National Review writer: ‘Iraqis remain ingrates.

[kpete]

National Review writer: ‘Iraqis remain ingrates.’»

Dave Noon pulls out a passage from a new piece by the National Review’s Andy McCarthy on why Iraqis should be more grateful to the United States:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/11/19/iraq-ingrates/

Thousands of American lives and hundreds of billions in taxpayer funds have been expended to provide Iraqis the opportunity to live freely. And this despite the facts that (a) the U.S. interest in Iraqi democracy remains tenuous (our interest was the elimination of Saddam’s terror-mongering, weapons-proliferating regime), and (b) Americans were assured, when the nation-building enterprise commenced, that oil-rich Iraq would underwrite our sacrifices on its behalf. Yet, to be blunt, the Iraqis remain ingrates. That stubborn fact complicates everything.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YTUyYmY0ZWYyODM0NWUyYjZjZTljYzA1NzhiNDY0OTM=&w=MA==

Matt Yglesias responds:

“Because, of course, historically people have welcomed being invaded and occupied by a foreign power whose actions lead to years of chaos, a huge civilian death toll, and millions of displaced people.”

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2008/11/the_ingrate_problem.php

[Aristus]

1. Shit! We only killed a million of them and are trying to steal their oil!

Why are they so ungrateful??? :shrug:




















Every time I hear one of these nutball assclowns, I can only shake my head...

[bdamomma]

2. we invaded their country on false pretenses, and committed

ethic cleansing, what the hell is this guy talking about.

[nichomachus]

3. Wow, they ARE ingrates

We destroyed their infrastructure, destabilized their government, killed a million people, injured hundreds of thousands more, looted their history, defaced their monuments, humiliated their women, and they aren't thankful. Bastards!

[Mugweed]

4. Another alternate-reality neocon whiner

1) I don't remember Iraq agreeing to underwrite anything. It was other neocon PNAC assholes that were claiming this military action would all be paid for through the sale of Iraqi oil (while failing to clarify that they had every intention of taking over another country's resources and diverting the funds from that resource to their own needs).

2) I don't remember any of our founding fathers writing into our Constitution or other papers that the main function of the USA is to force its governmental viewpoint on other countries. What neocons call "the oppurtunity to live freely" Iraqis see as a foreign invasion and occupation.

I don't see why anyone should be grateful for something they didn't ask for. The people being called "insurgents" or "terrorists" are just Iraqi citizens who are defending their own country against foreign invaders.

[Johonny]

5. sorry I blew your mom up and all

but look your free be thankful.

[indepat]

6. The Iraqis are ingrates thesis is but a microcosm of how fucked up 'pukes' thinking and reasoning

are. That any nation would spend so much in treasure, blood, and world standing just so the people of another small nation half way around the globe could live freely is absurdly ludicrous in concept. :P

edited to change the to that

[Sabriel]

7. And let's not even mention American Indians

Talk about ungrateful! Geez. After all we did/are doing for them....

[formercia]

8. Perhaps because it's their country we're destroying

and their babies that are dying from War, disease and malnutrition. Go figure.

[Solly Mack]

9. Sick fuck

K&R

[LeftishBrit]

10. Oh so not only do we (both our countries) invade and bomb them...

but they need to be GRATEFUL for being invaded and bombed?

How sick.

[Jokerman]

11. He probably thinks that Native Americans should be grateful

that we allowed a small percentage of them to survive.

Self-centered, egotistical, racist bastard.

[vssmith]

17. Right

and how we brought Africans here as slaves but gave them the gift of Christianity.

[Greyhound]

12. You can't fix stupid, but you can kill it. n/t

[sattahipdeep]

13. Beating A Drum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QDynTRBufw

[bleever]

14. That's what they get for founding their ancient civilization on top of our oil

May idiots like this howl in the political wilderness for countless years to come.

[kpete]

16. bleever

I do not acknowledge this enough...

your comments often make me stop



...............in my tracks,



.......thanks,


peace, kp

[bleever]

18. You

are a treasure.

:hi:

[Marr]

15. You can find articles written about Vietnam in the early 70's that sound just like this one.

These people just don't get it.

[OneBlueSky]

19. what absolute horseshit . . . they should be thankful that we invaded their country, . . .

killed a million or more of their citizens, made refugees out of millions more, destroyed their infrastructure, and contaminated their land with depleted uranium and god knows what else? . . . what a maroon! . . .

I'm surprised the entire country hasn't risen up and thrown out asses out once and for all . . .

[bigtree]

20. I've a poem that reminds me of our occupation

It's an excerpt really, from the middle of a Tennyson love poem. It reminds that Iraqis will always regard us with scorn and distrust, no matter how some may feel about them regaining control over their country, their lives . . .

"HOW say you, war or not?"
"Not war, if possible, O king," I said,"lest from the abuse of war,
The desecrated shrine, the trampled year,
The smoldering homestead, and the household flower
Torn from the lintel-all the common wrong-
And smoke go up thro' which I loom to her
Three times a monster: now she lightens scorn
At him that mars her plan, but then would hate
(And every voice she talk'd with ratify it,
And every face she look'd on justify it)
The general foe. More soluable is this knot,
By gentleness than war. I want her love.
What were I nigher this altho' we dash'd
Your cities into shards and catapults,
She would not love;- or brought her chain'd, a slave,
The lifting of whose eyelash is my lord,
Not ever would she love; but brooding turn
The book of scorn, till all my fitting chance
Were caught within the record of her wrongs,
And crush'd to death: and rather, Sire, than this
I would the old God of war himself were dead,
Forgotten, rustling on his iron hills,
Rotting on some wild shore with ribs of wreck,
Or like an old-world mammoth bulk'd in ice, Not to be molten out."

Excerpt from, "The Princess: A Medley" by, Alfred Tennyson

[Jack Rabbit]

21. Why should the Iraqis be grateful to Bush?

Why should the Iraqis be grateful to Bush? I'm not at all grateful to to Mr. Bush for the security the invasion provided to me and my fellow Americans.

Bush's freedom agenda? What kind of freedom was this? What kind of sovereignty did Iraq have that am imperial power continually pressured the Iraqi government to allow American oil companies to loot their resources? Spread democracy? What kind of democracy is it when the Iraqi government is pressured to permit foreign occupiers on their soil against the wishes of 80% of the Iraqi people?

What the Iraqis got was millions dead, millions homeless and those who are still in their homes not yet seeing a return to a stable delivery of water and power.

What did the Americans get but a government that treated the law like toilet paper? The government spied on American citizens without warrant, denied due process and suspended habeas corpus. The government kidnapped innocent people and tortured them. The government lied to the entire world to get us into a war -- and Mr. McCarthy, a loyal Bush Junta shill, repeats the lies even now. The executive branch seeks to strong arm "deals" from the Iraqi government without submitting the agreement to Congress for approval.

Bush wasn't bringing democracy to Iraq and he sought to destroy it at home. I'm not grateful, and neither should the Iraqi people be grateful. Now indict and prosecute these tyrants already.