I know I do a lot of moaning about the lies that led us into Iraq, and the lack of improvement... So how about I approach it differently this time?
Courtesy of WorldPublicOpinion.org.
A new poll of the Iraqi public finds that a large majority of Iraqis think the US plans to maintain bases in Iraq permanently, even if the newly elected government asks the US to leave. A large majority favors setting a timeline for the withdrawal of US forces, though this majority divides over whether the timeline should be over a period of six months or two years. Nearly half of Iraqis approve of attacks on US-led forces—including nine out of 10 Sunnis.
and there's more!
Overall, 47% say they approve of “attacks on US-led forces” (23% strongly). There are huge differences between ethnic groups. An extraordinary 88% of Sunnis approve, with 77% approving strongly. Forty-one percent of Shia approve as well, but just 9% strongly. Even 16% of Kurds approve (8% strongly)...
PIPA(Program on International Policy Attitudes, University of Maryland) Director Steven Kull comments, “It appears that support for attacks on US-led forces may not always be prompted by a desire for the US to leave Iraq immediately but rather to put pressure on the US to leave eventually—something most Iraqis perceive the US as having no intention of doing.”
Support for other types of attacks is sharply lower. An overwhelming 93% oppose attacks on Iraqi government security forces (66% strongly). This is true of all ethnic groups, including 76% of Sunnis, 97% of Shia and 99% of Kurds. Thus, it appears that support for attacks on US-led forces is truly aimed at US-led forces, not an indirect attempt to undermine the new Iraqi government.
Support for attacks on Iraqi civilians is nearly nonexistent. Only 1% approve, while 95% disapprove strongly.
I've added the bold for the good bits...
Why would they feel so strongly against Americans? Certainly not because we are occupying their territory, destroying their resources and areas with a strong heritage for them. We've refused to bomb the Ziggurat of Ur, as an architectural monument, but we continued to bomb the surrounding countryside, where there may still be ruins of the City-State of Ur, of countless archeological and cultural significance.
We disturb their daily lives. Please read Riverbend's blog for an Iraqi perspective. There's so much good stuff to be read in there its UNBELIEVABLE. You really should read the entire post, but here is a (abridged by me) account of a raid.
J. suddenly looked alert and made a sort of “Uh-oh” sound as she remembered something. “R.- will you check the telephone next to you?” I picked up the ordinary telephone next to me and held my breath, waiting for a dial tone. Nothing.
“There’s no dial tone… but there was one earlier today- I was online…”
J. frowned and turned down the radio. “The last time this happened,” she said, “the area was raided.” The room was suddenly silent and we strained our ears. Nothing. I could hear a generator a couple of streets away, and I also heard the distant barking of a dog- but there was nothing out of the ordinary.
T. suddenly sat up straight, “Do you hear that?” She asked, wide-eyed. At first I couldn’t hear anything and then I caught it- it was the sound of cars or vehicles- moving slowly.
....
We heard Ammoo(uncle) S. unlocking 5 different locks on the kitchen door. “What’s he doing?” T. asked, “Shouldn’t he keep the doors locked?” We were looking out the window and there was the glow of lights a few streets away. I couldn’t see exactly where they came from, as several houses were blocking our view, but we could tell something extraordinary was going on in the neighborhood. The sound of vehicles was getting louder, and it was accompanied by the sound of clanging doors and lights that would flash every once in a while.
...My aunt was seething quietly, “This is the third time the bastards raid the area in 2 months… We’ll never get any peace or quiet…”
...
I stood awkwardly, watching them make preparations. J. was already in her room changing- she called out for us to do the same, “They’ll come in the house- you don’t want to be wearing pajamas…”
“Why, will they have camera crews with them?” T. smiled wanly, attempting some humor. No, J. replied, her voice muffled as she put on a sweater, “Last time they made us wait outside in the cold.” I listened for Ammoo S. and heard him outside, taking the big padlock off of the gate in the driveway. “Why are you unlocking everything J.?” I called out in the dark.
“The animals will break down the doors if they aren’t open in three seconds and then they’ll be all over the garden and house… last time they pushed the door open on poor Abu H. three houses down and broke his shoulder…”
It was nearly 4 am.
Meanwhile, the noises outside had gotten louder as the raid got closer. Every once in a while, you could hear voices calling out for people to open a door or the sharp banging of a rifle against a door.
