media in this country has a way of preventing us from winning wars that it doesnt like. Also the U.S. does not target civilians on purpose. This is war, civilians die, its a fact. For some reason the Muslim world is so ready to cry out when a U.S. bomb kills civilians and does nothing when it faces the severe human rights violations by the terrorists and the entire middle eastern region as a whole. The only thing al jazzera reports is crap about how the americans cant fix the world and how to hate them for it. Its not our fault the muslim world's ideas and views on life are stuck in the dark ages. When is the time that someone else steps up and tries to fix their own problems instead of blaming them on the U.S. as usual. The middle east blames the U.S. for all of its problems and when we try to fix them in iraq they we shouldn't be there.
We have a respect in this country for the military because they are ready to lay down their life for something they beleive in, and the people they love. Mr. Karim, unless you have been to war and know what its like, you are in no position whatsoever to critisize the military and what they do. And stop looking at only the civilians we kill while hunting deadly terrorists, for your safety, and start looking at the human rights violations of our enemies which are far more heinous than than our alleged ones. After all it's not American troops who are setting off car bombs in the streets. It's not American troops that are kidnapping and killing dozens of people a day. Most of the people we killed in Vietnam were actually enemy combatants that were trying to kill us. Karim I pity you, your utter insanity has now told you to demean a soldier's right to self defence.
Lesley Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq: We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price--we think the price is worth it.
--60 Minutes (5/12/96)
Albright was not even a republican.
The US government destroyed most of Iraqi infrastructure before Iraqis started killing each other.
Communists too never wanted to kill people, they just wanted them to submit to their will or be killed if they resist.
Rear Admiral Richard W. Hunt after holding talks with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi yesterday told journalists that the joint effort Ethiopia and the US are exerting to ensure peace and stability in the Horn of Africa is fruitful.
Read More about the US policy towards Horn of Africa and the New the new US front -Africa
http://www.geeskaafrika.com
The Geeska Afrika Magazine
managing Editor And Publisher (1985-2007)
N.Kaafi
Afria
The "old atom bomb" accusation again. Please! Stop! Just on the subject of Japan for a moment.
Could you imagine what the world would have been like if they had won? Do you know history at all? Have you read the Japanese post war plans if they were to have won? Look at the countries they took over and then "administered". Now the world has another enemy just as dangerous, if not more so. Not just the USA. These terrorists want to reverse time, and send us all back to the dark ages. And where do you came up with this "dictatorship of the world stuff"? I will be the first to say that it is a mess in Iraq. What to do?! I really don't know. I do know this though. After Bin Laden and his croonies bombed the USS Cole and the Clinton and Bush administration let him go on his merry way, he grew bolder, and more brazen. Then he went for a bigger, and better target less than one year later. I make that point to demonstrate that two administrations here in America kept hoping that Bin laden would just go away and take up basket weaving, he did not. I don't think that the terrorists need to watch Bushes face on TV to get riled up to kill people. They were doing just fine for years while we let them have a free pass to kill americans and other innocent people from other countries. And we can leave Iraq tomorrow, and the terrorists will continue to kill "evil americans" even if it means comming back here to do it. But I think that they might keep themselves busy killing their own people in the Middle East for awhile at first. While they are bringing about their own twisted version of government. And the rights and freedoms of women are not a piority from what I understand.
"The United States has been one of the most if not the most gracious and nonviolent superpowers since the beginning of written history." You gotta be kidding me, I advise you and Americans to look at the mirror before saying that. People around the world known very well United States except American people.
You are very right.Since the fall of Berlin Wall the U.S. government is acting as demigod,quitely knowing that no one can challenge it militarily or economically .First they started saying that Taliban is a dictatorship;a group that was once financed and trained by the C.I.A.The then told the world that Saddam Hussein is a dictator;a regime they supported and armed throughout the Iran-Iraq War.When the so called terrorist brought down the Twin Towers,the Bush Administration went berserk.They begun dropping bombs in Afghanistan and brought down Saddam on the false pretext that he supported Al-qaeda & amassed weapons of mass destruction.So now who is going to believe these psychopaths once again when they are saying that Iran is behind the quagmire in Iraq?They are a disgrace and should not be allowed to bring down the United States Of America.
Does anybody think America or Americans turned into what they are...or are perceived to be now ...in just six years? We had criticism, but still our world mantle of decency in 2000. Blame Bush...or more accurately blame the plan that's come to fruition under his disasterousis reign so suddeny. The agents were in place insdie the US government...for a plot hatched in Chicago a couple decades ago, the latest branch of the Elders ofion Elders, the long plan jumping ahead again. This one is working splendidly, is it not?
American arms and blood and treasure at the service of Israel. The press, AIPAC, THe AMerican jewish Congress, et. al. in full control. Or you can explain the last six years.
With all respect, your bleating is just way off base.
First, I am not and never have been a supporter of the US attack on Iraq in 2003.
That being said, once US troops marched in, they did not seek to kill Iraqis.
Iraqis killed Iraqis and continue to do so.
As for your comments about Al Jazeera, it is in the guise of a news outlet, also an outlet for terrorist progaganda and a fomenter of hatred in the name of Islam -- sure, they show death and destruction from bombs and the occasional dissenting view.
But the bottom line is that somewhere between 700,000 (UN estimate) to 1.8 million (NIE approximation) Iraqis have fled their own country because they fear being killed by their own countrymen. The estimate of 650,000 killed -- put in context, is actually your number taken from a range of projected increased mortality from all causes following the "war" (and, ergo, some say, caused by the war). Regardless, even if the number is 65,000 (Pres. Bush used that figure, I believe) or 100,000-150,000 (believed to be reasonable estimates) the numbers are unacceptable and outrageous.
When you say "PLEASE HELP US" could you take a moment to explain how we can help you to stop killing each other?
I oppose my government's incursion into Iraq and am willing to say that in the causal chain, it bears responsibility for setting into motion events that caused the sectarian killing, but for you to say that the US did the killing is just plain wrong.
It is this kind of willful blindness to facts and unabated hatred of anything American that keeps you from seeing that the fault dear Karim lies in you and not in the stars that you are underlings.
Karim, on Vietnam, if I may, in memory and as a tribute to the dead.
"Estimating the number killed in the conflict is extremely difficult. Official records are hard to find or nonexistent and many of those killed were literally blasted to pieces by bombing... It is also difficult to say exactly what counts as a "Vietnam war casualty"; people are still being killed today by unexploded ordinance, particularly cluster bomblets. Environmental effects from chemical agents and the colossal social problems caused by a devastated country with so many dead surely caused many more lives to be shortened.
...
Vietnam released figures on April 3, 1995 that a total of one million Vietnamese combatants and four million civilians were killed in the war. The accuracy of these figures has generally not been challenged. 58,226 American soldiers also died in the war or are missing in action."
We just want the US government to STOP KILLING PEOPLE.
Stop this wanton murder of foreigner people.
Part of mainstream American culture worships the army. There is an excessive "respect" for the army in America even though this is the same organization that drops bombs on cities where people live. Why is killing others even if they are your enemy something "patriotic", "honorable", etc?
It is uncivilized and inhumane.
We do not wish for the US to decline economically, we just want the US government to stop killing people.
Stop waging wars for god's sake. Stop it.
Your government killed over 2 million human beings in Vietnam, wasn't that enough blood for your war-criminals? When will the US government stop this madness? when another 2 million Iraqis die?
Please have your troops leave the middle east, please leave it. Take your troops away. If your army is a defense force (as it should be), then have them stationed around your borders not in every other country on this planet.
it is U.S. actions that have brought havoc to Iraq
------------
Very specifically, which actions would those be? Did the U.S. bomb the U.N. mission to Iraq, killing Sergio De Melo?
I think we can safely say that the rejectionist attitudes that act embodied played a significant part in bring Iraq to the impasse it is in today.
not Iran that used nuclear bombs to wipe out Hiroshima and Nagasaki
------------
I agree with the reader above that this is just propaganda.
There is little reason to doubt that were Iran allied against Japan that they would not have developed and used a nuclear weapon - many think that they are developing one today, even, despite a world that seems dead set against nuclear proliferation.
Besides, Iran's current Supreme Leader blesses his conventional missiles as "divine weapons" and we know about the children that were sent to clear the minefields, so don't let's pretend about Iran's wartime ethics, o.k.?
U.S. danger also comes from its total disregard of international law and human rights conventions.
-------
LOL. This is the kind of overstatement that makes it plain what seems to be a common narrative from the region: saying a lot of things that you don't really believe, because you then don't have to publically face up to a lot of other 'hard truths'.
I hope Americans are getting used to this regional form of double-speak, by now, and take it in stride.
