Iraqi Blogger: Situation "Spiralling out of Control"

[Hoosier-Daddy]

Don't forget Ted Kennedy and John Kerry. Our politicians speaking of Vietnam emboldens the insurgents to make it so.

[Rams82]

"For the love of all that is reason, would all of you tired old pig faters kindly give it a rest? There isn't a person on earth who hasn't already heard it a thousand times, and it was stupid the first time. This is not kindergarten. Shouting "nyah nyah" won't help either."

Burying muslims wrapped in pigskin has been effective in past wars.. When people talk about it they aren't joking.

[Rams82]

Just before World War I, General 'Blackjack' Pershing was stationed in the Philippines, where he was ordered to put down an Islamic insurgency movement.

Pershings troops captured fifty terrorists and had them tied to posts for execution.

Pershing ordered his men to slaughter two pigs in front of the now horrified terrorists. The soldiers soaked their bullets in pigs blood in full view of the fifty condemned terrorists.

Using the pig-soaked bullets, they executed forty-nine of them by firing squad. They dug a big hole, dumped in the bodies of the terrorists, and covered them in pig blood, entrails, etc., and covered over the grave.

Pershing let the fiftieth terrorist go. There wasn't another Islamic terrorist incident for forty-two years.

[ASA Vet]

http://www.snopes.com/rumors/pershing.htm

[boris]

How to fix it:

[boris]

Let's fill a Super-scooper aircraft with pigs' blood and dump it on the Kaaba in Mecca.

[Yardstick]

That he gives this much consideration shows promise.

Agreed. This blogger is trying to see things as they are. Kudos to him.

[tentmaker]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/15_03_04_iraqsurvey.pdf

[ArmstedFragg]

Zeyad, a normally pro-coalition Iraqi dentist in Baghdad

Actually, Zeyad's sort of "middle of the road". Not unlike many in "the Iraqi street", he has a tendency to unquestioningly believe any anti-American rumors that come his way. He was the source of much of the teeth-knashing about the alleged "American soldiers drown Iraqis" incident a few months back. Compare his prior post (somewhere around the 5th) with his later correction on that same day to get a feel for how much weight to give to his comments. So I wouldn't consider his viewpoint typical of the pro-coalition group. If you're looking for that, the better source is probably the "road of a nation" blog.

[Lion in Winter]

This blog is crap.

[JasonC]

It is not "using their religion against them". It is kindergarten silliness. They don't give a damn about pig fat, they want blood and they will have it, or we will have theirs. It is the most absurd misreading of human motivations and the state of their minds imaginable. We'll give them the cooties, yeah, that will stop a war between whole civilizations in which millions have already died, just like that. It is a stupid idea, already. Give it a freaking rest.

[randita]

The current upheaval is being planned, incited and financed by Syrians and Iranis (and their Iraqi sympathizers) who see the handwriting on the wall for them if democracy in Iraq succeeds. This was anticipated and expected and will likely get worse as the June deadline for Iraqi self government approaches.

Democracy in Iraq will change the whole Middle East power structure and must succeed if the War in Terror is to be successful. The stakes are very high. The future of Western civilization and freedom as we know it depends on it. Thank goodness Bush discerns this and is staying the course.

[JasonC]

As soon as we've given the council people a chance to see that Al-Jaz is lying as usual, and put the blame back on the terrorists, and let some non-combatants out of the area - yes of course, send in the Marines again and finish the job.

[JasonC]

And surely, it wasn't the summary executions, it was the pig. You people are positively superstitious. They aren't half as superstitious. Hell, the ones in Fallujah aren't even religious, they worship torture not Allah. Get a grip.

[Jorge]

The Iraqis won't fight for their freedom - the past week has shown that.

They might remember when the US encouraged them to fight against Saddam, and then left them hanging without any support and Saddam in turn massacred thousands of them.

I think a lot of them are afraid to stand up to the radicals, thinking we might pull out if it gets too bad, and they will all be killed in revenge.
Just a possibility.

[Joe Hadenuf]

I don't know if our Iraqi friends know that there were many dark periods in our road to liberty -- many times when things seemed to be "spiralling out of control," or worse.

That very nice sounding but it's a terrible analogy.

The people we were fighting in the Revolutionary, and civil war for example were very much like each other, basically civilized, educated for the day, but had basic differences about being independent, who was going to be in charge or in control. Was it brutal, yes, but it was very different. Both side to some extent could generally reason, and both sides did not consist of murdering, blood thirsty fanatics.

These people in the Mid East are not like either side in the civil war, or those of England that did not want us to be independent.

We are dealing with fanatically religious, medieval minds, right from the middle ages. These people walk into a restaurants full of innocent families and blow themselves and everyone up. And they do this routinely. Their battle plan is to just kill as many people as possible, innocent lives mean nothing to them. That's why they are called terrorist.

[lainde]

bttt

[Doc On The Bay]

The Words of Thomas Paine--once again--Bring "Tears to my Eyes."

I FEAR That our "Contemporaries" are TOO COARSE to understand the Meaning of Mr Paine's Words.

GOD HELP US--I FEAR; WE Fear--that Our "Citizens" have become SO IGNORANT that they can NO LONGER Understand the Value of our "Citizenship."

Despite the "CESS" Heaped upon us, "American CITIZENSHIP" is the "GOLD STANDARD!!"

Outside of "Canadian, British, Irish, Scottish" Visa's; there are NO accepted "visas!"

Despite "PC," there is NO WAY that "English-Speaking Cultures" can EVER TRUST other Cultures--especially "Islamic Cultures!!"

Islam has a LONG History of LYING to Those who would Trust It.

"Islam" has a LONG History of LYING to "Infidels," because It Believes that it (Islam) has NO OBLIGATION to tell "The Truth" to "Infidels."

[68skylark]

Well I agree that historical analogies only go so far. Analogies shouldn't be overextended to other situations.

And it's true that the bad guys in Iraq (and elsewhere in the middle east) seem to be very bad. But there were a lot of atrocities in our Revolutionary War also -- it wasn't tea and crumpets. There were plenty of examples of civilians (even women and children) killed or tortured to death in horrible ways. So let's not pat ourselves on the back too much.

I meant to suggest to the good people in Iraq that this is not the time to despair, but rather to take heart and beat the bad guys. It's a good lesson for them. And maybe more importantly, it's a lesson for us -- a lesson we should keep in mind about evil and optimism.