Posted on 04/22/2003 4:54:43 AM PDT by Beenliedto
Poor Sean Hannity
Sean Hannity, a radio talk-show host and Fox News whiner, has a one-rut mind. Every criticism or dissent, no matter what the subject, the topic or the source, is a left-wing attack against his hero, George W. Bush.
Well, what can you expect from an immature groupie? Every time he tries to think, his face reflects the pain of the effort. But he really showed his emptiness recently when he said that criticism of the United States failing to guard the Iraqi National Museum was — you guessed it — just left-wing soreheads who are mad that President Bush's war has been so successful.
Give me a break. That museum is one of the five greatest museums on Earth. It contained treasures that are the heritage of mankind. There are 140,000 U.S. military personnel in Iraq. We've protected all the oil fields, north and south. Do you really believe we couldn't have spared two fire teams to guard the irreplaceable artifacts of the beginnings of Western civilization? Of course we could have. Somebody just goofed.
This is not a left/right, liberal/conservative issue. It's not a question of patriots versus traitors, as the morons among the neoconservative crowd try to paint every human being who refuses to click his heels and salute their guru, Richard Perle, and their emperor, George Bush. This is a cultural issue. Three great treasures — the museum, the National Library and the largest collection of Koranic writings in the world — were looted and burned. Since we had destroyed the Iraqi government, it was our responsibility to protect them.
I don't blame President Bush. I'm sure he's unaware of their existence. After all, he brags about not reading. But what would we say if the crowds who have rioted in Washington in the past had been allowed to loot and burn the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress? Do you think we would have accepted an excuse that there weren't enough cops to protect those two treasures?
One hates to disillusion the permanently adolescent among us, but this tiny sliver of life in which we are participating is a dot on a long line of human civilization. One day, we will be as forgotten as the Assyrians, and hopefully some museum will have artifacts from our brief stay on the stage of history.
There is a definitely a whiff of anti-intellectualism — so characteristic of fascist states — in the air. Beware of bully boys who worship the military and scoff at museums and libraries. Beware of people whose limited brains see everyone as either an ally or an enemy. Beware of people who can't tell the difference between patriotism and military conquest. Beware of people so stupid and ignorant that they accept anything and everything the political and the media demagogues tell them.
Thomas Jefferson, who would have been outraged by the loss of the museum and the library, said, "Those who expect to be ignorant and free expect what never was and never will be." Amen cubed.
I'm no longer concerned about liberals or conservatives, leftists or rightists. I just pray to God for a non-ideologue with a three-digit IQ. If we don't elevate the level of intelligence and integrity of our government, we are going to end up floating on the cesspool of history.
As for anyone being disappointed that the war was conducted rapidly and successfully, that's bull. I was opposed to the war, but I'm damned glad it was quick and there were as few casualties as there have been. Every anti-war person I know of or have read feels the same way. You have to be a really sick puppy to imagine that anyone would want to see Americans die just because they disagree with the policy that put them in harm's way. Let me spell it out for the mentally impaired: People are anti-war because they do not wish to see anyone die — our soldiers, their soldiers, our civilians or their civilians. Anti-war is pro-life.
© 2003 by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
There is a lot of stuff that didn't get broken that could have, Especially in the rterms of lives and property. The Left can't get over the successes of the operation so they magnify what happened to some artifacts.
ROTFLOL. That is not likely to happen and just as well.
I'm talking about SAVING them, I'm talking about the CHANCE of them LOSING THEIR LIVES!
Reasonable people should feel sorry for our mistake
Thata boy..BLAME AMERICA, FIRST, huh?
the commanders ignored the cultural advisors requests/orders
Yeah, I'm certainly happy when our battlefield commanders take ORDERS from Cultural Advisors.
When you're chasing a MASS MURDERER IN A CHINA SHOP, YOU DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE GLASSWARE!
Heads MUST roll in the military pecking order.
So, you're all for ruining the careers of the people that PROTECT US, because a few dishes were broken/stolen? LOL.
