Even now, when polls show the public has turned against the war, the mainstream media in this country seem to be embubbled -- still listening to the officials returning from their Green Zone dog-and-pony shows, while ignoring the reality of life in the other 99% of the country. Evidence: this story from UK's Independent, delineating the size of the exodus of doctors and nurses. The source is an Oxfam report, pretty reputable as sources about Iraq life are concerned. The piece appeared in last Saturday's Indy, and I've waited to see the American coverage. I'm still waiting. A Google News check today shows the story surfacing in Germany and Belfast, Northern Ireland, but nowhere in the US. Some of the numbers in the Oxfam report, like the child malnutrtion rate and the percentage of the country's population in what Oxfam describes as "absolute poverty", are eye-opening, to say the least. But wait, here's a Senator just back from the Green Zone. He should know.
I quit working two years ago.
(Clear Channel wanted me to work twice as hard for half the money).
I could not stand to fund this administration and its use of my tax dollars to wage war while suggesting I would not receive Social Security at retirement age.
Currently, my lawyers are working to get my benefits I paid dearly for.
Not one more cent from me to kill.
Before receiving benefits you file bankrupcy.
Let them squeeze blood from a stone.
"The mainstream media seem to be embubbled -- still listening to the officials returning from their ... dog-and-pony shows, while ignoring the reality of life in the other 99% of the country." Sounds just like home doesn't' it?
Divvying up Iraq seems to be the answer for the area and our way out, and, after all, "Iraq" is an artificial country created by Imperial Britain after WWI. Sunnis are securing their piece of the landscape while Shi'a click worry beads over whether to be independent or join with Iran. Turkey is apoplectic but arm twisting from the EU could fix this, and, if done well, keep the Shi'a lands from outright annexation into Iran.
There are answers to the Iraq problem, but none of them lay within the current American regime or in mainstream news.
A major interruption to U.S. oil supply would have a prompt and devastating effect. A prolonged interruption might prove fatal.
Clearly conservation, energy efficiency and alternate energy sources are absolutely essential to the security of the U.S.. The Petro-presidency has also failed us in this respect. Electing government haters to run the government was not a good idea!
We are serving a government of enemies in Iraq, a government of regressive Islamists who view liberal democracy as Islam's most dangerous rival for the fate of the earth.
The President is making a valiant effort to turn things around and we are winning some victories on the ground especially against Al Qaida-a group of lunatic loser Jihadists who are foolishly fighting the world.
But the war of ideas is lost in Iraq; it was lost on January 30, 2005 when the brave people of that country defying terrorist threats massively rejected the President's American vision for their Molsem country.
In chosing the past over the future, of an Islamic republic of masters and slaves and religious oppression over the good society of individual rights, equality and freedom Iraq can do nothing to adavnce the casue of civilization in the region and continues to be part of the cultural problem, the problem that gave us Al Qaida and 9/11.
Gone is the hope of building the first Arab liberal democracy, gone the dream of using Iraq as a model of regional reform and social progress. Tribalism, sectarianism and ethnicism have defeated us in Iraq, a defeat that tragically only great and terrible suffering can reverse.
The public has not demonstrated their anger about the war sufficiently through mass demonstrations to wake the media and politicians. The media is still callow and afraid of the Bush administration and Fox News types who want only good news. How often do you hear a report on how many hours of electricity daily there are in Baghdad or about access to clean water? The telling story in the U.K.'s Independent that Mr. Shearer refers to would not likely be seen in our press.
Regarding Iraq's med crisis per se--why can't the UN, the European Union, and deep-pockets oil-producing states like Saudi, instead of the American taxpayer, help out? As a taxpayer, I'd rather see my dollars used to bring back New Orleans' shattered health care system and the rest of her infrastructure. That's far more important.
The "surge & spin" cycle is working! Time for our next new exciting conquest!
Who would ever have thought that Amerika would sink to such insanity? I don't see why anybody will even bother to go to the polls and vote. What difference can it make?