Posted on 01/19/2006 9:35:40 AM PST by Jonah Johansen
Target Practice Washington’s enthusiasm for remote-control assassination is partly about boys with toys. But after disasters like the failed attempt on Zawahiri, we need to take a closer look at the tactic......
......Some accounts suggest the Germans gave no help at all, others that their main purpose was to make sure certain locations like hospitals, embassies and shelters were not hit. If so, and if they helped avoid another disaster like the 1999 bombing of China’s embassy in Belgrade, or an atrocity like the 1991 obliteration of a bomb shelter in Baghdad, then they did the United States a great service. They may not have saved us from ourselves in this thankless war, but they might have kept us from murdering even more Iraqi civilians
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Looks like his an expert at carping about the US of A.
Christopher Dickey's father wrote Deliverance.
... and the son wrote "Summer of Deliverance" about Daddy ...
Customer Reviews
"never meet the sons of your heroes", November 2, 2005
Reviewer: lightnin_hopkins (Birmingham, Al) - See all my reviews
I think Deliverance is an excellent book, and when I saw this memoir, I couldn't resist giving it the once-over. Much like James Dickey's poetry, which was both introspective and irreverent, this memoir is a mixed bag. Christopher entwines the more well-written of his father's poems with his own memories to create stirring, bittersweet passages. But while Summer of Deliverance begins promisingly, it gradually slips into a low, persistent hum of anger until even poignant recollections seem tedious and shallow. At forty-odd years, Christopher projects his insecurities and anger onto others. He longs to be the battered child he never was: James spoils his son in return for "molding his head," and when daddy's life grows too volatile, Christopher bails out.
The anecdotes about the making of Deliverance pick up the middle of the book. To my chagrin Christopher makes little mention of why Dickey was banned from the set, alluding to some clashes between the big "D" and Burt Reynolds. According to Christopher, James Dickey lost it when his artistic vision was compromised and distorted by Hollywood. Bite the hand that feeds you? Will do.
James Dickey is portrayed as so unwittingly cruel, and so consumed by a god-complex, the reader can't help but feel cheated by Christopher's emphasis on his halcyon days and his trivial upsets that all teenagers experience. These memoirs of the specious Dickey and his social-climbing son, no doubt meant to milk Christopher's association with his famous pop and the bestseller Deliverance (cough *title* cough), are okay. Some of the more revealing passages work, and some may find them memorable, but in the end C. Dickey just isn`t the storyteller D. Dickey was. If you are considering this book, try Philip Roth's Patrimony instead, a superior memoir with a humor and insight that this one can't match.
>>
That was no Iraqi "bomb shelter"!
<<
Remember the "Milk Factory" and "Orphanage" ruses that CNN bit on hard? We hit military bunkers and Sadaam sent out "rescuers" in jump suits with "Milk Factory" and "Orphanage" hastily stenciled on the back -- in English.
CNN never admitted they had been used.
.
Three words:
Clinton.
Tomahawks.
Afghanistan.
How easily they forget when it doesn't suit their cause.
[Ted also downplayed the Sept 11 attacks saying "they could have been a lot worse".]
And they will be if the "Pacifism As A Policy" fools in our government get their way.
I found a few more on this incident.
---Bunker Was Legitimate Target
Allied Leaders Claim Bombed Bunker Was Legitimate Military Target
HUNDREDS OF IRAQIS KILLED IN SHELTER
Hundreds of women and children were killed or wounded when American bombers blasted a packed air raid shelter in Baghdad yesterday. The heavy civilian toll, the greatest in a single incident in the war, stunned the world and led to renewed questioning of the bombing campaign.
Allied leaders moved swiftly to defend the attack, saying that the bunker was a military command and control center giving instructions directly to Iraqi forces. But the huge loss of life and the graphic pictures of the victims may have a devastating impact on public opinion.
Source: Martin Fletcher, "Allied Leaders Claim Bombed Bunker Was Legitimate Military Target," The (London) Times, February 14, 1991, p. 1.
