# Bush wanted to bomb al-Jazeera HQ in Doha, Qatar? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 22, 2005, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-wanted-to-bomb-al-jazeera-hq-in-doha-qatar/332282 "2005-11-22T18:06:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-wanted-to-bomb-al-jazeera-hq-in-doha-qatar/332282/61 "2005-11-23T17:55:49Z")
I just want to add that on the list of innocent people I believe Bush has killed for no good reason, I include US military personel who were put in harm’s way without just cause. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-wanted-to-bomb-al-jazeera-hq-in-doha-qatar/332282/62 "2005-11-23T18:04:24Z")
> [@spifflog](#): > > What about the Kurds that aren’t dieing since Saddam has left power? How do you factor those in? Actually, before the second gulf war, Kurdistan wasn’t controlled by Saddam anymore. So those Kurds who were dying were being killed by other Kurds, in the strife between the two main rival Kurd organizations. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-wanted-to-bomb-al-jazeera-hq-in-doha-qatar/332282/63 "2005-11-23T18:08:19Z")
> [@TrivTriv](#): > > Has anyone considered the possibility that Bush was just confused about Al-Jazeera? . So, we’re at a point where such an idiocy could be considered as a more palatable alternative? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-wanted-to-bomb-al-jazeera-hq-in-doha-qatar/332282/64 "2005-11-23T18:09:35Z")
> [@TrivTriv](#): > > Has anyone considered the possibility that Bush was just confused about Al-Jazeera? […] I wouldn’t be surprised if he was simply experiencing a moment of Al-Jazeera/Al-Qaeda confusion. So, we’re at a point where such an idiocy could be considered as a more palatable explanation? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-wanted-to-bomb-al-jazeera-hq-in-doha-qatar/332282/65 "2005-11-23T18:17:56Z")
In order to be clear : the “let’s bomb Al-Jazeera” concept seems so utterly stupid that I have a hard time believing this story could be true. But I’m left quite speechless reading the various hypothesis made on this issue. Roughly, people are calmy debatting about whether the US president is totally incompetent or a complete moron or a souless mass-murderer… ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-wanted-to-bomb-al-jazeera-hq-in-doha-qatar/332282/66 "2005-11-23T18:20:22Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I doubt that. At the time in question, U.S. forces were attacking Fallujah; the Administration had a very specific beef with al-Jazeera about its coverage of that. (See the original story linked in the OP.) I think Bush was, at the very least, entirely clear that al-Jazeera is a news network, not a terrorist underground. To which I should add: To suggest, seriously or in jest, bombing the al-J HQ, Bush had to have been aware that al-J **has** a headquarters whose existence and location are publicly known; which would be inconceivable if he were confusing it with al-Q. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-wanted-to-bomb-al-jazeera-hq-in-doha-qatar/332282/67 "2005-11-23T18:20:29Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > But I’m left quite speechless reading the various hypothesis made on this issue. Roughly, people are calmy debatting about whether the US president is totally incompetent or a complete moron or a souless mass-murderer… It’s a perplexing debate, I grant you. It’ll probably take historians several decades to sort this question out. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![spifflog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-wanted-to-bomb-al-jazeera-hq-in-doha-qatar/332282/68 "2005-11-23T18:21:23Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > I just want to add that on the list of innocent people I believe Bush has killed for no good reason, I include US military personel who were put in harm’s way without just cause. Don’t you worry about us. We believe in the cause. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-wanted-to-bomb-al-jazeera-hq-in-doha-qatar/332282/69 "2005-11-23T18:24:19Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > Roughly, people are calmy debatting about whether the US president is totally incompetent or a complete moron or a souless mass-murderer… Maybe when you debate the quality of France’s president, your alternatives are not quite so depressing; but we’ve got to work with the material we’ve got. Is there not a French proverb, “What cannot be cured must be endured”? 🙂 Or, rather, ☹ ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-wanted-to-bomb-al-jazeera-hq-in-doha-qatar/332282/70 "2005-11-23T18:26:47Z")
