Wouldn't it be Rosey if Iraq were the US

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Wouldn't it be Rosey if Iraq were the US
10
Wed, 09-22-2004 - 11:05am
Wednesday, September 22, 2004

If America were Iraq, What would it be Like?

President Bush said Tuesday that the Iraqis are refuting the pessimists and implied that things are improving in that country.

What would America look like if it were in Iraq's current situation? The population of the US is over 11 times that of Iraq, so a lot of statistics would have to be multiplied by that number.

Thus, violence killed 300 Iraqis last week, the equivalent proportionately of 3,300 Americans. What if 3,300 Americans had died in car bombings, grenade and rocket attacks, machine gun spray, and aerial bombardment in the last week? That is a number greater than the deaths on September 11, and if America were Iraq, it would be an ongoing, weekly or monthly toll.

And what if those deaths occurred all over the country, including in the capital of Washington, DC, but mainly above the Mason Dixon line, in Boston, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco?

What if the grounds of the White House and the government buildings near the Mall were constantly taking mortar fire? What if almost nobody in the State Department at Foggy Bottom, the White House, or the Pentagon dared venture out of their buildings, and considered it dangerous to go over to Crystal City or Alexandria?

What if all the reporters for all the major television and print media were trapped in five-star hotels in Washington, DC and New York, unable to move more than a few blocks safely, and dependent on stringers to know what was happening in Oklahoma City and St. Louis? What if the only time they ventured into the Midwest was if they could be embedded in Army or National Guard units?

There are estimated to be some 25,000 guerrillas in Iraq engaged in concerted acts of violence. What if there were private armies totalling 275,000 men, armed with machine guns, assault rifles (legal again!), rocket-propelled grenades, and mortar launchers, hiding out in dangerous urban areas of cities all over the country? What if they completely controlled Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Denver and Omaha, such that local police and Federal troops could not go into those cities?

What if, during the past year, the Secretary of State (Aqilah Hashemi), the President (Izzedine Salim), and the Attorney General (Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim) had all been assassinated?

What if all the cities in the US were wracked by a crime wave, with thousands of murders, kidnappings, burglaries, and carjackings in every major city every year?

What if the Air Force routinely (I mean daily or weekly) bombed Billings, Montana, Flint, Michigan, Watts in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Anacostia in Washington, DC, and other urban areas, attempting to target "safe houses" of "criminal gangs", but inevitably killing a lot of children and little old ladies?

What if, from time to time, the US Army besieged Virginia Beach, killing hundreds of armed members of the Christian Soldiers? What if entire platoons of the Christian Soldiers militia holed up in Arlington National Cemetery, and were bombarded by US Air Force warplanes daily, destroying thousands of graves and pulverizing the Vietnam Memorial? What if the National Council of Churches had to call for a popular march of thousands of believers to converge on the National Cathedral to stop the US Army from demolishing it to get at a rogue band of the Timothy McVeigh Memorial Brigades?

What if there were virtually no commercial air traffic in the country? What if many roads were highly dangerous, especially Interstate 95 from Richmond to Washington, DC, and I-95 and I-91 up to Boston? If you got on I-95 anywhere along that over 500-mile stretch, you would risk being carjacked, kidnapped, or having your car sprayed with machine gun fire.

What if no one had electricity for much more than 10 hours a day, and often less? What if it went off at unpredictable times, causing factories to grind to a halt and air conditioning to fail in the middle of the summer in Houston and Miami? What if the Alaska pipeline were bombed and disabled at least monthly? What if unemployment hovered around 40%?

What if veterans of militia actions at Ruby Ridge and the Oklahoma City bombing were brought in to run the government on the theory that you need a tough guy in these times of crisis?

What if municipal elections were cancelled and cliques close to the new "president" quietly installed in the statehouses as "governors?" What if several of these governors (especially of Montana and Wyoming) were assassinated soon after taking office or resigned when their children were taken hostage by guerrillas?

