NEWS: What Up Baghdad?

POLITICS: What Up Baghdad?

I don’t know if you’ve been reading the news lately, but we’ve basically won the war in Iraq. Yep, the surge has worked, Iraqi refugees are returning home in droves and all is well. So, I thought I should bring you up to date on some of the awesome news.

First, let’s start with the refugees returning. According to the Iraqi and US governments, 1,600 refugees are returning to Baghdad each day. Fucking sweet! We are winning!

Boo. Liberal press, Democrats hate the troops, etc. You get what I’m trying to say.

Okay, so the number is apparently less than the reported 1,600 per day. And the government is not really keeping track of who the people are, so some of the returnees are actually terrorists, blah, blah, blah. The numbers a little off, right? I’m sure not by much.

Well, shit at least people are coming back, right? No matter how small the number, at least it’s positive!

Yeah, but, but..people are still living in Iraq. They are still there, you liberal fucks!

I’m just going to move on because naysayers and America haters have attacked this topic. The surge is working, which means Iraqi politicians can to come together and start hammering out solutions.

Well, who cares about the Sunnis? They are only like 2% of the population or something. At least now that the surge has worked, people can return to their normal lives.

Honestly, why can’t we just focus on the surge and how great it is going? After four years of war, the sewer system is a bit fucked up, yes. Only 30 to 40 percent of Baghdad sewage pumps are working, which is better than zero. Come on, the glass is half full. Or 40% full.

Yes, but now we can actually fix the fucking problem, right?

Yes, yes, fine. But the surge is working and now we can fix everything. We just need the money to get the repairs done.

Granted that sounds bad, but less people are dying from bullets and bombs. How about somebody throw a smiley face around? Or put a fucking gold star on top of a report? Instead of all this dark cloud bullshit.

Hello? Surge? Working?

So, now you are mad at some guy because he learned to be an entrepreneur? Really? That is pretty anti-American. Let’s just focus on one word: Surge. Okay? Good?

Oh, fuck off. Liberal asshole reporters.

Fine, you hate America. I get it. Anything else you want to throw in before you lose the war?

Blow me.

FearTheReaper is excited that Bush finally got around to doing what he should have done the first week. But four years is too late.

I'm actually getting to the point where I'm feigning ignorance to the point that I outright deny the existence of the war at all.

Ignorance is bliss, right? Oh shit...that's like a republican campaign bumper sticker. I'm going to go admonish myself now...

*grumble* f##kin' war *mutter*

FYI, the first thing my girlfriend and I do on Saturday morning every week is read the Asshole Fuckface Roundup. I ♥ U, FTR.

ANYWAY. I understand where you are coming from in this article... that the media is being fairly sensationalist regarding the fuck up that is Iraq. I still feel like we never should've been there in the first place. At the same time though, I agree with some of the sentiments expressed as sarcasm - not because we should be focusing mindlessly on stupid little 'buzz phrases' like 'The surge is working!', but that the problems you listed ARE fixable.

It's a tough place to be... because there is an end in sight, but it isn't soon and it isn't easy. What sucks the most is that even the limited glimpse of hope we're trying to see, one grounded in a bit more reality than conservative propoganda bullshit, might be totally fucked if our policy of pissing of the ENTIRE middle east continues unabated.

a glass 40% full of shit is still a glass of shit.

So instead of complaining about how horrifically violent it is there, and focusing on deaths and the like...they're now complaining about things like the streets being too dirty and rent being too high?
Somebody please explain to me (in a civilized way - not rip me a new one) how the iraqis not cleaning their streets and hosing people on rents is our fault?

Wait. If only 40% of the sewage pumps are working, wouldn't that mean the glass is 60% full of shit? Fuck. I just blew my mind, man.

Yeah, I kind of thought that that would be obvious to anyone who's been paying attention for the last four or five years, myself. But I'll happily refer Mr. CCR to Colin Powell's Pottery Barn soundbite and move on.

I think it's indisputable that conditions have improved in Iraq as a result of the Surge, at least, and I'm not inclined to downplay the significance or desirability of that. Whether or not the groundwork has been laid - or can be laid - for an enduring peace remains in question.