I agree completely. If our soldiers looted the museum, I'd be outraged. The fact that the Iraqis did it, tells me that the west seems to have more respect for Iraqi culture than the Iraqis themselves. As I've said before, the Japanese never looted their musuems after WWII, neither the Germans.
Yet here it is at the end of the war and the only bad thing that the anti-war types have to hang their hat on is the looting of some museum.
In that respect, this was the most successful war in the history of the United States of America.
I've been in the military for some time now and I was never aware that cultural advisors were in the chain of command.
Concerning Hannity, I wish there was someone else I could listen to on my drive home from DC in the afternoon. He is such a bore and is historically ignorant.
I guess that excludes you!
I love watching the leftist and paleocon tweedledumb and tweedledumbers try to gracefully tapdance a reteat from the muddy quagmire of their doom-and-gloom predictions. Bush/Rumsfeld/Franks/Perle showed Reese up as a utterly malinformed idiot about the war, and so Reese is left complaining about the looting of Iraqi museums by Iraqis as if that were the central issue.
Along the same lines, anyday now we can expect the Naderites to gravely announce that some species of intestinal parasite native to Iraq has been pushed to the brink of extinction by brutal and indiscriminate coalition military forces.
Just acknowledge you were wrong, Reese. Show some humility and grace.
But they're ENTITLED to them. Being so much more cultured than us Philistines, you know. If we went to a museum, it would only be to gawk. We can't APPRECIATE those things like they can. Besides, they'll take better care of them, too.
Obviously, the commanders in Washington failed to stress protection of certain sensitive cultural areas.
If the Soldiers are in the neighborhood any way, and the Iraqis are aware of their firing power, all it would have taken is one soldier firing in the air, and the looting would have stopped. But noooo, we have to deny that our brass made a terrible mistake despite of the specific warning from the cultural advisor to the president.
That was my first thought too. Maybe after 20 some odd years of living under saddam, the Iraqi people are not capable of self-governing? Where were the local immams? They could have issued a fatwa-- (or do they only issue those for the killing of "infidels"?)
What a jackass. In every war that results in occupation except wars of liberation, the museums, palaces, etc. are looted--in all cases by the invading force (see plunder). I cannot recall a case where it happened in a war of liberation (except in the movies).
When the national museum was plundered, the coalition forces were still engaged in active military operations and charged with humanitarian defense, defense of vital and finctioning infrastructure and security of weapons caches, prisoners of war and surrendering forces. Unfortunately, when the coalition forces liberated Iraq, there were a number of criminals among the liberated (recall that Saddam furloughed most of the criminals prior to the onset of the war).
To expect the liberating forces to be able to step immediately into the role of property guardian for all property of any importance in an instant is naive and unrealistic. Rather, the coalition forces were following strict rules of engagement and prioritizing their activities in a manner that maximized the operation's success and minimized civilian casualties and interruption of vital services.
Leave it to jerks like this guy to seize on an admittedly unfortunate aspect of an otherwise overwhelmingly successful operation that released an enslaved people from a terrible regime and made more secure all people threatened by a known sponsor of terror.
This guy betrays himself in a number of places with the "Bush-is-stupid" mantra (I just pray to God for a non-ideologue with a three-digit IQ).
And here is my favorite:
Let me spell it out for the mentally impaired: People are anti-war because they do not wish to see anyone die — our soldiers, their soldiers, our civilians or their civilians. Anti-war is pro-life.
What does this jackass think was going on before the coalition forces went in? Bad guys were killing innocent civilians, threatening to do the same to neighboring peoples and sponsoring terrorists who would do the same.
I thought this guy retired?
Anyway, he thinks the Palestinian bombing of school buses and coffee shops is a legitimate "war" effort, so his sudden giving a crap about a stinking museum is to be taken with a grain of salt. Laughed off, in fact.
Reese has admitted in the past that he has been a loyal Democrat most of his life, even if there were ample signs of shame and lucidity during the Clinton years.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.