Mass delusions on Iraq spread to Slate
I'm a regular reader of "Kausfiles," Mickey Kaus's blog on Slate.com. He's kind of annoying, since he pretends to be a liberal when, in fact, he's more of the homophobic nativist type who agrees with Pat Buchanan and Bill O'Reilly. Plus, there are rumors he's dating Ann Coulter -- yikes. Nonetheless, he's funny, and he's often insightful, and---best of all---he's a great source for interesting sites to peruse.
Anyway, here's a post from Mickey late last night:
P.P.S.: For an account of what it's like living in Baghdad these days, I once again recommend Iraq the Model, specifically this post. It's clear the recent violence has been terrifying and demoralizing. It's also clear that things are far from being as bad as they could be. ...
Well, first thing I did was click on the post Mickey recommends. You should too, but in case you are feeling lazy, let me give you the general gist:
The past four days during which we were under siege were long and rough for Baghdadis. Anxiety and fear haunted us at our homes and a flow of horrible news made the prison feel even tighter…it was a material and psychological siege that will not be easy to forget.
The situation was terrifying and the rattle of machineguns broke through the tense quiet of the night several times every night but perhaps the star of the latest show was the mortar—there has been a frenzy of mortar fire, gladly none struck our neighborhood but we could hear the stupid death packages pass by each other in the air across our neighborhood.
Some news were really bad though, my uncle called on Friday to tell me that he and his family of eight were being forced to leave their neighborhood.My Sunni uncle, his Shia wife and their children were told to leave because the head of the household is Sunni. His voice was filled with pain as he talked to me, I asked him who made the threat and he said ten cars filled with armed men came to our street shooting their guns in the air and announcing through a loudspeaker that all Sunni people must leave within 24 hours, then they went to the mosque and murdered the preacher's son.
As usual during times of crisis, people's morale takes a steep slide down and my friends who used to say they expected Iraq to stabilize within a maximum of 5 years are now talking about 10-15 years and some have reached total frustration and are comparing Iraq's future with Somalia's present.
"Things are far from as bad as they could be?" When you are comparing Iraq to Somalia---the most depraved place on the planet---how much worse can things get? Nazi Germany circa 1945?
Anyway, here's a post from Mickey late last night:
P.P.S.: For an account of what it's like living in Baghdad these days, I once again recommend Iraq the Model, specifically this post. It's clear the recent violence has been terrifying and demoralizing. It's also clear that things are far from being as bad as they could be. ...
Well, first thing I did was click on the post Mickey recommends. You should too, but in case you are feeling lazy, let me give you the general gist:
The past four days during which we were under siege were long and rough for Baghdadis. Anxiety and fear haunted us at our homes and a flow of horrible news made the prison feel even tighter…it was a material and psychological siege that will not be easy to forget.
The situation was terrifying and the rattle of machineguns broke through the tense quiet of the night several times every night but perhaps the star of the latest show was the mortar—there has been a frenzy of mortar fire, gladly none struck our neighborhood but we could hear the stupid death packages pass by each other in the air across our neighborhood.
Some news were really bad though, my uncle called on Friday to tell me that he and his family of eight were being forced to leave their neighborhood.My Sunni uncle, his Shia wife and their children were told to leave because the head of the household is Sunni. His voice was filled with pain as he talked to me, I asked him who made the threat and he said ten cars filled with armed men came to our street shooting their guns in the air and announcing through a loudspeaker that all Sunni people must leave within 24 hours, then they went to the mosque and murdered the preacher's son.
As usual during times of crisis, people's morale takes a steep slide down and my friends who used to say they expected Iraq to stabilize within a maximum of 5 years are now talking about 10-15 years and some have reached total frustration and are comparing Iraq's future with Somalia's present.
"Things are far from as bad as they could be?" When you are comparing Iraq to Somalia---the most depraved place on the planet---how much worse can things get? Nazi Germany circa 1945?
posted by Ben at 9:40 AM
5 Comments:
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Don't worry. I'll never forget [url=http://adipex-moza.blogspot.com/] ever again! Not so long as I live!
I'm trying to figure out how to block spam comments. Should take me about, oh, six months to a year.
We must never forget Adipex Moza Blogspot. Never again.
There are a few handy "plug ins" you could cut and paste into your blog template if you so choose.
I'm impressed with how little spam you get considering you have no blocker. It almost makes me consider removing my own filter, since it's a little bit of a pain in the ass. I believe the blogger home page has quick and easy directions for adding the spam filter.
I'd also suggest adding a "recent comments" plug-in over on the right side of the blog. This allows people to see who has commented under the various threads. Just google "blog hacks recent comments" and you'll get simple directions. Usually adding these "hacks" means highlighting and copying a chunk of html code directly into your blog template. And luckily, you can always hit "preview" before saving changes so you can tell ahead of time if you are screwing up your blog! Keep in mind that the "preview" page that is shows you has a slightly altered font size (I have no idea why) so it always looks a tad funny.
Or, to void the spam, just hit the little trashcan icon under the offending post. It's your blog, and blogger.com has given you the power to delete whatever you want. Use it like a vengeful god!
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