Picture of the Day - "Progress" in Iraq / Update

My, my, my…..look at the indignation. What’s the matter, did you read the news about the elections in Irak and you got up in a bad mood? Spare me the semantics and your false pretense of not understanding. At least Florin had the decency to acknowledge how isolated and how mild those incidents were, compared to all other wars.
Spare me of your lectures on the sanctity of human life and the “monstrosity” of piling up 20 Iraki terrorists naked (Allah forbid, they were robbed of their dignity), while at the same time you choose to remain inconspicuously silent about the beheadings and disemboweling of truly innocent Iraki or foreign civilians at the hands of Zarkawi-like terrorists, or, as your political ilk likes to call them, “insurgents” or “nationalist fighters”.

So, mon ami, you can continue to scream until you’re blue in the face (in your well-composed but non-native English) about having zero tolerance for torture and violence. When it comes from someone with such hypocritical views on the subject, I just don’t care.

Now on to happier things (well, they’re probably sad news for you, Chandernagore). The Irakis went to the polls in large numbers by any standard, proving those who kept saying “Irakis do not want a democracy” dead wrong.

My, my, my…..look at the indignation. What’s the matter, did you read the news about the elections in Irak and you got up in a bad mood? Spare me the semantics and your false pretense of not understanding. At least Florin had the decency to acknowledge how isolated and how mild those incidents were, compared to all other wars.
Spare me of your lectures on the sanctity of human life and the “monstrosity” of piling up 20 Iraki terrorists naked (Allah forbid, they were robbed of their dignity), while at the same time you choose to remain inconspicuously silent about the beheadings and disemboweling of truly innocent Iraki or foreign civilians at the hands of Zarkawi-like terrorists, or, as your political ilk likes to call them, “insurgents” or “nationalist fighters”.

So, mon ami, you can continue to scream until you’re blue in the face (in your well-composed but non-native English) about having zero tolerance for torture and violence. When it comes from someone with such hypocritical views on the subject, I just don’t care.

Now on to happier things (well, they’re probably sad news for you, Chandernagore). The Irakis went to the polls in large numbers by any standard, proving those who kept saying “Irakis do not want a democracy” dead wrong.

Mister "bad apple theory" tries to justify the unjustifiable.

Yawn.

I'm glad the Irakis went to vote. Wether it will lead somewhere or not, I'm glad for them. Why would I be angered, mister "I don't care the torture" ? Tss...

This is the man who talks about hypocrisy

Keep watching Fox News, Mabadesc. That's the channel for you.

This post has been edited by Chandernagore on January 31, 2005 11:41 pm

Ahem.... you want to talk about hypocrisy, Chandernagore? You just said you were glad the Irakis voted. But on January 14, just two weeks ago, you wrote:

Hmmmm, you sounded so sure of yourself about the "no elections" part. And yet those pesky Irakis didn't listen to you and had the courage and hope that drove them to voting booths in great numbers. Imagine, the nerve!

as chandernagore said , i too am glad that the irakis went to vote. not so sure about what good it will do to them and also not so sure that democracy is good in a place where clans and religious belonging matter far more that a constitution.

And I'm still damn sure. Democracy is just your convenient cover up. You remember why the war was declared, Mabadesc ? Because the Iraki WMD were going to fall on your head within a few minutes. That was the casus belli. Casus belli = reason for war. So something had to replace it otherwise operation "King George II" would have appeared for what it was : an agression war defying most of the principle for which the US went to war 60 years ago.

Democracy has a way of spreading exclusively in the middle of oilfields these days... Lucky muslims.

But watch out the for the long term results. Organizing polls is one thing. Imposing a stable democracy at gunpoint is another (unfortunately)

This post has been edited by Chandernagore on February 01, 2005 09:27 am

The Irakis talk...

George Bush and Tony Blair made heroic speeches on Sunday implying that Iraqis had voted to approve the occupation. [so Mabadesc is really just repeating what he heard on Fox News]. Those who insist that the US is desperate for an exit strategy are misreading its intentions. The facts on the ground, including the construction of massive military bases in Iraq, indicate that the US is digging in to install and back a long-term puppet regime. For this reason, the US-led presence will continue, with all that entails in terms of bloodshed and destruction.

In the run-up to the poll, much of the western media presented it as a high-noon shootout between the terrorist Zarqawi and the Iraqi people, with the occupation forces doing their best to enable the people to defeat the fiendish, one-legged Jordanian murderer. In reality, Zarqawi-style sectarian violence is not only condemned by Iraqis across the political spectrum, including supporters of the resistance, but is widely seen as having had a blind eye turned to it by the occupation authorities. Such attitudes are dismissed by outsiders, but the record of John Negroponte, the US ambassador in Baghdad, of backing terror gangs in central America in the 80s has fuelled these fears, as has Seymour Hirsh's reports on the Pentagon's assassination squads and enthusiasm for the "Salvador option".

An honest analysis of the social and political map of Iraq reveals that Iraqis are increasingly united in their determination to end the occupation. Whether they participated in or boycotted Sunday's exercise, this political bond will soon reassert itself - just as it did in Vietnam - despite tactical differences, and despite the US-led occupation's attempts to dominate Iraqis by inflaming sectarian and ethnic divisions.

Sami Ramadani (political refugee from Saddam Hussein's regime and senior lecturer at London Metropolitan University).

