markinore
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Posts posted by markinore
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I regularly purchase things from Iraqi's that I don't need to help them out. Take the time out of my day to try to learn a few words of their language and show them I am interested in who they are. I also routinely wander around looking for those people who could use a little charity and give them some when I find them. I would have no problem killing insurgents and those who try to do harm to the coalition. I don't go out of my way to find trouble, that's not my job. I protect people here, and sometimes it's very boring.
So tell us, GD, is that the strategy for building a democracy in Iraq? Individual acts of kindness and charity and opening the occasional (or not so occasional) can of whoopass for the bad guys?
A columnist this morning referred to the pictures from Abu Ghraib and said that is what empire looks like. That lefty columnist was George Will. When even conservatives like Will and Patrick Buchanan recognize that what the U.S. is doing in Iraq is closely analogous to the empire building of the European powers of the last two centuries, it's time for the rest of America to wake up and acknowledge the obvious. You cannot impose democracy, free markets, and rule of law in a foreign country at gunpoint. You can, however, hurt those same institutions at home.
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Actually, I didn't even call Bush's false statements "lies." I just called them false. I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt regarding some of these; he may have been wrong rather than intentionally deceptive. I never said anything about what liberals said or didn't say.
Are you denying that Bush tried to establish a connection between 9/11 are Iraq? Please clarify. For a citation to the contrary consider this well-known left-wing publication:
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Job Opening
in Spray
"Must have own tools (leash, hoods, digital camera). Ability to piss off most of the civilized world required. Ability to embarrass America desirable."
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You are correct, Martlet, that the Clinton family, Daschle, and other Democratic officials accepted at face value some of the same incorrect intelligence regarding WMD. I don't think you can show that they supported the 9/11-Iraq connection that Bush tried to establish. Nor do I think you can attribute to them the unrealistic expectations for the invasion and occupation that Bush sold to us.
If your point is that Clinton et al. bear some responsibility for creating the false impression that Iraq was a direct threat to this country, your point is well taken. All government officials who did not stand up against the invasion, including Kerry, bear some responsibility. I think we would all agree, however, that Bush made the final decision and bears the greatest blame/credit for what has happened and what will happen in the future.
Our country now has to decide whether to make matters worse but continuing the policies that have already failed so miserably.
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I do find it sick that soldiers could be so unprofessional and stupid, but they were reservists so what do you expect? They're civilian clowns in uniform.
GD, I accept your judgment that the perpetrators of these acts were unprofessional and stupid. I can even accept your implication that a number of reservists were not competent to be there. So why were they there? This whole episode demonstrates how woefully unprepared this country was to fight this war and, more importantly, maintain control of it afterward. We have heard numerous stories of the lack of proper equipment, such as armored vehicles. A woman reservist my friend works with was called up a month ago. As her going away present, her coworkers bought her a bullet proof vest because she was told she could not expect to receive one otherwise.
The fault is not that of the military, but the civilian leadership. Bush, Rumsfeld, et al. wanted to run this war on the cheap. They wanted to do this without a draft (which would have many Americans in a state of near rebellion), so they put an excessive burden on active and reserve personnel.
Regardless of whether you approve of the ostensible purpose of the war and the occupation, you must admit that it is being conducted in an incompetent fashion.
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It only appears I know everything, since you're used to reading OpEd posts based on false information.
TRUE THINGS BUSH TOLD US ABOUT IRAQ
1) Saddam is an asshole.
FALSE THINGS BUSH TOLD US ABOUT IRAQ
1) Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.
2) Saddam tried to buy uranium to make nuclear weapons.
3) Iraq was involved with 9/11.
3) The Iraqis would welcome our troops with open arms.
4) We have enough soldiers to control the country; most of them will be returning when their tour of duty is over.
5) All those who oppose our troops are either foreign terrorists or members of Saddam's Baathist party.
6) After Saddam is overthrown, no Iraqi need fear torture or rape in his prisons.
Anything above you want to "call me on," Martlet?
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'madame' lynndie england says 'you my bitch now.'
lick my boot. pay high gas prices. 'simulate' masturbation.
WOW! That is SO hot!
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With all the problems in Iraq and the world today, do you know what we *really* need to make this country a better, stronger, place? A constitutional amendment against gay marriage! Clearly this is the solution for all the world's problems!!
Well, that plus tax cuts.
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Remember the first law of laundry physics: when the pile of laundry gets big enough, the clothes on the bottom of the pile clean themselves.
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The deer hunting scenes were indeed shot in North Cascades. The town scenes were shot in Mingo Junction and Bellaire, Ohio, where I was living at the time of the filming. Some of my friends and family were in the steel mill scenes. Naturally, we were eager to see the movie when it first came out. We thought the scenes in the mill and in the wedding celebration rang very true to life.
Then the guys go off on their hunting trip, and we expected to see representative views of our own hunting grounds in the Appalachians. Instead, we see these mountain peaks that didn't look anything like Pennsylvania, and we laughed our asses off through the rest of the movie.
We also couldn't believe how DeNiro and the others mispronounced our favorite beer, "Rolling ROCK," with the accent on the "Rock."