More to the point, the U.S. is hardly perfect, but if the U.S. were truly in *total* disregard, neither you or I would be writing here nor would anyone be talking openly about anti-Americanism.
you know what, the minute the us leaves your damn middle east and you muslims, arabs and persians start killing each other off faster than you are doing now, you will be crying on the news about how sorry we are to leave ya like that, but right now ya don't want us there??? come on you people love war and drama, if it was'nt for that what excusae would ya have for the way your society is. personally i like having electricity, paved roads , freedom, and the comforty of knowing that i will not be killed by someone based on my religous beliefs(sunnis/shias)!!! crazy people!!!
You're right that America, under Bush, has used its military might unjustly and aggressively in Iraq.
But that hardly makes the world a dictatorship under American rule. The U.S. has very little say over the decisions of most countries - especially after Iraq.
If what you want to see is a U.S. decline, well, you're currently getting your wish. The U.S. is declining in military, economic, diplomatic, and cultural power. Hooray, right?
After we evil, aggressive, dictatorial Americans are gone, your country Qatar will be a puppet state of either Saudi Arabia or Iran. Be careful what you wish for.
Thanks Lamis for this flagrant and misleading analysis. It is disgraceful presentation of the regional affairs, mixed with fraudulent exhibition of international issues. I am amazed by the durability of some Arab journalists and intellectuals to maintain the wrong approach and insistence on deluding the reader.
Many Arab journalists pay lip service to figures such as Saddam and his alikes despite hate and fear they radiate on their citizens and neighbors. You are writing in favor of the Iranian regime and shedding hot tears on Iraq, but do you really think that life under theocrats is bearable in Iran, or can you imagine life in Iraq under Saddam? Why then comparing the appearances of Bush with the tapes of az-Zawahiri? You personally know the difference and no one is buying what you are saying here. Every body knows that the battle in Iraq and Afghanistan is raging between modernity and darkness. Lamis, would you live the rest of your life in Iran, or under Taliban in Afghanistan, or in monastery over a hell behind a church?
What you have written here is a good example to be given to students of journalism to avoid it.
First of all, Al-Jazeera is not Fox News. It's not CNN either. It is NOTHING like any mainstream US media outlet, liberal or conservative alike.
Al-Jazeera does not defend "the troops" (the people doing the actual killing) the way Fox News and CNN does.
Al-Jazeera is not afraid of offending ANY army of killers of ANY government, Arab or not, democratic or authoritarian. On CNN and FOX alike, any criticism of military strategy must be preceded with "I support the troops, I respect the military, I am grateful to the military, etc".
Al-Jazeera is THE ONLY media outlet that shows what bombs from the "greatest country in the world" do to innocent human beings, to children, to women. to elderly. This is what the shameless CNN or FOXNEWS wouldn't show.
Over 650,000 Iraqis were slaughtered in the last 4 years. Millions have been made refugees. Millions have been maimed and injured. Over 3000 US soldiers were killed in order to serve an imperialist government that has no regard for other people's lives.
How on earth is Iran a danger to the world when the US government spends more money on the military than all of the world?
The US government is one of the most violent governments out there. The scary thing is that it is supported by a democracy. This is a polished form of Nazism. This mass slaughter of foreigners can go on and on with impunity.
Our planet needs to send an SOS to any other beings out there in order to save us from this government.
Here again, it is a matter of perspective. From the point of view of the Arab Street, or that portion of it that gets its news from Al Jazeera ... the intellectual equivalent of our Fox junk network, sure America is a bigger threat.
Iran is viewed as a champion of the Islamic (since Iran is not Arab) cause.
While I cannot argue against the effect of the invasion of Iraq in the stability of that region the other "points" have many faults and inconsistencies.
"Iran that used nuclear bombs to wipe out Hiroshima and Nagasaki." is nothing more than propaganda rhetoric. Let's look at this objectively. In WWII, it was Japan not the United States that attacked first. Japan was given an option to surrender but their insane military commanders refused to give up. And even refused to after the bombing of of Nagasake and Hiroshima until the intercedence of the emperor.
Don't play the sympathy card for a nation that started the war and slaughtered and raped tens of thousands in China.
While its true that the United States has its own agenda when it comes to oil so do all nations.
The United States has been one of the most if not the most gracious and nonviolent superpowers since the beginning of written history. Look at the Roman or the Greek empire under Alexander and how they dealt with not only their enemies but the nations that objected to their rule. The United States has compromised and diplomatted countless of times with countries like Iran, Russia and North Korea.
If you are to make such an accusation, make sure you respond with evidence and not heresay.
I hope you are never taken hostage, or caught not wearing your face covering, or riding in a car with a man who is not your husband. It might change your mind about whom is dangerous, or right or wrong, but I still hope it doesn't happen to you.
PostGlobal is an interactive conversation on global issues moderated by Newsweek International Editor Fareed Zakaria and David Ignatius of The Washington Post. It is produced jointly by Newsweek and washingtonpost.com, as is On Faith, a conversation on religion. Please send your comments, questions and suggestions for PostGlobal to Lauren Keane, its editor and producer.
All Comments (98)
wrmpfts beuic qytm yehnv rgptsqen iplrnudj vkhftpjnb
February 17, 2008 8:13 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 17, 2008 08:13
wrmpfts beuic qytm yehnv rgptsqen iplrnudj vkhftpjnb
February 17, 2008 8:11 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 17, 2008 08:11
wrmpfts beuic qytm yehnv rgptsqen iplrnudj vkhftpjnb
February 17, 2008 8:11 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 17, 2008 08:11
pvncokdu dnmvzguj insoz urevmklqh etmqahs nkey juewtpcn
February 17, 2008 7:59 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 17, 2008 07:59
pvncokdu dnmvzguj insoz urevmklqh etmqahs nkey juewtpcn
February 17, 2008 7:58 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 17, 2008 07:58
nlmsygo rldsyb mishuvab hfbq eilsbj rugmn uthzcm
February 17, 2008 7:47 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 17, 2008 07:47
nlmsygo rldsyb mishuvab hfbq eilsbj rugmn uthzcm
February 17, 2008 7:46 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 17, 2008 07:46
nlmsygo rldsyb mishuvab hfbq eilsbj rugmn uthzcm
February 17, 2008 7:45 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 17, 2008 07:45
dgoqe fuignepvl xvaz nzatdkhbc cfnd ksuwlx osvlrdbge
December 15, 2007 6:50 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on December 15, 2007 06:50
dgoqe fuignepvl xvaz nzatdkhbc cfnd ksuwlx osvlrdbge
December 15, 2007 6:48 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on December 15, 2007 06:48
http://drugsforyou.bebto.com pharmacy tech
September 24, 2007 9:04 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 24, 2007 21:04
http://pillsforyou.bebto.com discount pharmacy
September 24, 2007 7:27 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 24, 2007 19:27
http://pillsforyou.bebto.com discount pharmacy
September 24, 2007 7:27 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 24, 2007 19:27
http://pharma-cat.bebto.com cvs pharmacy
September 24, 2007 5:36 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 24, 2007 17:36
http://drugscan.bebto.com canada pharmacy
September 24, 2007 4:06 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 24, 2007 16:06
http://pills.allyouneed.pl mail order pharmacy
September 24, 2007 2:16 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 24, 2007 14:16
http://pharmameds.allyouneed.pl discount pharmacy
September 24, 2007 11:58 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 24, 2007 11:58
http://pharmameds.allyouneed.pl discount pharmacy
September 24, 2007 11:58 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 24, 2007 11:58
http://cheapdrugs.allyouneed.pl walmart pharmacy
September 24, 2007 9:52 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 24, 2007 09:52
http://cheapdrugs.allyouneed.pl walmart pharmacy
September 24, 2007 9:52 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 24, 2007 09:52
http://alltablets.allyouneed.pl internet pharmacy
September 24, 2007 9:02 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 24, 2007 09:02
http://allpharmacy.allyouneed.pl canada pharmacy
September 24, 2007 8:08 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 24, 2007 08:08
http://allpharmacy.allyouneed.pl canada pharmacy
September 24, 2007 8:08 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 24, 2007 08:08
http://alldrugs.allyouneed.pl canada pharmacy
September 24, 2007 6:51 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 24, 2007 06:51
http://farma-meds.myxfree.net cvs pharmacy
September 20, 2007 10:07 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 20, 2007 10:07
http://farma-meds.myxfree.net cvs pharmacy
September 20, 2007 10:07 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 20, 2007 10:07
http://drugs4you.myxfree.net international pharmacy
September 20, 2007 9:12 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 20, 2007 09:12
http://canadian-meds.myxfree.net pharmacy tech
September 20, 2007 8:03 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 20, 2007 08:03
http://buy-drugs.myxfree.net international pharmacy
September 20, 2007 4:56 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 20, 2007 04:56
http://buy.myxfree.net canadian pharmacy
September 19, 2007 12:42 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 19, 2007 12:42
http://pharmacy-drugs.1sthost.org Discount , generic name from our discount International pharmacy. Save Up to 70% On Generic - Buy and over 1100 other prescription drugs online.