Last time they had raided my aunts area, they took away four men on their street alone. Two of them were students in their early twenties- one a law student, and the other an engineering student, and the third man was a grandfather in his early sixties. There was no accusation, no problem- they were simply ordered outside, loaded up into a white pickup truck and driven away with a group of other men from the area. Their families haven’t heard from them since and they visit the morgue almost daily in anticipation of finding them dead.
We waited. And waited… I began nodding off and my dreams were interspersed with troops and cars and hooded men. I woke to the sound of T. saying, “They’re almost here…” And lifted my head, groggy with what I thought was at least three hours of sleep. I squinted down at my watch and noted it was not yet 5 am. “Haven’t they gotten to us yet?” I asked.
It came ten minutes later. A big clanging sound on the garden gate and voices yelling “Ifta7u [OPEN UP]”. I heard my uncle outside, calling out, “We’re opening the gate, we’re opening…” It was moments and they were inside the house. Suddenly, the house was filled with strange men, yelling out orders and stomping into rooms. It was chaotic. We could see flashing lights in the garden and lights coming from the hallways. I could hear Ammoo S. talking loudly outside, telling them his wife and the ‘children’ were the only ones in the house. What were they looking for? Was there something wrong? He asked.
Suddenly, two of them were in the living room. We were all sitting on the sofa, near my aunt. My cousin B. was by then awake, eyes wide with fear. They were holding large lights or ‘torches’ and one of them pointed a Klashnikov at us. “Is there anyone here but you and them?” One of them barked at my aunt. “No- it’s only us and my husband outside with you- you can check the house.” T.’s hands went up to block the glaring light of the torch and one of the men yelled at her to put her hands down, they fell limply in her lap. I squinted in the strong light and as my sight adjusted, I noticed they were wearing masks, only their eyes and mouths showing. I glanced at my cousins and noted that T. was barely breathing. J. was sitting perfectly still, eyes focused on nothing in particular, I vaguely noted that her sweater was on backwards.
One of them stood with the Klashnikov pointed at us, and the other one began opening cabinets and checking behind doors. We were silent. The only sounds came from my aunt, who was praying in a tremulous whisper and little B., who was sucking away at his thumb, eyes wide with fear. I could hear the rest of the troops walking around the house, opening closets, doors and cabinets.
Suddenly, someone called out something from outside and it was over. They began rushing to leave the house, almost as fast as they’d invaded it. Doors slamming, lights dimming.
“Where’s baba?” J. asked, panicking for a moment before we heard his slippered feet in the driveway. “Did they take him?” Her voice was getting higher. Ammoo S. finally walked into the house, looking weary and drained. I could tell his face was pale even in the relative dark of the house. My aunt sat sobbing quietly in the living room, T. comforting her. “Houses are no longer sacred… We can’t sleep… We can’t live… If you can’t be safe in your own house, where can you be safe? The animals… the bastards…”
We found out a few hours later that one of our neighbors, two houses down, had died. Abu Salih was a man in his seventies and as the Iraqi mercenaries raided his house, he had a heart-attack. His grandson couldn’t get him to the hospital on time because the troops wouldn’t let him leave the house until they’d finished with it.
Wait a minute... Is this really doing the Iraqi people any good? Is terrorizing them in the name of "security" either by US troops, or Iraqi led troops REALLY going to help? Are we REALLY capturing insurgents and terrorists on these raids? Or are we just demeaning the people to keep them scared of us?
Most of the Iraq veterans I've talked to report this, especially the growing mount of discontent in the US soldiers being there. It was said at the war's start that the worst case would be civil war, and now we have our country primed for political upheaval. It's a lose-lose situation for the US, and marines will keep dying until the government makes the right decision.
It is a civil war already!
Last year, John Kerry commented on the what the military was doing that was adding to the problem and the republican-corporate media jumped all over him for actually calling a spade a spade. So I decided to use the thesaurus to see if there is a term other than "terrorize" to mean exactly what it says without the misuse of saying "terrorists". This is what I came up with.
