At the gates of Mosul and back to Kirkuk

Hi Christopher,

I’m a brazilian journalist and I’d like to congratulate you for this great job. But in my country a poll showed that 90% are against the war and 70% are against America. For us, this kind os invasion (not release) is a precedent for US to interfere in any country. We’re afraid that your country want to occupy our forests, cause “we need to protect the rain forest from that evil people”. US has to worry only with its own questions. Americans are turning the biggests intruders in whole history.

I hope you have luck in this job, but this is not my desire for America’s military. I don’t agree with Saddam style, but G.W. Bush is a stupid man, with stupids partners.

AMERICANS, DON’T BE STUPID ALSO. NOBODY LIVES ALONE, EVEN IF YOU ARE A SUPERPOWER, WITH SUPERMONEY.

Chris,

You rock! Keep up the good work!

Karen

Memphis, TN

70% against the war in America? It’s more like 80% who SUPPORT the war. Arabs are shocked at what happened yesterday…they believe everything the Iraqi Information Minister said. And now they are all upset because they can’t believe what happened. Even Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud looked upset at a news conference. The Arabs can’t believe that the Iraqis are kissing Americans and welcoming them like kings. Anyway, Turkey is planning to send some “observors” to Kirkuk and elsewhere. The Turks don’t like what they are seeing.

Evando,

Brazil is destroying a fine job of destroying it’s own forests to increase grazing land, farming land and etc. I, as an American, have donated a good bit of money to help your local groups stop the deforestation.

Perhaps you should be more concerned with your own police death squads that kill off the homeless (mostly boys) in Rio so they do not disrupt the large tourist cash inflow (much of which is from America).

Those that live in glass houses….

America is the single most charitable country

Chris,

Have you had much feedback from the Kurds regarding their leeriness of Turkey?

Turkey seems to be a loose cannon regarding Northern Iraq… Whether it be for the oil rich land or the “concern” over Kurdish independence. Turkey would simply need the excuse of a couple of Kurdish terrorist strikes to occupy northern Iraq for “national defense” reasons and eventually assimilate it into Turkey- Similar to what Israel is doing in Gaza/West Bank..

The most charitable what!? We will never forget what the stupid superpowers had done all over the world. Americans are not a police for the global village. See the world, wake up yourself and get out from your tiny modernist villages.

Please don’t shout each other down. I’m American. I don’t begin to believe that we haven’t done some horrible things all over the world, and some of the good things may have been for the wrong reason, but nothing is ever all bad or all good, and we have had some good intentions.

Remember the story of the good Samaritan. It wasn’t the fallen traveler’s own countrymen who helped him out, it was a stranger, one from a despised enemy country, who helped him out. Countries are people. If you meet the people you will find most are good, most are just like you. It is often a few evil ones who give all a bad name, not just Americans, all over. Thanks, peace,

Dave

Dear Von Eric,

But, it don’t means that your politicians are the kings of charity. For example, the landmines in Afghanistan were sent by US to help the fighting against former soviet army. As you note, US made the installation of wells and irrigation systems in third world countries, the same countries that suffers with american agricultural subsidies. The evil is a boomerang!!

.

evando wrote:

“For us, this kind os invasion (not release) is a precedent for US to interfere in any country.”

While I’m opposed to the invasion myself, it is unfortunately not a precedent. President Bush is simply considering the interventionist policies of his predecesors (despite a campaign promise to the contrary).

Besides, the US provides less foreign aid (0.1% of GNP; some European countries give as much as 1%) than any other Western country. Unless, of course, you count its enormous military budget as “foreign aid.”

Evando,

I believe the grain from the American subsidies typically goes out of the country as food-aid…

I know we assisted Afghanistan during the soviet occupation but I am not sure the land mines originated in the U.S., never the less, it would not have been our responsibility to remove them..

Vaara, Regarding the GNP argument, I am not aware of the specifics, but you bring up a different subject, charitable contributions are not the same as foreign aide. and if your countries that have a foreign aide ratio in the 1% range have no military, or have no pacts with foreign countries to provide military protection (ala Japan/ S Korea) then is that really a fair comparison…

And you completely dropped the subject of your hometown death squads that target homeless children…

While I also don’t agree with the invasion-as-liberation war in Iraq, nor do I believe the stated motives, I am thrilled that the Iraqi people will, hopefully have a chance to put their country, and their lives, back together. I am leery of the recently and deliberately stronger rattlings of warnings and accusations towards Iran and Syria that have recently plastered the online media reports, indicating a willingness for the US to attack. Like a Monopoly game…get 3 of the same properties and build a hotel?? Regardless of generous American contributions in the world aid theater, it might start to feel like taking candy from the strange man in the car…dangerous…and who will trust us not to invade their country when the ideologies differ from the American government’s as they cry terrorist threat? I am most concerned with the moves of the Bush administration to curtail American voices in any opposing views to Bush or in protest, the sledge hammering of the constitution all in the name of national security. But, this perhaps is not the forum for this particular argument. However, it is all the more reason to support independent voices and reporting. Rock n roll Chris! Thanks for being the eyes and ears for many of us.