September 19, 2007 9:59 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 19, 2007 09:59
http://ca-pharmacy.1sthost.org Online Pharmacy with great discounts. No prescription needed. Buy online safe and secure.
September 19, 2007 9:03 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 19, 2007 09:03
http://meds.1sthost.org Everything in the known universe about Order Generic Levitra Online. Online Pharmacy - Buy Cheap Levitra.
September 19, 2007 8:03 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 19, 2007 08:03
http://vitaliy33.1sthost.org Discount prescription drugs for international customers.
September 19, 2007 6:54 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 19, 2007 06:54
http://medicine.1sthost.org Order your prescription drugs online with no prescription.
September 19, 2007 6:02 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 19, 2007 06:02
http://pharmacy.1sthost.org Value Pharmaceuticals is an online pharmacy that provides cheap prescription drugs online with convenient ordering and confidential delivery to your door.
September 19, 2007 4:55 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 19, 2007 04:55
http://pharmacy-rx.allyouneed.pl Discount , generic name from our discount International pharmacy. Save Up to 70% On Generic - Buy and over 1100 other prescription drugs online.
September 19, 2007 3:13 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 19, 2007 03:13
http://canadian-pharmacy.allyouneed.pl Online Pharmacy with great discounts. No prescription needed. Buy online safe and secure.
September 19, 2007 2:13 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 19, 2007 02:13
http://canadian-pharmacy.allyouneed.pl Online Pharmacy with great discounts. No prescription needed. Buy online safe and secure.
September 19, 2007 2:12 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 19, 2007 02:12
http://pharmacy.allyouneed.pl Discount prescription drugs for international customers.
September 19, 2007 12:34 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 19, 2007 00:34
http://pharmacy-ltd.allyouneed.pl Value Pharmaceuticals is an online pharmacy that provides cheap prescription drugs online with convenient ordering and confidential delivery to your door.
September 18, 2007 10:52 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 18, 2007 22:52
http://pharmacy-ltd.allyouneed.pl Value Pharmaceuticals is an online pharmacy that provides cheap prescription drugs online with convenient ordering and confidential delivery to your door.
September 18, 2007 10:52 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 18, 2007 22:52
http://ca-pharmacy.allyouneed.pl We work hard to bring your the cheap online pharmacy you desire. Whether you are looking to for cheap online pharmacy prescription or other low priced.
September 18, 2007 9:49 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 18, 2007 21:49
http://meds.netfast.org Discount prescription drugs for international customers.
September 18, 2007 6:10 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 18, 2007 18:10
http://drugstore.netfast.org Order your prescription drugs online with no prescription.
September 18, 2007 5:23 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 18, 2007 17:23
http://drugstore.netfast.org Order your prescription drugs online with no prescription.
September 18, 2007 5:23 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 18, 2007 17:23
http://drugs.netfast.org Value Pharmaceuticals is an online pharmacy that provides cheap prescription drugs online with convenient ordering and confidential delivery to your door.
September 18, 2007 4:31 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 18, 2007 16:31
http://drugs.netfast.org Value Pharmaceuticals is an online pharmacy that provides cheap prescription drugs online with convenient ordering and confidential delivery to your door.
September 18, 2007 4:31 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 18, 2007 16:31
http://medicine.netfast.org We work hard to bring your the cheap online pharmacy you desire. Whether you are looking to for cheap online pharmacy prescription or other low priced.
September 18, 2007 3:34 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 18, 2007 15:34
http://pharmacy-ca.myxfree.net Your guide to Drugs,Pharmacy, pharmacy prescription drugs,prescription drugs, online pharmacy,walgreen drugs, discount drugs, cheap pharmacy.
September 18, 2007 2:48 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 18, 2007 14:48
http://pharmacy.myxfree.net Online Pharmacy with great discounts. No prescription needed. Buy online safe and secure.
September 18, 2007 1:55 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 18, 2007 13:55
tvuq fcpxrtjzq gbmchtjky mcxpsfu gilsp nhfuxgbya tdhvy http://www.wzqsijce.nerq.com
April 19, 2007 9:36 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on April 19, 2007 21:36
gcbmt deac sehpxlomj orkuizt qzfvcmy tpbavxscd vkwyhfqni
April 19, 2007 9:36 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on April 19, 2007 21:36
No doubt, Either the terrorists surrender or they will get their virgins! Maybe, that's the only language they understand! They have started the war, therefore, they must surrender or they have to face the consequences!
Support Our Troops at http://www.AmericaSupportsYou.mil/
God bless Our Troops and their Families!
February 22, 2007 6:39 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 22, 2007 18:39
I wholeheartedly agree with Karim, particularly about the nature of the "sectarian" violence in Iraq.
The Bushies make a huge blunder (typical) when they start making analogies with Hitler and WWII. If they knew their history better they wouldn't go there. Some Bushies don't even know that Hitler declared war on the US, positing the absurd notion that the US did so for altruistic reasons. They have no explanation for why the US waited more then two years to enter the fray. If the US hadn't been attacked by Japan, and had Germany not declared war in the same month (Dec 1941) they probably never would have, despite President Roosevelt's early recognition of the dangers of Nazi Germany.
You wouldn't believe it possible but Bushies claim that liberals in America were responsible for it's late entry into the war. Because they "Can't recognise evil"! In fact, it was American RW fascists (like Bush's grandfather Prescott) who didn't recognise evil in 1933, and still can't now, even though it is right under their nose.
Many previous bloggers have posited that the US is not responsible for the carnage in Iraq. These are mostly Bushies who have no concept of the Geneva Conventions. The conventions state unequivocally the an invading and occupying force becomes responsible, as a quasi-government, for everything that happens in the occupied territory. Period.
Besides the legal proscriptions, there is this: the deaths in an occupied country needn't be "at the hands" of the occupying force. The Germans knew this when they occupied Poland. Their first order of business (for the Einstatzgruppe) was to assasinate a small group of Polish Nationalists. Internecine violence between nationalists and ethnic Germans followed as sure as night follows day. Caught in the crossfire were "Jewish Bolsheviks" hated by almost everyone else. Of course the US Special Forces knows nothing of such tactics.
History correctly apportions blame for Nazi's genocide of Jews, Poles, Czechs, Gypsies, Hungarians, Romanians et al, whether they died at the hands of Nazi Germans or not.
And I assure you, dear reader, that America will be universally damned for what Bush has done in Iraq.
February 22, 2007 7:06 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 22, 2007 07:06
Handle:
Im glad you think war should no longer be an option on the table (Fareed Zakaria should take note of this).
On the on-going Iraqi bloodbath, you should understand that "sunni vs shia" is not an accurate description of what it is going on. The Kurds are also Sunni but notice that they are not fighting the Shia.
Aside from the invasion that created divisions among Iraqis (collaborator vs nationalist), the US government made it worse by promoting sectarian politics in a country where such system can only work with consensus not with the number of votes.
In the entire history of Iraq, no such in-fighting was ever recorded. War-mongering US officials and the cheer-leading mainstream US media love to tell people that they have nothing to do with the in-fighting but uses every opportunity to tell neighboring states to "stop interfering and creating havoc" in Iraq. Even Al-Jazeera was banned in Iraq (for 2 years now) because everything can influence what goes in Iraq except of course the US government: The God of this planet that is building the biggest US embassy in the world in Iraq.
The US government was warned about the dangers of invading Iraq, even by our coward Arab governments that are allied with the US government. Turkey refused to take part of this madness too.
It is not just the US government that is at fault here, you have the Fareed Zakarias, the Thomas Freedmans, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and of course all the think-tanks that lend their "expertise" (in war-mongering) to congressional hearings and meetings.
War decisions are largely made by select few (the above) and voters are fed propaganda to put a rubber stamp on it so they can do the actual fighting while Zakaria and Freedman are sitting in their offices lecturing people how great US power is.
This war must be stopped.
In you think you forgot, this is what war is. It is as brutal and as savage as it was before if not more (the new weapons are much more brutal actually):
http://mindprod.com/politics/iraqintroduction.html#INTRODUCTION
(what the media won't show because it is too graphic...that's right, people dying is too graphic for their taste)
February 20, 2007 9:24 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 20, 2007 09:24
Karim
This last one is the first post of yours that makes any sense at all.
I have repeatedly stated that I do not agree with the Iraq invasion or the reasons given for going in there in the first place.
As for the first Iraq war, I think if you are suggesting the the US was wrong in liberating Kuwait after the Iraqi attack, you may find five other people in the world who agree with you.
As for the "Highway of Death" I recall the fleeing Iraqi troops were like sitting ducks and -- too late -- but eventually someone called a halt to the shooting.