> [@spifflog](#): > > Well, if gentle and sweet cousin Clay, who has never stepped foot in Iraq, said it’s so, it must be so. I apologize. Had I know your assertions that were based on second hand, 35 year old anecdotal evidence, I wouldn’t have questioned it. How skillfully you evade the point! Have you considered a career in bull fighting? Let me bring this down a notch. Combat corrodes humanity. There are people who can endure fear and stress for interminable lengths of time and keep thier humanity and compassion intact. They are, regretably, rare. So whether it is Iraq, Viet Nam, Panama, or Bosnia…the essential facts remain. Erich Maria Remarque, James Jones and Tim O’Brien wrote about different wars. There is much in their narratives unique, but more than is entirely the same. And, point of fact, you didn’t “question”, you sneered. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-wanted-to-bomb-al-jazeera-hq-in-doha-qatar/332282/71 "2005-11-23T18:29:35Z")
> [@spifflog](#): > > Don’t you worry about us. We believe in the cause. You speak for the entirety of the US Armed Forces, do you? :dubious: Tell me…what _was_ the good reason to sacrifice troops in Iraq. ---
**Author:** ![spifflog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-wanted-to-bomb-al-jazeera-hq-in-doha-qatar/332282/72 "2005-11-23T19:01:20Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > You speak for the entirety of the US Armed Forces, do you? :dubious: > > Tell me…what _was_ the good reason to sacrifice troops in Iraq. If you are sufficiently omnipotent that you “know [Bush] he has no conscience” than I’ll speak for the military. ---
**Author:** ![spifflog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-wanted-to-bomb-al-jazeera-hq-in-doha-qatar/332282/73 "2005-11-23T19:23:24Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > How skillfully you evade the point! Have you considered a career in bull fighting? > > Let me bring this down a notch. Combat corrodes humanity. There are people who can endure fear and stress for interminable lengths of time and keep thier humanity and compassion intact. They are, regretably, rare. > > So whether it is Iraq, Viet Nam, Panama, or Bosnia…the essential facts remain. Erich Maria Remarque, James Jones and Tim O’Brien wrote about different wars. There is much in their narratives unique, but more than is entirely the same. > > And, point of fact, you didn’t “question”, you sneered. The point of contention was the assertion the military does not try “particularly hard not to kill civilians.” Your rebuttal was a conversation with sensitive, gentle as a lamb cousin Clay. That was a pretty soft argument, don’t you think? I didn’t need to be a bullfighter to dodge that softball. Your current assertions that all wars and actions in war are fundamentally same in the last 90 years is flawed. If you were talking about how men treat fellow combatants, I might have seen some logic, but even that doesn’t hold water. How the Japanese and Americans treated each other and how the Germans and Americans treated each other was fundamentally different. Just looking at the POW death rates would tell one that. The actions of the American fighting man (and woman) toady cannot be readily compared to the fighting men in WWI. Remarque writes about men hardened by four years of war in the trenches, almost without relief, with no sense of hope. Americans in Iraq are usually there for only one year at a time. They are in constant contact with loved one back home. They have access to the news. The two are not comparable. But we aren’t discussing Military-to-military relations are we. We were discussing how the American fighting man relates the civilians in country. The history of occupation is a brutal and ugly one. I’d state that American relations with the populace in Iraq, including collateral damage compare favorably to almost any other in history. The Americans know that in this war, maybe more than any other, we have to win the “hearts and minds.” And we do this by protecting them as best we can. I know you won’t see this on the CBS new (gee, why not???) but outside of Baghdad, Iraqis will approach you , talk to you and thank you for helping them. They are appreciative of the opportunity that they are receiving. I don’t see that we’d get that response if we didn’t try particularly hard not to kill civilians." And that was the assertion that I took exception with. