Iraq Anyone
It has been pointed out that the mainstream media is ignoring Iraq. That seem to be the case, and as Mike points out, Iraq is still quite newsworthy.
Previously, I had posted on the deployment of Stryker units to Baghdad. I keep hearing they are on the way, but nothing has happened. Here is the best information I can find on the operation. Sounds like they are waiting for everyone to arrive. It also sounds like the operation will be scheduled for a few months. September, October, November. Not bad timing if you think about it.
Meanwhile, Anbar is experiencing a resurgent insurgency. (Is that a resurgency?) As the article points out, despite the spin that everything is focused on Baghdad, a majority of this month's U.S. casualties have been in Anbar, and there have been many outside of Baghdad and elsewhere.
So it is comparitively quiet in Baghdad right now. At least for the Americans. It sounds like they are sitting pretty tight, waiting, planning. A couple more weeks I figure before we have Iraq back in the headlines.
Previously, I had posted on the deployment of Stryker units to Baghdad. I keep hearing they are on the way, but nothing has happened. Here is the best information I can find on the operation. Sounds like they are waiting for everyone to arrive. It also sounds like the operation will be scheduled for a few months. September, October, November. Not bad timing if you think about it.
Meanwhile, Anbar is experiencing a resurgent insurgency. (Is that a resurgency?) As the article points out, despite the spin that everything is focused on Baghdad, a majority of this month's U.S. casualties have been in Anbar, and there have been many outside of Baghdad and elsewhere.
So it is comparitively quiet in Baghdad right now. At least for the Americans. It sounds like they are sitting pretty tight, waiting, planning. A couple more weeks I figure before we have Iraq back in the headlines.
posted by Praguetwin at
8:52 PM
12 Comments:
The mainstream media responds to its audience. I guess the public have lost the will to engage with the story.
Even the best stories have a relatively short news life now. The potential for bad news doesn't make Iraq stories any more appealing I guess.
By
Cartledge, at 3:36 AM
Cartledge touched the core issue here as far as I am concerned.
The ever shrinking pie for the news media, especially TV, might necessitate that commercial conciderations must become more urgent and vital to them. This also could be sort of chicken and egg proposition; was it networks' need to earn more that brought this on or was it first us, the consumers, wanting to be "infortained".
Regardless, I find that TV has become woefully inadequate in keeping me sufficiently informed.
By
Anonymous, at 7:02 AM
Dear Prague Twin,
I am compelled to advise you that I have determine to hijack your blog from time time to publish a series of mutual interest. Consider me like an orchid: an epiphyte, existing w/ you in a relation ship that is less than symbiotic but benign unlike parasitism. although no doubt some of your readers will no doubt come to view me as a tape worm or sea lamprey.
I have not the energy or time to publish my own blog on an ongoing basis so I will usurp yours from time to time. I suppose it's just the Mongol in me.
My decision was influenced by your Monday, August 14, 2006 posting and the responses thereto in which there seemd to be an inability to marry the concepts that Abraham the kebabateer shares a religion w/ Achmed, the suicide bomber and Hassan Nasrallah.
So appearing on your blog, beginning sometime soon, will be SUICIDE BOMBERS EXPLAINED courtesy of the Loop Garoo Kid. First up: THE RECRUITERS.
Stay tuned.
By
Anonymous, at 7:50 PM
I am eating lunch @ my desk listening to 7 and 7 Is, which is downloaded on my computer, as is Alone Again Or, Orange Skies, and My Little Red Book.
The CD of Forever Changes is at home as are 2 vinyl albums of it.
Have a safe journey, Mr. Lee.
By
Anonymous, at 8:03 PM
Sorry all. I tried to multi task and this was posted on th ewrong blog.
By
Anonymous, at 12:43 AM
yeah, but the media has that weird guy that apparently killed that doll looking girl from Denver to deal with. I mean what is more important?
By
Graeme, at 9:25 AM
tony, Forever Changes is a fantastic album and Love was a great band. I actually love the first Love album almost as much as Forever Changes (especially My Little Red Book.) Don't apologize for posting this on the wrong blog. Maybe somebody who isn't familiar with Arthur Lee and Love will pick up a copy of Forever Changes.
