Posts by James Bremner
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Someone asked me where the numbers came from for the New Orleans / Iraq violence murder comparison. Here are articles:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107AP_Iraq_Casualty_Count.html
http://www.wafb.com/global/story.asp?s=5885002I posted the comparison to provide a data point that shows that maybe Iraq is not such a complete disaster as it is commonly held to be. All you see and hear in the media is chaos and murder and mayhem, and there is a lot of that, unfortunately far too much. But sometimes a statistic or two can cut through the noise and provide a different, perhaps more accurate perspective, that maybe things in Iraq aren't hopeless after all, that the estimates of 600, 000 dead since 2003 are wrong by several hundred percent. The Newsweek article I linked to in a previous post about Iraq's booming economy supports this alternative perspective as well.
As far as Iraq being worse now than it was before March 2003, as the UN's former Thief in Chief Kofi Annan said in his departing address, I saw the Iraqi UN Ambassador asked that exact question on CNN the day after Saddam's rope dance. The Ambassador didn't have too much time for that view!!
His answer was that most of those who said that hadn't lived under the tender mercies of Saddam Hussein and that without the invasion; Iraq had no hope of the end of that brutal nightmare. He also said that Saddam's 14 year old grandson (who was killed with Uday and Quisai) was being groomed to continue the dynasty after Saddam and Quisai's reigns came to and end so that the regime and the mass graves could have continued well into this century. The Ambassador said that while life in Iraq is difficult, now at least Iraqi have hope for a better future.
Iraq is not pretty, but I think the Pottery Barn rule applies. The US and the UK and the other forces broke it, so now they have to fix it. I think that the UK, the US have an obligation to stay and support in whatever way necessary the Iraqi government as long as is necessary.
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Michael,
Thank you. I suspect you might think that people like Noam Chomsky and Michael Moore are really smart guys, so to be called an idiot by you is a compliment.
What evidence do you have that the US is expropriating oil from the Iraqi government? I havent seen or heard of this and as such activity would justify the left's and the media's loathing of Bush and suspicions about the Iraq war, I would have expected that such information would be huge news.
And remember, this Administratin can't keep its most secret spy programs off the front pages of the New York Times, so the old "its all happening in secret" line seems most unlikely.
Also, it would be quite hard to sneek a super tanker in and out of the Houston Ship channel.
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Oh no, not the oil nonsense again. The US has been in Iraq for over 3 1/2 years now and how many barrels of oil have they expropriated? That would be none, zip, zero, nada. Iraq's oil is Iraq's oil, to do with as they please, and they are doing just that. The last time I saw some numbers, despite hopeless infrastructure the Iraqi national oil company is back close to or just above the pre 2003 production numbers and planning to greatly expand in the coming years, to sell to whomever they please. Good on them, now Iraqis can benefit from their natural resources.
Iraq is not pretty but it is not hopeless either. Read the article below.
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The Iraqi death rate number is based on the numbers released by the Iraqi Govt of people killed or murdered in Iraq last year. It is supposed to include all people killed or murdered in any kind of situation. The comparison was not based on any numbers from the US military.
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Yes, Saddam's execution might have been a bit less than tidily executed (pun intended) but that main thing is that the bastard is dead. Iraqis of all stripes need to know sure that Saddam is absolutely not going to be coming back, that he and his regime of Stalin like murdering thugs are gone forever. Saddam's execution is more likely to help Iraq move forward than cause a major problem.
The Sunnis will be pissed off about Saddam's execution, but so what? They need to get used to the idea that after centuries of being the top dogs in Iraq, they no longer call the shots.
The Listener sucked when I was a kid, and that is a long time ago. I couldn't imagine why anyone would have bought it then (1970s and 1980s) and truly can't imagine why anyone would buy it or read it now. Not a good use of your time and money!!
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Completely agree with Mark Barker's comments re: Saddam. His removal from the face of the earth improves the world we all live in. It is a shame is that it didn't happen in 1991. It is also a great shame that the justification for the current effort in Iraq descended into a pissing match about WMDs. Saddam's homicidal regime warranted being taken down for its murderous behavior alone. Milosevic got taken down (without a UN resolution) for murdering far fewer people that Saddam. If it is good enough for Slobbo, why isn't it good enough for Saddam?
Saddam's rope dance is a nice video clip for every tyrant in the world to watch and consider.
Looks like cancer is doing the same thing for Fidel and apparently Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has just bought it due to cancer. For their peoples, it was a great shame they didn't buy it a long time ago.
Since we are discussing Saddam, here is a random factoid related to Iraq, just read that New Orleans' murder rate is twice that of Iraqs'. Based on the last 6 month in New Orleans, our murder rate is 105 per 100,000 and based on the last year in Iraq, Iraqs' is 53 per 100,000. I don’t feel the least bit unsafe here. Mind you, I am not going into the ‘hood to buy crack, and we don’t have suicide bombers and IEDs here. Still, an interesting and thought provoking comparison nevertheless.
