Sorry, but you’re the extreme and crazy one if you think it’s inappropriate to respond to a thread about “the loss of Iraq”, with a whole series of first-hand accounts from Iraqis that suggest, “hmm, maybe we haven’t quite lost this war yet”.
Sheesh, I’m not saying the war in Iraq was a success (and there have definitely been some serious costs to it), but I do think contrary conclusions are ridiculously premature.
It’s absolutely absurd that you think “it’s all over”, and the contrary views of the people most affected are irrelevant – or that it’s “astonishing” that we should actually consider them in judging the outcome of the war. Has your anger made you so close-minded that you won’t even listen to contrary viewpoints from the people able to give actual, primary evidence of what’s happening there?
Desslock, you’re quibbling over semantics. The POINT is that blog entries from a statistically insignificant sample of Iraqis whose situation affords internet access and the time/energy needed to update a blog are very far from the “only credible way to study a historical event.” They can offer a distinct and interesting perspective, sure, but any extrapolation beyond that to an assertion of the war’s greater success isn’t even remotely within the realm of logic and is almost an act of pure faith.
If a riot breaks out in downtown LA, polling a couple folks in Hollywood sure as hell won’t tell me the full story, and may not even offer anything close to a complete picture of the entire situation. Credible, my pansy liberal ass.
If you were an apologist neocon right wing libertarian, you would realize that quibbling over semantics is all one can really do when discussing the fiasco in Iraq.
Isn’t this an accurate summary of how major media sources have covered the occupation and reconstruction efforts? I see an awful lot of stones and an awful lot of glass houses all around.
Isn’t this an accurate summary of how major media sources have covered the occupation and reconstruction efforts? I see an awful lot of stones and an awful lot of glass houses all around.[/quote]
No, it’s an analogy. If you wanted to make a claim like that, you would have to back it up with some facts.
For example, did you want to refute any of the arugments put forth in the article from the original post?
Linoleum, if there’s plenty of bad news to cover – and there’s certainly a wealth of it in Iraq – I’d say the situation is far from hunky-dory. It’s not like the newsmonkeys are having to make stuff up, here.
I don’t think the US media running more sepia-toned stories about rebuilding schools would bring dead Iraqis and dead US soldiers back, or stop the bombings.
If you don’t think highly educated wealthy professionals are representative of the “man on the street”, Jason, well, then I’d really like to know WHY YOU HATE AMERICA.
Danielle Pletka, the vice president of foreign- and defense-policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said other issues are more important than the provision of services such as electricity.
“It’s far better to live in the dark than it is to run the risk that your mother, father, brother, sister, husband or wife would be taken away never to be seen again,” Pletka said.
Pletka pointed to a Pentagon slide presentation that detailed increases and improvement in telephone subscribers, water service, food, health care and schools in Iraq.
For sure there are problems, but these things don’t happen overnight, you know.
“It’s far better to live in the dark than it is to run the risk that your mother, father, brother, sister, husband or wife would be taken away never to be seen again,” Pletka said.
I wonder if he’s talking about the inmates who have died at Abu Ghraib prison?
Thanks for posting pictures of two people celebrating and a blog by Iraqis on the occupation payroll.
Come to think of it, the blogger list on there is hilarious:
A 34 year-old dentist living in southwest Iraq.
A 33 year-old doctor living in Baghdad.
A 23 year-old dentist living in Baghdad.
Representative stories!
Those darn medical professionals, always going off half-cocked about things. So irrational as a group you know?
I mean, if they aren’t representative, it should be easy to find blogs by people who are thoroughly pissed at the handover, and who publicly call for the re-instatement of Saddam. That would be interesting to see.
