Reselling the Iraq War yet again
The Common Ills
THE BOSTON GLOBE's trying to pick up on the how-could-they outrage of THE SPECTATOR (see "Iraq realities so much of the west ignores") and whine about the Yazidis. Yeah, it is whining.
The Islamic State is a terrorist group.
No one was fretting about the genocides of al Qaeda.
The Yazidis are just a new way to sell war (and their leadership willingly allows them to be used that way, having gotten into bed with a right-wing p.r. group).
But Boston?
Not the smartest way to sell it, War Hawks.
Boston's known for its high concentration of Catholics.
And Catholics especially are apt to reject the argument.
Not because the Yazidis are known as devil worshippers.
But because the Catholic Church has been paying attention to the targeting of Christians in Iraq.
Has been paying attention all along.
So you're going to have a hard time using the tiny and non-Christian faith as an object to move public sentiment to a group of Catholics who are fully aware that Christians have been targeted in much greater numbers and for much longer with no concern about "genocide."
Of course, they were and are targeted by the government and official forces -- which, traditionally, is how genocide takes place and, as the State Dept noted in a hearing I attended this week, how it is usually legally defined. (Including by the US government.)
The attempts to re-sell the Iraq War are a bit like when the fad passes on a doll. In the 70s, Farrah Fawcett and Cher and others had popular dolls but, at some point, the market was saturated. So they'd take the dolls out of the cardboard boxes, seal them in plastic and attempt to sell them that way (at a little bit of a discount) as though this new 'package' would make the doll appear different.
It didn't.
Nor does the new 'packaging' of the Iraq War.
But still they try.
They're helped mainly by the apathy and ignorance.
By a public weary of war -- and, let's be frank, very often weary of anything real. We need are sedatives in the form of gossip and junk news.
But the reality is that the US government has been daily bombing Iraq since August 2014 with no success.
No success?
Some would sputter that.
Mosul was seized by the Islamic State in June of 2014. They still control it.
We're getting close to a two year anniversary.
But the bombings continue.
Thomas Gaist (WSWS) reports:
Since last fall, without any public acknowledgment by the US government and military, US warplanes have been bombing civilian areas in Iraq and Syria under loosened rules of engagement, the US Defense Department announced Wednesday.
Under the new rules, US forces may attack any area considered to have a “non-combatant value” of 10, that is, a likely fallout of fewer than 10 civilian deaths.
Given the current volume of airstrikes, the expanded rules of engagement imply that the Pentagon may murder thousands of civilians every month.
This March alone, US warplanes dropped nearly 2,000 bombs on Iraq and Syria, an increase over the 1,700 bombs dropped by US forces during the previous March. Last November, the US-led coalition set a new record for a single month, dropping nearly 3,300 bombs.
The ongoing war is also helped by a lot of liars.
They're the ones supporting Hillary Clinton, after all.
Why don't they just get honest and say, "I don't give a damn about Iraq"?
That's what their votes say.
Just get honest about it.
Don't be a whore and a liar.
Her campaign slogan should be, "I helped bring you the Iraq War and, as president, I will bring you even more wars."
It might be the only campaign promise she could keep.
Wally and Cedric updated yesterday:
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
Iraq
The Islamic State is a terrorist group.
No one was fretting about the genocides of al Qaeda.
The Yazidis are just a new way to sell war (and their leadership willingly allows them to be used that way, having gotten into bed with a right-wing p.r. group).
But Boston?
Not the smartest way to sell it, War Hawks.
Boston's known for its high concentration of Catholics.
And Catholics especially are apt to reject the argument.
Not because the Yazidis are known as devil worshippers.
But because the Catholic Church has been paying attention to the targeting of Christians in Iraq.
Has been paying attention all along.
So you're going to have a hard time using the tiny and non-Christian faith as an object to move public sentiment to a group of Catholics who are fully aware that Christians have been targeted in much greater numbers and for much longer with no concern about "genocide."
Of course, they were and are targeted by the government and official forces -- which, traditionally, is how genocide takes place and, as the State Dept noted in a hearing I attended this week, how it is usually legally defined. (Including by the US government.)
The attempts to re-sell the Iraq War are a bit like when the fad passes on a doll. In the 70s, Farrah Fawcett and Cher and others had popular dolls but, at some point, the market was saturated. So they'd take the dolls out of the cardboard boxes, seal them in plastic and attempt to sell them that way (at a little bit of a discount) as though this new 'package' would make the doll appear different.
It didn't.
Nor does the new 'packaging' of the Iraq War.
But still they try.
They're helped mainly by the apathy and ignorance.
By a public weary of war -- and, let's be frank, very often weary of anything real. We need are sedatives in the form of gossip and junk news.
But the reality is that the US government has been daily bombing Iraq since August 2014 with no success.
No success?
Some would sputter that.
Mosul was seized by the Islamic State in June of 2014. They still control it.
We're getting close to a two year anniversary.
But the bombings continue.
Thomas Gaist (WSWS) reports:
Since last fall, without any public acknowledgment by the US government and military, US warplanes have been bombing civilian areas in Iraq and Syria under loosened rules of engagement, the US Defense Department announced Wednesday.
Under the new rules, US forces may attack any area considered to have a “non-combatant value” of 10, that is, a likely fallout of fewer than 10 civilian deaths.
Given the current volume of airstrikes, the expanded rules of engagement imply that the Pentagon may murder thousands of civilians every month.
This March alone, US warplanes dropped nearly 2,000 bombs on Iraq and Syria, an increase over the 1,700 bombs dropped by US forces during the previous March. Last November, the US-led coalition set a new record for a single month, dropping nearly 3,300 bombs.
The ongoing war is also helped by a lot of liars.
They're the ones supporting Hillary Clinton, after all.
Why don't they just get honest and say, "I don't give a damn about Iraq"?
That's what their votes say.
Just get honest about it.
Don't be a whore and a liar.
Her campaign slogan should be, "I helped bring you the Iraq War and, as president, I will bring you even more wars."
It might be the only campaign promise she could keep.
Wally and Cedric updated yesterday:
THIS JUST IN! CRANKY CLINTON LIKES BOYS!
14 hours ago
Where are the women?
14 hours ago
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
Iraq
No comments:
Post a Comment