Von Eric,

We both forget the cause of this excellent blogg. But i did not dropp the subject of death squads. It´s impossible to forget it. I compared it with NYPD or LAPD. They make the same thing with black and poor people in your conutry. Besides, the death squads are not a common place. It will be the same thing if I say that America is a place of serial killers that hides in the car to shot people.

Peace for the world!!!

I used to be liberal. Then came the attacks on New York and Washington. That has convinced me that these medieval civilizations must be pacified for the good of all.

Oderint Dum Metuant

I used to be liberal. Then came the attacks on New York and Washington. That has convinced me that these medieval civilizations must be pacified for the good of all.

Oderint Dum Metuant

The movie ran through me

The glamour subdue me

The tabloid untie me

I’m empty please fill me

Mister anchor assure me

That Baghdad is burning

Your voice it is so soothing

That cunning mantra of killing

I need you my witness

To dress this up so bloodless

To numb me and purge me now

Of thoughts of blaming you

Yes the car is our wheelchair

My witness your coughing

Oily silence mocks the legless

Now traveling in coffins

But on the corner

The jury’s sleepless

We found your weakness

And it’s right outside our door

The LAPD and NYPD are death squads? Get a grip.

Dawne and anyone else who didn’t agree with Bush’s reasons for going into Iraq - why not?

WMD are being found. Today a possible underground nuclear facility with possibly weapons grade plutonium was discovered. These are things that inspectors may have found in 20 or 50 or 100 years if they kept up their job as well as they had been doing it. It’s a country the size of California. Take 150 of your friends and try going on a scavenger hunt in California. Now me and my 10,000 friends will move around everything you’re looking for while you’re sleeping. We’ll know when and where you’re going and we’ll deceive you every opportunity we have. How well do you think you’ll do?

Also, no country should be allowed to be run by a man like Hussein. LESS people will suffer and die because of this war than the number of people who would suffer and die in the next ONE YEAR under Hussein’s rule. That is awesome in a way and sick in another. The death because of this war has been sickening. It could have been worse. The joy I have for the Iraqi people right now, on a scale of 1 to 100, is astronomically through the roof. Because of this war millions of people will have a better life. If this war never was about WMD at all, not even a little bit, starting a war to get rid of Hussein was the RIGHT thing to do. Here in America we often take for granted our freedoms. In Iraq they hardly had any. We take for granted a decent income and the ability to go to the store for some microwave popcorn or some Ben & Jerry’s. There in Iraq many starve and get by with next to zilch. Here when some hates the President they can do anything in the streets, say anything about that president, deface pictures of him. There you’d get shot. If you were lucky you’d just get thrown in prison and tortured on a regular basis. No one should have to live a life like that. Iraq is TREMENDOUSLY wealthy. How come so many people live in squallor? Because Hussein didn’t give a crap about them unless they were part of his own Baath party. He used Iraq’s oil money for weapons and palaces. What he did was sick. The world TOGETHER should have not put up with that kind of crap and gotten rid of him years ago. What the U.S. did to supply landmines to the Soviets (other matter) or weapons materials to Hussein is irrelevant. It’s a cop out. It’s history and it’s not reason to say we shouldn’t be helping the innocent Iraqi people now.

What could have happened with weapons made in Iraq could’ve made Sept 11, 2001 look like a mosquito bite. Some people think we should have waited to be attacked again before war. That’s not right. If it was your family that was killed you might agree. Hussein is a terrorist. What’s the greater war we’re in? The War Against Terror to eliminate it as best as possible where it exists. Diplomacy is preferred but sometimes diplomacy fails. Try diplomatically removing a brick wall. You can talk and talk and talk and negotiate until your balls fall off but that brick wall ain’t gonna back down. That’s when you use force. If that brick was has any life in it whatsoever you’ll give it a chance for peace, give it a chance to walk away. But when it doesn’t then it’s time to act and not give that brick wall 12 more years of options to get it’s act together.

