Washington Post, May 4, only 3 days after:
Not much room left for “the sailors” to have had any input there, huh? Still, Incurious George might not have been uselessly lying. He may really have been out of the loop in that information/decision loop as in almost all others, probably by his own disinterest, and really did think his own staff wasn’t involved. Perhaps the dead-end loyalists take comfort in that kind of “honesty”.
I fervently hope that we do “get” Saddam. Until he is captured or killed, the spectre of his possibly returning to power will continue to be something the average Iraqi will fear, and be less free as a result of that fear.
When his sons got killed, I really believed that it wouldn’t be that long before somebody tipped us off to Saddam’s whereabouts. I’m hoping that Rummy knows something the rest of us don’t. But over the past year, I’ve assumed the Administration knew more than us about a lot of things having to do with Iraq, and most of the time, it turned out to be just a sales pitch.
I would like to see them “get” Saddam too, I just don’t see it happening. Here’s my take on it … every Iraqi, whether they liked Saddam or not, would help him escape over playing good Iraqi to the US. I don’t think the US understands that no matter how much an Iraqi smiles and pats you on the back, they hate you more than they hate anything in the world right now. IMHO.
From: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-11-03-iraqexit-gns_x.htm
> “The people in Iraq have no jobs, they have no money, they have no opportunity for peace,” said Fernando Suarez, of Escondido, Calif. “How will this end? Can you see a way out?”
> So far, American taxpayers will have to shell out $164 billion and counting.
> Meanwhile, attacks against American troops sometimes exceed 30 per day.
> Some of the most potentially nettlesome political questions surround Iraq’s Shiite community, which makes up about 60% of the nation’s population of 24 million.
> The Shiites have shown themselves to be a fairly fractious group with factions that vehemently oppose the creation of a secular government. The Bush administration sees secular rule in Iraq as critical in preventing the rise of a strict Islamic state like Iran.
> Exiting too soon, however, raises the risk of leaving a failed state that breeds terrorists.
And I repeat, what a fucking mess.
The situation in Iraq is deteriorating by the day. I just saw some news on TV saying Iraq has become a lawless country. Women ara afraid to leave their homes because they are at high risk of being kidnapped for ransom and/or rape.
Spain has recalled all their diplomatic personnel in Iraq after one of them was killed some days ago. The Red cross has done pretty much the same. Many reconstruction foreign companies are postponing plans to go there.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3241785.stm
The attacks against US forces are increasing every day and getting more serious in their consequences. It seems the resistance is getting more organized. After downing a helicopter yesterday they have launched rocket attacks against the US headquarters.
At this rate chances ara pretty good that Iraq will just slide into a civil war, Algerian style.
Here is an interview, done by Japanese journalists, that suggests that troop morale is dropping like a rock.
English translation version.
We may start to see 60’s style protests at home. This wouldn’t surprise me.
<HIJACK>
I picked up Market Wizards, good stuff, check it out.
</hijack>
Sounds good. I am reading Cramer’s “Confessions of a Wall Street Addict” right now.
You know, that Stars and Stripes series is extraordinarily interesting. A link to the index:
http://www.stripes.com/morale/
Enjoy.
pantom, thanks for that interesting link. An excerpt from one of the pages: