NEWS: Baghdad Under "Indefinite Curfew" Following Brutal Bombings

POLITICS: Baghdad Under "Indefinite Curfew" Following Brutal Bombings

Can we call finally get over ourselves and agree that the terrorists in Iraq are really not trying to influence the election in the US? It was over weeks ago, and the bombings seem to be getting worse. The death of 144 people and the injuries of many more have led to the establishment of an "indefinite curfew" in Baghdad after a series of car bombings rattled the city.

It's time to face some serious facts about Iraq. The terrorists there don't give a shit about whatever petty partisan disputes the jackasses in Washington who started this whole mess have. These hatreds run deep and go back a very long way, and they're not disappearing any time soon. Saddam Hussein was able to hold the country together only because of his brutality; Iraq as a political entity owes less to the 20th century notion of ethnic self-determination than it does to the whims of the British who liked divvying up land in long, straight lines, regardless of who was living there. The net result is that people who really didn't get along very well and had no real reason to want to form a country were suddenly living together (this problem isn't isolated to the Middle East. And now that they're free of Hussein's oppression the more radical among them are also free to reignite those hatreds in a wave of violence difficult to comprehend.

This is what was meant by postwar planning. It's not just about how many Humvees and flak jackets are issued to soldiers policing the streets, a true understand of the history and culture of the country could have helped defuse some of these tensions before they got utterly out of control, as is the case now. Maybe Iraq needed to be split into multiple countries, maybe the government needed to be designed in a way that better represented the diverstiy of its citizens. Whatever needed to happen didn't.

Thanksgiving is an appropriate day to remember exactly what the US has wrought in Iraq. While gluttonous Americans are recovering from eating enough food to feed a family of four at a single sitting, regular, everyday people in Iraq are seeing their friends and family maimed, brutalized and murdered as a direct consequence of American action. I hope the people who planned the war enjoyed their turkey.

PART THE FIRST: I hate to say something that will make me sound like I have some opinion which I don't, but I wonder what the long-term public opinion is going to look like in regard to a "wow, it really does take a ruthless bastard to hold Iraq together. If only we could empower one..." mindset.

PART THE SECOND: Fryer and Flyer get pardoned. Pictured here: Lyer and Dyer.

There are two turkeys in that picture.

Damn, beat me to it.

Every angle I look at for Iraq is pretty scary. Another dictator that oppresses in order to stop the killing gets us back to square 1. Carving the country up might stop it, but I think parts of the country will form very close alliances with Syria and Iran, something I think the West isn't too keen on at the moment. With Lebanon destabalised as well, who knows what's going to happen next. I just hope it doesn't kick off like the whole Ethiopia/Somalia/Sudan region looks to be...

The bird on the plate was a plastic decoration

Hey, at least the Iraqis are free. Sure, they're not free to leave their own homes anymore, but THEY HAD AN ELECTION!!

I'm starting to think a closer parallel to Iraq isn't so much Vietnam as it is Yugoslavia, which was another country that just sort of glommed together ethnic groups that hate each other with no consideration.

These bombings are looking more and more like ethnic cleansing.

I don't wanna nitpick but the article you linked to said "A contractor had roasted and primped the turkey to adorn the buffet line, while the 600 soldiers were served from cafeteria-style steam trays"
Why would they roast a plastic turkey?Oops.

That's my old unit patch, man that's just 1 more reason I don't like Bush...

My little brother was in Sadr City; I was in Baghdad. Both of us are out now, him because he got in trouble, me because I slipped through the cracks and made it out before they Stoploss'ed me, making me stay in for another 4 years. I'm just glad I'm not there anymore.

I was there in 2003 and Iraqis were sick and tired of us by the time I left in November. 3 years later and we're still there... go figure.

Besides the bombings directed at the US, there really isn't a way to make Shei and Sunni live together peacefully. You'll always have the bright individual who thinks that it's his calling to blow himself up along with a bunch of women and children.

I'm just left wondering how they're going to make it work... and IF they can make it work.

All I know is that the US soldier is no longer seen as a peace keeper but an occupier. We don't have enough troops to stop the violence there, only enough to keep it going.

