Letters to the Editor
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Iraq Truth
And now the report from Oxfam.
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Joe Klein thinks the "serious" epithet is getting tired
So I'm surprised you're still using it, Glenn. Don't you know how to take direction?
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Shame on the NY Times
Why do they continue to be used as mouthpieces for the administration's propogand? Don't they have people on the staff with at least half the brains of Glenn so they could run the kind of analysis we see here?
Is the NYT doing these things to remain fair and balanced? Or are they just putting a lot of views on their pages?
Well, on the positive side, the right wing has been very clear about their strategies and published many of them. This looks like it is part of the strategy to say that everything is going well. The real problem will come if the right wing quotes the NYT as saying that the surge is going well.
From Juan Cole's daily report on Iraq we find today:
Skepticism on Gates-Rice Mission
The aid organization Oxfam estimates that a third of Iraqis, about 8 million persons, are in urgent need of aid, lacking potable water and in many instances even food to eat. The BBC summarizes:
' Nearly 30% of children are malnourished, a sharp increase on the situation four years ago. Some 15% of Iraqis regularly cannot afford to eat.
The report also said 92% of Iraq's children suffered from learning problems. . .
t suggests that 70% of Iraq's 26.5m population are without adequate water supplies, compared to 50% percent prior to the invasion. Only 20% have access to effective sanitation.
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These statistics strike as similar to the ones for Palestinians in Gaza, which was under Israeli military occupation for decades, and which is still in a kind of Israeli penitentiary. The Iraqi statistics are worse, and were achieved more quickly. But foreign military occupation clearly isn't good for a people, and one of its by-products can be large numbers of malnourished children.
Keep up the great work Glenn.
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I am right because I said so!
The running thread connecting all the cheerleaders of this disastrous war is mental gymnastic they have to perform just to avoid taking responsibility for their publicly expressed opinions a few years ago. Joe Klein, O'Halon and their ilk have done such disservice to this country and to progressives in particular. I pray for the day when we will rid our side of it's fifth column.
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"Liberals" like O'Hanlon
exist for one reason-to provide cover for the murderous schemes dreamed of in the tiny little minds of right hawks. Every time the O'Hanlons of the world put pen to paper, war-mongers point and shout "See, even liberals think this is a good thing". I wonder if Mr. O'Hanlon et al are proud of the role they play in enabling the conscienceless cowards who love to send the children of poor and working people off to fight and die in their feverish war fantasies come to life?
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Similarities
These guys are starting to remind me of investment commercials, with the low toned voice over: "Past results are likely indicative of future predictions. Please read stories carefully before believing. Please consult with actual reporters before accepting. This message has been brought to you by M$M, a subsidiary of Big Corporate Media: We Tell You What To Believe.
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No accountability in the MSM causes these symptoms of double speak
These people are just not credible at all, but the brainwashing gurus know that the majority of the public at large will either not remember these peoples previous comments or will not be able to connect the two, and they know that most of the public at large will not research the topic for the truth.Also most of the public are too busy in trying to make a living and/or are to busy being entertained by the great tv show 24 or, American idol.
This type of reporting by the MSM will only be stopped when corruption of the media is dealt with responsibly.
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Smackdown.
Not that I don't enjoy Glenn's smackdowns of these boobs running America's foreign policy conversation, but man it is depressing how easy it is to annihilate these morons just by hanging them on their own words.
Do these guys think there are real life Winstons rewriting Time Magazine and NYT archives to make them look right in retrospect every time the official line changes course?
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Pollack: the not so "reluctant hawk"
Back before Josh Marshall turned against the war, he cited Ken Pollack’s book as very important in shaping his views. He described Pollack as “The Reluctant Hawk.”
In one revealing passage, Pollack tells readers about his own surprise and momentary disbelief that he is actually endorsing the invasion-first policy he proposes, but says he cannot see another viable alternative.
But there were plenty of critics of Pollack’s book. Sadly, no one took them seriously. In a review, critic Richard Behan wrote:
Pollack compares Iraq to Germany in 1938. Hitler was building the most fearsome war machine in history, and appeasement only made more costly his eventual defeat. Pollack sees Saddam as today’s Hitler.
But Behan didn’t take Pollack’s frightening message seriously:
Saddam Hussein is a psychopathic tinpot with no significant air power or navy, a decimated army, questionable inventories of chemical and biological weapons with no capability for intercontinental delivery, and five years away from his first nuclear device. By what conceivable means can he realistically threaten America, the most heavily armed nation on earth? This is left utterly unexplained in Mr. Pollack’s book.
We know today that it was Behan, not Pollack, who was correct. Yet, once again we are hearing from Pollock, and his critics who were right, are not to be heard from, not taken seriously.
Pollack told us we had no alternative to war, now he tells us we have no alternative but to continue the war. He was wrong before, and he’s wrong now. It would be nice to hear a bit more from those who were right, those who disagreed with the “reluctant hawk” – because he’s never sounded all that reluctant to me.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0211.marshall.html
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/1211-02.htm
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"why should anyone doubt?"
Oh, because they got it wrong 1,001 times? Give them one last try. The hawks and war buzzards have broke wings. If consistently they have been always completly wrong all the time, Oh, we can let them lead us into a swamp of drowning in blood.
Okay?
NO!
Oh, and because war can make a person drowsey as a sick navy drunk who just vomits more vile gunk...sea?
It is a rest Monday. War clouds the psyche. It is true a person can be so weary they can't sleep. I do feel one of those blessed naps comming on me as I type.
O, one more step toward death and oblivion?
Oh, I bet the heaven's sky Nature will heave,
O, and hurl some real vile upchuck on the fakes.
...scat?
no doubt!
fake hair?
Oh, go eat cat fur balls!