Great news from the Iraqi front: Billions of dollars and untold gallons of blood have forged yet another fundamentalist Muslim state
Remember why ‘we’ are in Iraq - and why we went there in the first place? Admittedly, the leaders who lied us into the war have changed that particular script a few times, especially after there were no weapons of mass destruction to be found.
Still, our leaders always could proudly tell us that removing the monster Saddam was a good thing, and an honourable thing - and that the Iraqi people would be better off without him.
That last bit may even be true, if you are an Iraqi man, living in Basra. If you are a woman though, you’re fucked, or maybe not fucked but just stamped on, suffocated and then stabbed to death.
So, yes, this is what we have been working towards, and why the bombs still go off, and thousands of American soldiers have died and God only knows how many civilians. This is the Iraq our liberation war has helped to create: yet another fundamentalist hell hole, a nation sized prison where women can be tortured and killed at will.
Isn’t life great, and shouldn’t we be proud of Bush and Blair, who made it possible for this to happen - and of John McCain, who wants to keep us involved and over there for another 100 years, if ‘necessary’? Billions of American dollars and untold gallons of American blood spilled to create yet another fundamentalist Muslim state:
Two weeks ago, 17-year-old student Rand Abdel-Qader was beaten to death by her father after becoming infatuated with a British soldier in Basra. In a remarkable interview, Abdel-Qader Ali explains why he is unrepentant - and how police backed his actions. Afif Sarhan in Basra and Caroline Davies report
For Abdel-Qader Ali there is only one regret: that he did not kill his daughter at birth. ‘If I had realised then what she would become, I would have killed her the instant her mother delivered her,’ he said with no trace of remorse. Sitting in the front garden of his well-kept home in the city’s Al-Fursi district, he remains a free man, despite having stamped on, suffocated and then stabbed his student daughter to death.
Abdel-Qader, 46, a government employee, was initially arrested but released after two hours. Astonishingly, he said, police congratulated him on what he had done. ‘They are men and know what honour is,’ he said.
Yes, it’s been an honour indeed, to fight a war that freed men like this to kill their daughters unpunished. I’m not sure Bush or Cheney or even John McCain gives a fuck about that but shouldn’t the rest of us have a good think about this bloody war and the people who got us into this very bloody and dishonourable mess in the first place?
Now would be a good time for it, don’t you think, with another presidential election coming in the USA?
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May 12th, 2008 at 02:17
The pictures are not that of Rand Abdel-Qader. Stop being such a douche.
May 12th, 2008 at 03:01
USA’s only reason to be in Iraqi is O-I-L. The only way to USA to remain in Iraqi is by maintaining the war. Yes, you read right. Maintaining the war is important thing in USA’s perspective. Remember that Saddam was selling oil in euros (and not only in dollars). After USA invade Iraqi it has not been possible to buy oil from Iraqi in euros anymore. Are you sure that the article you are quoting is real or is it just a propaganda - how do you prove it? Yes, Iraqi is a bad country and it needs some punishment until it learns to behave, and we Americans and British are there to punish them. Remember that USA was in Vietnam too. And what you did there? Maintained a war until your people finally figured out that it was just a lie.
May 12th, 2008 at 03:46
Dear Uleh,
I know the pictures are not. You really would have prefered up close and personal shots of some poor women who’d been battered and then stabbed to death?
Who’s the douche here?
And that’s the whole of the argument? Because the picture of one dead woman doesn’t belong to another woman, the whole overall picture is okay?
That’s not just being a carrrion coveting douche, that’s also a pathetic limb dick response,.
But thanks for commenting, of course,
J.
May 12th, 2008 at 03:57
Dear bungle,
I’ve seen this exact response, as far as I can remember word for word, to another column I wrote. Then, as now, it had scarcely anything to do with the matters discussed. That’s alright, of course - as long as people are not obscenely rude or impolite to others here I will let them. Still, it’s not very respectful to just send in form comments whenever you are, bull-like drawn to some real or imagined red flag.
For now, and for the last time (all other form responses I will ignore from now on) I don’t think oil is the whole of it, though I’m sure it does play a part in the Iraq war. When the US talks about its strategic interests in this area, of course it doeesn’t really talk about any direct military threat to the US but about oil. That’s not a big secret: nobody is trying to hide it, in truth.
It’s very funny that you do mention Vietnam though: such an oil-rich country yes?
No?
Oops…
So maybe not all foreign Us policies are driven by that,
J.
May 12th, 2008 at 06:17
America created this in order to fuel it’s “War on Terrorism”.
May 12th, 2008 at 10:53
Dear Jantar,
At least someone do believe that oil did motivate a war in Vietnam (at least some part of it):
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Did_we_go_to_war_in_Vietnam_over_oil
Or maybe you could read this:
http://www.louiswesseling.com/
In Vietnam the official claim was a war against communism. Now you are fighting officially against terrorism. What a joke. What’s next - war on human rights - ironically that fight might finally happen on your own ground?
May 12th, 2008 at 15:25
Thanks for the comments - and the links,
J.