Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : DON'T START THE WAR -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (24946)	6/24/2003 6:02:13 PM
From: Raymond Duray	Respond to of 25898

Hawk, I think you highlighted the wrong section. This seems to be closer to reality: "I like Americans ... but the army is the occupier," she said during a break from her English studies at the University of Baghdad. "We watch your movies, and we don't know that American men can know how to respect Arab women." Indeed, Fatin's story sounds like a scandal to many of her Iraqi peers. They may not abide by Sharia in Iraq, but the attitudes aren't far different. Lusting after a good looking GI isn't a very bright idea for a woman in a culture that despises being occupied. I fully expect we'll be hearing about unfortunate complications about nine months from now... -Ray

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (24946)	6/24/2003 8:25:33 PM
From: willcousa	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25898

We seem to find that most of those who are still fighting us are for the most part not even Iraqis but foreign mercenaries - much like the arabs who terrorized Afghanis. Not only was Sadaam an awful person but he had to rely on foreign hired guns to maintain his rule.

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (24946)	6/25/2003 12:33:41 AM
From: Raymond Duray	Respond to of 25898

A Conservative Blogger Sees the Light Hawkmoon, Most conservatives, even those who supported the war back when they felt the President was being straight with them are now beginning to have serious questions about the failure of leadership this nation is facing. Here's a poignant tale of why our Iraq oil theft is going to turn into a quagmire. No one with any sense believes we can get away with this grand larceny. Only a handful believe that we'll still find the WMDs. Bush has been totally discredited. Keep your eyes on the British press over the next couple of day. Tony Bliar is about to be filleted and skewered by the House of Commons committee on investigations. He deserves to be tarred and feathered, as does the Shrub. ******* Here's a pathetic story about a pathetic scheme concocted by a pathetic pResident, written by a real conservative. Not one of these criminal neo-cons. reese.king-online.com By Charley Reese A Sad Story According to an Iraqi witness, last week an American soldier at a propane tank got into an argument with an Iraqi woman, took her propane tank away from her and tossed it on the ground, and gave her a hard shove. An Iraqi man driving by saw this, stopped his car, got out and walked back to the two American soldiers there, shot them both with a pistol and then left in his car. He killed one and wounded the second. If the Iraqi witness is telling the truth, this was not a drive-by shooting, as the American military described it. Nor was it an organized attack by a supporter of Saddam Hussein. It appears to be just an Iraqi man who got ticked off when he saw an Iraqi woman being abused by a foreign soldier. This is both sad and revealing. It's sad because these young American soldiers are not trained to occupy a foreign country. Their morale is low. The temperature is hot. And we can well imagine a young American losing his temper when some lady is screaming at him in a foreign language. What he did should not have caused his death. On the other hand, it is revealing to understand that ordinary Iraqis are getting angry at the American occupation. A sense of honor is highly important in the Arab world, and this young man must have thought that he was honor-bound to avenge the affront of a fellow citizen and a woman by a foreigner. The American administration in Baghdad is trying to depict all attacks on Americans as the work of remnants of hard-core supporters of Saddam Hussein. The administration has begun to repeat the story, first floated by an Iraqi exile leader, that Saddam is offering a bounty for people to kill Americans. I doubt that is true. Some of the attacks are certainly by Saddam supporters, but we will be making a big mistake if we deny that our occupation by itself is provoking some of these attacks. The lot of an occupier is not an easy one. First of all, he is a foreigner who conquered the country. This will breed some resentment even among people who hated Saddam Hussein. Second, he is torn between the need for his own security and the need to win over the people. Third, practically everything the Iraqis are demanding is not in the power of the individual soldier to give them. A GI can't help it if the big shots in the palace headquarters are dragging their feet, but it's the GI, not the big shots, who is exposed to the Iraqi people. Every time our soldiers fire into a crowd, every time they kick down a door in the middle of the night and start jerking people around, they will breed bitter resentment. Some of our soldiers recently killed four young Iraqis who were just firing into the air to celebrate a wedding. It's a custom in that part of the world. T.E. Lawrence called them joy-shots. It's also a custom in that part of the world that every wrong must be avenged. But our soldiers aren't given courses in Arab culture, and they are trained to shoot first and ask questions later. Any man who intended to come home in one piece would have to adopt the same practice. And that's the tragedy of it all. The people on both sides are doing what they believe they have to do, and that is leading inexorably to a greater conflict.** Several thoughtful Iraqis have warned us that the longer we stay, the greater the potential for trouble. That's no doubt true. The Bush administration did a poor job of planning for the end of the war. Unless we get lucky, we are very likely to lose the peace. reese.king-online.com