Dancing in the streets, part Deux!

[Frozzy]

Also into hospitals, nothing to do with the Ba'ath party.

As a conservative... go Iraqi dancers!!!

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Damn those looters. I say get rid of the liberals.


Ohh, I guess you were talking about the looters in Bagdad and not the Ayn Rand version.

[Lincoln]

Almost any order is better than none. Let this be a lesson to the anarchists out there. People are basically greedy and depraved. We would see the same thing in America if the laws were suspended for a day. Of course some would show restraint just as they do in Iraq and then order would be restored one way or another. Anarchy does not work. Freedom is a very fragile thing.

[Spiffor]

I've seen on TV today the army told it could do some police in a few weeks. I wonder if it'll be able to protect a massive humanitarian help in a few days though : the Iraqis need such an aid as an emergency, and very little has arrived yet. The general insecurity makes humanitarian convoys prone to looting, and I don't know whether the army will make any significant effort in straightening this out.

[Andrew1999]

Everybody do the looter dance!



Meanwhile Rumsfeld is just getting weirder and weirder:

US Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld has denied Iraq was falling into chaos, describing the scenes of looting as "untidy".

"Free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things," he told reporters.

I guess we really are living in a fascist dictatorship here in America. I certainly don't feel free to smash the windows over at Best Buy and take that new stereo I want.

[chequita guevara]

All this, and Andy Rooney

Just Tell Us The Truth
NEW YORK, April 6, 2003

A weekly commentary by CBS News Correspondent Andy
Rooney.
===

I've lived a long while now and I don't remember any
more unpleasant times than these. I'm not even
interested in reading the sports pages. I hate
everything about this war except that we're winning
it.

You can't even be critical, either, without sounding
unpatriotic. It's why Peter Arnett got fired by NBC
for speaking on Iraqi television.

I'm patriotic but I wish our government would stop
treating this war as if they had to sell it to us with
slick advertising slogans.

The White House Web site puts out a bulletin about the
war with this headline: OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM.

Come on, all we want is the news, not a sales pitch.

They called our bombing campaign against Baghdad
"Shock and Awe."

After the UN refused to approve the war, our
government put together a list of countries it said
supported us. They called it a "coalition of the
willing."

The generals don't talk about American soldiers. It's
always "coalition forces."

It's as if there were no Americans there.

Reporters have been sucked into it, too.

The word makes it sound as though we're just a few
countries short of having the whole world on our side,
and that isn't true. Most of the world is against us.
The Administration says 49 countries are part of the
coalition. I see that Eritrea, Uganda and Iceland are
on our side.

The fact is, though, we're in this thing with the
British, who have 45,000 soldiers there, and the
Australians, who have 2,000. That's it. The other 46
wish us well or let us fly bombers over their country.
Big deal.

We've practically bribed some of them. We offered
Turkey $15 billion to let our troops go through there
but they refused. President Bush won't be sending the
president of Turkey anything for his birthday this
year.

There aren't any good wars, but this one is especially
bad. We want to win it quickly without more death but
we're grown-up people, too. The President, Rumsfeld
and the generals ought to stop treating us like
children. Tell us the truth. We can take it even when
it's bad.

And the only real good news will be when this terrible
time in American history is over.

[Jaguar]

US Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld?

[Jaguar]

That's in response to Andrew, of course.

[GhengisFarb™]

Originally posted by Andrew1999
I guess we really are living in a fascist dictatorship here in America. I certainly don't feel free to smash the windows over at Best Buy and take that new stereo I want.

Good point, I hadn't thought of that. Now where did I put that 2X4? Daddy needs a new PC...........

[Andrew1999]

Originally posted by Jaguar Warrior
US Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld?

Doh, you're right. Blame the BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2938535.stm

[Lancer]

Obiwan!



Thanks to president Bush and the US armed forces the Iraqi liberals will soon be free to ***** like a US liberal.

Like our liberals, French liberals, German liberals, they'll have the US military to thank for their ability to ***** ***** *****.

For me, I'd rather...



with the free people of Iraq!

Thank you US military!

[MichaeltheGreat]

Who's dancing today? I suppose the crewman of the M2 Bradley that ran over a command detonated mind danced a bit while becoming a crispy critter.

I suppose the Iraqi *******s who tripped that command detonated mine danced that they took out a US IFV and it's crew.