This post has been edited by Chandernagore on February 01, 2005 12:08 pm

Like they have a choice!?!

Good for you, Indrid. Look, what you are saying is true. It is a complex situation, and a country with the ethnic and religious compositions of Irak is a difficult experiment for democracy. Maybe it will work, and maybe it won't.

But I am glad you respected their right to vote. As opposed to others like Chandernagore who were so sure that there would be no vote, etc, etc... Those people just want Irak to fail because of their envy and anger against the US.

Whar are you still sure of? That there were no elections? Just turn on the TV or pick up any paper. It's true, really. Those crazy bastards voted like there was no tomorrow. If they didn't want elections, they sure had a strange way of showing it. Or maybe it never happened, like the Landing on the Moon. You know, the footage was staged.

Yes, Chandernagore. Democracy is just a convenient cover up. One huge cover up.

Two small problems with your quote:

1. You'd have to live on Mars not to have heard that there were elections in Irak and that the turnout was huge. And I didn't know that Bush's and Blair's speeches were only mentioned on Fox News.

2. You may employ tactics of repeating what you hear (remember when you kept shouting about how the US was Hussein's main weapons dealer in the '80's, and then Valachus came up with a chart that made you shut up pretty quickly? ). Well, it's your right, but just because you behave in a certain way doesn't mean everybody else does. So don't assume...
I don't usually get the news from TV, and when I do I flip through different channels.

This post has been edited by mabadesc on February 01, 2005 07:36 pm

But that's no ordinary Iraqi It's Sami Ramadani, "political refugee from Saddam Hussein's regime and senior lecturer at London Metropolitan University". Here are some excerpts from his various press articles popping up at a simple yahoo.com "sami ramadani" search string:

So he's a "political refugee" alright. As for his poor students... May Allah have mercy on their souls!

Two more quotes from the dude and I'm through wasting my time with his empty slogans:

Sami Ramadani = raving nutcase.

This post has been edited by valachus on February 01, 2005 10:24 pm

Organizing elections is one thing. Wether 1% or 100 % go to vote you can always trumpet some level of success and quickly make a carrier landing speech. That's the fastest part of the job. It hasn't yet turned Irak into a democratic country. That will take much longer. I hope it will succeed for that is the only good that can possibly come out of this huge disaster but indicators are not good. If you have to maintain 160.000 troops to support the political regime you just installed at gunpoint, you're no better off than the Soviets in Afghanistan.

I did answer but the moderator closed that particular trend
However you have surely not missed the picture. Pictures usually don't lie.

I didn't know that only pro democrats can be political refugees. Perhaps you will deny that he is Iraki so that you may identify him with the 100% foreign insurgents ?

Shows the extent of your grasp of the situation and deep desire for understanding of what will likely happen.

I didn't know that only pro democrats can be political refugees. Perhaps you will deny that he is Iraki so that you may identify him with the 100% foreign insurgents ?

Shows the extent of your grasp of the situation and deep desire for understanding of what will likely happen.

Of course, it's absolutely unheard of secrets agents of various regimes to go abroad as "political refugees". How silly of me to think of such a thing!
Because even if this guy Sami Ramadani "political refugee and senior university lecturer" sounds exactly like Mohamed al-Sahaf aka "Baghdad Bob" the famous Iraqi information ministry, it still is an utter nonsense to believe that Ramadani could be a Baathist in disguise.

Ah. Baathists not Irakis either.

All resitance is foreign. Understood.

In other news: Iraqi insurgents strike back, capture American plastic action figure and kill several others

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi militants claimed in a Web statement Tuesday to have taken an American soldier hostage and threatened to behead him in 72 hours unless the Americans release Iraqi prisoners. The U.S. military said it was investigating, but the claim’s authenticity could not be immediately confirmed.

The posting, on a Web site that frequently carried militants’ statements, included a photo of what that statement said was an American soldier, wearing desert fatigues and seated on a concrete floor with his hands tied behind his back. The figure in the photo appeared stiff and expressionless, and the photo’s authenticity could not be confirmed.

A gun barrel was pointed at his head, and behind him on the wall is a black banner emblazoned with the Islamic profession of faith, "There is no god but God and Muhammad is His prophet."

A statement posted with the picture suggested the group was holding other soldiers.

"Our mujahadeen heroes of Iraq's Jihadi Battalion were able to capture American military man John Adam after killing a number of his comrades and capturing the rest," said the statement, signed by the "Mujahedeen Brigades."

Staff Sgt. Nick Minecci of the U.S. military's press office in Baghdad told The Associated Press that "no units have reported anyone missing".

CNN military analyst James Marks, a retired Army general, questioned its authenticity.

He told CNN in a phone interview that the flak jacket in the picture had a kind of trim along the edges that he'd never seen before, and that the open-legged pants, as opposed to gathered hems, struck him as odd.

He also questioned what appeared to be camouflage paint on the face. "We have not used camo paint with conventional forces serving in Iraq," Marks said.

Liam Cusack, the marketing coordinator for Dragon Models USA, said the figure pictured on the Web site is believed to be "Special Ops Cody," a military action figure the company manufactured in late 2003.

"It pretty much looks exactly like the same person," he said. Cusack said he was contacted Tuesday morning by one of his retailers, who informed him that the alleged hostage appeared to be one of the company's action figures.






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