Letters to the Editor
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Aych
Religeon is an element to be sure, but its one of the least important. As our country exemplifies, its easy to marginalize religeous groups and also easy to elevate them to an extreme level of influence when political expedience dictates.
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After we leave ...
Several here (you know who you are) have slipped in the point that there will be a dog gone blood bath in Baghdad if the Americans leave right now. I see not proof of that, but I will stipulate that for the moment for argument's sake.
My response is so? If there is to be a blood bath, if will happen and killing a million more Iraqi innocents will not lesson our collective guilt for destroying the country. Perhaps the groups over there will come to terms much faster than we fool westerners can imagine; after all, they have lived together in that region for a long, long time and the people might be able to 'move on' after the invader is put out.
However, the fact is that it is their fate. It is for them to run their own lives, we are not doing so well here that we should go abroad and tell others how to live. (with bombs and bullets)
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Update II - another take on "serious"
Some pair of professors found out a while ago that the number of Olympic medals won by a country is very strong predicted by two things -
1. How many medals the country won in previous olympics
2. the per capita income of the country.
I think something like 95% of the variance is accounted for by these two factors alone, if I remember correctly.
Similarly, there is are two criteria that predict if a commentator is "serious".
1. Have they featured in the press before as a a serious commentator?
2. At some point in time were they a strong supporter of some establishment point of view? (doesn't matter if they later turn into critics, as long as the criticism doesn't get too pointed).
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I think the problem is definitional
A "war critic" isn't to the mainstream press someone who believes we shouldn't have gone to war, but is critical of how it has been fought. If a journalist is talking about strategies to win, perhaps a peace activist with little knowledge of counter-insurgency tactics isn't your best person to sit on you panel.
However, if the issue is whether we should have gone to war, stacking the deck with four people who all supported the war is indeed biased.
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@LWM
I perceive no slight, nor am I petulant. I simply give back what the attacker gives me. It would be unforgivable to not help my fellow man see what he is by holding up a mirror, now would it not?
buckyl
For shame, LWM! Shame on you! How, in the name of all that passes for justice, can you broach (or is it breech? I'll ask buckyl)hostilities with a man as equanimtable (or is it equanimable, or equaniminous? Anyway, that buckyl, he's all that!) and amiable. Shit, the man is a veritable existential altruist! I mean about the mirror and all! And such self-effacement! I mean, it's seven years bad luck if you break a mirror!
Think about it LWM! I beg you, please relent!
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@Anonymust
And I'm not your fellow man.
But you are one of our fellows.
;-)
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Kind of like voting for a Democrat for President
no Democrat is going to end this war, either. You all can dream that Obama is your end-the-war savior. He is not.
Just like there is no real debate in the media, there is no real choice in your vote.
And as we all know: voting third party means nothing.
So, what am I going to do? Vote third party anyway. Because when I am 80years old, I will look back *at my choices* and know they were the correct choices, regardless of the system under which I reside.
Peace.
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Slightly OT: An Old Friend Heard From, Rolling Stone 3 April 08 - Correspondence (RS 1049)
In "The Myth of the Surge" [RS 1047] I noticed a grievous error. The article states, "The U.S. has not only added 30,000 more troops in Iraq - it has essentially bribed the opposition, arming the militants who only months ago were waging deadly assaults on American forces." The description of bribing is in error: We have individuals under contract providing security. I am also disconcerted by the mischaracterization of the surge based on Rosen's relatively short time here. Last month Gen. Petraeus and many of us walked the streets of Dora, the neighborhood Rosen describes as a "no-go zone," without any body armor. It also appears that Rosen can walk around on his own. If it's so terrible, how was he able to do that?
Col. Steven Boylan
Public Affairs Officer to the Commanding General
Multi-National Force - Iraq
BaghdadNir Rosen responds: The fact the money the U.S. is paying the militias is provided contractually does not preclude it from constituting a bribe. I have spent three of the past five years in Iraq, including three months during the surge. I am not impressed by the claim that American officers walked down the streets of Dora without their body armor. Most of Dora is empty, its residents killed or driven off, and the officers were likely protected by a host of U.S. soldiers. And while Dora may not be especially dangerous for the Americans, it is still a place whose name inspires fear among Iraqi civilians. That is why I took the time to observe the reality on the streets of Baghdad, rather than simply accept the propaganda concocted by U.S. public-relations officers.
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Say cheese! (a metacomment courtesy of the Water-Muddying Department)
For those who bitch about pissing contests, and how they debase the quality of Glenn's comment threads, here's a perfect opportunity to catch one at the beginning. There's a discernible pattern in what will follow.
Note carefully the difference between normal and pathological responses, then tell me if your visits to the consumer complaint department are in any significant way different in character from what you've been complaining about.
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re: Ditto!!!
It would be unforgivable to not help my fellow man see what he is by holding up a mirror, now would it not?
And I'm not your fellow man. -- Anonymust
We are all androgynous, as is the ineffable one. You will come back in the next life as male or female depending on your need. As one gnostic sage asked, "do you really think God has a dick?" (circa 165 if I remember off the top off my little head)
Your hatred shown earlier that prevented you from seeing without bias came not from male or female at all.