http://thesaurus.reference.com/search?q=terrorize
verb
Definition: upset
Synonyms: alarm, appall, awe, bludgeon, browbeat, bulldoze, bully, bullyrag, coerce, cow, dismay, dragoon, fright, frighten, hector, horrify, intimidate, menace, oppress, petrify, scare, shock, spook, startle, strike terror, strong-arm, terrify, threaten
bully
Part of Speech: verb
Definition: intimidate
bludgeon, bluster, browbeat, buffalo, bulldoze, coerce, cow, despotize, domineer, dragoon, enforce, harass, hector, jackboot, lean on, lord over, menace, oppress, overbear, persecute, push around, ride roughshod, showboat, swagger, terrorize, threaten, torment, torture, tyrannize, walk heavy
coerce
Part of Speech: verb
Definition: compel
Synonyms: beset, browbeat, bulldoze, bully, concuss, constrain, cow, dragoon, drive, force, high pressure, hinder, impel, intimidate, lean on, make, menace, oblige, press, pressurize, push, repress, restrict, shotgun, strong-arm, suppress, terrorize, threaten, urge
frighten
Part of Speech: verb
Definition: scare
Synonyms: affright, agitate, alarm, appal, astound, awe, browbeat, buffalo, bulldoze, chill, cow, daunt, demoralize, deter, discomfort, disconcert, discourage, dishearten, dismay, disquiet, disturb, faze, horrify, intimidate, panic, perturb, petrify, repel, scare away, scare off, scare stiff, shock, spook, startle, terrify, terrorize, unhinge, unman, unnerve
haunt
Part of Speech: verb 1
Definition: spirit
Synonyms: agitate, agonize, annoy, appall, appear, bedevil, beset, besiege, come back, craze, disquiet, dwell, float, frighten, harass, harrow, hoodoo, hound, hover, infest, inhabit, intrude, madden, manifest, materialize, molest, nettle, obsess, overrun, permeate, pervade, pester, plague, possess, prey on, rack, reappear, recur, return, rise, spook, stay with, tease, terrify, terrorize, torment, trouble, vex, voodoo, walk, weigh on, worry
horrify
Part of Speech: verb
Definition: scare
Synonyms: affright, alarm, appall, chill off, consternate, daunt, disgust, dismay, frighten, intimidate, outrage, petrify, shake, shock, sicken, terrify, terrorize
menace
Part of Speech: verb
Definition: frighten
Synonyms: alarm, bad eye, bother, browbeat, bully, chill, compromise, endanger, hazard, impend, imperil, intimidate, jeopardize, jeopardy, lean on, loom, lower, overhang, peril, portend, push around, risk, scare, spook, terrorize, threaten, torment, whip around
SO R-W Corporate MEDIA if you are reading this site, take a look at any of those definitions. And then take a look at this: Dictatorships shelter terrorists, feed resentment and radicalism, and seek weapons of mass destruction. Democracies replace resentment with hope, respect the rights of their citizens and their neighbors..."
So IS that what they're doing? It's a matter of RIGHT and WRONG, media representatives, and the behavior of this administration towards its citizens and the citizens of the world is morally, ethically wrong. AND there is no possible way that these actions are spreading democracy
Now do your job and start reporting the absolute moral decay that has permeated every action of this administration. You owe it to us and you need to stop giving us platitudes about 'most trusted...' when we all know you're hiding more than you're telling!
And while you're at it, you can humbly beg OUR FORGIVENESS of YOUR SINS!
Personally, I feel we should take control of their oil fields to pay for the debt of freeing their country. I mean we might as well get some cash so we can throw it at something else. Why not? Whose with me!?
First I’d like to ask you just how scientifically sound the findings of this poll are? All of the legitimate polls I’ve ever seen state clearly whether they were scientific polls or not, but I can’t seem to find this anywhere here or on their site. They state how many people were included in their poll, but there is nothing to suggest that they didn’t select participants to include that supported their agenda. If I’m going to trust numbers I want to make sure they’re numbers that are trustworthy. Otherwise, I’d just be another spoon-fed lemming.
Second; regarding the story you posted, how is it that this entire family was up and wide awake at 4:00 a.m. and yet surprised that there was silence in the neighborhood? Based on conversations I’ve had with people over there, most Iraqi’s are sound asleep at that time of night, just as we are.
Likewise, according to this story these so-called “Iraqi mercenaries” were carrying Klashnikovs. But the NEW U.S. trained Iraqi forces don’t carry Klashnikovs. Furthermore, one of the major concerns of those training the NEW Iraqi military is to instill in them that need to refrain from just this sort of behavior. I know this because I personally know members of one of the (ISF) Training Teams. So, perhaps, like several others, this is actually a story that was carried over from Saddam’s regime and is just conveniently being used to give the impression that our troops are training their troops to be brutes.
