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Off-Topic Discussions
Another view from a Reagan conservative...
************************************************** Will Neocon Fanaticism Destroy America? By Paul Craig Roberts. September 19, 2005 (Dr. Roberts, a former Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal and a former Contributing Editor of National Review, was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during the Reagan administration) The "cakewalk war" is now two and one-half years old. US casualties (dead and wounded) number 20,000. As 20,000 is the number of Iraqi insurgents according to US military commanders, each insurgent is responsible for one US casualty. US troops in Iraq number about 150,000. Obviously, US troops have not inflicted 150,000 casualties on the Iraqi insurgents. US troops have perhaps inflicted 150,000 casualties on the Iraqi civilian population, primarily women and children who are the "collateral damage" of the "righteous" and "virtuous" US invasion that is spreading civilian deaths all over Mesopotamia in the name of democracy. What could the US have possibly done to give America a worse name than to invade Iraq and murder its citizens? According to the September 1 Manufacturing & Technology News, the Government Accounting Office has reported that over the course of the cakewalk war, the US military’s use of small caliber ammunition has risen to 1.8 billion rounds. Think about that number. If there are 20,000 insurgents, it means US troops have fired 90,000 rounds at each insurgent. [U.S. Ammo Industry Can't Keep Up] Very few have been hit. We don’t know how many. To avoid the analogy with Vietnam, until last week the US military studiously avoided body counts. If 2,000 insurgents have been killed, each death required 900,000 rounds of ammunition. The combination of US government-owned ammo plants and those of US commercial producers together cannot make bullets as fast as US troops are firing them. The Bush administration has had to turn to foreign producers such as Israel Military Industries. Think about that. Hollowed out US industry cannot produce enough ammunition to defeat a 20,000 man insurgency. US military analysts are beginning to wonder if the US has been defeated by the insurgency. Increasingly, Bush administration spokesmen sound like "Baghdad Bob." On September 19 the Washington Post reported that US military spinmeister Major General Rick Lynch declared "great success" against the insurgency that had just inflicted the worst casualties of the war, including a three-day mortar attack on the "safe" Green Zone. Anthony Cordesman, a military expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC, says: "We can’t secure the airport road, can’t stop the incoming (mortar rounds) into the Green Zone, can’t stop the killings and kidnappings." The insurgency controls most of Baghdad and the Sunni provinces. With its judgment lost to frustration, the US military has 40,000 Iraqis in detention--twice the number of estimated insurgents. Who are these detainees? According to the Washington Post, "Many of the men detained in Tall Afar last week were rounded up on the advice of local teenagers who had stepped forward as informants, at times for what American soldiers said they suspected amounted to no more than settling local scores." Obviously, the US, not knowing who or where the insurgents are, is just striking blindly, creating a larger insurgency. The Iraq government, despite being backed by the US military, is unable to control movements across the Iraqi - Syrian border. So the Bush administration has passed the buck to Syria. Puny Syria is declared guilty of not doing what the US military cannot do. Adam Ereli, the demented US State Department spokesperson, denounced the Syrian government for "permitting" insurgents to cross the border. The US government cannot prevent a steady stream of one million Mexicans from illegally crossing its border each year, but Syria is supposed to be able to stop a couple hundred foreign fighters from sneaking across its border. Ereli misrepresents Syria’s inability to be "an unwillingness" which indicates that Syria is consorting with terrorists, not only in Iraq, but also in Lebanon and Palestine. Does this sound like Syria being set up for invasion? According to news reports, at Ted Forstmann’s annual meeting of movers and shakers last weekend, US Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, predicted that US troops will soon enter into Syria. Simultaneously, the Bush administration is desperately trying to orchestrate a case that it can use to attack Iran. Stalemated in Iraq, the White House moron intends to attack two more countries. At the Human Rights Conference on September 9, the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad, described Americans as "people with blood-soaked hands." "Who are the terrorists," asked Mahathir, the Iraqis or the Americans? The entire world is asking this question. . Posted by: Rich on Sun 9.25 6:54am
Great article. The neocon fantasy /is/ destroying america. Curious he didn't get into the dollar costs of the war.
