They were moving to courts martial.
It's very, very far from clear that anything would have been done about the situation without the leaked photos, since months had passed without anything happening. Plus, the initial reaction was a " few bad apples" PR campaign. Of course, the "few bad apples" PR cam....
When folk are extremely embarrassed they say dumb stuff.
When folk see their opposition embarrassed they say dumb stuff.
When media see perverse sex they have multiple orgasms and say dumb stuff over and over again.
There is a tendency to exaggerate. Hmmm....
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So, what's actually happening in Iraq, as opposed to media fantasies?
Outside of the hot spots, a fair bit of confusion and fair mindedness, I should think. This is entertaining:
DOCTORING THE TRUTH
Don't believe everything you read about the war in Iraq. Our Baghdad medical team has a surprisingly different diagnosis.
This week's column is brought to you direct from Baghdad by Ali Fadhil, a paediatrician, and his brothers Mohammed and Omar, both dentists. Read more from the trio at iraqthemodel.com.
How is life in Iraq? Depends on your point of view. A bunch of us were talking the other night; one friend, very angry, said: "Did you see what happened today in Antar Square? The Americans came, blocked the street and attacked the toy store. They were smashing kid's bicycles!" Another friend, listening carefully, asked: "Was there a big loading truck with them?" Yes, came the reply. The second friend then told his version: it turned out he'd been at the store buying a bike for his son. "I was in the middle of tough bargaining with the shopkeeper when two Humvees and a truck stopped out front. One of the Humvees waved all the cars to pass. Soldiers from the second Humvee said they wanted to buy some bicycles. It didn't take a long time, as they didn't bargain, and they bought a huge number of bicycles and filled the truck with them and left." Whom to believe? Here are two good friends and both were on the scene. As for me, it didn't take a lot of effort to figure out who was closer to the truth. Those bikes have probably been delivered to a local school. ? Mohammed
Something you may not have read about: in May, Iraqi soldiers saved the life of a US marine shot during patrols in Al Karmah, near Fallujah. Private Imad Abid Zeid Jassim dragged the injured marine away from gunfire then attacked the enemy. We (and you) don't read any good news like this. All we get are pictures of idiots throwing bricks at burnt cars. Why don't the media cover such stories? The attitude of the major media no longer surprises me. It only disgusts me. ? Omar
Like all Iraqis, I hate Americans. Of course. Here is why:
l The Americans, although they brought us freedom, acted without authorisation from the United Nations. Arrogant Americans
l The Americans, although they rescued us from Saddam Hussein, defied the will of many nations. Insular Americans.
l The Americans won't leave Iraq, say newspaper reports. Get out, Americans!
l Other newspaper reports say the Americans want to withdraw from Iraq as soon as possible after throwing us into chaos. Stay here, Americans!
l The Americans spent tens of billions of dollars to liberate Iraq and help it become a prosperous democratic nation. Don't Americans care more about fixing their own problems? Crazy Americans.
l The Americans started this whole war because of oil. That is why fuel costs are at record high levels in the US and is cheaper than water in Iraq. Selfish Americans.
l The Americans are not using the necessary force to keep Iraq safe and secured. Lazy Americans! The Americans are also using excessive force in Iraq while dealing with the security problems. Brutal Americans!
l The Americans support the Israeli terrorist government instead of the good peaceful people of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Says it all. Violent Americans. ? Ali
I was working in a village north of Basra a few weeks ago when news broke of the attack, apparently by Americans, on the Imam Ali shrine. I thought to myself: "That's it. Tomorrow there will be an uprising that will involve all the southern 'governates', and I'll be trapped here alone." I couldn't sleep that night, as I was preparing plan B and plan C to find my way back to Baghdad (I assumed the roads would be blocked when the uprising began). But the next morning kids were walking to school in the regular numbers I see every day, there were many cars in the street, and everything seemed normal. When I got to my clinic, I asked my assistant, Abu Hasan, a local man, about this strange peace. What did he think of the American attack? Abu looked shocked: "Dr Omar, this was a very naive try from Muqtada al-Sadr to drag us into his war. We all know that his fellow thieves are responsible for the attack, we know where he positioned his guns and we know where the Americans were. It can't be anyone but Muqtada." Here I got really confused. No uprising? No civil war? The Americans didn't attack the shrine? Then I realised, because I'd spent several earlier months outside of Iraq, that I'd begun to believe the media. ? Omar
Tim Blair will return next week.
bulletin.ninemsn.com.au.
I suspect the confusion is even greater outside Iraq.
The bloggers are interesting in direct proportion to the degree they get out and about.
I find also both the secular and Shia discussion boards are interesting.
The US enterprise in Iraq seems to be coming off better than the opposition to it wants to admit and not as well as those in favour of it sometimes assert.
Pretty fuzzy, hey?
The short term problem for Iraq is obviously public security.
The long term problem is the corruption habits left over from the degenerate feudal Ottoman tax farm Hussein inherited.
Tribal leaders can help with this problem by insisting on universal application of law as the Constitution is negotiated - that is, to move from unequal application of pain (disadvantage,)as under Hussein, to equal application of pain (disadvantage) - there are indications this may happen. It was significant that when the Shiite jurists were trying to work Sadr out of their neighborhood, a meeting of just about all the tribal leaders in Southern Iraq were demanding he give himself up to the courts to answer to charges of Khoi's murder -"the law must apply to everyone," they said. No free ride for clergy. It didn't happen, but the last chapter in this story is far from over.
Ignatieff is right. Successful outcomes in Iraq are up to Iraqis.
George Bush is right. The alternative to tyranny, which breeds terrorism, is democracy. There has never, ever, been another alternative.
The US effort in Iraq has not been horrible and it's not been great, it's been mediocre.
Mediocre will probably turn out to be good enough.
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Random thought.
If I were the new Iraqi leadership, I'd try and bring the first set of elections back to September or October this year. It would deprive the terrorists of any legitimacy they might have, deprive them of planning space, rush them into even more rash behaviour, make it possible to kill even more of them, and turn the population actively against them. |