For me, it is beyond despicable that in the last decades of the 20th Century and the opening decade of the 21st, especially after learnig the lessons of Vietnam, war should be even an option on the table.
I would still like you to answer the question I posed earlier -- how is the US responsible for Iraqi killing Iraqi, Shi'a killing Sunni?
February 19, 2007 2:41 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 19, 2007 14:41
handle:
Please understand that I am not against America as a nation or as a country. My criticism is directed at the US government's policies that foreigners suffer from. I truly believe if the US government was bombing US cities the way it bombed Vietnam or Iraq, you wouldn't be accusing me of "blind hatred".
I am just tired of all these wars (that are sometimes cheered in America) and you should join us in condemning your own government for its blatant violations.
Every other independent Human Rights organization condemned harshly the brutality of the US government in these wars.
Your problem is that you have blind faith in your own government. No matter how many millions of people the US kills, you still attempt to argue that it was done in "good faith" or for a good reason. My answer to you is Jim Crow laws.
The US government is capable of evil just like any other government out there. Stop apologizing for it.
15 years ago I used to admire the US government. But since I saw what it did to Iraq and how brutal it was (highway of death, etc), I no longer have any respect for it. It bothered me a lot that a supposedly civilized government still cheers wars and the killing of human beings. In the end, I realized that it was like any other government out there. Considering its unmatched military power, and its record, we people of the world feels threatened by it today. THe US government can today bomb any country it wishes, literally anything anywhere anytime. You're not on the receiving end.
February 19, 2007 12:19 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 19, 2007 00:19
I'm a Kraut and I stand with the United States of America - the greatest Nation ever! If someone is against America, then he is against me too!
Here in Germany, and also in Europe, the NAZIS and Commmunists are still alive, therefore, it's no wonder, that anti-Americanism is wide spreaded across Europe. The reason is, is that the news-media are censored, so the people do not know, what's really going on. All news they get are one-sided.
However, Americans should give a big nothing about what the European hardheads are talking, because it's part of the NAZI-Propaganda here in Europe, especially here in Germany. In addition, Europe is a safe haven for terrorists.
America is doing great and there's nothing wrong with it! Iran is a dictatorship and the people over there cannot wait to get liberated. So what?
Thanks to the finest and brightest men and women of the United States - Our Troops!
Support the Troops at www.AmericaSupportsYou.mil
God bless America, Our Troops and their Families!
February 18, 2007 1:34 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 18, 2007 01:34
America Rules:
In a funny way, I find your post even more offensive than Karim's.
Karim's comments come from ignorance, myopia and hatred.
Yours come from bigotry and intolerance.
It is a pretty close call between the two of you, but, on balance, I think you are worse -- mostly because I think you are an American and should know better.
One can almost forgive Karim for his blindness, hatred and succumbing to propagandist hatred of America and anything American -- even as he reads that we do not condone violence and killing even when done by our government.
As for you ... well, you have been brought up with a Constitution that stands for equality, justice and tolerance. Yet, you write stuff which appears to come from an unthinking and unintelligent mind.
It's sad, that people like you and Karim exist.
February 17, 2007 7:37 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 17, 2007 19:37
America rules :
I wish you found an opportunity somewhere else to advertise your idiocy rather than taking valuable space here to do so .
February 17, 2007 5:48 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 17, 2007 17:48
I find the islamic ideaology to be one of violence, distrust, and condemnation of humans rights. Islam needs to be destroyed in order for their to be peace in the world.
February 17, 2007 4:47 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 17, 2007 16:47
PRINCETON NJ wrote:
"It's one of the great strengths of the country's political system, in fact."
The above typically doesn't apply to foreign issues. One is supposed to rally behind the president.
On the issue of Iraqi victims of US-led UN sanctions, the figure was not disputed by Albright when she was posed the question.
The UN which was imposing the sanction is the one that came up with the estimation.
Saddam was of course going to try to exploit this issue for his own benefits but that doesn't mean tens of thousands of children weren't dying unnecessary because US policy believed "the price was worth it".
US officials have stated that among the goals of the sanctions was to "push" the Iraqi population to revolt against the Iraqi government....by starving them.
This is not what civilized nations do. Killing innocent people directly or indirectly can never be justified.
February 17, 2007 1:44 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 17, 2007 13:44
Karim
It is fascinating to see you get more hysterical as the facts elude you.
Let's take the Jim Crow (btw, it's Jim Crow, not Jim Craw)laws. I think most Americans -- and I mean by that 99%+ -- would agree that they represent among the most shameful in our history. At the end of this message is a brief paragraph I picked out of the introduction on Wikipedia for your edification. You can do an Internet search on "Jim Crow" and get a plethora of information including historical references.
Now, let me ask if you are willing to say that suicide bombings, the 9-11 attack, the attack on the WTC a couple years before 9-11, the shelling of Israeli towns by HisbAllah and Hamas, are equally shameful periods for the Arabs.
What about the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1991? When the Kuwaitis and Saudis and Gulf states appealed to the US to do something, was that Arabs asking for intervention or was the US Government hearing mystical voices from outer space?
When the Saudis and Sunni Arab governments say that if the US does not get a handle on Iraqi violence, they may intervene to stop the rise of the Shi'a crescent, is this appeal for more action by the US, a call from Arabs, or is it more voices from Pluto?
Look, you keep saying we get mad when you criticize the US Government. Not so. We criticize our own government.
Okay, Jim Crow laws. Women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia. Women in Afghanistan were beaten for exposing flesh on ankles. Men were beaten for not wearing beards. In Iran, women are forced to wear coverings. Education is not allowed for them.
Is this what you are praising as a model?
In Saudi Arabia, no religion is allowed other than Islam. Is this your idea of tolerance?
I think you do have it all wrong. It is clear that governments act out of economic and political self interest. Much of US and western policy vis-a-vis the Middle East was geared to maintaining stability, even at the expense of supporting totalitarian and dictatorial regimes. President Bush said this was a mistake and the US should be more actively trying to promote democracy.
One can argue with either philosophy - indeed, one can legitimately say the US should do neither.
However, neither is an evil motive.
The US has not sought territory or to expropriate without payment another country's resources. The US got out of Kuwait after driving the Iraqi forces out.
By the way, the Kuwaitis did not start killing each other or shooting and bombing US forces after the US drove the Iraqis away. Why not?
The US did not even try to use Iraqi oil revenue to pay for rebuilding the infrastructure. If the Iraqis had not gone on this killing spree and driven out 700,000 to 1.8 million of their fellow citizens, and set off roadside bombs, the country would likely have had a massive Marshall Plan like buildout with power plants, roads, schools, hospitals.
But no ... you and your people cannot stand the idea that one person is a Sunni and another a Shi'a without wanting to kill, kill, kill.
BTW -- I think it was implicit in what I wrote originally, but I do acknowledge that in the aerial bombing before the 2003 march of troops into Iraq, many Iraqis were killed by US bombs. I have already said that is something I did not and do not support.
So, let us look into the future -- Iraq has lost 700,000 to 1.8 million, mostly Sunni people with means to get out. These are professionals and skilled people. Most of the Sunnis and Shi'a who intermarried -- according to press reports -- have been killed or displaced. This leaves a Shi'a society to rule most of Iraq -- other than the Kurdish areas.
What will you do with the remaining Sunnis? Share with them, all things, oil revenue, government? Or subject them to death squads as you have been?
What if the US had not stopped Saddam Hussein in Kuwait? Would Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, etc. be around?
___________
You have some legitimate complaints about US policy. Most Americans accept that and want to see us do better.
But your blind hatred based on ignorance and disinformation, is not acceptable.
Have a good life!
__
The Jim Crow Laws were state and local laws enacted in the Southern and border states of the United States and enforced between 1876 and 1965. They mandated "separate but equal" status for African Americans. In reality, this led to treatment and accommodations that were almost always inferior to those provided to white Americans. The Jim Crow period or the Jim Crow era refers to the time during which this practice occurred. The most important laws required that public schools, public places and public transportation, like trains and buses, have separate facilities for whites and blacks. (These Jim Crow Laws were separate from the 1800-66 Black Codes, which had restricted the civil rights and civil liberties of African Americans.) State-sponsored school segregation was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education. Generally, the remaining Jim Crow laws were overruled by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act; none were in effect at the end of the 1960's.
February 17, 2007 12:50 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 17, 2007 12:50
anonymous wrote:
"Would the United States military gladly welcome the day that they can fight wars without killing innocent(foreign) civilians? I bet you my life and the lives of my family they would."
If the military that you praise cared about the loss of innocent life, its shameless generals wouldn't have openly stated that "they don't do body counts"....of foreigners of course, US casualties are counted in well kept records, am I wrong?
