Posted on 04/16/2003 9:22:27 AM PDT by ddodd3329
By now you have probably read a dozen (or two) emotional recollections - and have watched more than a few hours of television coverage - on the grand spectacle that was the Hussein statue coming down in Baghdad two days ago. And make no mistake as to the underlying significance of the event; it was one of those collective demands for freedom that warms the heart. Freedom, it has been said, begins with the word no; those born with the highest liberty humanity has ever allowed should take great pleasure when a people discovers (or rediscovers) a liberty of its own, for so long denied by a force they could not overpower.
Yet, footage of the looting has by now taken the place of the statue footage. There has come to exist a certain sideways glance when the footage is shown; it is as though some are passively suggesting that, in the first days of freedom, this is the best the Iraqis could manage. Well, all right. Let it be said that people should resist whatever temptations they may have to loot (or riot, or whatever). But let it also be said that not everyone is looting (you would not have suggested all of Los Angeles looted for Rodney King), and that the initial targets (note: the initial targets) were regime owned apartments and office buildings (not illogical given the impact of the regime on the people), and not because the Lakers beat the nets for the NBA championship.
Stud Rumsfeld the First referred to the continuing looting and unrest as … "untidiness." ("If you go from a repressive regime … in that transition period, there is untidiness.") The Stud is right as to the nature of the point, but looting, arson and shootings are more than merely untidy. "We do feel an obligation to assist in providing security, and coalition forces are doing that. Where [the troops] see looting, they are stopping it." Concluded the Secretary of Defense, "Stuff happens." Indeed. In Mosul, that stuff included: 1) a marauding of the central bank, 2) three of Saddam General Hospital's five ambulances were stolen, 3) all eight of Jumhuriya Hospital's ambulances were taken at gunpoint, and 4) the Mosul University library was ransacked, disturbing what Al-Jazerra called "rare manuscripts." >>>Continued<<<
(Excerpt) Read more at dondodd.com ...
So I assumed you were a disruptor.
Sorry.
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