What if the leader of the European Union maintained that the citizens of the United States are, under these conditions, refuting pessimism and that freedom and democracy are just around the corner?

http://www.juancole.com/

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Wed, 09-22-2004 - 2:37pm

Everyone should read this article & imagine living under these conditions.


Where will this all end?

cl-Libraone~

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 09-22-2004 - 5:09pm
Thanks for posting this. My DH emailed this to me this AM. My response to him and you is: This should be on the front page of every newspaper in the US. We need to open our eyes and minds to the reality.

You can go to the website and see the responses this got. If you print them all it is a total of 81 pages.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Wed, 09-22-2004 - 6:32pm
<>

Wow, that's quite a response, I will check it out.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Fri, 09-24-2004 - 9:22am
Another leader living in la-la land, IMO.

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-09-2003
Fri, 09-24-2004 - 9:48am
And this from Rumsfeld.......

Rumsfeld: Four-fifths Iraq poll?

Iraqi leader: Elections will be held on schedule

Friday, September 24, 2004 Posted: 5:59 AM EDT (0959 GMT)



WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has suggested that parts of Iraq might be excluded from elections set for January due to rising violence.

On Thursday Rumsfeld expressed optimism that elections will push through as scheduled.

But at a U.S. Senate Committee hearing he raised the possibility polls might not be held in all of Iraq.

"Let's say you tried to have an election and you could have it in three-quarters or four-fifths of the country. But in some places you couldn't because the violence was too great," Rumsfeld said, hours after the leaders of the United States and Iraq met in Washington.

"Well, so be it. Nothing's perfect in life, so you have an election that's not quite perfect. Is it better than not having an election? You bet," he said. (Full story)

Rumsfeld is set to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi on Friday to talk about security as insurgents in Iraq use suicide bombings, hostage-takings, beheadings and other tactics to block Iraq's progress.

The United Nations has expressed concern about security for any personnel it might send to Iraq for the elections. Presently there are about 100,000 trained and equipped Iraqi forces.

The head of the U.S. central command Gen. John Abizaid, said on Wednesday more troops might be needed in Iraq to secure the vote and he did not discount the possibility more American troops would be needed.

Appearing with Allawi at the White House, U.S. President George W. Bush on Thursday called for resolve in the fight against insurgents and terrorists striking the interim government and U.S. forces in Iraq.

"I believe that if we fail in Iraq, it's the beginning of a long struggle," Bush said. "We will not have done our duty to our children and our grandchildren." (Full story)

He also said that "if we stop fighting the terrorists in Iraq, they would be free to plot and plan attacks elsewhere, in America and other free nations. To retreat now would betray our mission, our word and our friends."

The president said "we're not going to abandon the Iraqi people. It's in our interests that we win this battle in the war on terror."

Earlier Thursday, Allawi laid out his government's security, economic, and political aspirations, praising the contribution of America and its allies, and telling members of Congress elections will be held as scheduled.

"Elections will occur in Iraq on time in January," Allawi promised.

While acknowledging balloting won't be perfect, pointing to early elections in other nations, he promised: "They will take place and they will be free and fair" and they will be "a giant step" in Iraq's "evolution."

The overwhelming majority of Iraqis are pleased that the Saddam Hussein regime was toppled, he added, pointing to Saddam's killings and his gassing of Kurdish communities.

"Today we are better off, you are better off, the world is better off without Saddam Hussein," Allawi said. (Transcript of Allawi's address to Congress)

Wave of abductions

Iraq continues to be plagued by a wave of abductions. In the most recent case, two Egyptian engineers were kidnapped from their Baghdad office Thursday night, according to an Iraqi Interior Ministry official. (Full story)

Meanwhile a British hostage, Kenneth Bigley, faces death at the hands of his Iraqi captors.

Bigley and two Americans were abducted last Thursday from their Baghdad residence. The three men were in Iraq working on reconstruction projects.

