Unless the administration decided that the student can’t be taught. I recently read about a fourth-grader who was a whiz in math but could barely read. His teachers had given up on him until one had the idea of giving him both the audio and print versions of the latest Harry Potter book.
Hey shitstain. Guess what? I was there when it went down. Myself, SrA Richard Miller and A1C Phillip Curry, as well as police Lt. Ibin al-Something or another and the ‘Goon Squad.’ (Now, calling these guys the ‘Goon Squad’ wasn’t an insult, as Ibin’s team of 13 all stood 6’ plus and weighed 200 lbs of solid muscle. They were his ‘goons’.) We stood on the northern side of the intersection of Haifa street and Tikrit street. Hell, when the Iraqi demonstraters who were building a roadblock on that corner saw us coming they stoped. The lieutenant told 'em what we were doing, they tore it down and let us park our humvees as roadblocks instead. Yes, they were protesting the continued American presence in Iraq. I can’t say I blame 'em. But to say that it was an anti-American protest is inaccurate. Every few minutes as the parade of marchers went by, one or two would come up and give us ‘five’ or raise their first (a la “Black Power”.) We’d respond in kind and shout Allah Akbar. A few guys went to Ibin and told him to thank us. Think about it, 300,000 armed (and yes, there were plenty of guns moving past us) Iraqis, burning effiges of Bush, Blair, Hussein, and (suprise) French President Chirac, and not a shot fired. Not as us, nor at any of the 9,000 Americans who were doing traffic control like we were. Tell me, where were you that day?
FinnAgain: I can’t say I agree with your statement. Instead (again, this is from my first person perspective) I’d have to say that 90% or more of Iraqi’s want us out. Some say right now, most say soon, and a few say “C’mon and stay a while!” That is not to say that they are angry our outraged at the US presence there. When I was in Samarra, a lot of the locals (having never seen our unit patch before) kept asking “Are you Airborne?” (meaning the 101st, who were the first guys on the ground there.) The 101st had been gone nearly five months, but they were so well liked in that town that the Iraqi’s kept asking if we were with them, or when they were coming back. Of course Iraqis want us to leave. But to say that the majority (or even a minority exceeding 20%) hate us (or I should say, hate us to the point of violence) would be a stretch.
Damn. We’ve been exposed. Somehow, I don’t remember having expectations in my life that go like this:
In America, nothing bad ever happens.
In America, one can always count on the government.
In America, every war, decision, policy and relief effort will go smoothly.
In America, we’ll make the worst natural disaster looked like child’s play.
Actually, each country has strengths and weaknesses. We engage eachother and say things that you can’t always say. You see the people in N.O. and the commentary from everyone…and YOU take that as granted.
We ain’t perfect…we ain’t immune from human error…we ain’t immune from storms and we ain’t got endless amounts of money.
A thief breaks into a house and when found out, decides it’s wrong to leave because he is liable to be called a coward.
::::shot of Kool-Aid:::::
Rah rah! USA #1!
“300,000”, Red Furry? With all due, that is one fuck of a number. I am mistrustful of numbers in a general way, but especially when they are either big, or round, or both.
And while I don’t doubt the Shia would like to see our backs soonest (who likes a bunch of armed guys stomping around who don’t speak your language?). I am suspicious of the interpretation of that as their motive. For my two bucks, all sources of news in Iraq are suspect, agendas abound, and you can’t keep the players straight even with a program.
What if they’re mostly just anxious to get us out of the way so they can kick some Sunni butt? We are committed to majority rule in a federated Iraq. Numbers being what they are, that pretty much means Shia rule. According to the rules we claim to respect, that makes them the legitimate governing body of Iraq. In that light, their determination to rid the body politic of anyone tainted with Baathism takes on a rather less pleasant odor.
If the Shia start to oppress the Sunni, and meet resistance with violence, whose side are we on?
Luci, actually 300,000 is a pretty good estimate. To judge by what we were getting from the OH-6’s flying cover for us, the procession was almost two miles long and took nearly four hours to cover the five miles they marched. Lowest estimate we heard during after-action was 250,000, and some of the Iraqi officers claimed upwards of 500,000.
I’ll take your word for it, having no reason to doubt you. Can’t trust a Doper, might as well go suck a tailpipe.
Got a feeling this isn’t a good thing. Call it a hunch.
Start at the City/Parish/State level, angryjackass. Why aren’t you pointing fingers there, first? Did you know that countries that successfully manage these types of emergencies all do it on the local level? Did you know that the mayor of New Orleans knows a lot more about New Orleans than the President/Comgress/FEMA? Did you know that poor people can help each other, too? Take a look at what they do in the rest of the world before you embarass yourself any more.
Quite agree that most reporting from the area must be taken with a heavy dose of skepticism – specially in light of the fact that most journos are mainly confined to their Green Zone hotels and what little outside venturing they do, is usually in the company of US patrol units.
As for the demo itself, actual numbers aside, I was simply using the article to point out that there’s also a not insignificant number of Shiites – many of them militant followers of al-Sadr – who’re ready to turn on a dime against the occupation. In fact, Sadr is on record as saying he supports the “legitimate resistance” to same (cite available upon request).
Lastly, with regards to your query on picking sides, as you well note, numbers alone tell us that you have no democratic choice but to back the Shiah majority. Where that road leads we can only guess, but outside of greasing enough palms in hopes of having a ‘friendly regional government’ in place, it not hard to venture that there’s still much blood to be shed by all involved.
Promised neocon Nirvana discarded long ago, the remaining question becomes whether or not America can overcome the odds (insurmountable, IMO) against shaping what becomes of Iraq to its liking, and, more importantly, how much more blood and treasure it is willing to spend in doing so.
PS-Is the “r” key on your keyboard stuck? 'cause there’s only one “r” in FuRy, 'luc.
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR, me heartys! RRRRRRRRR! RRRRRRRRRR!
angrydonkey
What an incredible amount of anger you have for us … but not angry enough to spend the money to join this message board.
See what it says underneath your name? It says guest and as such don’t you think you should behave accordingly?