Hussein wouldn’t budge. That’s why the sanctions for so long. He royally screwed his people because he cared more for weapons than he did about their welfare. He could actually have turned around things and had sanctions lifted but he just didn’t give a shit.

Sick man. Needed to go. BUH bye, Saddam. People of Iraq - you’re welcome.

Chris I hear no more grumblings about people getting their money’s worth ; ) Keep your head down and your spirits up.. you are much appreciated!

Dawne, a Big Ditto, it made me sick to my stomach (and I actually felt embarrassed) to see the Bush administration try and buy Turkey’s assistance, and it is even more sickening to see old chums of Bush and Cheney lining up to get contracts for work in Iraq,

Evando, the snipers, were not sanctioned by a government agency, the death squads were/are

But you are right, this is way off target.. truce?

Von Eric, thanks for the words.

I only hope “the land of free and home of braves” will not make the mistake to form a new government without Iraqis.

Wehtom, are you black or hispanic??

Denali,

First off, Bush declared this war not congress, direct violation of the Constitution, Bush declared it on the premise that a large cache of WMD were present, the only WMD found (that I am aware of) were some traces of nerve agents in a Kurdish controlled area. You qualified your WMD “find” with the word “potential”. We have all heard of the numerous finds of “potential WMD”- they ALL ended up fizzling.

The fact is, if WMD were present we would be finding them, we control a large percentage of the countryside and the Iraqis have been more than helpful in leading our troops to weapons caches etc. They would also know where the WMD based on intelligence. If they know where Saddam is when in hiding, I’m sure the WMD would not be a problem to locate. Your next argument might be that the Iraqis moved these large stashes of WMD.. It is a good argument until you consider that at the end, even the republican guard was dropping everything to melt into the crowd. They would have dropped the WMD as well.

I agree that it is a good thing that Saddam is gone. Our guys did better than anyone anticipated, and I personally am proud of our military’s strength. But sending our troops across the world under the premise of protecting our national security when there was no realistic threat to our national security is not acceptable. No matter the outcome.

Furthermore, the contracting of firms that have connections to the administration to do cleanup/development work in Iraq is not appropriate at all. If there were no WMD, and there was no threat to the US, it makes you wonder about the motives of the administration.

Von Eric,

First of all, I’d like to beg your perdon for the some hard word. But, I insist, I’m not against american people. If I hated you, i dind’t have learned (poor) English.

I simply don’t agree with that invasion. You have your own point of view e nothing will change it1, like me.

I could perceive you are a good man with a enormous heart.

Let’s pray for peace. And if you want to come to Brazil, please, contact me. My home is your home. I not living in Rio anymore. My place is in Sao Paulo, brazilian biggest city, with 13 million inhabitants. We’re an hour far from the beach. Sao Paulo is not so violent as Rio, but is has all the same troubles of any big city. Our life (far from the beach) is going to restaurants, museums, cinemas and art exhibitions. In my city, 30% of the people speaks English.

You’ll be welcome.

Evando,

I may have to take you up on that offer! And if you are ever in the States you are more than welcome to stop by Pittsburgh, a smallish city of about 2 million… We also live through our restaurants, museums, cinemas and art festivals. About 70% speak Pittsburgh-ese, a local dialect of English :- )

Potential WMD found! There are many reportings of those lately including one a few minutes ago. Marines found a mobile bio lab. Mobile = On wheels. The kind Iraq said they didn’t have. The truck was set up to look like a radar facility but had a false wall inside and bio lab stuff behind that. I don’t think they used it to make Tylenol and with it being mobile inspectors may never have found it.

These potential sites are being investigated and without a doubt more will turn up in the days and weeks to follow. Some chems are being moved to the U.S. for testing. Do you think they will all be false finds because Hussein never had ANY to begin with? No, i don’t believe any Iraqis are moving them around. What I know is we don’t have many people ACTIVELY looking for them yet. Our troops are there to try to find and get rid of resisting forces first, to try to secure the country. It’s a big country and those finds thus far have been stumbled upon or found via info from a humanely treated Iraqi POW or an Iraqi citizen grateful we are there so he’s helping us. WMD is in Iraq. If they’re not I’ll eat my words and I’ll be pissed as hell at the Bush Admin… pleased they took out Hussein but pissed at those lies about WMD. I should say false assumptions since no one can prove they might’ve been lies. I don’t know which but I’m not just going to go spouting “LIES LIES LIES” without any evidence they’re lies. That’s not a proper way to act. Anyway, Plutonium’s possibly there and other weapons Hussein has not accounted for. Remember, this is a man who has openly said he has never even had WMD. Really, Saddam? Never even had them at all? I guess Saddam’s cousin “Chemical Ali” got his name from making Ecstacy. All those people years ago in Halabja Iraq must’ve died from getting SARS. Hussein ain’t no prince. The facts will come out. And when they do, people can take back what they said about Hussein not being a threat. Why’s he a threat? Did I mention it before? Hussein and weapons and al Qaeda = bad things. No, there is no known direct connection to Sept 11. Yes, al Qaeda are terrorists and Hussein qualifies as one as well. Now put 2 and 2 together. Hussein makes weapons. Al Qaeda comes with money in hand.

