tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6940841.post116475131534844974..comments2024-02-02T07:41:55.155-05:00Comments on The Headpiece for the Staff of Ra: Terminally In IraqMosBenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14396378353702882073noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6940841.post-1164866277552609872006-11-30T00:57:00.000-05:002006-11-30T00:57:00.000-05:00That's pretty much how I feel @ Rob. They're not 2...That's pretty much how I feel @ Rob. They're not 2 year olds, they were screwed up to begin with and they should be able to fuckin handle it themselves at this point. <BR/><BR/>Yeah there are innocent civilians in there but most of them aren't. I know several people who've been there including my husband, not people you'd ever see in an interview on tv saying how we're doing such an important job and we need to stay blah blah. I suspect they know a bit more about what's going on there than the average person who knows Iraq only from news articles and interviews with soldiers handpicked bc they support Bush. <BR/><BR/>The most common statement and complaint I hear from them? That most of them AREN'T innocent. That 90% of the people in the cities they were working in weren't 'poor civilians' standing by. And they'd flat out show their hate for them, whether by ied or screaming at them patrolling/their stryker/humvee. And that ranges from men to women to children. Yes, it's sad, but even children. They came across kids pointing ak's at their faces saying anti-american things.<BR/><BR/>I'm supposed to believe the majority of them are innocent when that's what my husband tells me and he was actually there? He has no reason to lie about it. We need to just let go of their hands and let them figure it out themselves cuz we've given them plenty of time and plenty of lives that weren't worth the hell hole they're turning their own country into. <BR/><BR/>MandaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6940841.post-1164855014854354552006-11-29T21:50:00.000-05:002006-11-29T21:50:00.000-05:00I want to focus on this point in particular: I ju...I want to focus on this point in particular: <BR/><BR/><EM>I just don't buy the "you broke it, you bought it" approach. These people aren't our allies. As long as they keep blowing up Marines, they are our enemies. It seems to me that the best way to hurt our enemies is to get out of there and let them hurt themselves.</EM><BR/><BR/>Iraq is a factional mess. Even the basic divisions of Sunni/Shiite/Kurd are endlessly complicated by subdivisions that are anti-American, pro-American, anti-other Iraqi groups, neutral towards other Iraqi groups, and opportunistic fundamentalist Muslims who just want to cause trouble to make the US look bad. Obviously, in such a situation, trying to divide everyone into clear and distinct categories labelled `good freedom fighters', `evil insurgents', and `innocent civilians' is completely impossible. <BR/><BR/>During the Cold War, US policy was to make these classifications, no matter how stupid, and give the `good freedom fighters' lots and lots of weapons and ammunition, so that they and the `evil insurgents' (who usually received similar support from the Soviet Union, being the `good revolutions' fighting the `bourgeois running dogs') could kill each other and the `innocent civilians' as much as possible. Millions of people died. <BR/><BR/>It is not, however, any better to simply classify everyone as `evil insurgents' and let them all go hang. <EM>Whether we were responsible for starting it or not, whether `they' are trying to kill our soldiers or not</EM>, the situation of the people of Iraq is intolerable, and we have a moral imperative to do everything in our power to fix it. Eliminating suffering and injustice is always everyone's responsibility. <BR/><BR/>Continued at Terminus.Noumenahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02442204504120141558noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6940841.post-1164824691097763302006-11-29T13:24:00.000-05:002006-11-29T13:24:00.000-05:00The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk ab...The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club.<BR/><BR/>Prepare for a bit of rambling:<BR/><BR/>I'm not sure why we're morally obligated to stay in a country that before our ill-conceived invasion was artificially held together by a human-rights-impaired psychopath. I don't know what our goal was in invading (no one knows, even our current administration). But it seems like the goal was more or less to remove that human-rights-impaired psychopath and let the chips fall where they may. Let the Iraqis put it back together and try to help them form a democratic gov't. Ok, that was really dumb. But that's what our Gov't did. We thought we'd give them a blank slate. Well, instead we find out that they've got a bunch of religious and culturally driven groups who have no interest in playing nice with each other. So why do we have an obligation to stay? We didn't break their society, it was already broken. We just pulled back the veil to show the horrors - that none of these people like each other very much. Why can't we fix this problem by training their police and military, then sending them money? If we were serious, all we really need to do is take those who want to train out of the country (so they don't get blown up as seems to happen all too frequently), then arm them and send them back in. So it'll be a police state for a while. So what? What is it now? I just don't buy the "you broke it, you bought it" approach. These people aren't our allies. As long as they keep blowing up Marines, they are our enemies. It seems to me that the best way to hurt our enemies is to get out of there and let them hurt themselves. We have no plan, no objective there. Without that, there's no moral imperative to stand in the middle of people intent on killing each other, even if we put the guns in their hands. I don't care if we removed their authority figure. They need to get their own gov't on track. If they refuse to do this and are intent on remaining a dysfunctional free-for-all, so be it. If they want to pull it together they will.Robhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10057899719435955704noreply@blogger.com