Unfortunately, you are describing an ideal defense force, not an imperialist force that travels 5000 miles away to bomb civilian cities, destroy basic infrastructure (that killed sick and elderly people..but who cares, your military doesn't do body counts), and of course tortures people in prisons etc, not to mention daily psychological torture on children and women, etc.
The US military killed with impunity so many innocent people in check-points alone. US soldiers just sprayed people with bullets..because they are not so sure if an incoming car is hostile or not..well better kill them all to be sure, if they happen to be innocent, well tough luck..this is a war...pick up the corps and give them to their families if they have any left, and move on.
Please enough with the propaganda. The US army is guilty of war crimes.
February 17, 2007 12:14 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 17, 2007 12:14
Patriot:
I am not sure when Arabs asked for help from the US government in the last 30 years or so. Would you mind listing few examples?
Everyone in the Middle East knows what the US government did to Iran before the Shah was installed by the CIA, before most Arabs or Persians (for the matter) knew what America was. In case you attempt to deny, here is the full disclosure of the CIA operation:
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/041600iran-cia-index.html
The involvement in this coup by the CIA was denied for least 40 years until it was declassified in the 90s. During those years, we heard from people like you the same excuses that you are posting today: That the US government does not do these things deliberately, that the US government's policy can never be evil or disingenious.
On Jim Craw laws, I only brought it to show readers what the US government is capable of doing and because one poster continue to claim that the US government's wrongdoings are never intended.
All my criticism, harsh (and well deserved) sometimes because of all these deaths, is directed at the US government exclusively. For some reason, you get offended when people criticize your government. You can criticize Arab governments all you want and I will not defend them as long as you don't turn it into some justification of racism and bigotry.
No other country except South Africa had anything close to Jim Craw laws. Name me one nation that forbad a minority of its own citizens from drinking from the same water faucet as the majority because of their skin color in the 60s?
One of the common myths in America is that if America made some mistakes (like in Jim Craw laws), other nations must have and would have done worse. That's what explains your reaction to Jim Craw laws. You believe that if America did such a horrible thing, other nation must have done worse. It is in my opinion a racist belief (we are better than everyone else). Yes some other nations could have done worse but its always true.
I wouldn't want to single out America for such things either unless they try to repeat it again.
But these wars waged by the US government don't seem to come to an end. It seems to me that the US government has too much leeway at the wanton killing of foreigners and destruction of their properties and that as long as the US government uses slogans (Operation Iraqi Freedom), most of the population is willing to look the other way when it comes to all these deaths.
The US government invaded Iraq against the will of the entire world and most importantly against the will of most people in the Middle East including the people of Iran (Iraq's enemies).
If this is not an authoritarian government, then please tell me what it is.
February 17, 2007 11:22 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 17, 2007 11:22
"Is America perfect? Far from it. But, I think we are trying." -- Trying too hard. Trying way too hard...
February 17, 2007 10:05 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 17, 2007 10:05
Satyakama write: [quoting me] "...the U.S. is hardly perfect..." The art of understating...
----------
Two things to follow-up. I'm not sure that Americans should have problems admitting their mistakes. It's one of the great strengths of the country's political system, in fact.
Second, I don't think you've been reading enough of the propaganda out of the region, perhaps. If you haven't, you will note that there is a strong tendency to put the USA up on a pedestal, just to knock it down, on human rights, on this or that. It's done over and over. Don't believe me? I'm sure it will show up on this forum enough to be proof for anyone who doubts.
Last, Karim writes about the 500,000 children, but he skips over this important fact. Why would he/she do that? Draw your own conclusions.:
[From the Dailty Telegraph] "The "baby parades" were a staple of Saddam Hussein's propaganda machine for a decade. Convoys of taxis, with the tiny coffins of dead infants strapped to their roofs - allegedly killed by United Nations sanctions - were driven through the streets of Baghdad, past crowds of women screaming anti-Western slogans.
The moving scenes were often filmed by visiting television crews and provided valuable ammunition to anti-sanctions activists such as George Galloway, the Labour MP, who blamed Western governments for the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children.
But The Telegraph can reveal that it was all a cynical charade. Iraqi doctors say they were told to collect dead babies who had died prematurely or from natural causes and to store them in cardboard boxes in refrigerated morgues for up to four weeks - until they had sufficient corpses for a parade."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/05/25/wirq25.xml
February 17, 2007 9:22 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 17, 2007 09:22
Patriot: I agree with you that Karim is kind of a hypocryte, but in some regards so are we. We are all hypocrytes sometimes. Despite all that we have done to help the world, we are not perfect and as a patriotic U.S. citizen I will admit that the U.S. has done some wrong things in the past, but so do all countries and peoples/races etc. But Karim, comparing the U.S. to the nazis is insanity. And any sane person who has historical knowledge will say the same thing. Either you are angry at the U.S. for something we did in the past or you just hate us because we are Americans and we are the strongest military and economic power the world has ever seen.
As many comments above have stated over and over again. The United States military does NOT deliberately target civilians! It is against the just laws of war and those in our military who do commit the horrible acts of killing unarmed civilians are punished. If civilians are hit by a bomb they are either 1. coopertaing with the enemy, 2. are accidently hit based on bad intelligence or a missfire, or 3. They are just terrorists who are dressed up like civilians which a great deal of terrorists are in order for everyone to express outrage when they are killed. Would the United States military gladly welcome the day that they can fight wars without killing innocent(foreign) civilians? I bet you my life and the lives of my family they would. But unfortunatly we live in an era where that is simply not possible and currently beyond the technological and military intelligence limits. If we had known that the first house hit in the war was occupied by civilians and not Saddam before the strike, then I guarantee you that they would have called it off. If you somehow have trouble believing me then ask yourself this question. Is there any tactical objective accomplished from killing onnocents in war? The answer is an emphatic NO. The United States' military leaders know this and they know the only way to win a war is to kill the enemy.( who, by the way is trying to kill us)This is hard to accomplish when you are fighting a bunch of cowardly men who hide in civilian clothes.
February 16, 2007 3:47 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 16, 2007 15:47
To Karim and Anonymous?:
First, Anonymous? you write:
"Anonymous, (by the way, why don't you use a handle?), Karim has beaten you with facts. Stop trying to defend the indefensible."
Okay, there you go, I'm using "A Handle" as you requested. The point is that The Post knows who I am either because I am registered with them, or because they have my computer MAC address. IOW, I'm not really anonymous to anyone but the posters and for all I know, Karim is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or perhaps even Arnold Schwarzenegger, and you, Anonymous? could be Jenna Bush for all I know!
So, let's get to the substance and see with what "facts" if any, Karim has "beaten" me.
Karim writes:
"You claimed the US government did not kill foreign people on purpose, without providing any evidence."
Actually, I did no such thing. I wrote in response to Karim's lament that Americans are killing Iraqis in Iraq. What I wrote was:
"That being said, once US troops marched in, they did not seek to kill Iraqis.
Iraqis killed Iraqis and continue to do so."
I also acknowledged the role and responsibility of the US government in the process:
"I oppose my government's incursion into Iraq and am willing to say that in the causal chain, it bears responsibility for setting into motion events that caused the sectarian killing, but for you to say that the US did the killing is just plain wrong. "
Karim wrote:
"I quoted Albright to show you that the government you defend does indeed kill people, and with impunity. Albright was by the way the US ambassador to the UN and she threatened many times to veto any attempt to lift the harsh sanctions."
Please note that I did not defend Madeline Allbright's statement. I merely pointed out that Karim was obfuscating the issue he raised in his first post -- that Americans were killing Iraqis since the 2003 invasion, with an ENTIRELY separate issue which is the claim that over 500,000 Iraqi children died as the result of sanctions on Iraq.
Now, I have some comments on this: (i) the claim of 500,000 children dying based on malnutrition and premature death is challenged as exaggerated. Regardless, even if the number is 100, I deplore that it happened; (ii) the sanctions imposed as a result of Iraq's unprovoked attack on Kuwait were UN sanctions, not US sanctions; (iii) Saddam Hussein could have ended the sanctions quite easily; and (iv) in my opinion, a policy of active engagement and mutual aid with Iraq would have been far more productive than the confrontational approach that was taken.
Karim writes:
"Even Kuwait, the victim's of Iraq, wanted the sanctions lifted. EVEN KUWAIT! Europe wanted the sanctions lifted."
I think you need to check your facts here. The issue was how much oil for food should be countenanced, not the lifting of sanctions or the no-fly zone, or the protection of the Kurdish area.
Karim writes:
"But your MURDEROUS zealot government refused. Explain to me why?"
The fact is that up until 2003, the US did not kill a single Iraqi, as far as I can tell, once the hostilities from the first Gulf War were over -- with the exception of an Iraqi aircraft that might have been shot down or a ground emplacement knocked out.