By
Reality-Based Educator, at 6:30 PM
CHAPTER I: THE RECRUITERS
If you live in the U.S. and watch any sports on TV, then you are familiar w/ the ads: "Be all you can be" and " Be one of the few, the proud, the Marines."
You have seen them in their camos and dress blues in our High Schools and on our college campuses. Master sargeants all. Steely eyed, but w/ laugh lines at the corners of those eyes. Strong jawed, but w/ winning smiles. And they are down with the patter.
"That's right Timmy, if you commit for 4 years, we will teach you how to fly a Blackhawk helicopter w/ a full array of missiles and heavy caliber machine guns that will allow you blast Islamic terrorists into stir fry." "Yes, Ryan, if you are accepted into special forces, you will learn 37 different ways to kill a man using nothing but a paper clip and a piece of string." "Of course you can learn to drive a tank Sean. The Abrams M1 has a top speed of 45 mph; goes from zero to 20 mph in seven seconds; and is armed with a 105 mm M68A1 rifled cannon, not to mention a .50 Cal M2 machine gun and two 7.62 M240 machine guns, one on a skate mount." "Justin, your anchoring the medley relay on the JV swim team does qualify you to try for the Navy SEALS." "Travis, the 6 hours a day you spend playing video games is a good background for directing Predator drones which fire Hellfire missiles that reduce Al Qaeda operatives to ground round." "And best of all, once your tour is complete, you will be eligible to receive college tuition so that you may obtain 4 year college degree. After you receive your degree, Fortune 500 companies will fight one another to hire you because you are a veteran; you have learned the value of team work; and you service has instilled in you that "Can Do" attitude."
In the meanwhile, he thinks to himself, "Son, I have seen your transcripts and you are as dumb as a box of rocks. I would never even consider trying to enlist you but it is near the end of the mointh and I have to meet my quota. Unless you can shoot the dick off of a mosquito at 300 yards, in all likelihood, you will wind up doing KP at Ft. Riley, Kansas learning valuable skills like the correct way to peel 1000 potatoes without developing carpal tunnel syndrome and how to make industrial sized batches of lasagna. Or did we contract food service at Ft. Riley to Halliburton or Kellogg, Brown & Root, in which case maybe we can teach you to be a prison guard."
To a generation raised on X boxes and action movies, the prospect of learning to fire all manner of really cool weapons; traveling to exotic climates; and earning college tuition is much more attractive than stocking shelves at Wal-Mart or aspiring to be the assitant swing shift manager at Burger King. At the same time, they can serve their country and try and protect it against a segment of really bad guys who would like to destroy civilazion as we know it in an effort to turn back the clock 1000 years when in the words of Thomas Hobbes, the life of man was: "poor, nasty, brutish, and short."
Meanwhile, half a world away: Samir, the recruiter says: "Yes Achmed, Allah and the Prophet, peace unto to him, have chosen you to strike a blow for Islam. By driving the car/truck filled with explosives into the crowd or walking into the police station wearing a vest packed with Semtex or C 4, perhaps, and pressing the button/throwing the switch, you will send to hell the dogs that are the Satan's backside kissing Americans/the Zionist weasel Jews/the turd eating Shi'ites/the camel fornicating Sunnis/the motherless Hashemite chicken stealers/the spiked Mohawk wearing, silver and black face painted minions of Al Davis, otherwise known as the Raider Nation who resemble nothing so much as extras from "Road Warrior" or "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome."
In the next room is the photagrapher with the video camera so you may tape your last message to your mother and the rest of your family. She will recieve a washer and dryer which will ease her work, if the water and electricity ever are hooked up again. Plus she will be given $500 dollars U.S. and your little brother Abdullah will receive free tuition at the Madrass where he will be taught to hate Americans and Jews and where he will be safe, unless he is really unlucky and the Brits/Americans/Israelis discover the RPGs/AK 47s/Katyusha rockets we have cached there and send in a 500 lb bomb. And, Abdullah will exempt from militia duty because he will be your mother's only remaining male child.