**Saddam, how are you, you pig?”

—“Good, and you? And I am no more of a pig than you.”

**”Listen, Saddam, let’s forget the fact that we hate you even though you LOVE us for what we did to the U.S. Sept 11. Nice murals you have of the plane smashing into the WTC. Great art work!”

—“Okay, al Qaeda, what’ve you got to say?”

**”As you may know our previous homeland of Afghanistan is now off limits to us. Those stupid infidel Americans will bomb us if we try to start a new camp there. Can we please start ANOTHER one in your country?”

—“Okay. Is that all?

**”No. We have for you ten million dollars. We know you don’t need it but if you want to build a new palace with gold plated shower heads this money is all yours in exchange for some of your weapons. We plan to take them to Baltimore and unleash them on as many as five different U.S. cities including NYC and Washington, D.C.”

Now what do you think Hussein might say? “NO! These are MY weapons, I’m going to love them and care for them and cuddle in bed with them at night. Mine!” Or maybe Hussein would happily supply them to his fellow terrorists because he knows he cannot use them on anyone except maybe Israel using the long range missiles he has that he lied about.

Bottomline is the world we live in now is a little bit different than a few years ago. The threats are out there and we will not be blindly attacked again and we will not, when possible, allow a man like Hussein to run a country. That is flat out WRONG. Evil MUST be confronted and eliminated. I wouldn’t care if it was Clinton or Gore or Bush or Ross Perot or Pauly Shore launching this war to get rid of Hussein. The fact is he will be gone and there’ll be no more weapons programs in that country. If peace in Iraq drastically fails THEN people can bitch. So what if some American companies will make some money pumping some oil? Do you think the Iraqi people will give a damn as long as they know oil money is no longer going to Saddam alone but instead it is going to the Iraqi people!!?? If some Iraqi families get a mere 5 bucks that’ll be 5 bucks MORE than Hussein ever gave them!!! If, on the other hand, the Bush Admin steals all the oil and leaves the Iraqis high and dry THEN BITCH. I certainly will because that would be a travesty. But right now I have faith things will work out. Evil has been eliminated. Now they can work on restoring a decent level of humanity to that country. It might be realistic in some circumstances to have the attitude “That’ll never work, you lying moron, that’ll never work” but what will it accomplish saying that? Well, people didn’t think the U.S. could defeat Hitler. People never thought the telephone or automobile would ever catch on. Is it right to be hopeless? Have faith. If things fail THEN bitch.

strawmen tell no lies.

More “Posible WMD”, until their characterization is definite, there is no argument.. but beyond that… let’s assume that some chemical and biological weapons are present, now let’s think about the threat to the U.S. national security represented by those weapons in Iraq…

Iraq was under extreme scrutiny by the world, it is highly unlikely that they would attempt to produce let alone use chemical or biological weapons while under that type of scrutiny…

The UN weapons inspectors had not completed their inspection and were on their way to concluding the presence of B/C weapons by process of elimination,

Given that the weapons inspectors had not completed their inspection, and no threat to US national security from those weapons existed (at least short term) why would the Bush administration declare a war (again only Congress can declare war) in which the vast majority of personnel and financial investment is US. If he waited a few more weeks or months, the support of additional nations (and troops and money of additional nations) could have been part of the coalition. France’s oil interests, as well as Russia’s lie with the Saddam regime, so they were definitely out from the beginning. But the rest of the world possibly would have been available. So why would the Bush administration rush things. Why would the Bush administration spend $100 billion + , interrupt the lives of hundreds of thousands and risk the lives of tens of thousands to declare a war where no realistic threat existed to U.S. national security? It was in the US’s best interest to delay the war and get additional contributing members in the coalition.