I have just one more thing. How can you justify your claim that we are “…destroying their resources and areas with a strong heritage for them.” when the fact is since the United States Armed Forces entered Iraq there have been massive improvements in the living conditions for millions of Iraqis? For instance are you familiar with the fact that US forces have completed roughly 35,000 projects in Iraq, including renovating and/or building more than 2,400 schools that had either been neglected during Saddam’s rule or non-existant? And they've now trained more than 133,000 teachers and administrators.
Were you also aware that US forces have opened or reopened more than 240 hospitals and 1,200 clinics and In 2005 alone, USAID-supported emergency campaigns immunized 98 percent of Iraqi children between 1-5 years old (3.62 million) against measles, mumps, and rubella. Or that USAID partners have trained more than 2,500 primary health care workers to expand access to essential primary health care services unavailable to most Iraqi’s during Saddam’s regime?
Has it escaped you that in 2002, Baghdad had access to electricity 24 hours a day but the rest of Iraq was limited to 3-6 hours a day and that currently, all 18 governorates receive nearly 14 hours of electricity daily, an incredible improvement for a country emerging from decades of conflict and little investment or improvements made for the people of Iraq.
Prior to 2003 most outlying communities of Iraq had no access to or provision of clean potable water. Indeed many of Iraq's waterways were contaminated with refuse and sewage. Now, over 4 million Iraqis who had no clean drinking water in 2002 now have safe, potable water piped to their homes following USAID efforts to refurbish water treatment plants in 15 cities and that the new and rehabilitated sewage treatment plants throughout Iraq process a total of 339.7 million gallons daily.
All this positive work and more is being done by our Military Service Members who are under attack as much, if not more here at home than they are over there. If you weren’t aware of these positive success stories in Iraq, it’s only because the media here has a political agenda that demands making sure you only know the negative bits and pieces of news about what’s happening over there, combined with a touch of fiction for effect. That means that what you've posted here may "really" be what someone wants Americans to believe, but there's no TRUTH to back it up.
PIPA is a pretty credible organ so I'll tend to give credence to their polls. As to your assertions that everything is just peachy in Iraq and the 'good news' you cite isn't getting out there, care to provide some links? Oh, but if your sources are Rush, Sean, Bill, or any of their ilk, just keep steppin'.
You chickenhawks (I noticed you claim to "know" people over there but don't speak from any personal experience - typical) sure were happy when the media's political agenda tilted your way. Remember all the cheerleading the news outlets were doing in the run-up to and the beginning of the invasion? The fearmongering about stockpiles of WMD and mushroom clouds? Remember how anyone who DARED to criticize the war was demonized as unpatriotic and anti-American? Dixie Chicks? Freedom Fries? Any of that ring a bell?
I sure remember it.
Believe it or not, not every mother of a troop is dreaming of being hugged by Michael Moore or showcased alongside Cindy Sheehan. There are a good many of us who feel nothing but pity for Cindy and pray her family will have her committed so she can get the help she needs. And we fully recognize Moore as another greasy Hollywood liar who has used the attacsk on 9/11 and the War on Terror to line his greedy pockets. In case you weren't aware of it, which you obviously weren't, here is just a small sample of what HAS BEEN FOUND in Iraq since our troops got there.
• Found: 1.77 metric tons of enriched uranium (I'm sure Saddam planned to use this for all the nuclear power plants Iraq did NOT have.)
• Found: 1,500 gallons of chemical weapons (oops that must have been an oversight)
• Found: Roadside bomb loaded with sarin gas
• Found: 1,000 radioactive materials--ideal for radioactive dirty bombs (I'm sure Saddam planned to use this for the million and ten x-ray machines Iraq hospitals didn't have)
• Found: 17 chemical warheads--some containing cyclosarin, a nerve agent five times more powerful than sarin
and the list goes on...
Before you get all bent out of shape and go into a panic over the source of this information it was provided by Richard Miniter, in his recent New York Times best seller book titled "Disinformation" He is an internationally recognized expert on terrorism. I suggest you read up on this man before you prejudge him as a right wing nut, because he's anything but. Once you find out who he is, you might check out the link to his book where you'll find some even more enlightening information about how the Media is attempting to undermine the War on Terror. http://www.richardminiter.com/
Oh, this information has also been confirmed by the Department of Defense.
You can mock all you want, but I still think that anyone who is so wrapped up in their political agenda that they either can't or won't take the time to find out the truth about this war and what it may very well have prevented is a lazy, unpatriotic, anti-American.