I think the use of epithets like "murderous" and "zealot" simply reveals the close-minded mentality on which I commented earlier.
"Did the US government inherit the middle east? Did the people of the middle east supported its effort in there?"
These are legitimate questions -- by the way, these are NOT "facts." If you mean by "inherit" that the US has no inherent right to any territory or resources in the ME, you are correct. However, the US has not, at least in the modern context, sought to expropriate territory or resources. In fact, the price of oil has gone up steadily and the US pays for it.
Did the people of the ME support US efforts there? The answer is yes and no ... some did and some did not. Obviously, the use of bases throughout the area is some evidence of support. You can question the degree of support or even say it was bought or coerced, but it is support. If you mean that the "Arab Street" opposes US policy, sure, you are correct.
"Most Arabs do not want your government to be involved in their nations. How hard is it for you to understand that? Why don't you respect the wish of other people?"
See my comment above. It is pretty remarkable that Iraqis were rejoicing when Saddam Hussein was toppled and days later started killing each other.
But, in general, I actually agree that the US should not be trying to create "democracies" in Arab countries. This is not so much because "democracy" is a bad idea, but because the consequences will be the formation of theocracies and power shifts to fringe and lunatic elements.
I want to be careful that you don't misunderstand. I think reasonable Arabs are as embracing of freedom and democracy as anyone else. However, there is an undercurrent of hatred and violence and tolerance of abuse committed in the name of religion.
"Please enough with the propaganda in defense of your government. If you have fallen to their propaganda, well don't think that we will too."
Well, actually, I don't think I am the one engaged in propaganda. I am quite prepared to say that I disagree with my government and I can do that. Try that in an Arab country and see how long before you are tortured and imprisoned.
The whole point is that you made a false accusation -- which by your later admission that Iraqis are killing Iraqis -- you admitted.
Now, you come along and spew more epithets and hatred and try to obfuscate and falsify what I said.
Karim, you also said:
"Less than 40 years ago, the US government supported by its supreme court enforced racist laws against millions of its black citizens when the only other nation that had similar laws was Apartheid South Africa. Was it also a "good government" that didn't harm people ON PURPOSE? what was the purpose of Jim Craw laws? it must have been part of a plan to save black people from themselves, to liberate them just like the millions of slaughtered vietnamese."
Now, you reveal, not only your ignorance, but also your lack of analytical ability. There is no congruity between Vietnam and racism in America.
In case you don't remember, the issue of slavery was one of the major issues in the civil war. There was the issue of the Union too, but let's not confuse your little mind with that for now.
Did the US continue to have discriminatory practices? Absolutely, yes. That's what the "separate but equal" theory propagated and it was rejected. That's what Brown v. Board of Educ. in Topeka rejected. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the amendments of 1991 made major remedies available -- BTW, extending what had been enacted in the 1870s -- to housing, employment, health care and other laws.
Is America perfect? Far from it. But, I think we are trying.
I am an immigrant to this country - was born in Africa.
Trust me, there is no way I'd want to live in the hell that you people call home.
In America, if you say Muhammad was the last prophet and someone else says it was Ali, or another Imam is coming, everybody says, "hey, good luck to you and we can still be friends and neighbors." In the Arab world, you get killed for lesser transgressions. Just recently, there was a protest because Saudi Arabia is deporting Ahmadis.
You write:
"American ideals have simply become slogans to be cheered in Hollywood movies, no more no less."
For some, yes. For the vast majority, they are our guide in daily life.
"An Alien force need to come save us from this modern-day Nazi government that enjoys widespread support among the population and that kills with impunity. "
Actually, if you would just stop killing each other, US forces would likely withdraw sooner.
Sadly, for those of us who don't think the US should have gone into Iraq in the first place, one of the principal arguments for not getting out is that it will lead to a sectarian rage of killing unlike anything we have seen.
Also, the Bush Administration does not enjoy widespread support. 71% of Americans think the country is on the wrong track, at least 65% and probably more think the Iraq situation is being mishandled by Bush; 80+% oppose the surge, etc., etc.
Karim, I think you need a serious dose of reality. It is one thing for you to oppose US policy -- you are free to do that and in some instances I agree with you. However, not facing facts and propagating falsehoods will not get you any support from Americans and Iraqis and Arabs can blame the US all they want, but it does no good to turn a blind eye to the truth which is that Iraqis are killing each other -- Sunni kills Shi'a and Shi'a kills Sunni.
If you have anything substantive to say, I'll respond. If you have epithets, save them for Al Jazeera.
February 16, 2007 3:40 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 16, 2007 15:40
Karim: Why is the middle east always complaining about how America doesnt do enough? Yet when we try to accomplish something on their behalf in iraq, they now complain that we shouldnt be there.Karim the hypocrasy you preach is almost unbearable. Judging by your name I would guess you are from the middle east. And above you are complaining about the jim crow laws. And your country is any better today? The Jim crow laws are behind us, yet the middle east is till very, very racist and intolerant of westerners/ non muslims how can you accuse the United States of anything when that is going on?
Can I have an answer that is free of insults, etc. or are you too immature even for that?
February 16, 2007 3:15 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 16, 2007 15:15
Anonymous, (by the way, why don't you use a handle?), Karim has beaten you with facts. Stop trying to defend the indefensible.
February 16, 2007 12:20 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 16, 2007 12:20
anonymous:
You claimed the US government did not kill foreign people on purpose, without providing any evidence. I quoted Albright to show you that the government you defend does indeed kill people, and with impunity. Albright was by the way the US ambassador to the UN and she threatened many times to veto any attempt to lift the harsh sanctions. Even Kuwait, the victim's of Iraq, wanted the sanctions lifted. EVEN KUWAIT! Europe wanted the sanctions lifted. But your MURDEROUS zealot government refused. Explain to me why? Did the US government inherit the middle east? Did the people of the middle east supported its effort in there?
Most Arabs do not want your government to be involved in their nations. How hard is it for you to understand that? Why don't you respect the wish of other people?
Please enough with the propaganda in defense of your government. If you have fallen to their propaganda, well don't think that we will too.
Less than 40 years ago, the US government supported by its supreme court enforced racist laws against millions of its black citizens when the only other nation that had similar laws was Apartheid South Africa. Was it also a "good government" that didn't harm people ON PURPOSE? what was the purpose of Jim Craw laws? it must have been part of a plan to save black people from themselves, to liberate them just like the millions of slaughtered vietnamese.
American ideals have simply become slogans to be cheered in Hollywood movies, no more no less.
An Alien force need to come save us from this modern-day Nazi government that enjoys widespread support among the population and that kills with impunity.
February 16, 2007 11:15 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 16, 2007 11:15
Karim
The quote from Madeline Albright is from 1996 -- the invasion of Iraq we are talking about is 2003. The Leslie Stahl question to her was about sanctions imposed since Iraq invaded Kuwait, sanctions under Pres. Bush, Sr. and Pres. Clinton. The estimates of 500,000 children killed were based on Saddam Hussein's diversion of resources to the various programs he pursued -- the war with Iran, the attempted conquest of Kuwait, etc.
Let's talk about 2003 onwards. You write "The US government destroyed most of Iraqi infrastructure before Iraqis started killing each other."
You are absolutely correct. The US did destroy a good part of the Iraqi infrastructure and I have already said that I did not agree with or support the invasion of Iraq.
Now, please explain how and why, the destruction of the infrastructure of Iraq justifies Iraqis killing each other.
At least you have conceded that Iraqis are killing each other.
What kind of perverse mind do you people have that you can blame someone else because you kill each other -- and the reason you do so is because 1100 or 1200 years ago, someone argued about who was the successor to the guy who claimed to be the messenger of Allah (PBUH).
Wow! When you wake up and understand that you are all living in an asylum run by lunatics, maybe there will be a chance for peace.
But, most likely, no, you will continue to fester and foster hatred and ignorance.
However, I will give you this -- you admitted that Iraqis are killing each other.
What more do you need to know to begin to put a stop to it?
February 15, 2007 11:32 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 15, 2007 23:32
I feel sorry for the Iraqi people. They have been a killing ground for generations.
Bush has stated more than once that he took the war to Iraq because he didn't want it on American soil.
Saddam Hussein was a bloody petty dictator. I figure the other Arab countries allowed him to stay in power because: 1. He was Sunni Arab like them, 2. He kept Shiite Persian Iran from becoming powerful, 3. They had no one better/stronger to replace him with. I don't think they liked him any more than Bush did. Which is why they didn't stop Bush.
Arabs need to realize we Americans mostly didn't realize what Bush was doing, or that he'd make such a mess of it. We, like everyone else in the world, want to believe that our government is great, or at least moderately competent. If Bush had been up for reelection in the last election, he wouldn't be in power now. We're still trying to figure out how to work on fixing the relationships he messed up. It's going to take time, & meanwhile the troublemakers are still out there.