Now lets think about our administration’s background,

Oil and energy,

Already the multi million dollar contract of one company (Halliburton) to extinguish well head fires is under congressional investigation- Cheney was once it’s CEO

If the U.S. had waited for the U.N to act, its share of the Iraqi pie would have been much smaller..

The thing that really gets me, and this is selfish as an American, is that given a few more weeks or months, our number of troops in Iraq could possibly have been halved, if not better, and the number of our youngsters now missing a parent would be halved, the number of our weeping mothers and fathers would be halved. Our administration wanted that bigger piece of the pie.

Also, if the UN had been involved, Iraqi soldiers would have been more likely to give up easily (the old US=Satan thing) which would have precluded much of the horrific suffering the Iraqi people have endured.

how do i find out about contracts for clean up irag.

thank u

Sharon Hankins

how do i find out about contracts for clean up irag.

thank u

Sharon Hankins

“First off, Bush declared this war not congress, direct violation of the Constitution”

Only the President has the power to declare war, according to the Constition. Congress gave the president the power to go to war. I dont even think the preisdent officially declared war, was has only been oficially declared 5 times in US history. The operation in Iraq was just, no matter how much you people want to whine and complain. You have no answers for the problems of the world. People like you were saying:

• There will be a “quagmire” in Iraq - never happened.

• 10,000 US troops would die in Bagdhad less than %1 of all US soldiers deployed died, even less by enemy fire. - never happened

• 100,000 civilians will die - never happened.

• The “Arab street” will uprise in total chaos all over the world - never happened.

• It will incite more terror attacks - never happened

• 1 million bin laden will be “created” - still waiting

• The Iraqi people will fight the US “invaders” til death - more like kiss them to death.

Most of you live in fantasy land and always hope for worst only to prove yourself right. You can;t accept reality even when it smacks you in the face. A brutal dictator is gone, the people of Iraq are free, and there lives can only get better and I know that you all are hoping for the worst - just to be right. You should be ashamed.

So quiet lately. More comment please.

Interesting comments from all.

I am an Iraqi born in the UK, who will not miss Saddam nor his brutal regime, BUT i never supported this war, nor did my relatives back home in Baghdad.

Why? Because evil begets evil.

I was in Baghdad in December 2002 until January 2003. There was water, electricity, and women were able to go wherever they wanted to (the rape stories of Uday are highly overinflated).

Now a new terror reigns over the people of Iraq, not knowing if they will be victims of the next terrorist target, when they venture out of their houses to get food and water. Women are afraid to venture out of their homes in fear of gangs. There are STILL no organised security forces or police to control major parts of Iraq. For all those Americans who tasted the power cut last week, you are tasting an on-going experience of the Iraqi people now in Iraq, limited water, electricity, all in 120 degrees weather…OK so you might say these are basic “teething problems” of post-Saddam Iraq, but with the greatest superpower in the world, supposed to be in charge of this bloody operation, and claiming that they are the “good forces”, or slightly better than Saddam, you will forgive me for adding another black cross to the U.S.’s history of foreign policy.

As for the wave of pro-war Iraqis who campaigned for the removal of Saddam, many have NOT returned to their homeland.

Some are comparing the situation in Iraq to occupied Palestine, with the curfews imposed on Iraqis by Coalition troops.

Now these Iraqis are beginning to realise that the removal of Saddam has changed nothing in Iraq. Iraq needs a lot more “cleansing” than removing an aged tyrant, who although he shattered the fabric of Iraq, is by no means the ONLY tyrant who needs to be hunted by international law.

It is going to take decades before the people of Iraq are healed by a history of betrayal, lies and hypocrisy from the international community and from within Iraq.

A few thousand teenage U.S. marines cannot understand how politically, socially, and religiously sensitive Iraq is at the moment…

It’s a classic case of New World meeting Old World with the former’s arrogance of assuming they know everything because of technology etc.

The “one-size-fits-all liberation” assumed after the war on Afghanistan has bitter consequences for the U.S. and Britain in Iraq, and for Iraq’s future.

Final thought to all those who consider the U.S. to be the charitable light and halo in a dark, uncivilised world…Donald Rumsfeld shook Saddam Hussein’s hand in 1983, remarking that “Iraq has no intentions to cause mischief. We could do with her co-operation in the Middle East region”.

If Saddam had not invaded Kuwait, good old uncle Sam would still be shaking Saddam’s hand…it’s got nothing to do with an oppressed people, gassed Kurds, Iranians, etc.

Please post more comments, I will visit this site again soon.

Interesting blog, keep up the good work!

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