In Najaf they did a little tribal sword dance. Of course, the good news is they got rid of the mullah that was Saddam's boy. The bad news is they also got rid of the mullah that was our boy. Now it remains to be seen if who's left is their own boy, or is Ayatollah Muhammad Ali Khamanei getting down in Tehran?

Kids and old people are dying from lack of water, patients in hospitals are dying from lack of medical care, due to lack of supplies, and doctors and nurses afraid to leave their homes and families. Aaaah, it's good to be free. Free of Saddam, free to be killed by any ******* with a Kalashnikov. Free to try to figure out who's coming out on top of a hundred or more little power struggles. Free to no longer be extorted by Baath party members and their henchmen, and free to be extorted by former Baath party members and their henchmen.

And never forget, free to be occupied by a foreign military power.

[Shi Huangdi]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
Who's dancing today?

The Iraqi people are. They are being given a chance at freedom. A long and awful era in which they suffered under Saddam is over. No doubt there is hardship that comes with war. No doubt there is difficulty ahead. No doubt there road forward is fraught with the danger. But at leas they now have a chance. It will not be easy, but now they have a chance of going down the road towards a democracy. And whatever happens, their cruel overlord who imprisoned them for so long is vanquished. The Iraqi people are able to dance and celebrate this. But I guess that is beyond what you can do; it is beyond you to grasp what the Iraqi people grasp and to feel what they feel.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Shi Huangdi
The Iraqi people are.

Really?



Let's dance.



Thumbs up! (wonder how many Americans know what that means when done by an arab?)



Dancing while looting the German embassy - of course, it's a Baathist government facility, like the hospitals, private homes, and every other place that's being looted.

In case you hadn't paid any attention, people weren't out dancing today. Instead, the ingrates are *****ing about food, water, medical aid, security. At least the ones who aren't busy looting are doing that.

They are being given a chance at freedom. A long and awful era in which they suffered under Saddam is over. No doubt there is hardship that comes with war. No doubt there is difficulty ahead. No doubt there road forward is fraught with the danger. But at leas they now have a chance. It will not be easy, but now they have a chance of going down the road towards a democracy. And whatever happens, their cruel overlord who imprisoned them for so long is vanquished.

Great speech. You might have a future ahead of yourself in politics. For a lot of Iraqis, your "chance" won't mean much when they start burying their kids, due to lack of food and water. They're doing that now. Many cities have been without water for over a week now. I guess you can drink raw river water, too bad you're downstream from the entire agricultural center of the country, not that they have much. But a little biological matter in your water never hurt much, huh? You could always boil it, if you had electricity or fuel.

But I guess that is beyond what you can do; it is beyond you to grasp what the Iraqi people grasp and to feel what they feel.

Telhasi tizi.

I'm so glad that people like you can speak for the Iraqis - at least those few you like seeing. It must feel great to congratulate yourself for sitting in comfortable Pittsburgh with electricity, running water and food, watching a few hundred people in a city of five million jumping up and down over tearing down a statue, three miles from where a US Marine was being killed and 22 others wounded. Not to mention that pesky suicide bomber, or the guys who planted the command detonated mine that killed another American soldier today. Let's ignore how many of them are dying daily from that inconvenient bit about "hardships." Let's ignore that quite a few seem ready to keep killing us, at least one or two at a time. Forget those who were dancing in Safwan saying "We are ready to die for you, Saddam" repeatedly. Keep that little mental picture of those who were dancing in the square when the Saddam statue was taken down. Your little speech and that mental picture may come in really handy in the coming months, so you can maintain your comfortable view. After all, you know what the Iraqis are feeling.

Let's not consider that maybe they're celebrating just as much that with us controlling most of Baghdad, we won't be bombing or shooting their asses anymore. Democracy? We're a foreign invader with guns. They're third world people lacking food, water and jobs. We're going to install a defacto occupation government, then we're going to delegate some (gradually more, one would hope) tasks to a provisional Iraqi government for which we vette the eligible participants. Then somewhere down the road, hopefully, the Iraqis will be able to do something else, if Chalabi or an Iranian sponsored cleric doesn't have other plans. Meanwhile, if they don't get food or water, or jobs, then democracy, if or when it happens, won't mean squat.

[Lincoln]

I think Dan Rather is retiring Mike. Maybe there is a job opening for you. And bring your pictures!