crap about iraq nobody cares about
...my son is a bit left, but he has been in Iraq for over a year now and swears that the situation is not good at all. He sent me an article with the following precursor:
... i asked him, "Really? are you sure this is a non-biased and a realistic view of how it is there? and can i publish this?" He replied:
hey dad,
i was looking for a good article about how things are here that matched up with some of the things i see. there's alot of hyped up writings about how bad things are doing than (not nearly as much lying garbage about how things are getting better i imagine) this one i thought is nice and to the point, free of sensational hooplah and last but not least: accurate. i doubt they report much in the states about how things really are doing so this is like a quick overview for you to read while your bored at work. something about bush's latest speech outlining our planning in Iraq just really irked me. so many blatant lies it's just ridiculous. enjoy.
... i asked him, "Really? are you sure this is a non-biased and a realistic view of how it is there? and can i publish this?" He replied:
sure and yes.
so much of this rings true like you wouldn't believe. especially when dealing with the contract world and seeing all the private companies that are out here using indian, pakistani, philipinno, and central american labor. and the term 'haji' is something i've used every day all the time without even thinking of how it's completely racist. i think every guy here uses that term well before iraqi or 'LN' local national, the PC term. after reading this i can see all these reflections of what it's talking about in the big picture in my every day little picture. it really opened my eyes.
...who am i to argue since he's there and i'm here?
44 Comments:
it's funny how some of the statistics in that article are the same ones the dems are throwing around to counter bush's latest speeches. more than 50% unemployment, still less electricity and clean water then pre-invasion ect.
i have asked my son since to find an article that he can agree is truthful, but portrays the GOOD side of what's going on there in Iraq... he has yet to respond.
we'll see.
Brandon? got one?
Brandon's reply came via email:
*************************
NO!
i will not concede that this is skewed to a negative
view of Americans being in Iraq. i honestly don't
believe that this is a point of view issue. our
involment in the middle east from the get go is all
negative. I watch fox news and cnn every day. i see
everyday what all of the positive views are. and
albeit cnn is lightyears more sane and realistic it's
still skewed.
nothing good. NOTHING.
why don't YOU tell me what you think could be GOOD
about this WAR? because i'm stumped. even obvious
stuff like the visual appeal around buildings and
gardens in baghdad are incredibly worse off. nothings
being taken care of everythings worse off and falling
apart.
**************************
http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/
This guy is an Iraqi blogger so he offers some interesting perspectives. Seems sort of hopeful(ish). Things aren't great, but better than they were, etc. He's got a lot about the second round of elections. Also a lot of pics on the sight.
Also some good links to other Iraqi blogs on the right-hand side.
For a contractor's viewpoint, this guy seems fairly biased against the war, but offers up some interesting insights.
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/11/29/8156/7183
He's got some tidbits at the end about which groups love us, which ones hate us, etc. I'm sure it's not anything either of you don't know, but it is a helpful reminder that it all depends on who you ask.
For me, personally, I have a hard time figuring out which side is right. From one side I hear how it all sucks and everything is shit and they had it better before we came. From the other side I hear how it's sooo much better now and we're winning the war and there are elections, etc. And also this (both sides of the argument) seems to be from many people who are actually over there. If the one side says the other side is TOTALLY LYING AND IGNORANT, I have a hard time buying the credibility of that perspective (i.e. this seems to be almost conspiracy-minded in that EVERYONE who doesn't agree with the Iraq-is-fucked perspective is actually part of a massive cover-up or completely blind or everyone that says things are sort of screwed is TREASONOUS and against the U.S.).
Why can't it be both? Why can't some things be shitty and some things be good? I don't know that I expected everything to be hunky dory and for us to be outta there by now. Did anyone else? I don't even remember this as being something that was sold to us even though I keep hearing how Bush lied about WMDs and then lied about how easy it was going to be. I just remember him saying how hard it was going to be. But that could be me.
Here's a long(ish) quote of a Joe Lieberman quote from Iraq the Model:
This is 4 days old but I have just come across it and I find it interesting.
Senator Lieberman says “America can't abandon 27 million Iraqis to 10,000 terrorists”. And I'm taking a long quote here.
(Hat tip: Timmer).
BEGIN LIEBERMAN QUOTE:
I have just returned from my fourth trip to Iraq in the past 17 months and can report real progress there. More work needs to be done, of course, but the Iraqi people are in reach of a watershed transformation from the primitive, killing tyranny of Saddam to modern, self-governing, self-securing nationhood--unless the great American military that has given them and us this unexpected opportunity is prematurely withdrawn.
Progress is visible and practical. In the Kurdish North, there is continuing security and growing prosperity. The primarily Shiite South remains largely free of terrorism, receives much more electric power and other public services than it did under Saddam, and is experiencing greater economic activity. The Sunni triangle, geographically defined by Baghdad to the east, Tikrit to the north and Ramadi to the west, is where most of the terrorist enemy attacks occur. And yet here, too, there is progress.
There are many more cars on the streets, satellite television dishes on the roofs, and literally millions more cell phones in Iraqi hands than before. All of that says the Iraqi economy is growing. And Sunni candidates are actively campaigning for seats in the National Assembly. People are working their way toward a functioning society and economy in the midst of a very brutal, inhumane, sustained terrorist war against the civilian population and the Iraqi and American military there to protect it.
It is a war between 27 million and 10,000; 27 million Iraqis who want to live lives of freedom, opportunity and prosperity and roughly 10,000 terrorists who are either Saddam revanchists, Iraqi Islamic extremists or al Qaeda foreign fighters who know their wretched causes will be set back if Iraq becomes free and modern. The terrorists are intent on stopping this by instigating a civil war to produce the chaos that will allow Iraq to replace Afghanistan as the base for their fanatical war-making. We are fighting on the side of the 27 million because the outcome of this war is critically important to the security and freedom of America.
If the terrorists win, they will be emboldened to strike us directly again and to further undermine the growing stability and progress in the Middle East, which has long been a major American national and economic security priority.
END LIEBERMAN QUOTE
The above statements do not sound new to me, why? Because we have been saying the same things over and over again in this blog for the past two years and I don’t know why it took so much time from some politicians to start recognizing these facts.
Anyway, I’m glad they finally did!
...thanks for the added insights from the bloggers in Iraq and Lieberman...
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