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A couple of links on subjects previously discussed on this thread.
Those cheap, nasty Americans.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/11/are_americans_cheap.html
According to the article, Americans gave $260billion to charity last year, $900 per household, 7 times what Germans give and 14 times what Italians give, so much for the "Cheap Americans" line.
Follow the link to the book "Who Really Cares", you will find all sorts of stuff like:
A religious person is 57% more likely than a secularist to help a homeless person
Conservative households in America donate 30% more money to charity each year than liberal households.
Those cheap nasty secular lefties!!Dems non-withdrawal from Iraq, Michael Moore gets boxers in bundle
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=202
"We aren't kidding around, Democrats, and if you don't believe us, just go ahead and continue this war another month. We will fight you harder than we did the Republicans."
If I was an anti war leftie, I would feel the same way. But this fight was always going to happen as about half the Dem base has always wanted out of Iraq ASAP and the other half wants something different from what there is now, but not cut and run. This is why Kerry couldn't enunciate a coherent Iraq policy in 2004, because as soon as he did, he would have pissed off half his base.
From a purely political point of view, the Dems would be mad try to preempt the Administration and cut off funding of Iraq as if they do, then they own the policy and the result. A precipitous US withdrawal from Iraq guarantees a bloodbath that will make the current level of violence seem mild by comparison, and then in 2008 the Repubs can lay the bloodbath on the Dems. The Dems are much better to leave the whole thing as Bush's problem and lay it on the Repubs in 2008.
A serious Dem catfight on Iraq, it should make for a great fight and a great spectator sport for most of the next 2 years. Also if the Dems don't push for an immediate withdrawal, it guarantees a challenger for Hillary from the left, which will be great sport too. My personal hope is that Gore runs as the Clintons and Gores truly despise each other, watching them claw at each other in the primary will be too funny!!
This is all rather cynical when so many people’s lives are at stake, but there you have it, that is politics.
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Simon,
Re: Lebanon
Here is a link to an article in The UK Times which says basically the same thing as the World Tribune article. You could find many such articles, as what both articles say is basically the consensus view as to what has happened in Lebanon.
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More on what Iran and Syria and their puppet Hezbollah are up to in Lebanon:
Hizbullah on the move after Gemayel assassination
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/06/front2454061.982638889.html
Anyone who thinks the BBC is not biased had better open their eyes, even the BBC themselves have enough self awareness to know that they are biased!!:BBC admits anti-American bias
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/06/front2454060.1166666667.html
An article on some coordinated internal resistence to the Iranian regime (about bloody time too!!)Opposition takes aim at strategic Iran sites in coordination with U.S.
Iran's opposition has been directed to strike oil facilities that finance the Teheran regime. Arab intelligence sources said Britain and the United States have been training Arab and Kurdish operatives to attack oil facilities in Iran in an attempt to destabilize the regime.
On Nov. 10, a bomb exploded in Ahwaz, the most active oil production center in Iran's Khuzestan. While no one was injured the attack was seen as a warning to Teheran that Iran's opposition was going for the jugular.The attack's timing might not have been a coincidence. Gulf Cooperation Council countries have been on alert for an Iranian strike on oil facilities. About 10 days ago, a Kuwaiti refinery exploded and was knocked out of commission.
Opposition sources said Western forces in Iraq train and finance the operatives. From there, the operatives enter Iran and train others to conduct attacks.
Ahwaz has been a prime target of the Western-backed opposition as it is in the heart of Iran and contains huge reserves.
Over the past year, Khuzestan has been rocked by Arab attacks on the Shi'ite regime in Iran. On Nov. 9, 10 people were sentenced to death for detonating bombs that killed more than 20 people in the province in 2005.
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If there was any serious doubt as to the kind of regimes and organizations Syria, Iran and Hezbollah are, that doubt should have been removed yesterday in Beirut.
Lovely people. So much for democracy and the will of the people, Iran and Syria want to effectively take over the Lebanese Govt and make it a puppet, and they will do so by assassination.
Anybody who thinks those regimes are anything other than vicious thugs is a serious deluded person. And quite possibly soon to be vicious thugs with nukes.
Anyone who thinks they can be talked to and persuaded to become a positive influence in the region is a naive fool.
The only effective communication that could be had with those regimes is in the context of holding a metaphorical gun to their heads. Iran and Syria see the US as having backed off into a waiting game in Iraq and the US Administration as weakened at home, so they believe that they can pursue their agendas, free of any risk of retaliation. Unfortunately, they are probably correct.
Until the day the regimes of Syria and Iran are either changed or have their behavior changed, we will see plenty more of what we saw yesterday. No amount of wishful thinking will change that.