the most appalling thing I have seen in a long time...

[nodehopper]

we sure are winning hearts and minds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9A_vxIOB-I&eurl=

[LSK]

1. no words

:grr:

[nodehopper]

2. yeah that was pretty much my reaction

[lse7581011]

3. What A Jerk!

makes me proud to be an American-NOT!

[nodehopper]

8. yeah...that's how I want my armed forces to conduct themselves. yep.

[Suich]

4. I saw that yesterday and

I still can't wrap my brain around it.

:wtf:

[LSK]

5. everyone send this to Keith Olbermann

[e-mail]

[mia]

26. needs to be seen by everyone

:kick:

[MazeRat7]

6. Man, thats seriously fucked up....

[twilight_sailing]

7. Bring the troops home now,

they are losing their motherfucking minds.

[nodehopper]

9. war lets inherent cruelty flourish

[Monkeyman]

10. Yep

Fact that is very true. Here is some of it one out of four returning troops suffer from mental problems. DOD is sending troops back to Iraq on meds who have PTSD and other mental problems. All those facts have been posted by me. We must bring the sick troops home. Hell with that bring them all home NOW.
You can read those articles at http://www.vawatchdog.org use Larry Scott web put in troops being sent back to Iraq with mental problems

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

16. Except for that guy.

Leave him on the ground and let the last helicopter out hover over him. Taunting him.

[LSK]

11. K&R

Come on folks, this should be on greatest.

[mike_c]

12. K&R-- this needs one more vote to show the criminality of this war....

eom

[thingfisher]

13. K&R

[Wonk]

14. dupe thread, fyi

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2773824&mesg_id=2773824

[Solomon]

15. Now that's how youwind up training what could be a future enemy.

Real smart.

[Hav]

17. .

That's pretty low. What kind of human being is doing that to kids?
Yeah, let them run on a street in a war zone. I'm sure they will remember how respectful they were treated.

[me b zola]

18. I'm on dial-up...can you give me a synopsis of what's on the video?

[LSK]

19. troops are driving a hummer through streets in Iraq

They are holding a water bottle out the back and kids are running after them begging for the water. They only throw it at the end when one kid is left chasing them. Basically they are teasing the kids with the water bottle.

[barbtries]

20. that

was sickening. and they got it up on youtube how? and did they do it to bring this to light or because they really think it's funny?

[cassiepriam]

21. And these kids are the lucky ones. They are still alive.

Being thirsty is the least of their problems.
They could have been murdered, tortured or raped
by us.

[indepat]

22. Winning Iraqi hearts and minds, one child at a time

:puke: :dunce:

[focusfan]

23. that was appaling

very disquesting

[mia]

24. A chilling video and a reminder of the dangers of water privitization.

If the powers that be have their way, we'll all be running for water.


The World Bank's Latest Market Fantasy
By Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke
Polaris Institute
January 2004

The impacts of World Bank and IMF structural adjustment programs on countries in the Global South have been well-documented in the areas of health and education, food security and jobs. However, less is known about the impacts of the World Bank's latest obsession -- the privatization of water services. In country after country in recent years, the World Bank has been quietly imposing a for-profit system of water delivery, leaving millions of people without access to water.

The Bank is taking advantage of the "Washington Consensus" model of development now adopted by its donor countries and promoting the interests of a handful of transnational water corporations. Instead of using its massive funds to promote expertise in the public sector, thereby acknowledging that water is a human right and an essential public service, the Bank is forcing many countries to commodify their water resources and put them on sale to the highest bidder.

There are ten major corporate players now delivering fresh water services for profit. Between them, the three biggest -- Suez and Vivendi of France and RWE-AG of Germany -- deliver water and wastewater services to almost 300 million customers in over 100 countries, and are in a race, along with the others such as Bouygues SAUR, Thames Water (owned by RWE) and Bechtel-United Utilities, to expand to every corner of the globe. Their growth is exponential; a decade ago, they serviced around 51 million people in just 12 countries. And, although less than 10 percent of the world's water systems are currently under private control, at the rate they are expanding, the top three alone will control over 70 percent of the water systems in Europe and North America in a decade....



The World Bank serves the interests of water companies both through its regular loan programs to governments, which often come with conditions that explicitly require the privatization of water provision, and through its private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation, which invests in privatization projects and makes loans to companies carrying them out. Lending about $20 billion to water supply projects over the last decade, the World Bank has been the principle financer of privatization. A year-long study by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a project of the Washington-based Center for Public Integrity, released in February, 2003, found that the majority of World Bank loans for water in the last five years have required the conversion of public systems to private as a condition for the transaction. The performance of these companies in Europe and the developing world has been well documented: huge profits, higher prices for water, cut-offs to customers who cannot pay, little transparency in their dealings, reduced water quality, bribery, and corruption.

http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/bwi-wto/wbank/2004/01waterpriv.htm

[rateyes]

25. Stunned.

My god.

God bless America. :puke:

[Ferretherder]

27. It is particularly ironic to be watching the pathetic attempts...

...of the poor Iraqi children trying desperately to keep pace with the American vehicle, in hopes the soldier holding the small bottle of water will toss his shimmering prize to the ground - knowing full well that each of them must fight to be the one to retrieve this jewel - watching this monstrous display of human indifference to need on a day when WE AMERICANS are preparing to gorge ourselves on the bounty of our country's plentiful harvest and give thanks for our peace and prosperity.

Not to be too dramatic, but, really,......

...what, as a nation, have we become.

[Libby2]

28. The soldiers laugh is demented too.

Appalling.

[CoffeeCat]

29. This is why our soldiers return so messed up...

While our pResident tells the lemming masses that we're bringing freedom and spreading peace--THIS
is the attitude that our military has toward the Iraqi people.

I don't know what happens to our soldiers. Maybe they are trained to hate the Iraqis, or
trained to be suspicious of all of them. It doesn't matter. THIS is the result. Our
military thinks of these people as objects. Our soldiers understand the truth...because
they live it every day on the streets of Iraq. They know that the REASONS the pResident gives
for the Iraq war are lies. Huge lies.

Our soldiers know that their lives are on the line for lies, and that America has been sold on
lofty ideas that do not exist. They understand--all too well--that this is an unjust, smoke-and-mirrors
game--and that they are expendable chess pieces.

This is all so vile and perverse. Our soldiers will return so damaged and so traumatized. The
effect on our soldiers will be worse than Vietnam. We didn't see a lot of PTSD after WW2, because
our soldiers knew their mission, and it was an honest, honorable mission.

The Iraq war is a dishonrable, unAmerican, sickening lie that will destroy the minds of our soldiers.

[judaspriestess]

30. those soldiers didn't sound too intelligent

which explains why they would do something so ignorant.