"Iraq war becoming a quagmire", by Helen Thomas

Seattle Post-Intelligence ^ | 4-6-04 | Helen Thomas

[Oldeconomybuyer]

WASHINGTON -- It was supposed to be a cakewalk for the American troops invading Iraq. The Iraqis were to throw flowers as the conquerors marched in and took over their country.

That was the fantasy of President Bush's advisers and they sold it to him. Those advisers were listening to the Iraqi exiles, who had an agenda that meshed with the hawks in the administration.

Now we know that while U.S. leaders may consider themselves "liberators," many Iraqis see them as invaders.

Reality is setting in. And the tragic events of recent days indicate we are going to be in Iraq for a long time and with a much larger presence than American officials had first planned for.

With hundreds of Americans and thousands of Iraqis dead, the war is again grabbing the headlines. It was the ambush and murder of four American security company agents at Fallujah on Wednesday and the savage attack on their corpses that reminded Americans of the gruesome realities of Iraq.

[blah, blah, blah, blah]

[Ukiapah Heep]

It's a quaggie! Just like Trashcanistan was!

[Ukiapah Heep]

It's a quaggie! Just like Trashcanistan was!

[Gefreiter]

OK, that was funny.

But I suppose that if she really had covered the Civil War, it would've been a quagmire as well.

[Gefreiter]

OK, that was funny.

But I suppose that if she really had covered the Civil War, it would've been a quagmire as well.

[Steve_Seattle]

I'm not looking forward to Easter; my father will be in my face about Iraq, I know it.

[dts32041]

You forgot the troll alert and the picture that is required.

[COUNTrecount]

Looks like Helen didn't get the memo.

"Quagmire" isn't the word-of-the-week anymore, Helen.

Get with the (dnc) program.


The new use is" QuagmiAIR America"....

[Belisaurius]

Didn't she write this same article last week? and the week before that?

[Polyxene]

LOL -- Good One!!

[hgro]

One more mush head tries to sway the Bill Clinton faction.

[petercooper]

[An.American.Expatriate]

Oh no, not the return of Mr. Quag Mire!!

He is usually preceeded by Ms. A. Nother Viet-nam.

Thankfully, he is almost always followed by Miss Ion A. Complished.

[smith288]

Ugly then, ugly now

[Oldeconomybuyer]

LOL #32

[Sacajaweau]

Photo Caption: Everyone tells me I am the perfect model for a burka!

[Frank_Discussion]

I didn't know Danny Devito was a baseball player! Neat!

[MrB]

Pop Rocks...

[goldstategop]

Dear Helen: This activist from Fallujah thinks its a quaqmire for HIS side. Well worth a read before you spout errant nonsense about the performance of our brave soldiers in Iraq. Do read on:

From the pen of the inmitable Israeli cudgemeon Steven Plaut, comes this report on the events in Fallujah signed by a guy John F. Kerry would also praise to the heavens given the chance:

No FAIR! A Letter of Protest to an American Soldier from a Fallujah Activist

Hey, yank. NO FAIR! You did not behave the way you were supposed to. Sure, all we did was kill some American soldiers in cold blood and drag their bodies through the streets for people to spit on. But that is certainly not a reason for you guys to react the way you did.

Well, to tell you the truth, we expected you to react like Israelis. We figured that if we kill a few of your people, your government will start whining about how there is no military solution to the problems of terror, that the problem is that the world has failed to understand the suffering of the Iraqi "Other", and that occupation is the worst crime on the planet. We expected your government to react like Shimon Peres, and to offer to arm the people who murdered the soldiers and bankroll them, to help put them in power lest the really radical terrorists take power. We were sure the yanks would invite the Shi'ite and Sunni militia chief who are killing American and Allied soldiers to set up their own state and to annex sections of Washington DC.

I mean, why should not the Americans respond to our terror the same way the Israelis do? Why do they not label our killers activists and militants? Why do they not try to win us over with goodwill gestures and concessions? Why do they not offer to change the American national anthem and the flag to make us feel more accepted? Why do they not let our agents serve as Congressmen and Senators? Why do they not pay subsidies to the widows and orphans of Iraqi suicide bombers, like the Israelis do? Why doesn't the American President lecture his public about how the whole war is their own fault, that they have been insensitive and trying to rule over another people? Why doesn't the US respond to the terror by disarming unilaterally, like the Israelis do? Why don't the Americans send delegations to Geneva to sign agreements in which they capitulate to all our demands? Why don't they offer us control over the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial? Why don't they let us move to Virginia and Maryland in the thousands?

Not only are you not behaving like Israelis, but you are not even behaving like Clinton. We recall how Clinton ordered the Americans to run away with their tails between their legs when the Somalis killed a few. SO how dare you!

How dare you round up and mow down 130 Iraqi terrorists in just one day? How dare you respond to our Tet Offensive, our Intifada, through force of arms? How dare you respond other than with cowardice and defeatism? How dare you fight back? How dare you exhibit courage?

Have you not learned anything at all from the Israelis? Don't you know there are no military ways to fight terror?

Signed,
A Fallujah Activist

[Sacajaweau]

When we got to Iraq, we expected house to house combat. Had that happened, we surely would have taken casualties. Obviuosly, everyone went into hiding until they could regroup and figure out a new plan So that is where we are, one year later...house to house.

No matter what, they have to be cleaned out or pacified or they will be around to fight another day....on their terms. That's what 9-11 was.

[Sabatier]

...It was the ambush and murder of four American security company agents at Fallujah on Wednesday...

That would be the "carefully-orchestrated-to-get-the-media's-attention-ambush-and-murder" that has gotten notice from Helen and her brethren, or coven, as the case may be.
The "carefully-orchestrated-to-get-the-media's-attention-ambush-and-murder" which was designed to provoke the media yowls of "quagmire" and "Vietnam", etc.
It's like ringing the bell for Pavlov's dog, catnip for a cat, cheese in a mousetrap, the total ease with which calculating tribal warlords who want to send us all back to the stone age manipulate the US mainstream media into the usual quivery responses. Thanks Helen!