I'm no geopolitical expert, but on its face neoconservativsm seemed hopelessly foolish. Who is really destroying america is the dopey ditto head "conservatives" who are too intellectually lazy to question the true motives for the war, and brand those who do as "unamerican". _________________ "Can the Republicans please produce one serious fucking candidate?" - Dr. Freedom Posted by: BIORsGhost on Sun 9.25 7:21am
Rich,
Yeah, the military claiming 'great success' is now sounding like the Bush Administration telling the New Orleans victims that help is there, it's coming. Yeah, right. Good article. In a little over 2 weeks we will have the Iraqi people voting on the constitution. I wonder how our state sponsored Iraqi tv is spinning it? Scarlet, PbD _________________ The bubble certainly doesn't speak for me! Posted by: Scarlet, PbD on Mon 9.26 6:31pm
Good article. In a little over 2 weeks we will have the Iraqi people voting on the constitution. I wonder how our state sponsored Iraqi tv is spinning it? Scarlet, PbD
-------------------------------------------- Well--I think the concern is that--if the election is fair--that it only takes 3 out out of the 18 provinces in Iraq voting against the constitution to reject it. I understand the Sunnis control at least 3 provinces and that group is against the constitution as written. I guess we'll see... . Posted by: Rich on Mon 9.26 7:18pm
Good article. In a little over 2 weeks we will have the Iraqi people voting on the constitution. I wonder how our state sponsored Iraqi tv is spinning it? Scarlet, PbD
---------------------------------------------- it's a damn sight better than 30 years of dictorial fiat by the Hussein crime family. /ducks Posted by: DrFreedom on Mon 9.26 7:22pm
it's a damn sight better than 30 years of dictorial fiat by the Hussein crime family.
***** Hell on Earth is still hell on Earth, no matter which dictator they are under. _________________ Orionova, PbD The Selkirk Grace Some hae meat and canna eat, And some wad eat that want it; But we hae meat, and we can eat, Sae let the Lord be thankit. http://orionova89.blogspot.com/ Posted by: Orionova on Mon 9.26 7:30pm
Rich,
I think the Sunni's control 4 provinces and they need 3 to stop the constitution. You're right - if the voting is fair - who knows what the hell is going on in Iraq these days - then they may oppose it and vote it down. In that case, they disolve everything and start over from scratch. I'm sure we've paid off the right people - I mean, if they can fix our elections, Iraq should be a cinch. Scarlet, PbD _________________ The bubble certainly doesn't speak for me! Posted by: Scarlet, PbD on Mon 9.26 8:17pm
"Hell on Earth is still hell on Earth, no matter which dictator they are under"
__________________________________________________ Seems like all they did was trade one nightmare for another. DocF, suppose the Iraqi government turns out to be a theocracy mirroring Iran. What will happen to those who are not Muslim? _________________ "I'm for assisted suicide, starting with goob" Posted by: kissimmeefla on Mon 9.26 8:25pm
it's a damn sight better than 30 years of dictorial fiat by the Hussein crime family. Posted by: DrFreedom () on Mon 9.26 8:22pm
------------------------------------------------ Let me ask--how many deaths caused by the US provoked war is it worth to say that the Iraqis are able to vote...? We only have estimates since the Pentagon refused to do body counts except for American soldiers--but has this entire debacle been worth the tens of thousands of innocent lives that it has cost...? If so--why didn't we nuke the Russians 30 years ago to give the communist countries the ability to vote..? Same logic.... . Posted by: Rich on Tue 9.27 1:24am
You can't win wars, you can only not lose them.
_________________ Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? Posted by: Paul on Tue 9.27 8:09am
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