Well, obviously the Iraqi infrastructure is getting better, the City Cleaning Service is working wonderfully! 
Thank you Pantom for such a fine display of graciousness and magnanimity there. It’s hard to admit that there are things about one’s country which deserve condemnation - no matter which country you hail from - it’s never easy to admit those things to people from other countries.
My observation on the syndrome described above is this - the US is in the unique position of being in an unassailable position of influence - both economically and militarily. And yet her government is elected only by her internal citizens. It’s both infuriating and frustrating to the outside world. We ask nothing more of America than this - great leadership and wisdom.
Sadly, however, the right to govern America is no longer looked upon as a position of grave responsibility - rather it’s perceived as a prize, like some sort of Olympic Gold Medal - and any amount of rule breaking (or dirty tricks) is condoned because the ends justifies the means.
Accordingly, for the rest of us in this world we share, our hopes that America will be governed with “great leadership and wisdom” increasingly look forlon because unfortunately, the people who aspire to the US Presidency seem to be doing so for the wrong reasons nowadays… we non Americans perceive the race for the US Presidency now as being a somewhat ugly reflection on the human condition - rather than that which should be noble and applauded.
Would that it were that the rest of the world could vote in the US Presidential elections. I assure you, your conduct on the international stage would be vastly different if that were the case. For a start, I suspect there would fewer double standards - and in my opinion - it’s singularly the double standards which are making so many enemies of the USA nowadays.
Boo Boo Foo:Thanks for the compliment.
My problem is that you’re not going to get people elected with a better international perspective if the press isn’t willing to cover the stories that need covering. If the deaths even of foreign allies barely rate a mention, then the American people are never going to be able to see the world with any sort of empathy. How could they develop this empathy in the absence of informed people willing to do the work to bring them the information they need to see the world as the world sees it?
This is a big country, completely separated from most of the rest of the world. It’s easily possible here to go your entire life barely thinking about what the rest of the world must be like. I mean, I have a tough time imagining Europe, where you’re pretty much forced to deal with other countries because there’s so many countries with so many different languages spoken.
Given that, the press bears the responsibility of bringing the world to the people here. If they don’t do that, then for most Americans most of the time the world simply isn’t there. This includes me.
BTW, would this describe the outlook of your typical citizen of Oz? I mean, you also have a big country separated from the rest of the world. If not, why not?
(I’m headed off to bed, so don’t take it amiss if I don’t answer right away.)
To be fair and balanced and whatnot regarding the pools of blood left behind, from the news.com.au story linked by Mr. Svinlesha:
Having no hard evidence to go on, fatalities were likely counted multiple times from different sources and every ‘maybe’ became a definite. As J.F.C. Fuller once put it, “War may be a science or an art; but its reporting is mainly a dodge.” Inflated body counts happen in every war. The administration has tried to avoid giving body counts due to Vietnam, though, and this may not be a good sign of things to come.
Thats another part to it, Diss
For instance: if the bodies were carried away by the insurgents who were not killed, then there must be at least another 48 insurgents, even if every one of the insurgents not killed is entirely capable of lifting and carrying better than 120-150 lbs of dead person. The phrase “dead weight” never had more application.
OK, lets be optimistic. Lets just say that the other 48 were perfectly capable of picking up Achmed and carrying him…how far? Certainly they didn’t have medevac helicopters (or if they do, we really got trouble!). So where did they take them, to what staging area for evacuation, by what motorized means? Without being detected doing so in an area swarming with US soldiers and attack helicopters eager to open fire on anything that moves.
OK, even if maybe these he-men can lift 130 lbs of dead weight, then what? Everybody here who can carry 130 lbs dead weight 100 yards or more, raise your hand.
Now here’s the punch line: this assumes that there were two varietys of Fedayeen/insurgents: dead ones and others who escaped without a scratch. Clearly, the wounded aren’t going to be hauling anything but thier own asses out. Usually, in combat, there are more wounded than dead, except in the case of massacre.
So: more than a hundred men, more like 150, assembled at the ambush point without being detected. All of them armed with, at minimum, AK-47s. They opened fire on American armored vehicles, with predictable results: they got thier asses handed to them.
