Violence is escalating in Iraq, and it’s the Democrats’ fault. Thought you’d like to know.
Update: See also Oliver Willis.
Update update: Glenn Greenwald —
So, to recap: when insurgents engage in violence before the elections, that’s the fault of Democrats because it’s done to help them win (and credit to Republicans because it shows how tough they are on The Terrorists). When the insurgents engage in violence after the elections, that’s also the fault of Democrats because they are excited by the Democrats’ success (and credit to Republicans because Republicans want to stay forever, which makes the insurgents sad and listless). And when there is no violence, all credit to Republicans because it shows how great their war plan is.
Update update update: One of the Jawa’s commenters writes,
I’m not the only American who would rather kick the teeth out of an America-last leftist than a jihadi. Something tells me this will become an everyday occurence in the near future. Tolerance isn’t infinite, not that any leftist knows the first thing about tolerance.
Ah, we come to it at last …
Jeez. Idiot is too good a word to waste on this guy (and some of his knee jerk readers).
He’s getting an earful; hope he likes ridicule. He failed to blame the 144 civilian deaths in Baghdad yesterday on activist judges or Clinton. I could not resist adding my 2 cents.
Hmm, activist judges wear black robes. Muslim women wear black robes. There must be a connection.
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Militiamen grabbed six Sunnis as they left Friday worship services, doused them with kerosene and burned them alive as Iraqi soldiers stood by, and seven Sunni mosques came under attack as Shiites took revenge for the slaughter of at least 215 people in the Sadr City slum.
I guess this is Pelosi’s fault?…Maybe we’ve been standing up the wrong soldiers?
Swami — everyone knows that Muqtada al-Sadr is Nancy Pelosi’s bitch.
Wow Maha, the link above is a shocking reminder of why we need more funding for mental health.The thought process of the writer was disturbing.I am betting he is a member of the righties who send white powder club.I can’t believe our troops our dying so he can make rubber room comments on his blog…sad doesn’t describe it.
Everyone poo-pooh’s my comments when I say we should split this country up but damn it ask yourself Do you really want to be united with the likes of the nutcase linked to above?Why would you want to be united with someone so full of hate for half of his own friggin country?????And someone so lacking in mental capacity that he can’t be reasoned with….for crying out loud I have a blind, deaf 15 year old DOG who grasps more …….
How are we suppose to repair this?How are we suppose to get back to being one with the likes of these people?Can we ever trust them if we do?They are blood thirsty people and that won’t stop.In order to stay “united” we have to walk side by side with these people and I can’t stay true to what I know is right in my heart and walk beside them at the same time.
As was pointed out in the comment section linked to above, the dems don’t even take over for another month….but never let a little thing like facts get in the way of a story…..setting all that aside you would think the writer would be rooting for AMERICA not against it.But he is rooting for half of his country to fail.What a self hating anti American person.Yes by all means , unite with the likes of him and see how fast this country is gone forever.
I know, I know, no one is going to listen to me(what the hell is new?) and when the person linked to above and his kind end up getting us all hurt there will be voices crying”WHY WHY?” No need to ask why this is the cost for wanting to be united with his kind.The question to ask yourself is:Is it worth it?
I , myself would rather stand alone against the entire world then be teamed up with the posterchildren for mental health.And I must tell you, our rightie nut farm IS dragging this country down.So if you are following them to stay “united”(united with a group who would rather see you dead BTW) You are headed right off the cliff with them.
I should sue this country for false advertisement. The “United States” my little white ass!I AM NOT UNITED with those people.Again I ask you, with “friends” like the blogger listed above who needs enemies like bin laden?
I do not understand why no one in the world is calling for a cease fire. A cease fire was negotiated for the Iraqi elections and now there is just silence. A cease fire was negatiated for Lebanon and now there is just silence. Its like the entire world has just took a giant step backward so they could get a better veiw of bush f**king up Iraq.
Witness the true face of conservatism. Let them echo chamber themselves to a slow, easily satarized, political sucide.
justme, it’s pure speculation but I think there’s a good chance you will get your wish about breaking up the country. Decades of corrosive poison poured into the body politic, culminating in the current regime with all their terrible decisions are taking their effect on America. As a result, our country’s lifeblood (in many senses of the word) is being squandered in various stupid endeavors that are serving to weaken us as a nation, in ways too numerous to layout here.
We live in a time when technology and other factors are causing nation-states/empires to fall apart, and by the same token, tribal factions are in ascendance. The glaring example is what happened to the Soviet Union. Another example is what likely will happen to Iraq – partition by sect, a completely failed state. In our own country and in Canada, the clamor for breakup is increasing.
If our country is stressed enough, and I believe the stressors are only going to increase regardless of who is running it – the course has been set by decades of rightwing misrule – I believe our country too will fall apart, probably very violently, since most of us are completely unprepared for the shocks this will inflict. In short, the USA wil join the list of third world shitholes, thanks to chronic right-wing misrule. I think most of us agree that we’re already en route down that dismal path.
Our crash will be spectacular and global since every single country is tied into the dollar system – it’s this “death bet” – written about extensively on BopNews – the reluctance to move out of dollars by any of the participants despite our deterioriating prospects that keeps the whole thing afloat presently.