We will turn the best head shot from the video into a poster which we will reproduce and plaster all over your neighborhood. You will be more famous than the renown martyr, Abu Musaq al-Zarqawi, he who cut the heads off of infidels, blessed be his name! In addition, we will send copies of both the video and the poster to Hojatoleslam Sayyd Muqtada al-Sadr/Sayyid Hassan Nasrullah/Ayatollah Ali Khamenei/Osama bin Laden/Saddam Hussein who will view the video and hang the poster of the wall of his bedroom/office/mosque/palace in Pakistan/prison cell.
And Achmed, I have saved the best for last. As soon as you throw the switch/press the button of the detonator, you will be instantly transported to Paradise where 72 virgins will wait on you for all eternity and cater to your every whim.
Try on the brown vest, it goes with your shoes."
At the same time, Samir, thinks. "Praise Allah, I have met my quota of suicide bombers for the month, but I am getting too old for this shit. Maybe I should go into business with my cousin, Ali. He says there is big dough in the Nigerian e-mail scam."
Next: THE 72 VIRGINS: SOME PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS
By
Anonymous, at 7:03 PM
The media cycle does tend to tire quickly and latch on to new, human interest storys quickly, like the JonBenet story for example.
The old gets dropped when something new comes along, and this is exactly what happened with Iraq vis a vis Lebanon.
I think we all know that, and the comments reinforce that belief.
Now, to the issue of hijacking. I think the kid is on the border of hijacking this blog, but I can't say that the story is unrealated, and it isn't as if he is spamming. I remember seeing about 50 comments on a WP blog comment section about Darfur when the question at hand was "what is the most important issue facing America in the coming election." Now THAT is hijacking.
The Kid clearly has something interesting to say, and the topic of his comment is related (albeit somewhat loosely) to the topic at hand, so I wouldn't exactly call it a hijacking.
Having said that, it is clear that the Kid has something to say, and this blog is all about open discussion, so we are going to try and get the Kid's message out of the basement and on the the street.
Stay tuned for the results!
By
Praguetwin, at 10:27 AM
Twin,
Your house, your rules! :)
By
Anonymous, at 12:41 AM
INTERLUDE:
It is Sunday, August 20, 2006 or Day 25; Month 1; Year 20 if you reckon time from the release of Paul Simon's "Graceland."
Sunday is a good day for contemplation so b/f we continue, let us meditate on 2 subjects:
Subject the 1st. Let us consider the afterlife. I wonder if on the other side we will awaken to an experience so different and transcendant that we cannot contemplate its aspects w/ our current senses. This is a corollary to "The Tao that can be spoken is not the true Tao."
Subject the 2nd: Let us consider why a person would strap explosives to their body and mingle in a crowd of strangers celebrating a wedding at a hotel and detonate them? Why would a person drive a vehicle packed w/ explosives next to a church and detonate them? Why would a person hijack a plane a fly it into a building full of people whom he has never met?
These acts bear no resemblace to Bruce Willis hand detonating an atomic bomb on an asteroid to save the earth. They bear no resemblance to Jimmy Cagney covering a grenade w/ his helmet and smothering the blast w/ his body to save his buddies. They are competely dissimilar from a complete stranger jumping into a river and losing his life in an effort to save a drowning child.
I live in the United Staes. Occasionally, we experience a disgruntled employee going postal and the ensuing carnage; or the horror of a Columbine. Murder-Suicides occur more frequently but these tend to be either personal matters or crimes gone awry.
So let us ponder these matter.
Stay tuned.
By
Anonymous, at 11:50 PM
I think the disapearance is because things are looking up in Iraq rather than declining towards a Lebanon type civil war. Anbar fighting is pretty hot right now and we are slaughtering the resurgency. We have for sure two more years in Iraq at a force strength the generals can sign off on. We'll see who runs out of will first.
Encourage the 'kid' to get his own blog. That's what I do (and great good comes from it).
By
Roger Fraley, at 3:51 PM
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