Whereupon 48 corpses and at least that number of wounded were evacuated by the remaining 48 or so insurgents?
Ridiculous. How stupid are they, or how stupid to they thing we are?
It begins to look like this was cooked up, or at the very least wildly exaggerated, for propaganda purposes. Which indicates another very unhealthy parallel to V Nam: the military is collaborating, conciously and intentionally, to support the Administration’s political ends.
And pals and gals…that really ain’t good.:dubious:
Gah! What is that! Shit! It’s a fucking smiley! The hamsters are interposing unauthorized smileys! Tom “the Hamster” DeLay has subverted the SDMB rodential power system! The dark conspiracy grows!
Paranoid, my ass! It ain’t paranoid when they are out to get you! You guys just remember this if anything happens to
I agree with you completely here, ’luci. I highly doubt that the figures quoted are by any means close to the truth. As I said, the figures provided for dead compared to wounded has some serious problems with it, and it is not a good sign. Prior to this, though, the administration has tried to avoid giving such absurd counts, and as you say, it really ain’t good.
To be fair though, cooked body counts are endemic in all wars, though the desire to resort to this isn’t a healthy sign of success.
I’m willing to forgive horribly misplaced smilies in this thread, considering the author’s choice of them. 
Good question! You know, I’ve thought about this in the past, and I’m loathe to assume an air of being some sort of “national mouthpiece” as I offer my answer - but it’s a weird thing.
I suspect the answer lays somewhat in the words of one our most esteemed former Prime Ministers, Sir Robert Menzies. He was quoted in personal conversation by none other than President Richard Nixon as saying “I’m British to the bootstraps, but I’m American to the core.” Which is a great quote, isn’t it? And it’s a quote which I reckon succinctly demonstrates the unique nature of Australia - that is, we tend to straddle both the “old Europe” traditions of Britain as well as the best “modern thinking” of the New World. Certainly, it’s reflected in our cultural and sporting ties. We indulge ourselves in everything British, and our ex-pat Aussies simply run amok in Britain these days. But also, we have a love affair with our American cousins which is equally compelling and equally addictive.
Nonetheless, I have to be honest about something too. Because we occupy this unique “straddling” mindspace, we tend to observe some things which aren’t easily absorbed by the casual observer - namely - there are a certain few things about Europe and the United Kingdom which really are very, very “backward and old school” - and yet, there are also a certain few things about America which are “tacky and insular”.
However, in the interests of fairness, it should be pointed out that Australia is an incredibly dry sponge at a cultural level - and many of us have developed a bizarre ability to be both “backward and old school” at the same time as being “tacky and insular”. Which, I guess, means that we’ve developed the ability to be both the best (and worst) of both Britain AND the United States.
I’m not sure if that’s something to be proud of, but it’s undeniably true that we tend to osciallate between a British outlook and an American outlook on world affairs - which possibly isn’t a bad thing. One thing’s for sure though - because of our incredibly strong British links, we’re nowhere near as insular (media wise) as the USA is - and I, for one, am very thankful of that.
Nonetheless, it has to be said that the majority of my most valueable insghts into world affairs these days actually comes from my American friends here on the SDMB oddly enough. What I’m trying to say here is that yes, it’s true that some Americans are astonishgly insular, but when you come across a truly worldy American, they’re worth a million bucks in my opinion.
Daisycutter and Milum ain’t part of the latter sadly! 
Daisy Cutter troubles us no longer, Boo Boo Foo. Banned 2 November 2003.
Shit you scared me for a moment there Desmo! The first time I read that it looked as though I too, had been banned and I found it out by reading YOUR post! You ratbag!
By the way, did my description of the Aussie “straddling” mindset come across alright?
I don’t agree with it completely, but it it was very well written. Good job.
How dare they use that incredibly loaded word “people.”
:eek:
Nothing satisfies as licking some foreign derrier, doesn’t it? Do you suppose it just might be possible to watch a TV program in Japan or Spain, and hear no mention of dead US soldiers in Iraq whatsoever?
Sure. What, precisely, would that prove, oh Great and All Wise One, given that neither Japan nor Spain started this war, and neither are in any danger of being the most powerful country on the planet any time soon?
In short, you’re fulla shit. Must be what you’re licking.