Guerrilla war without any end in sight

[NNN0LHI]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=466409

Iraq: The insurgents are a hotch-potch of ex-army officers, Baathists and Islamists, not al-Qa'ida, reports Phil Reeves from Baghdad

<snip>The Americans argued that "Iron Hammer" won support from peaceable Iraqis. But a tragic cameo illustrated how they are at times the recruiting sergeant for their opponents. US soldiers were conducting a house-to-house weapons search in al-Dora in southern Baghdad at 10am on Monday. An altercation blew up between an Iraqi carpenter and an American soldier. It ended when the soldier shot the man through the heart from close range.

Relatives of the dead man, Ahmed Karim al-Janabi, 36, say that he did nothing to provoke the soldier, although they admit that he was holding a small saw in his hand when he was shot. The Americans maintained that he attacked one of them. The family wanted the US troops to provide a document confirming the incident, so that they could get burial authorisation.

A note was duly scrawled out and handed to the imam of the local mosque. It was 18 words long. "Ahmed Kareem Abid was shot by US forces. The individual attacked a US soldier and was shot and killed. SSG Doe." That was it. No polite expressions or formalities, so important in the Arab world. The sergeant didn't even have the courtesy to sign his own name.

The imam, Sheikh Yassin al-Hambani, was so angry that he tore up the note. "I told the soldiers: what are you doing? They are driving people to resist. Two young men came to me afterwards saying they wanted to avenge his death by attacking the Americans. It was difficult to dissuade them."

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[UpInArms]

1. winning the hearts and minds for opposition

one death at a time -

let's see, if there is a correlation in numbers:

if we have killed (through our illegal war and occupation) 20,000 Iraqi civilians (low estimate imho) and 2 people sign up (figuratively speaking) to avenge each one of those deaths, then there are at least 40,000 "resistance fighters" on the prowl in Iraq.

and with each "targeted" bombing and operation "ivy league f**k-up", there will be more.

I guess if the dimson prays at night, he ends them with:

war without end

amen

[MrSoundAndVision]

2. More money to be made

if Iraq is in chaos than in order. Everytime an Iraqi oiline is blown up, Halliburton makes money. If an oiline is not blown up, Halliburton makes money. And this money is our money, and the lives are all of our lives. This is Halliburton's war, and it's not just against the Iraqi people, it's against us, and it's just a matter of time before people here realize this. This will continue for a long time....unless you help us elect http://www.kucinich.us and join.

I wonder what it will be like in America in ten years, I really do.

Au Revior

[cliss]

3. There is one thing, and one thing only

that will put a stop to this "war without end". And that is "money with end". The US taxpayer has been funding this adventure. We are only too well aware that about $140 billion has been spent up till now. We are just getting started. We haven't even been there for a year now.

It is my belief that when the US treasury starts to become dangerously low, they will reassess their options. Under unbelievable pressure, they will call it good, pack their bags and go home. Just like we did in VietNam. The pleas for "bring them home" will fall on deaf ears. It is money and money alone (or the lack of it) that will put an end to this. Meaning: they will not stop voluntarily. But when the money runs out, they will have no other option.

Other countries have met with the same fate. Rome is a good example. Countries have bankrupted themselves on military escapades, and entire hegemons have toppled over this very issue.

[reprobate]

4. Cliss, in this case it's their intent to bankrupt us.

Remember what Grover Norquist said? "It's our intent to starve the gov't until it's small enough to drown in the bathtub."

They are actually trying to spend us into bankruptcy. When the coffers are empty, they just borrow some more. the trouble then becomes who will loan us anymore? We are already seeing foreign investment falling drasticly. But that's what they want.

This will give them more excuse to destroy social security, medicare, and anything else that takes money, with the exception of defense. This will leave a federal budget that is strictly defense oriented with the military industrial complex running the country.

It's sometime after that that the revolution begins.

[RedSock]

5. norquist quote cite

"My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."


http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml%3Fi=20010514&s=dreyfuss

[Paschall]

6. Quite

"Of the people, by the people, for the people" meets an untimely death by strangulation in Norquist's--no doubt unseemly--bathtub.

WHERE is the outrage?