I wish I could find you a link for this, but Stirling Newberry or someone of that stature did an analysis of the cashflow between the blue and red states, and discovered that the blue states are net supporters of the red. Eventually when this enters public knowledge, and if things get bad enough, the blue states will decide they’ve had enough stupidity and will refuse to pay for it.
All of this is speculation but I sense the day is coming, regardless of who gets into power in 2008.
Hope you’re wrong, justme and moonbat. I’ve got a job here in Georgia – though I’m a recent immigrant. I can’t just up and move north again.
Besides, the nutters are everywhere. Current technology and the views of the government in power have allowed them to air their their stupidities and hatreds to the world.
Of course, they might all decide to move to South Carolina 🙂
Ok,,,first let me say it is not my wish that we split up….I just don’t see a way to be united with such mindsets as we see on the right if they really believe the crap they spew.Plus I don’t see how we can afford to….
I feel like we are already divided..whatever my wishes may be that ship has sailed already.That ship salied after the first few “jokes” that included threats to the lives of liberals for me, but the rest of you have to draw your own lines in the sand I suppose.
Once someone calls for the death of someone who has a different political view the chances of being united are pretty much gone.
I think of it, in a way like a marriage..and someone at some point has to recognize that it’s a bad one.And that staying in it to say that we are “united” is a farce.A dangerous one.Going to sleep beside a partner who calls me the enemy and jokes about death makes me a little nervous, but hey thats just me.
I don’t know the solution and I don’t claim we should break up- I am saying we are already dead and we haven’t laid down yet.We are already broke up IMHO- we just haven’t faced it yet and moved on..every time we are directed to a rightie blog it is yet another reminder for me of what a joke the phrase”united” has become.
I take people at their words.In the past few months liberals have been called the enemy, they have been accused of working with terrorists and declared failures almost a month before taking office.Perhaps it is just talking points but I take the authors word that they speak from their heart.If I take them at their word how could I possibly consider myself united with them?Wouldn’t that be self loathing?
Per comment #7, why is no one calling for a cease fire?
Perhaps someone wants the warring factions to rip each other apart, then sashay in to pick up the pieces after the dust settles.
For years people have said they wished our government would be run like a business, now some clueless corrupt business types have the helm.They thought they could do a little bombing, make a few heads roll, and everything would be hunky dory. They are very stupid people.
I view the problem in Iraq as gang warfare, so many gangs, so much time.Now our team is stuck in the middle of the madness.The same thing would happen in East L.A. if someone decided to change the homeboy pecking order.
Justme & moonbat,
When it comes to politics and ecology, I do not believe in final answers, only trends. There are trends better and trends worse. There are always gonna be some brain-dead righties and brain-dead-lefties peeing in the drinking water. The vast majority can be reached by reason and persuasion. It can take time. Liars can package their political products prettier than the truth. We win out one person at a time, one discussion at a time, one E-mail at a time.
Two examples. Last week I wrote Fox about the OJ special and called them ghouls. The special was pulled. Because of me? No, maybe me and a few million others.
At work a friend was spouting off about ‘controls’ for the Supreme Court. I gave him my view on the reasons the founding fathers made The Court immune to political pressure. The Justices answer to their conscince and their interpretation of the law. I will probably die sooner than some of the conservative appointments. But I would prefer a decade of conservative rulings I detest, than to politicize the courts. High school civics finally made sense to him. I think he changed his mind. I emphasize – HE changed HIS mind.
We have to be informed (hat tip to Maha), passionate, (you are) and articulate. (That’s tough for me; knowing it and saying it are VERY different). A few decades ago, Islamic militants were scattered, unfunded and marginalized. Not today. But they are dealing in hate death and destruction. We have a much more attractive product with progressive thinking. The election suggests a trend better. I have to believe we will win out over the American nut cases.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061127/joyce/3
I hope you’re right Doug, because this is what we’re up against.
It’s always our fault, didn’t you know that?
‘None of us will get where we want to go until we all get there’ has been my motto/principle/belief for a long time. I assert that stance in terms of all of humanity, but I also apply that to any group believing that their ‘arrival’ depends upon the destruction of a rival group.
So far, in terms of human species progress, we have not yet extracted ourselves from the blind alley called ‘competition’ which sets up [and limits] our birth-to-death experience of life as a duality of winners and losers. Competition, IMHO, is a sophisticated ‘modern’ variant of cannibalism, with all the [subconscious] attendant ‘eat or be eaten’ dynamics.
I think those on the progressive side of politics really do yearn to move on to collective endeavors that take all folks and all the earth into account. I know I do.
But meanwhile, what to do about the rabid cannibals at Jawa who’d like to boil us alive? Not to discount their destructiveness, but I don’t take that ranting as coming from their hearts as much as I believe it comes from competitiveness conditioning that’s never been tempered with adequate doses of heartedness or even thoughtfulness. Do not respond ‘in kind’, but rather drop into the kindliness of your deeper self. Maybe, that is what ‘to thine own self be true’ is supposed to mean, especially when the chips are down, or the pot is boiling. I am being a bit fascicious, but well….. cannibals do ingest whatever’s cooked up, so feed ’em some kindness and maybe alter humanity’s evolutionary curve.
That’s the same sort of howls you’ll hear Monday mornings after their team loses. And make no mistake, their team lost.
Wingnuts have always been there; the ‘net now lets you see the insanity first-hand, but do you think it’s something new?