reuters.com— Thousands of followers of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr took to the streets on Saturday in a demonstration against a pact that would allow U.S. forces to stay in Iraq for three more years.
Oct 18, 2008View in Crawl 4
these are followers of moqtada al sadr, responsible for inciting sectarian violence, mass murdering sunni neighborhoods. they can all go to hell as far as i can tell. solid12345 is correct, they are essentially a gang who extorts and intimidates locals.
That the war was being suppressed doesn't mean there wasn't one. It was a religious and political war first; casualties were, and still are, just an unfortunate, and horrible, side effect. People don't need to die for there to be a religious or political war. Being oppressed doesn't change the fact that you hate the taste of cupcakes; it just means you'll consent to eating them under pain of death.And you have closed your mind up, buddy. What I said was that we -can't- clean it up nicely. It is -impossible- to clean it up nicely in our current situation and position. We are in a no-win situation, the best we can do is save face by 'trying and failing'. But if we persist, we will only embroil more anger and more divide -- which is the exact opposite effect of the one we need to achieve -- until it overwhelms our capacity to hold it, which will likely result in an explosion of conflict and hatred for many, many years.I'm not saying that we should leave the region to chaos, I'm saying that we've fixed it now so that there isn't a way to keep it from devolving into a very ugly situation by mindlessly chanting 'if we withdraw, they win'. Wake up!We can't win this battle. It is not a military conflict any more than we are making it one. They want us, a foreign nation, out of their country. They can't do anything to us legally because we're pretty much protected from most legal prosecutions due to our subtleties with the UN at the outset of the war. They can't do anything to us economically because their economy isn't even a joke, it's annihilated due to the damages we caused in infrastructure, economic independence, and a superior dollar flooding the region. They can't do anything to us politically because we don't have to listen to them; nor does it seem we want to. They don't trust us at best and hate us at worst.You propose that this war, the war for the Iraqi people's hearts and understanding, can be won. I'm telling you, the way we played our cards, and with the ones we have left in our hand, it is impossible. There is a huge river here and you are on a donkey halfway across it, fighting the tide. I'm telling you that river will drown that ass and when the ass goes, so do you, and nobody will be in a position to save your ass. You tell me that if you don't keep going the tides will sweep you away anyhow. We're both right but you stubbornly believe the ass can keep going against impossible odds. If you cut your losses and let the tide take you away, as it inevitably will, then your ass will at least not drown and there's a slim chance you'll both come out on the other side alive, if hurt badly. If your ass drowns then you're looking at being possibly hurt badly and a drowned ass.In case you missed the metaphor, the world's opinion of us is the ass and our foreign policy is the rider.The river is the war we should be fighting and crossing the river is what we're doing (the 'war'). If we were smart, we would've just built a freaking bridge and then crossed the river instead of charging straight in without any warning to our fellow trailmates.If you can plug that river's strength with an ass, you let me know and I'll restore my faith in our political situation, because it makes about as much sense as going to war to 'bring democracy to a nation'.
pechecklerOct 19, 2008
So, is "people" plural? A's in 400 level English classes, and I don't know if this young Iraqi boy's spelling is correct.
jashobeam5Oct 19, 2008
Because once they were found the MSM made sure the term would not make the air again.
cheese06Oct 20, 2008
these are followers of moqtada al sadr, responsible for inciting sectarian violence, mass murdering sunni neighborhoods. they can all go to hell as far as i can tell. solid12345 is correct, they are essentially a gang who extorts and intimidates locals.
firgofOct 20, 2008
That the war was being suppressed doesn't mean there wasn't one. It was a religious and political war first; casualties were, and still are, just an unfortunate, and horrible, side effect. People don't need to die for there to be a religious or political war. Being oppressed doesn't change the fact that you hate the taste of cupcakes; it just means you'll consent to eating them under pain of death.And you have closed your mind up, buddy. What I said was that we -can't- clean it up nicely. It is -impossible- to clean it up nicely in our current situation and position. We are in a no-win situation, the best we can do is save face by 'trying and failing'. But if we persist, we will only embroil more anger and more divide -- which is the exact opposite effect of the one we need to achieve -- until it overwhelms our capacity to hold it, which will likely result in an explosion of conflict and hatred for many, many years.I'm not saying that we should leave the region to chaos, I'm saying that we've fixed it now so that there isn't a way to keep it from devolving into a very ugly situation by mindlessly chanting 'if we withdraw, they win'. Wake up!We can't win this battle. It is not a military conflict any more than we are making it one. They want us, a foreign nation, out of their country. They can't do anything to us legally because we're pretty much protected from most legal prosecutions due to our subtleties with the UN at the outset of the war. They can't do anything to us economically because their economy isn't even a joke, it's annihilated due to the damages we caused in infrastructure, economic independence, and a superior dollar flooding the region. They can't do anything to us politically because we don't have to listen to them; nor does it seem we want to. They don't trust us at best and hate us at worst.You propose that this war, the war for the Iraqi people's hearts and understanding, can be won. I'm telling you, the way we played our cards, and with the ones we have left in our hand, it is impossible. There is a huge river here and you are on a donkey halfway across it, fighting the tide. I'm telling you that river will drown that ass and when the ass goes, so do you, and nobody will be in a position to save your ass. You tell me that if you don't keep going the tides will sweep you away anyhow. We're both right but you stubbornly believe the ass can keep going against impossible odds. If you cut your losses and let the tide take you away, as it inevitably will, then your ass will at least not drown and there's a slim chance you'll both come out on the other side alive, if hurt badly. If your ass drowns then you're looking at being possibly hurt badly and a drowned ass.In case you missed the metaphor, the world's opinion of us is the ass and our foreign policy is the rider.The river is the war we should be fighting and crossing the river is what we're doing (the 'war'). If we were smart, we would've just built a freaking bridge and then crossed the river instead of charging straight in without any warning to our fellow trailmates.If you can plug that river's strength with an ass, you let me know and I'll restore my faith in our political situation, because it makes about as much sense as going to war to 'bring democracy to a nation'.
roguegeniusOct 20, 2008
Surely they were throwing flowers.
roguegeniusOct 20, 2008
As opposed to us, who tell them how things are going to be to our benefit or you will be shocked and awed.