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-wanted-to-bomb-al-jazeera-hq-in-doha-qatar/332282/74 "2005-11-23T19:26:50Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > But I’m left quite speechless reading the various hypothesis made on this issue. Roughly, people are calmy debatting about whether the US president is totally incompetent or a complete moron or a souless mass-murderer… How about all three ? Plus I think he’s probably crazy. > [@spifflog](#): > > Don’t you worry about us. We believe in the cause. So you’re fine with using napalm, cluster bombs and torture for Haliburton and the neocons ? That’s the cause, after all. > [@spifflog](#): > > If you are sufficiently omnipotent that you “know [Bush] he has no conscience” than I’ll speak for the military. Nitpick : It’s “omniscient”, not “omnipotent”. Also, all one needs to do is look at his actions; the man is a monster. Killing thousands for no good reason, torture, child rape, lies, corruption - if this creature and his gang have a single virtue, I’m unaware of it. Bush and friends leave a trail of misery and death in the world, and it doesn’t seem to bother them; therefore, they have no conscience. ---
**Author:** ![spifflog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-wanted-to-bomb-al-jazeera-hq-in-doha-qatar/332282/75 "2005-11-23T19:32:35Z")
> [@Der Trihs](#): > > How about all three ? Plus I think he’s probably crazy. > > So you’re fine with using napalm, cluster bombs and torture for Haliburton and the neocons ? That’s the cause, after all. > > Nitpick : It’s “omniscient”, not “omnipotent”. Also, all one needs to do is look at his actions; the man is a monster. Killing thousands for no good reason, torture, child rape, lies, corruption - if this creature and his gang have a single virtue, I’m unaware of it. Bush and friends leave a trail of misery and death in the world, and it doesn’t seem to bother them; therefore, they have no conscience. President Bush signed an executive order to the rape of childen? Sorry that I missed that one. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-wanted-to-bomb-al-jazeera-hq-in-doha-qatar/332282/76 "2005-11-23T19:42:34Z")
> [@spifflog](#): > > President Bush signed an executive order to the rape of childen? Sorry that I missed that one. It happened at _Abu Ghraib_. You are welcome to tell us that the abuses of prisoners in Iraq (most off whom the military now acknowledges were innocent civilians) happened without the knowledge and consent of the civilian leadership. In turn, we are welcome to scoff and to point at stuff like the torture memo and Dick Cheney’s recent impassioned plea to congress to allow the administration to keep torturing people. I certainly haven’t seen any indication that Bush _et al_ have been personally aggrieved by the rape of children in US prison camps. Thanks for he laugh about how much Iraqi civilians love the occupation, by the way. ---
**Author:** ![Atticus\_Finch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@Atticus\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atticus_Finch)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-wanted-to-bomb-al-jazeera-hq-in-doha-qatar/332282/77 "2005-11-23T20:31:38Z")
**Spifflog** , I’m genuinely interested in a current member of the US military’s answer to this question: > [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > Tell me…what _was_ the good reason to sacrifice troops in Iraq. What exactly is the cause you see yourself as fighting for? ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-wanted-to-bomb-al-jazeera-hq-in-doha-qatar/332282/78 "2005-11-23T21:28:34Z")
> [@spifflog](#): > > I’d state that American relations with the populace in Iraq, \*\* including collateral damage \*\* compare favorably to almost any other in history. . So, do you have some figure to disclose in support of this statement? Because, given that the USA refuses to provide any estimate of the Iraki casualties, how could we compare them with other conflicts? ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-wanted-to-bomb-al-jazeera-hq-in-doha-qatar/332282/79 "2005-11-24T00:17:00Z")
> [@TrivTriv](#): > > Has anyone considered the possibility that Bush was just confused about Al-Jazeera? Forgive me for not having a cite, but I clearly recall a poll in which some obscene percentage of respondents advocating attacking Al-Jazeera, simply because they didn’t recognize the name and associated it with Al-Qaeda. Personally, I don’t think Bush is insane of evil, but I do think he is lacking in intellegence and good judgment – I wouldn’t be surprised if he was simply experiencing a moment of Al-Jazeera/Al-Qaeda confusion. If that were the case, it would still be inexcusable. One of the unspoken rules of war is, you try not to wipe out your allies. If after all these years as president, Bush still can’t keep his friends and enemies straight, it’s pathetic. Just like during the debates he kept confusing and confaliting Iraq/Iran/Afghanistan. It’s usually important to know who you are planning to blow up. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-wanted-to-bomb-al-jazeera-hq-in-doha-qatar/332282/80 "2005-11-24T00:19:08Z")
> [@spifflog](#): > > Don’t you worry about us. We believe in the cause. What is/was the cause again?? Sorry, it kept changing so much and so often I got confused. I have a list somewhere. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-wanted-to-bomb-al-jazeera-hq-in-doha-qatar/332282.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-wanted-to-bomb-al-jazeera-hq-in-doha-qatar/332282.md?page=5)