Will nobody in the USA acknowledge its war guilt?
Post-invasion iraq, US issues - - Posted on July, 16 at 5:40 pm by Ken L
Both McCain and Obama delivered major speeches on foreign policy yesterday which have been discussed at length on other blogs and I won’t waste time repeating things that have already been said. McCain of course is campaigning on a policy of endless war:
“I know how to win wars. I know how to win wars,” McCain told the audience at a town hall in Albuquerque. “And if I’m elected President, I will turn around the war in Afghanistan, just as we have turned around the war in Iraq, with a comprehensive strategy for victory, I know how to do that.”
Yeah good on yer dipshit.
One thing struck me about Obama’s speech. He restated his belief that the invasion of Iraq was wrong and went on to list all the things that could have been done instead. He went on:
Instead, we have lost thousands of American lives, spent nearly a trillion dollars, alienated allies and neglected emerging threats - all in the cause of fighting a war for well over five years in a country that had absolutely nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks.
The staggering omission, of course, is any mention of the human disaster inflicted on the Iraqi people; the hundreds of thousands of deaths, the millions of injured and homeless and the destruction of the nation’s social and physical infrastructure. Even US critics of the invasion seem incapable of understanding, or at least of acknowledging, the catastrophe that their country unleashed upon the people of Iraq. It’s as if the people most affected by the exercise have been carefully air-brushed out of the whole analysis, just as their voices are seldom if ever heard in earnest Western discussions about what should be done now. The Iraqis might just as well be orphaned children, hushed and hidden in a secret room, while the grown-ups solemnly argue about what should be done with them.
This is typical of the attitudes of critics of the invasion and occupation in the USA. The reasons given why the war was a mistake invariably centre on American self-interest, never on the interests of those we attacked and whose lives we screwed.
If people treated me that way I’d be quite keen to see a few of them blown up. It’s beyond me why so few people are capable of understanding the effect of US behaviour in the Middle East from the viewpoint of ordinary everyday Arabs and Iranians.
Posted in Post-invasion iraq, US issues |
July 16th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
“fighting a war for well over five years in a country that had absolutely nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks.”
This is very significant. The first time anyone from the manic US has acknowledged this established and inescapable truth.
For info, of the nineteen hijackers on Sept 11th, 15 came from Saudi Arabia and four from Egypt. Not one emanated from Iraq or Afghanistan.
And America lost thousands of lives and wasted trillions of dollars attacking the two WRONG countries. Translates into idiocy to me.
July 16th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
“It’s beyond me why so few people are capable of understanding the effect of US behaviour in the Middle East from the viewpoint of ordinary everyday Arabs and Iranians.”
True. And what’s more, I’m so happy that someone is acknowledging that Iranians AREN’T Arabs. There seems to be a willingness just to point ‘over there’ to ‘the Middle East’ and refer ‘Arabs’. This is a large part of the problem because basically of these countries - Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Syria, Israel - are, within their borders, home to many different ethnic groups. This has long been the cause for much of the domestic and regional instability, yet no one seems to want to acknowledge it.
July 16th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
“The reasons given why the war was a mistake invariably centre on American self-interest, never on the interests of those we attacked and whose lives we screwed.”
No, they don’t, as you well know.
But it’s the strongest argument a US politician can make if he or she wants to be elected.
Quietly signing onto an international war crimes commission can come later.
July 16th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
I believe the current exchange rate is 1 American= 12,294.7 Iraqis. More if the American is white.
July 17th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
This is worth watching:
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=1888
Speakin’ my lingo.
At least some Americans get it. More everyday.
July 26th, 2008 at 2:40 am
VERY GOOD
July 26th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
اموزش
Huh? What?
It looks foreign!!!
AAAAAARRRRGGGHHH!
Someone all the National Security Hotline, quick!
July 26th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Doesn’t look foreign to me or Phill :).
July 26th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Good Grief! It keeps getting worse! Multiculturalism gone mad. Clearly it’s some sort of leftist conspiracy. The country is falling apart I tells ya…
Call Today Tonight!
July 26th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Call today tonight?, Mars , you ok mate, look have a beer, settle down, call today tomorrow yesterday and have a long weekend, were here to help..
July 26th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Just a reminder of why the Busheviks generally feel no guilt:
http://empireburlesquenow.blogspot.com/2005/03/dark-passage-pnacs-blueprint-for.html
(Sunday, March 27, 2005
Dark Passage: PNAC’s Blueprint for Empire
Original version published Sept. 20, 2002 in the Moscow Times. This is the expanded version from the book, Empire Burlesque.)
I’m sure many of us could add to this assessment of the Bushevik plans & motivations.
July 26th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Lang Mack et al
Sorry to be pedantic (is that even the CORRECT word), but it’s “mars” not “Mars”. Not to be mistaken for the god of war…
BTW. Expect a call from Piers Akerman about your bilingual, metrosexual permissiveness.
It’s unstraaaayn.
July 26th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
nasking…
Sadly it’s nit just the current mob of thugs and creeps who “generally feel no guilt”. It goes back much further.
Thirty years ago it was Zbigniew Brzezinski who got the ball rolling in Afghanistan (before the Soviet invasion). He wanted to give the Russians their own Vietnam. The welfare of the Afghan people was NOT a consideration. Turning their country into a battlefield was NOT a problem as long as the Russian could be drawn in to be killed by Islamic fighters.
What we have seen in Iraq was entirely predictable. So predictable that there’s a commonly used term for it… Collateral damage. It’s part-and-parcel of modern warfare. It’s one of the main reasons why wars of aggression are against international law.
Would William Calley have been driven to do what he did if the US had let the Vietnamese decide their own future?
How far back do we go?
What about the “Philippine Insurrection”. More than a century ago? Insurrection because the ungrateful, primitive Filipinos were insufficiently grateful at being “liberated” from Spanish rule. They defied the American occupation and wanted to handle their own affairs. the welfare of the indig Filipino “gugus” or “niggers” wasn’t a prime concern. What the hell were armed American rednecks doing on the other side of the planet when they’d barely finished their OWN civil war?
Apparently the “white man’s burden” does not extend to preserving non-white lives.
July 26th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
mars, yer right, sorry mate, I feel whelmed, yet gruntled that nask (aka Nask) hasn’t gone crook on me also, shit it may be in alphabetise that I am lowered to my standard, OK, ok, no more capitols around here with me, lang mack. :).
(Apart from KenL, Tim, Lyn, Phill Sean and others who apparently become quite pedant and aloof if not addressed in the manner that(only here) they are of custom to accept.)
and mars, being a pedant is a good quality, lonely but satisfying (just stirring) :).
July 26th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
A “good quality”?
Probably more a “distinguishing attribute” actually. No. Wait, that’s not right…
July 27th, 2008 at 4:03 am
“I feel whelmed, yet gruntled that nask (aka Nask) hasn’t gone crook on me also, shit it may be in alphabetise that I am lowered to my standard”
you are lights in the sky…the figure projecting hope in the torchlight of a concerned moment on the land as a shegoat/cow/sheep is struggling w/ what seemed a lonely, hard birth…you are LM the hands that deliver the comfort under the moon…provide reassurance to that Mother of another species.
Call me nas, Nas, Nask, Bear, Griffin, Nick…in the scheme of things it makes little difference…and i’m unwilling to criticise the need to define, the need to ensure the traits of the name…by those who have fought long & hard for CHANGE. The chat between you & mars is but mates debating & laughing & respecting under the LIGHT of a better day.
See you by the pool…to draw upon…gaze into the depths…& remark…difference of coloured light.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUQUPYXhdSE
(Joy Wants Eternity - From Embrace To Embrace)