The two Americans were beheaded Monday and Tuesday. (Full story)

Bigley's captors said he will face the same fate unless the British government meets their demand to release Muslim women from Iraqi prisons. (Full story)

U.S. officials said the only women being held in Iraq are two "high-value detainees." Both are being held at Camp Cropper near the Baghdad airport, according to Iraqi sources.

The interim Iraqi government Thursday reiterated it has no imminent plans to release any detainees -- as have Washington officials. (Full story)

Desperate but unanswered pleas to release Bigley have taken their toll on his family and put pressure on UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. (Full story)

Other developments

Turkey's government says it is considering an alternative route for its truck drivers bringing goods into neighboring Iraq in an effort to stem kidnappings. (Full story)


A Marine assigned to 1st Marine Expeditionary Force was killed in action Wednesday "while conducting security and stability operations" in Iraq's Al Anbar province, the Combined Press Information Center said Thursday. In another incident, Sana Toma, deputy-director of the Northern Oil Company, was killed Thursday morning in the Baladiyat neighborhood of Mosul, according to officials at Mosul General Hospital.

Avatar for baileyhouse
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 09-24-2004 - 10:18am
>>"Well, so be it. Nothing's perfect in life, so you have an election that's not quite perfect. Is it better than not having an election? You bet," he said.<<

And I guess this administration would know about that!!!!...

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Fri, 09-24-2004 - 11:32am
<<"Let's say you tried to have an election and you could have it in three-quarters or four-fifths of the country. But in some places you couldn't because the violence was too great," >>

Check the web site for the map, it will reveal how this administration is using the geographical ignorance of the American people to deceive.

Quote from blog.

In the map below I made the present security-challenged provinces red, and those that saw recent heavy fighting purple. I ask you if this looks like the problems are in "3 of 18 provinces," or whether it looks to you like elections held only in the white areas (as Donald Rumsfeld seems to envision) would produce a legitimate government:



The Allawi/ Rumsfeld logic, moreover, presumes that the guerrilla resistance is only able to disrupt the elections in the Sunni Arab provinces. But they have repeatedly demonstrated an ability to strike all over the country. If a long line of prospective voters were standing in Nasiriyah in the south, do you seriously think the guerrillas couldn't manage to direct some rocket-propelled grenade fire at them? Set off a car bomb?

The real reason for the current plan to raze Fallujah in November or December is the hope that doing so will dramatically reduce the operational capability of the guerrillas, forestalling the Nasiriyah scenario I just mentioned. I don't think that the guerrillas are so geographically limited or concentrated, however, and very much doubt that this Carthaginian strategy in al-Anbar will work.

Moreover, not having elections in al-Anbar and West Baghdad would be a disaster. The red areas are where the Sunni Arab former ruling minority is situated. They are the backbone of the guerrilla war. If they feel unrepresented by the new government, what incentive do they have to cease their warfare?

On the other hand, if the elections are not held or if their results are widely considered illegitimate, there is a danger that that result will radicalize Sistani and cause him to bring the masses into the street.

Odysseus had to steer between the two monsters of Scylla and Charybdis. So to does the US in Iraq.

http://www.juancole.com/

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Fri, 09-24-2004 - 12:08pm
Does it appear that this admin. is intent on ridding itself of the "Iraqi problem" by even going as far as supporting mock elections? This is how it looks to me. Anyone else see it this way or am I way off?
cl-Libraone~

 


Photobucket&nbs

Avatar for baileyhouse
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 09-24-2004 - 12:17pm
I agree....These so called elections will in the minds of this administration give them a "way out" of Iraq...."We did what we said we would do", a "Democratic Iraq" I wager within 6 months of this election, Iraq will be in a civil war and we will be "pulling out"
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Fri, 09-24-2004 - 12:32pm
<>

And GWB will be crowing about how he brought democracy to Iraq, and planning a regime in Iran. Quite honestly, I can't tell if he actually believes what he says or if he is just being deceitful untill after 11/2.