Honestly, I hope so. But I'm not terribly optimistic by nature, nor has this administration ever demonstrated that it has the competence for an undertaking of this complexity to be successful.

Wait...you clean your own street?

Is this one of those times when it's funny to say "Whoosh!"???

Whenever he's not being shot at.

Or so he tells you.

I find that shooting at my neighbors can motivate them to clean my street for me. It is my street after all.

Seriously. If you want things done quickly and properly. You need to shoot at people.

Kim Jong skeeve?

All I'm saying is bullets speak louder than words.
Which is useful to remember when people are protesting your existence.
Just a few bullets and you won't even be able to hear them.
Try protesting your rent with a gun down your throat. It's not easy.

We should just treat this the way the British treated India and Pakistan after having gained independence from Britian...leave it in their own damn hands and whatever happens happens. We're not going to be able to 'set them right' because we don't fully comprehend the intricacies of their religion/politics nearly enough. Plus, the Iraqi people will never fully support a US backed government that is put into place while we are over there. We should just do it how we always have, work behind the scenes, get the person we want in, and hope to god he doesn't fuck us over like has happened in the past. I don't agree with the method, but its better than us openly trying to fix the shit we can't fix. It's admirable, I guess, to try and fix it, but incomprehensible.

I wonder if it is the same people coming in on those buses. Maybe they're not so much returning refugees and more commuter types. Anybody know how many busloads of people are LEAVING on a daily basis?

Actually, this is still disputable. I spoke to someone who just returned from Iraq a couple of weeks ago after spending his third tour of duty there who told me that most of the reports of improved conditions are vastly distorted because the press has little to no access to areas of Iraq outside of Baghdad. Outside of Baghdad, conditions are as bad as they ever were. The limited access the press has outside of Baghdad has led to the illusion that conditions are improving in the entire country, which is just not the case. According to him anyways. Given the amount of time he's spent there, I'm more inclined to believe him than the press accounts and slanted administration reports.

I think it's simply logic that dictates that some areas of the country have drastically improved. But the question is whether those few regions can represent the entire country, represent explicit success, and warrant our continued involvement in the country, and the answer to that, quite frankly, is no.

"Somebody please explain to me (in a civilized way - not rip me a new one) how the iraqis not cleaning their streets and hosing people on rents is our fault?"

"dirty streets" um, we're actually talking about Cholera epidemics here, not just a few bags of trash. Its our problem because we bombed the place and then sat back and watched as the infrastructure collapsed.

My wife has a tough enough problem working in affordable housing in Los Angles, I can only imagine the situation in Baghdad is a million times worse!

Building a community takes time, money, and trust. None of those things are easily attainable in a war zone and certainly not with military force.The easiest solution to the problem right now is to build a time machine, go back to 2002, and not invade Iraq. While we're at it, lets go back and fix the levy in New Orleans as well...hey, another infrastructure problem!!

actually those are dumb ideas, lets just cut taxes and pretend the problems will go away when the bombs stop. More answers here...

Thanks for the read!

Honestly, sometimes I think the best thing to do would be to just get the fuck out and see what happens.
We fucked with things. We fucked with them real bad.
But I'm not sure that it's possible for us to make them better.
We should donate money to relief organizations and the like, if for no other reason as a meager attempt to repent But we're the proverbial bull in the china shop. If the bull wants things to get better, sometimes it has to realize that it just can't help.

I hate to say it because I know it really makes us even bigger assholes but I think it could at the very least make us stop getting worse. Then maybe eventually we can try and make things better.

Well i tell you what, in two weeks i'll come back here and i'll tell you if there really has been any progress, i've been there once, and i'm going back. but then again what does it matter if we've made progress when we pull out. civil war, genocide, and a new ruler will fill the power void. so people ask me why everyday. Well first and foremost it's what i do, secondly i know personally that because of what me and my friends have done there are three young iraqi girls that are learning how to read, and may have better lives because of it, and countless more accross that country that have rights they would have never had otherwise. but hey i'm just a grunt with a rifle what the hell do i know?

If you blow up the houses (creating demand due to less housing) rent goes up.

If there are people shooting at each other every day on a particular street, do you think the garbage man, plumber, or public works repairmen are going to go there to do their shitty (literally) job, and get shot at?