Bob's Links and Rants

Welcome to my rants page! You can contact me by e-mail: bob@goodsells.net. Blog roll. Site feed.

Monday, November 17, 2003

Unspeakably stupid, callous, evil, criminal...
That's our appointed president:
Returning Sunday to the White House from Camp David, Bush told reporters "the loss of life is sad" and that he had "spent some time in prayer for our servicemen and women who are in harm's way.

"The sacrifices that our folks are making in Iraq will be in our nation's interest in the short-term and the long-term," he said. "It's best to defeat the terrorists in Iraq so we don't have to defeat them here."
-- CNN

I'm sorry, but the hypocrisy is too much. In the '80's, the Reagan administration, including several current Bush administration criminals, supported the mujahadeen in Afghanistan. Many of them, including Osama bin Laden, were in fact foreigners to Afghanistan. They attacked the Soviet invaders of that country, including shooting down helicopters. The Reaganites called them "freedom fighters." Now, Iraqis attacking helicopters belonging to the American invaders are termed "terrorists." And while the adminstration tries to blame the resistance on "foreign terrorists" (who could be more foreign in Iraq than Americans?), their actions and statements suggest that they know that's a lie, at least for the most part:

Strikes in the town of Ad Dwar, north of Tikrit, destroyed several buildings, including houses of individuals believed to be involved in the shooting down of a U.S. helicopter on November 7. Also targeted by U.S artillery was an abandoned summer palace belonging to Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, an official in the deposed regime who is No. 6 on the list of 55 most wanted Iraqis.

A military source said the offensive is designed "to let the Iraqis know that the attacks on the coalition will not be tolerated."


My guess is that the people who have houses in Tikrit are probably Iraqis, and that if you're sending a message to Iraqis it's because you think they're involved.

These brutal retributions and building demolitions are almost sure to have the same result as they've had in Israel--by attacking people defending their country and calling them terrorists, you pretty much guarantee that you're going to be hit by real terrorists. Let's replace our own idiot version of Sharon before the bombs start going off with regularity here.