Just when you thought the occupying forces’ leadership couldn’t be any more clueless, something like this (excerpt):
No doubt the guerrilla fighters will see this as their sign that they have no hope, and the US forces will win over a lot of hearts and minds.
Wow that’s a pretty odd tactic.
It seems like only yesterday that US troops were tearing down images of Saddam.
Is this part of the reconstruction package?
It really does sound like a joke from South Park doesn’t it?
How many months have they been there now and they STILL don’t fucking get it?
Fucking stupid fucking offensive meatheads. FODDER.
Oh, for fuck’s sake . . . they’re using pics from Worth1000?
D00d, the goons 0W%3|) them.
At least it’s not fark, but still . . .
Oh, I see; that´s part of the “Bring it on” operation.
Stirring up the population so when they loose their temper GIs whack them, brilliant. :rolleyes:
Yeah, WTF? SA should retaliate by photochopping Lieutenant-Colonel Steve Russell or something!
It’s part of the new policy.
Laughing, smiling Iraqis=good guys
Angry looking Iraqis=bad guys
It makes spotting guerillas a snap, people. When unsure, present them with a photoshopped picture of Saddam. No chuckle=guerilla. If the US had this technology in Vietnam, I’d have been a breeze.
Well, it’s not like they can draw a moustache on Saddam’s picture.
I have to agree with Istara. This is beyond stupid. Like US forces don’t have enough problems already. This is just going to insult and alienate the locals and cause problems. You have to wonder how such stupidity goes unchecked. Let’s hope someone stops this like they stopped the “terrorism futures market”. There has to be some common sense somewhere.
I don’t understand all the fuss. Even if these silly posters don’t do any good, they won’t do any harm. ISTM they might help a bit. Ridiculing the enemy leader is a time-tested tactic for eroding his support.
Some people just want to find fault with anything the Bush administration does.
"There has to be some common sense somewhere."
Why start now?
It seems to me that a fair number of folks around here have been ridiculing Bush II for quite some time now. Yet strangely, your support for him has not eroded at all; if anything, it’s become more knee-jerk and unthinking than ever. Perhaps we need more pictures of Dubya in a dress to get you to abandon the enemy?
I know you’re only joking, minty, but it’s jarring to see Bush referred to as “the enemy” at a time when we have real enemies who are trying to kill as many Americans as possible.
Of course, your joke actually supports my point. Bush’s political adversaries do portray him as goofy looking. E.g., see Page 4, with Bush portrayed as The Grinch.
I never cease to be amazed by the stupidity being displayed by this Administration. The believe their own lies and just shut out anything which does not support their own biased views. They still really believe that the great majority of Iraqis are happy to have US forces occupying the country and only a minority of “Saddam supporters” and “foreign terrorists” are thos causing trouble. They really believe this in spite of all the evidence.
It is amazing how in history this mistake has been committed time and time again. When Napoleon invaded Spain, he sincerely thought Spaniards would love him for he was bringing progress to a very backwards country. He installed his brother Joseph on the throne of Spain with the job of modernising Spain but the Spanish people started fighting guerrilla wars against the French. Joseph told his brother Napoleon that the Spanish hated him but Napoleon said the Spanish needed to be taught for they were like children who cried and protested when you blew their nose. the fact is the Spanish preferred to be backwards and poor and independent than to be under French rule.
The same thing can be said of Tibet. The Chinese say they have modernised the country but that does not stop Tibetans from hating them and yearning for freedom.
3/4 of the same can be said about the eagerness of the USA to control Cuba: it drove Cuba right into the hands of the enemy.
We could mention Vietnam. . .
The USA just does not get it: People want freedom from foreign domination more than anything else. The USA has got itself into a war of attrition and there is no way it can win except by getting the hell out of there. As long as there are US forces occupying Iraq there will be Iraqis who will gladly risk their lives to expel the invaders. The Iraqis are no different from any other people and the type of thing mentioned in the OP of this thread will only serve to inflame more the Iraqis.
Think that’s jarring?! The image of GeeDubya in a dress, thats goddam jarring! Not as ghastly an image as J. Edgar in pumps, perhaps, but still… This is a family board, Minty, for fucks sake!
I think this focus on ridiculing Saddam is probably more or less harmless. But it does reveal mind-set. The Bushiviks are determined to believe that our troubles with “insurgents” are largely, if not entirely, due to Saddamite hold-outs and “dead-enders”. This narrow focus results from thier desperate fear that the “insurgency” is diffuse, unfocused, and worse, popularly based and supported. They have to believe that they’re still fighting Saddam or they have to believe they are fighting something like a “People’s Front”. When this floats through President Rove’s dreams, he wakes up screaming.
The article you found was very much like one a friend sent me earlier today. It seems to have been a subset of this longer article by a Reuters correspondent. I think some of the excerpts are interesting, both for what they didn’t pick as well as what they did pick. For instance, the closing paragraphs of the longer article read thusly.
Enjoy,
Steven
Translation: It’s a terrible idea.
Just what we need: soldiers guarding posters so they won’t be taken down. And what happens when people take them down anyway? They have just become “the enemy”. Shoot kids taking down the posters. yeah. Good strategy.
Schoolyard taunts and juvenile pranks now dressed up as “military tactics” in the war on terror.
checks watch
Yep. Right on time.
Next up, Rummy puts his fingers in his ears and says “NYAH-nyah!” to Saddam on national television. Good times.
Dude, didn’t they do the same thing to Qadaffi?