I agree with that. However, the approach we have taken in Iraq was not the correct course of action, IMHO. What you discuss is not what I have seen taking place over the last few months in Iraq. There are attempts to do so, but it doesn’t seem they are fully effective. As certain folks ‘whining’ illustrates.

You want to show America in a bad light, troops in a bad light, Iraq as a bad goal approached through bad efforts by bad leaders leading bad Americans…

No, I like many people, had friends over there, and I’m was born and raised a Texan, so don’t think for a second that I’m not in this discussion for good reason. But I know when I am asking a bit much of those folks, considering the planning that our bad American leaders had for actual victory. “Yea, well, we thought they would all greet us with open arms.” is a bullshit excuse. Not even a timetable. And asking no help from anyone. This was so foolish I don’t see how you can cast it in a good light unless you keep your eyes closed.

Alienating what is now being shown to be an essential part of this type of operation (i.e. the rest of the world) turned out not to be such a great negotiating strategy.

you’re just a ‘realist’, who has America’s best interests at heart.

I hope I can expect the same from you. Why would I not have America’s best interests at heart? I might not have your version of ‘America’s Best Interests’, but I certainly have my own. And will defend them with pretty much any force necessary.

look at your response to Americans being killed by saboteurs.

Please, point this out, and I’ll be glad to clear up your confusion on this and any other matters.

Jeez, wah, you forgot the part about it being all about the oiiilllll.

Not all, of course, but most certainly part. As the other reasons and justifications fall by the way side, the Oil Ministry is still guarded 24/7. Unlike the U.N. building.

Yes, priorities. I don’t believe ours right now are in the right place. And calling people who live in a country we just invaded on what can only now be called ‘blurred’ justification whiners for the inconvenience caused by that invasion is evidence of such misplacement, IMHO.

America does right, most of the time, much as a surgeon cuts through comparatively living tissue to get to the diseased, purulent tissue below, and clean it out, so that the ORGANISM, overall, can enjoy a higher degree of healthy, vibrant life!

You’ve chosen to ignore the larger issues, the bigger picture, as evidenced by your post (above).
You want to show America in a bad light, troops in a bad light, Iraq as a bad goal approached through bad efforts by bad leaders leading bad Americans…

But oh! Not YOU… you’re just a ‘realist’, who has America’s best interests at heart…

Despite your fault-finding, blaming, nit-picking and distortive obfuscation: look at your response to Americans being killed by saboteurs…

Hint, Salam, many Iraq’s are too poor to afford air conditioning anyway.

And heck, without power, what’s the point anyway?

And yes, I do know about 50C heat – we get it here in Arizona too.

Right, and how’s the summer been without air conditioning? This post is coming from Texas, so I know a thing or two about heat.

Oh, and many of our troops who liberated your are also sleeping in that heat, in tents rather than your comfortable home.

By their own choice. This is no sort of justification, although it does explain why our troops are so on edge.

Apparently his privileged family has never had to suffer like so many Iraqis.

At least, not until they were liberated. And if this is the elite, and their living conditions in the New, Improved Iraq, what about the people who don’t have shit. Think they might be complaining a little bit after their liberators destoyed most of their services and have completely inept in restoring them? Or maybe, after 4 months, they’ve stopped complaining and moved on to something else?

Salam implies that Americans are mean – they beat and kicked Salam’s friend G (which if true needs to be investigated, because that is NOT American policy).

I dunno, maybe it’s something about spending the day and night in 50C weather that shortens tempers a little bit? And after an investigation cleared wrongdoing in firing tank shells at reporters, I seriously doubt a little roughing up of some ungrateful Iraqi is worth the time to “investigate”. There’s a war going on, even our vacationing President noticed this.

And I’m sure the investigators are busy still looking for the WMD, or did we just cast that entire line of justification aside after it served its purpose?

Children who are myopically incapable of understanding the difficulties the occupiers are facing.

I’m curious what epithet you would use for children myopically incapable of understanding the frustration of being occupied.

Children who blame the US for not providing enough electricity, even as Americans are being killed by the terrorists who are sabotaging the electrical system.

Wow, this is wild. We pick a fight, and when somebody fights back, it’s their fault for everything that goes wrong and we stand blameless before god. Amazing ‘logic’.

We don’t demand that Iraqi’s be grateful.

Yes you are. You are demanding that they be grateful enough for us removing a former business partner gone bad to ignore each and every inconvenience cause by that removal.

And many Iraqi’s are grateful and say so frequently to our troops (see the War Zone links on this blog for many troops posting from the area).

This is true, and there is little doubt. However, many Iraqi’s (And jihadi’s, nice calculation there Cheney) are showing their gratefulness with bullets. And also quite frequently.

Salam, please grow up!

And realize that America is right no matter what happens, and it’s your own fault, all of it is your own fault. We don’t make mistakes, everyone else is just a whiner.

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?…

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?…

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL? THE FRONT OFFICE Business and administration “Tom Paine” of Silent Running discusses silly questions on citizenship exams. Northstar…

1. If it was so stable before, why did so many well-off citizens have generators?

2. If Iraqis would stop stealing transmission wire (there is a good amount of money to be made in smuggling copper) and crippling pipelines, maybe there would be a better electrical supply – including to run the pumps for water, also badlu affected.

These hopefully will be addressed by the Iraqi police and military, once they start to come on-line, but whining about how it is happening under the coalition rather than, at the least, encouraging the taking of names by the Iraqis themselves, is not a help.

I must have been tricked into hitting that Liberal but likable world’s-angriest-dog site during the Instalanche.

Nice post on Salam. Why do we owe him freedom from rudeness and searches? He’s the spoiled scion of an obsequious stooge.

— BTW — Resistance Is Futile

PS. I never liked Salam Pax, even at the peak of his blogging glory. Always suspected him of being a member of a ruling elite (and this does not mean that I ever suspected him of any wrongdoing, just that he had personal reasons to be at least ambivalent about regime change in Iraq. Even if he really disliked Saddam).

Darn right! What is up with all the people crying about how hot it is in Iraq? As an native of the Valley of the Sun, I’m tired of listening to the whining. I used to do landscaping 10 hours a day in that heat, and no one ever sent the Red Cross to look after me! Maybe they can drink their tears if they cry a little more. Oh, dear, it’s 100 F! Baghdad had people living in its vicinity for thousands of years before air-conditioning, and my guess is that Saddam didn’t change much with his planned economy genius.

As for Salam Pax, I still think that guy is a Ba’athist wanna-be. He was way too well off before the war, and he seems too anxious to see us go now. Sure his friend was “beat up” by soldiers for no good reason… Just because he says nice things about individual Americans does not mean he is a friend of this country.

Tasty Manatees