We don't have enough manpower in the military to send more troops. With Stop-Loss, IRR, misuse od National Guard and Reserves, high recruiting budget with lower recruiting standards, WHO THEY HELL IS GOING TO FIGHT?

The kids going right out of high school that are 18 years old were watched the planes hit the towers on tv when they were 13 years old.

We can't afford to take care of the veterans we have and only 75% of the troops that have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan are still in the active military and not part of the veteran community yet.

Time to pull out of Iraq, unless other countries and the rest of America is willing to invest in Iraq's stabalization.

sounds like "legionnaire" either isnt an American or dosn't consider himself a "gluttonous American"; so he must be in a morally superior position to judge everyone else.
So are you a French legionaire; the kind that has never won a single war or even a bar fight with a drunk handicapped kid? The kind that France sends overseas to do its dirty work and point fingers at America. Ahh the french still hiding behind foreigners to do the fighting for them.
The French Foreign Leigon - hiding and hiring Nazi's, Murderers and thugs to do France's fighting. They even attempted a coup de teat against the French government in 1972. a fine bunch of fellows to sit in jugement of the rest of the world.

Thank you so much for your service. You are one of the truely brave.

you mean the French that you relied on in the American war of independence? the French to whom America owes it's freedom from the British empire?

Sorry, I seem to have forgotten; what did Saddam Hussein (who didn't get on with Osama bin Laden) and his alledged chemical weapons factories have to do with 9/11 again?

I think it might be something more to do with Oil countries changing from Dollars to Euros maybe, which would mean the US having to give loads of gold it's "looking after" for oil producing countries back to middle eastern countries so they can lend it to someone in Europe instead. I'm sure George wouldn't have got you guys into $8.6 TRILLION dollars of debt, just because of a few chemical weapons and highly dubious links if there wasn't money in it for either the US in general, or him and a few close buddies. His buddies have already made some extra cash in price rises.

PLEASE NOTE: this isn't an attack on you personally; I'm sure you joined the army for noble reasons and have to do a very hard job for the man who seems to be one of the biggest threats to world peace. At least his crazy mate's resigned now

I'm also not implying the UK is much better since we sold him the chemical weapons he gassed the Kurds with, and kept selling it to him knowingly afterwards. It's only when we can't find his own chem weapons factories that we suddenly became all moralistic and supposedly had originally invaded "for moral reasons" and for the good of people like the Kurds. Yeah, right!

"Prove to me sir that you are not French."

You're dumb and have a bad memory. George Washington and Mel Gibson won that war with one rusty knife and a musket. I think Mel's son was there and he died, making Mel really mad. But the point is the French were busy getting beaten by Hitler when it happened, and after we drove the Brits out of our house (booyah!) we jumped across the pond and kicked Nazi ass. I think that was mostly John Wayne, maybe partnered with Steve McQueen?

You can spot the Sunni car bombs by the "Pelosi in '08" bumper stickers. It's a fact.

Just out of curiosity, were you high when you posted that? Or do you babble on incessantly about nothing in particular all the time?

A "coup de teat"? Wow, that sounds sexy.

Also, I don't think Turkey would be too happy about having a Kurdish state on their border.

Let's just profusely apologize for fucking up their country, promise to never do it again, then get our people the hell out of there.

Ah hah hah hah!! Touche!!!

General Pershing in Paris puts it best: "Lafayette, we are here!"

Francophobia barely existed 60 years ago. I don't know if it was just a clash of egos between world leaders, contempt for the collaborationists, or the belief that two world wars had returned the favor, but Americans have forgotten the love they once had for the French.

I can only assume Nero didn't get much out of American history, I went to a damn fine public school and don't recall much talk about the French Army, or the French Navy- We could argue about infantry all day, but the French Navy's role in the War is undeniable. The surrender at Yorktown, for example: Cornwallis was trapped in the city, and the French Navy was at his back, blocking his only chance at rescue- the British Man O' Wars.

Do they still teach that the Statue of Liberty was a gift from France?

Washington had two pairs of testicles, so divine.