--- The White House Response
Fitzwater's Statement on Bombing of Building in Iraq
Washington, Feb. 13 (Reuters)--Following is a transcript of a statement today by Martin Fitzwater, the White House spokesman, as provided by News Transcripts, Inc.:
Last night coalition forces bombed a military command-and-control center in Baghdad that, according to press reports, resulted in a number of civilian casualties.
The bunker that was attacked last night was a military target, a command-and-control center that fed instructions directly to the Iraqi war machine, painted and camouflaged to avoid detection, and well documented as a military target. We have been systematically attacking these targets since the war began. We don't know why civilians were at this location. But we do know that Saddam Hussein does not share our value in the sanctity of life. Indeed, he, time and again, has shown a willingness to sacrifice civilian lives and property that further his war aims.
Civilian hostages were moved in November and December to military sites for use as human shields. P.O.W.'s reportedly also have been placed at military sites.
Used with permission from Reuters. Adapted from The New York Times, February 14, 1991.
---- Reports from Manilla
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein apparently hopes by emphasizing causalities "to drive a wedge between the United States and the Arab world and Europe, and encourage the U.S. peace movement," said Jim Philips, a Middle East analyst with the Heritage Foundation.
Source: Manilla Bulletin, February 14, 1991, p. B-22
Iraqi officials claim 500 civilians were killed when bombs from a US Stealth jet struck a bomb shelter in a middle-class Baghdad neighborhood before dawn Wednesday.
With distraught relatives looking on, crews spent hours pulling charred bodies--mostly women and children from the rubble. Terry Gander, who edits Jane's NBC Protection Equipment annual: "The idea is that they are intended to be military shelters, but the upper area is let out to the locals," and downstairs is where military officials are set up.
Source: Adapted from Manilla Bulletin, February 15, 1991.
--- Pentagon Remarks
Washington, Feb. 13 (Reuters)--Excerpts from Pentagon Remarks on Iraqi Concrete Building's Destruction.
Navy Captain David Herrington: Why do we know this is a command-and-control facility? We know a great deal about this facility. For example, we know that in the early 80's during the Iran-Iraq War, this facility was constructed. But the key point is, it was converted to a military command-and-control facility in the late 1980's. As a part of that conversion, it was taken over by the military. There was clear and definite association with command-and-control equipment. That command-and-control equipment that was there was actually hardened--it was hardened to protect itself against both normal bombing attacks that would take place plus it was even hardened to the point that it would withstand a nuclear attack. In other words, it had electromagnetic over-pressure E.N.P. protection, electromagnetic pulse protection.
The point being that this is not a shelter in the classic sense of the word. It had a lot of military-associated equipment there. It has a camouflaged roof, and a barbed wire security fence around it.
General Thomas Kelly: First, everything we're seeing is coming out of a controlled press in Baghdad, so we don't know what all the facts are, we don't have a free press there asking hard questions like you all do here. We didn't know that there were people in there. I think I heard on TV earlier today they were going in there every night, but that was strictly hearsay. They could have been put in there last night. We simply don't know.
We don't know what the logic would be to put civilians in a place that had the roof painted camouflage and was the only building in the neighborhood that had the roof painted camouflage.
Used with permission from Reuters. Adapted from The New York Times, February 14, 1991.
The United States is in more danger from domestic traitors than from any foreign terrorists whatever.
That said, I don't think "News Weak" is exactly treasonous so much as being one of the tiredest, oldest examples of the tired, old woodpulp media.
That said:
Way to go Predator Teams. We're impressed with your work and for one of the very few times we can say with pride that our tax dollars were well spent on training and equipping your elegant systems. Just Wow!
MSNBC and NEWSWEAK truly hate America.
MSNBC and NEWSWEAK truly hate America.
MSNBC and NEWSWEAK truly hate America.
Sorry for the triple post (kept getting an error message)
Come to think of it, maybe a triple post fits.
How are their subscriptions doing lately? My hubby got a gift subscription to it a few years ago. We used it to start up the woodstove!
tIt turned out to be a bogus story cooked up by the Iraqi government for propaganda purposes?! It was of a piece with the destruction of the Baby Milk Factory.
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