It wasn't until years later that I came to appreciate the brilliance of the movie. It's undoubtedly the best Vietnam movie ever.
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http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/West/04/22/coffin.photo.ap/index.html
A woman who took a picture of flag-draped caskets of American soldiers was fired by her employer, a military contractor. They fired her husband, too.
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Nice one Glacier. May I modestly suggest an addition?
Q: So Daddy, what was so bad about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction if they didn't use them on us?
A: Well, they could have sold them to other countries.
Q: You mean like Pakistan did?
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Kerry has the integrity of a dust mop. Yellow lying coward. You want this guy to run the country? Think he's going to save your world? Don't bet on it.
This is what I think makes George Bush so interesting, in a pathological way. As Woodward's forthcoming book makes clear, Bush sincerely believes he is on a mission from God to save the world--even if he has to blow up a lot of it first. He truly believes he can impose democracy and free markets on a society he has never bothered to understand. Even conservatives such as Pat Buchanan refer to this strategy as "democratic imperialism." I can't say I'm nuts about Kerry, but Bush is scary.
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I guess what struck me most about her testimony was how passive and disengaged she seemed to have been prior to 9/11. I hated Kissinger, but can you imagine Henry K saying "I don't recall" or "I wasn't informed" or "We were presented with actionable items but not a plan"? Kissinger, like most national security advisers before and since him, made things happen--sometimes they were bad things, but they tried to do something. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, and the whole lot felt lost without the Soviet Union to fight. The Soviets were someone they could relate to by building missiles and missile defenses. Dealing with an asymmetric enemy required hard work, imagination, and cleverness, qualities that are totally absent in today's White House. Even the fact that Rice received a call praising her performance from Bush while he was in a pickup truck on his ranch is typical of the Bush attitude: "Sure, there are Americans fighting and dying, the enemy is resurgent, and my national security adviser is facing some tough questioning--but I'm on vacation, dammit!"
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27. Crying is permitted when watching the following movies:
"Brian's Song"
One other that I can't think of right now.
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Look, let's all try to just calm down a little and see if we can reach some common ground.
All loss of life IS regrettable.
Saddam WAS a scumbag.
And we should just change the name of the country to IraqNam.
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The committee screwed up when they agreed to let question her for no more than two hours. I guess she had to run because she was scheduled to be on The Best Damn Sports Show Ever (I think that's the only talk show she missed in the last two weeks).
It's an axiom of investigations that if you can keep the testimony to under two hours, they'll never be able to pin you down.
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CascadeClimber: Great wall! Can you give us some construction details? Framing, facing, etc.
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The short and non-nuanced answer is apparently good old fashioned economics - these guys are among the best at what they do, and they can make a lot more money doing it in the private sector.
Maybe I didn't make my question clear. Obviously, the former soldiers working for these companies are making vastly more money than when they were in uniform. My question is why the U.S. government is pursuing this approach. If the individuals actually doing the work are making five or ten times what they make in uniform, and if the companies setting this up are making a big profit, then isn't it far less cost-effective than using the regular military? Are these guys doing things the regular military can't do? Or shouldn't do? And if that is true, is our government responsible for what they do or not? After all, our troops are in Iraq. The contractors are not infiltrating in secret some country that we are not openly at war with. If telenut is still following this, can you explain how our military effort benefits from this strategy?
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Telenut, can you please elaborate for us why it is necessary to use private contractors for military activities? I am having trouble understanding why well-trained individuals who were obviously highly valued members of our armed forces are now performing similar duties through a shadowy intermediary. For anyone who has concerns about our government's conduct in the Middle East, it suggests questionable motives.
Please understand that I ask this question with all due respect for your and your comrades. Although I regret our country's decision to conduct this war, I grieve for all who have made the ultimate sacrifice and for their families.
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First, note that this is a "meta-analysis," in other words, a study of other studies. The investigators did not do the primary research. That does not completely invalidate their conclusions, but does make them subject to greater circumspection. Second, only 6 studies were judged to meet the criteria of the meta-analysis. That is a far smaller number than used in many meta-analyses, such as those that try to examine methods of preventing or treating heart attacks. Third, the populations used in the individual studies may not be relevant to us who climb. Stretching may reduce injuries for some types of athletic activities and not others. These are my concerns as a scientist.
As a climber and as one who HATES to stretch--how can you stop to stretch when you get to the crag and the rock is just waiting for you?--I am comforted by this study.
Finally, however, I must acknowledge that those who continue climbing into middle age seem to be those who spend the time and effort to stretch. Rickey Henderson, who continued to play major league baseball until he was what, 60?, attributed his longevity to an extensive stretching regimen every night before bed.
Illustrative Rumsfeld quote
in Spray
Posted
Another good one:
"As far as I’m concerned, I’d be happy to release them [the so-far unreleased pictures from Abu Ghraib] all to the public and to get it behind us. But at the present time, I don’t know anyone in the legal shop in any element of the government that is recommending that.”
Yeah, right. You want to do it, but the lawyers won't let you.