The Arab countries are going to have to start helping get rid of the violent scaremongers more and fixing Iraq. Like you said, what's happening there isn't affecting us as much as it is you, so regardless of who or where it started, it won't just go away until you make it go. I actually don't think Bush can fix this. It didn't start with Bush. And try to remember the majority of the people are not behind Bush on this. Look at the polls. Even if Bush decides to do something right, he's not going to find it easy because the majority of the people don't trust him any more.
February 15, 2007 10:44 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 15, 2007 22:44
TIC TOC wrote:
"The United States has been one of the most gracious and nonviolent superpowers since the begining of human history. You gotta be kidding me. I advise you and Americans to look in the mirror before saying that."
I did look in the mirror and guess what I saw. I saw a country that has, not once, pursued world conquest like the empires of ancient past. A country that devotes tens of billions of dollars a year to the less fortunate countries. I saw a country whose gracious citizens dontate hundreds of millions of dollars(as well as the government who not only donates billions of dollars but people too sometimes) whenever a massive earthquakwake strikes Iran or a massive tsunami hits indonesia. How much foreign aid do we get when a natural disaster hits us? that's what I thought. The fact is that most of the world owes the U.S. a helluva lot for all that we've done and accomplished, and also for not being like the Romans or convert/land hungry muslim caliphates of years past. I cannot stand the hypocrasy all the foriegners look at is our faults and not what good we've done.
"If it weren't for us you'd definetly be saying Heil to someone"
February 15, 2007 10:24 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 15, 2007 22:24
"When the so called terrorist brought down the twin towers" this is insanity at its worst how can you not call Osama Bin Laden a terrorist? Is this the kind of brain washing that goes on in the muslim world all the time? If you are opposed to the war in afganistan then you are a complete nut, the United States has a right to defend itself and considering Bin Laden was not on U.S. soil we had to go get the TERRORIST.
February 15, 2007 9:54 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 15, 2007 21:54
Karim, it is obvious that you do not view Foxnews and cnn regularly. In fact the mainstream media in the U.S. is one of the reasons for the opposition to the war at home. I remember it was just a couple of months ago that cnn decided to show to a national audience an enemy propaganda film about iraq. The mainstream media in this country has a way of preventing us from winning wars that it doesnt like. Also the U.S. does not target civilians on purpose. This is war, civilians die, its a fact. For some reason the Muslim world is so ready to cry out when a U.S. bomb kills civilians and does nothing when it faces the severe human rights violations by the terrorists and the entire middle eastern region as a whole. The only thing al jazzera reports is crap about how the americans cant fix the world and how to hate them for it. Its not our fault the muslim world's ideas and views on life are stuck in the dark ages. When is the time that someone else steps up and tries to fix their own problems instead of blaming them on the U.S. as usual. The middle east blames the U.S. for all of its problems and when we try to fix them in iraq they we shouldn't be there.
We have a respect in this country for the military because they are ready to lay down their life for something they beleive in, and the people they love. Mr. Karim, unless you have been to war and know what its like, you are in no position whatsoever to critisize the military and what they do. And stop looking at only the civilians we kill while hunting deadly terrorists, for your safety, and start looking at the human rights violations of our enemies which are far more heinous than than our alleged ones. After all it's not American troops who are setting off car bombs in the streets. It's not American troops that are kidnapping and killing dozens of people a day. Most of the people we killed in Vietnam were actually enemy combatants that were trying to kill us. Karim I pity you, your utter insanity has now told you to demean a soldier's right to self defence.
February 15, 2007 9:35 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 15, 2007 21:35
anonymous:
Lesley Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq: We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price--we think the price is worth it.
--60 Minutes (5/12/96)
Albright was not even a republican.
The US government destroyed most of Iraqi infrastructure before Iraqis started killing each other.
Communists too never wanted to kill people, they just wanted them to submit to their will or be killed if they resist.
February 15, 2007 9:26 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 15, 2007 21:26
Rear Admiral Richard W. Hunt after holding talks with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi yesterday told journalists that the joint effort Ethiopia and the US are exerting to ensure peace and stability in the Horn of Africa is fruitful.
Read More about the US policy towards Horn of Africa and the New the new US front -Africa
http://www.geeskaafrika.com
The Geeska Afrika Magazine
managing Editor And Publisher (1985-2007)
N.Kaafi
Afria
February 15, 2007 8:34 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 15, 2007 20:34
Ms. Doha,
The "old atom bomb" accusation again. Please! Stop! Just on the subject of Japan for a moment.
Could you imagine what the world would have been like if they had won? Do you know history at all? Have you read the Japanese post war plans if they were to have won? Look at the countries they took over and then "administered". Now the world has another enemy just as dangerous, if not more so. Not just the USA. These terrorists want to reverse time, and send us all back to the dark ages. And where do you came up with this "dictatorship of the world stuff"? I will be the first to say that it is a mess in Iraq. What to do?! I really don't know. I do know this though. After Bin Laden and his croonies bombed the USS Cole and the Clinton and Bush administration let him go on his merry way, he grew bolder, and more brazen. Then he went for a bigger, and better target less than one year later. I make that point to demonstrate that two administrations here in America kept hoping that Bin laden would just go away and take up basket weaving, he did not. I don't think that the terrorists need to watch Bushes face on TV to get riled up to kill people. They were doing just fine for years while we let them have a free pass to kill americans and other innocent people from other countries. And we can leave Iraq tomorrow, and the terrorists will continue to kill "evil americans" even if it means comming back here to do it. But I think that they might keep themselves busy killing their own people in the Middle East for awhile at first. While they are bringing about their own twisted version of government. And the rights and freedoms of women are not a piority from what I understand.
February 15, 2007 5:47 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 15, 2007 17:47
"The United States has been one of the most if not the most gracious and nonviolent superpowers since the beginning of written history." You gotta be kidding me, I advise you and Americans to look at the mirror before saying that. People around the world known very well United States except American people.
February 15, 2007 4:31 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 15, 2007 16:31
You are very right.Since the fall of Berlin Wall the U.S. government is acting as demigod,quitely knowing that no one can challenge it militarily or economically .First they started saying that Taliban is a dictatorship;a group that was once financed and trained by the C.I.A.The then told the world that Saddam Hussein is a dictator;a regime they supported and armed throughout the Iran-Iraq War.When the so called terrorist brought down the Twin Towers,the Bush Administration went berserk.They begun dropping bombs in Afghanistan and brought down Saddam on the false pretext that he supported Al-qaeda & amassed weapons of mass destruction.So now who is going to believe these psychopaths once again when they are saying that Iran is behind the quagmire in Iraq?They are a disgrace and should not be allowed to bring down the United States Of America.
February 15, 2007 11:51 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 15, 2007 11:51
Does anybody think America or Americans turned into what they are...or are perceived to be now ...in just six years? We had criticism, but still our world mantle of decency in 2000. Blame Bush...or more accurately blame the plan that's come to fruition under his disasterousis reign so suddeny. The agents were in place insdie the US government...for a plot hatched in Chicago a couple decades ago, the latest branch of the Elders ofion Elders, the long plan jumping ahead again. This one is working splendidly, is it not?
American arms and blood and treasure at the service of Israel. The press, AIPAC, THe AMerican jewish Congress, et. al. in full control. Or you can explain the last six years.
February 15, 2007 11:35 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 15, 2007 11:35
Karim
With all respect, your bleating is just way off base.
First, I am not and never have been a supporter of the US attack on Iraq in 2003.
That being said, once US troops marched in, they did not seek to kill Iraqis.
Iraqis killed Iraqis and continue to do so.
As for your comments about Al Jazeera, it is in the guise of a news outlet, also an outlet for terrorist progaganda and a fomenter of hatred in the name of Islam -- sure, they show death and destruction from bombs and the occasional dissenting view.
But the bottom line is that somewhere between 700,000 (UN estimate) to 1.8 million (NIE approximation) Iraqis have fled their own country because they fear being killed by their own countrymen. The estimate of 650,000 killed -- put in context, is actually your number taken from a range of projected increased mortality from all causes following the "war" (and, ergo, some say, caused by the war). Regardless, even if the number is 65,000 (Pres. Bush used that figure, I believe) or 100,000-150,000 (believed to be reasonable estimates) the numbers are unacceptable and outrageous.
When you say "PLEASE HELP US" could you take a moment to explain how we can help you to stop killing each other?
I oppose my government's incursion into Iraq and am willing to say that in the causal chain, it bears responsibility for setting into motion events that caused the sectarian killing, but for you to say that the US did the killing is just plain wrong.
It is this kind of willful blindness to facts and unabated hatred of anything American that keeps you from seeing that the fault dear Karim lies in you and not in the stars that you are underlings.
