Well, by golly, I've been fisked by Mathew in the comments section of my We're Gonna Fail in Iraq post. Ironies abound. He takes my sis' neighbor to task for saying that someone else had to write the op-ed because no way Arabs could write that well. He then makes fun of my sis neighbor's sentence construction. Matthew, it just so happens that my sis' neighbor is Chinese and English is his second language. I think he writes very well. And, as I pointed out, one of the writers lives in Dawsonville Georgia and I suspect he has an excellent command of the language. But let's address some of your other points.
Just like Americans will use any pathetic excuse to kill Muslims in the Middle East.
First off, we are not told by our religious leaders to kill Muslims. The Muslims, on the other hand, are told by their religious leaders to kill Jews. Check out Little Green Footballs when he posts excerpts from sermons at Friday prayers. As for using any excuse to kill Muslims? What a crock of shit.
Iran, in violation of international law, took 52 American diplomats hostage for 444 days. That was a pretty good reason to kill some Muslims. We didn't.
Back when Israel chased the Palestinians into Beirut in the 80's, it was the United States that called the Jews off and put Marines in to protect the Palestinians and let them escape. Hezbollah thanked us by blowing up the Marine barracks. I thought we should have gone into the Bekaa Valley and killed us a few Muslims. We didn't.
After the first WTC bombing we didn't go into the Middle East and kill us some Muslims. After the Khobar Towers bombing we didn't kill us any Muslims. After the embassy bombings we didn't kill us any Muslims. After the USS Cole we didn't kill us any Muslims. It wasn't until 9/11 that we said that enough was enough. We have been very restrained. And lest you forget, it was the Kuwaitis who invited us in, and the precious United Nations, that backed the first Gulf War.
Remember the Americans have been heavily involved in what goes on in the Arab world for the past 50 yrs. It is now impossible for any American to look at the Middle East without taking partial responsibility for the problems. That's what you get for having the CIA meddle in other people's business, you cannot claim innocence from the resulting problems.
GMAFB! What have the Arabs done with all their oil money. The rulers build palaces and live high while the ordinary people are ignored. Why haven't the Arabs done anything about the 'Palestinian problem'? Why do they leave the Palestinians in the squalor of the refugee camps? So they can piss off the Arab street and use the United States and Israel as scapegoats for their failures. If it weren't for the oil, the Arabs and the Iranians would be third world pissant countries. Wait a minute! Even with the oil, they are third world pissant countries. Nice try Matthew. Arab culture was a failure even before the creation of Israel and before the United States was involved in the Middle East.
Case in point, Reagan's man in the middle east Saddam Hussein. First we have Reagan arming Saddam and vetoing a bill that would put sanctions on Iraq for the gassing of the kurds, then we have Bush (another Repulican president) saying 15 years later Saddam has to be punished for the same incident.
You've been reading too much Robert Fisk. Reagan did arm Saddam Hussein but that was when he was fighting Iran. And, the gassing of the Kurds (BTW Kurds should be capitalized.) was deplorable. So was what Saddam did to the Shi'ites. We should have overthrown Saddam during Gulf War I, but it was the precious United Nations, and the Arabs who stopped us. When the Shi'ites in the south revolted we did nothing and watched as Saddam slaughtered them. That was a mistake. We are not making that mistake this time.
Are you suprised the people of Iraq don't want to "liberated" by a country with a schizophrenic foreign policy? Can the Repulicans find any consistency in where they stand? Someone should tell Bush that arriving 15 years late for a genocide doesn't gain you anyone's respect, in fact it makes your motives look very suspicious.
I will grant you the schizophrenic foreign policy, but that's what you get in a democracy. And remember, in that 15 years, we had 8 years of Bill Clinton. And, due to the other Arab nations in the coalition, we didn't overthrow Saddam back in Gulf War I when we should have. We are rectifying that mistake now. And maybe you should stop watching al-Jazerera and reading al-Guardian. As soon as Saddam's thugs leave a town, the people are very happy to see us.
Democracy is destined for failure in the middle east because it's being implemented in a violent imperialist way. It doesn't matter how good the democracy is at it's core, if you have to kill the people of iraq to implement it they will interpret it as another in a long line of attempts to control their their oil potential.
If democracy fails in the Middle East it will be because Arabs are incapable of it. Do you remember WWII. It seems to me we implemented democracy in Japan in a 'violent imperialistic way'. And it seems to be working in Japan. And as for imperialistic, show me the American Empire. We always pack up and go home.
The dictionary definition of democracy says "the commmon people, considered as the primary source of political power" & "The principles of social equality and respect for the individual within a community."
Something that we do not see in the Arab world in the way that women are treated as chattel. Check out some of our women like Jessica Lynch.
Is this what we are demonstrating to the common people of iraq right now when we bomb them? Can we say we consider the common people of iraq as the source of their own political power when we don't even give them the basic choice to say "no thanks" to a violent implementation of a so called democracy?
Iraq should be capitalized, Matthew. The common people in Iraq, under Saddam Hussein had no choice. As we always do, we will rebuild the country, turn the gummint over to the Iraqi people, and leave. I defy you to find any country in the history of this planet that after winning wars, rebuilt the countries they defeated and went home. We have and we will.
America was built by the English Empire, making it fall into the category of "countries that used to have "empire" attached to them."
So, because we were once part of the Engish Empire, that makes us an imperialist power? Huh? And, once again, show me the American Empire.
America wants Iraq for the oil, France wants Iraq for the oil, and Russia wants Iraq for the oil. What's the difference? France and Russia do business, America kills civilians in B-52 bombing raids.
It's all about oil!!!! If all we were interested in was oil, it would be far easier to conquer Canada, Mexico, or Venezuela. Why go all the way to Iraq? Matthew this is WWIV (WWIII was the Cold War). To root out terrorism, we need to defeat the countries that sponsor terrorism. And when all the facts are in, we will find out that American bombs killed fewer Iraqis that Saddam Hussein. If we were really interested in killing civilians why aren't we carpet bombing Baghdad? We have soldiers being killed because they don't want to harm civilians as proven by the two car bombings. Saddam's thugs are using our humanity against us.
But why am I not surprised that Matthew is so deluded? He has a link to a Robert Fisk website 'documenting' all the Iraqi civilains harmed by the 'indiscriminate' Anglo-American bombing.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know. Matthew is a troll and he is obviously an ardent disciple of Robert Fisk. With any luck, he can go to Iraq and get the shit kicked out of him by some of Saddam's thugs and like his idol Fisk, he can say he deserved it.
And, by golly, he would.