February 15, 2007 11:33 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 15, 2007 11:33
Karim, on Vietnam, if I may, in memory and as a tribute to the dead.
"Estimating the number killed in the conflict is extremely difficult. Official records are hard to find or nonexistent and many of those killed were literally blasted to pieces by bombing... It is also difficult to say exactly what counts as a "Vietnam war casualty"; people are still being killed today by unexploded ordinance, particularly cluster bomblets. Environmental effects from chemical agents and the colossal social problems caused by a devastated country with so many dead surely caused many more lives to be shortened.
...
Vietnam released figures on April 3, 1995 that a total of one million Vietnamese combatants and four million civilians were killed in the war. The accuracy of these figures has generally not been challenged. 58,226 American soldiers also died in the war or are missing in action."
(www.vietnam-war.info/casualties)
February 15, 2007 11:24 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 15, 2007 11:24
Rafeal:
The very first bombs dropped on Iraq on the second war.....the very first ones killed members of an innocent family and injured their children.
The 2 pilots who committed this crime said they were honored to drop the first bombs and initially said they were sure it hit the target.
That just tells you about the sick mentality that your army has and the degree of disregard of foreign human life.
Oh I know....they are just doing their job. Killing others is part of their job.
February 15, 2007 10:21 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 15, 2007 10:21
Noah:
We just want the US government to STOP KILLING PEOPLE.
Stop this wanton murder of foreigner people.
Part of mainstream American culture worships the army. There is an excessive "respect" for the army in America even though this is the same organization that drops bombs on cities where people live. Why is killing others even if they are your enemy something "patriotic", "honorable", etc?
It is uncivilized and inhumane.
We do not wish for the US to decline economically, we just want the US government to stop killing people.
Stop waging wars for god's sake. Stop it.
Your government killed over 2 million human beings in Vietnam, wasn't that enough blood for your war-criminals? When will the US government stop this madness? when another 2 million Iraqis die?
Please have your troops leave the middle east, please leave it. Take your troops away. If your army is a defense force (as it should be), then have them stationed around your borders not in every other country on this planet.
What is it that your government want for us?
We have become helpless.
February 15, 2007 10:13 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 15, 2007 10:13
"...the U.S. is hardly perfect..." The art of understating...
February 15, 2007 6:53 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 15, 2007 06:53
it is U.S. actions that have brought havoc to Iraq
------------
Very specifically, which actions would those be? Did the U.S. bomb the U.N. mission to Iraq, killing Sergio De Melo?
I think we can safely say that the rejectionist attitudes that act embodied played a significant part in bring Iraq to the impasse it is in today.
not Iran that used nuclear bombs to wipe out Hiroshima and Nagasaki
------------
I agree with the reader above that this is just propaganda.
There is little reason to doubt that were Iran allied against Japan that they would not have developed and used a nuclear weapon - many think that they are developing one today, even, despite a world that seems dead set against nuclear proliferation.
Besides, Iran's current Supreme Leader blesses his conventional missiles as "divine weapons" and we know about the children that were sent to clear the minefields, so don't let's pretend about Iran's wartime ethics, o.k.?
U.S. danger also comes from its total disregard of international law and human rights conventions.
-------
LOL. This is the kind of overstatement that makes it plain what seems to be a common narrative from the region: saying a lot of things that you don't really believe, because you then don't have to publically face up to a lot of other 'hard truths'.
I hope Americans are getting used to this regional form of double-speak, by now, and take it in stride.
More to the point, the U.S. is hardly perfect, but if the U.S. were truly in *total* disregard, neither you or I would be writing here nor would anyone be talking openly about anti-Americanism.
February 15, 2007 6:14 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 15, 2007 06:14
you know what, the minute the us leaves your damn middle east and you muslims, arabs and persians start killing each other off faster than you are doing now, you will be crying on the news about how sorry we are to leave ya like that, but right now ya don't want us there??? come on you people love war and drama, if it was'nt for that what excusae would ya have for the way your society is. personally i like having electricity, paved roads , freedom, and the comforty of knowing that i will not be killed by someone based on my religous beliefs(sunnis/shias)!!! crazy people!!!
February 15, 2007 5:04 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 15, 2007 05:04
Oh please.
You're right that America, under Bush, has used its military might unjustly and aggressively in Iraq.
But that hardly makes the world a dictatorship under American rule. The U.S. has very little say over the decisions of most countries - especially after Iraq.
If what you want to see is a U.S. decline, well, you're currently getting your wish. The U.S. is declining in military, economic, diplomatic, and cultural power. Hooray, right?
After we evil, aggressive, dictatorial Americans are gone, your country Qatar will be a puppet state of either Saudi Arabia or Iran. Be careful what you wish for.
February 15, 2007 2:36 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 15, 2007 02:36
Thanks Lamis for this flagrant and misleading analysis. It is disgraceful presentation of the regional affairs, mixed with fraudulent exhibition of international issues. I am amazed by the durability of some Arab journalists and intellectuals to maintain the wrong approach and insistence on deluding the reader.
Many Arab journalists pay lip service to figures such as Saddam and his alikes despite hate and fear they radiate on their citizens and neighbors. You are writing in favor of the Iranian regime and shedding hot tears on Iraq, but do you really think that life under theocrats is bearable in Iran, or can you imagine life in Iraq under Saddam? Why then comparing the appearances of Bush with the tapes of az-Zawahiri? You personally know the difference and no one is buying what you are saying here. Every body knows that the battle in Iraq and Afghanistan is raging between modernity and darkness. Lamis, would you live the rest of your life in Iran, or under Taliban in Afghanistan, or in monastery over a hell behind a church?
What you have written here is a good example to be given to students of journalism to avoid it.
February 15, 2007 12:58 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 15, 2007 00:58
Anonymous:
First of all, Al-Jazeera is not Fox News. It's not CNN either. It is NOTHING like any mainstream US media outlet, liberal or conservative alike.
Al-Jazeera does not defend "the troops" (the people doing the actual killing) the way Fox News and CNN does.
Al-Jazeera is not afraid of offending ANY army of killers of ANY government, Arab or not, democratic or authoritarian. On CNN and FOX alike, any criticism of military strategy must be preceded with "I support the troops, I respect the military, I am grateful to the military, etc".
Al-Jazeera is THE ONLY media outlet that shows what bombs from the "greatest country in the world" do to innocent human beings, to children, to women. to elderly. This is what the shameless CNN or FOXNEWS wouldn't show.
Over 650,000 Iraqis were slaughtered in the last 4 years. Millions have been made refugees. Millions have been maimed and injured. Over 3000 US soldiers were killed in order to serve an imperialist government that has no regard for other people's lives.
How on earth is Iran a danger to the world when the US government spends more money on the military than all of the world?
The US government is one of the most violent governments out there. The scary thing is that it is supported by a democracy. This is a polished form of Nazism. This mass slaughter of foreigners can go on and on with impunity.
Our planet needs to send an SOS to any other beings out there in order to save us from this government.
PLEASE HELP US.
February 15, 2007 12:07 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 15, 2007 00:07
Here again, it is a matter of perspective. From the point of view of the Arab Street, or that portion of it that gets its news from Al Jazeera ... the intellectual equivalent of our Fox junk network, sure America is a bigger threat.
Iran is viewed as a champion of the Islamic (since Iran is not Arab) cause.
February 14, 2007 10:22 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 14, 2007 22:22
While I cannot argue against the effect of the invasion of Iraq in the stability of that region the other "points" have many faults and inconsistencies.
"Iran that used nuclear bombs to wipe out Hiroshima and Nagasaki." is nothing more than propaganda rhetoric. Let's look at this objectively. In WWII, it was Japan not the United States that attacked first. Japan was given an option to surrender but their insane military commanders refused to give up. And even refused to after the bombing of of Nagasake and Hiroshima until the intercedence of the emperor.
Don't play the sympathy card for a nation that started the war and slaughtered and raped tens of thousands in China.
While its true that the United States has its own agenda when it comes to oil so do all nations.
The United States has been one of the most if not the most gracious and nonviolent superpowers since the beginning of written history. Look at the Roman or the Greek empire under Alexander and how they dealt with not only their enemies but the nations that objected to their rule. The United States has compromised and diplomatted countless of times with countries like Iran, Russia and North Korea.
If you are to make such an accusation, make sure you respond with evidence and not heresay.
February 14, 2007 10:09 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 14, 2007 22:09
I hope you are never taken hostage, or caught not wearing your face covering, or riding in a car with a man who is not your husband. It might change your mind about whom is dangerous, or right or wrong, but I still hope it doesn't happen to you.
February 14, 2007 9:02 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 14, 2007 21:02
We are superpower. We can do anything we wanted.
February 14, 2007 6:14 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 14, 2007 18:14