Facts?
UN puts Iraq's 2006 civilian death toll at 34,452
The really funny (NOT) part is in the comments. According to one kook, GWB personally killed these Iraqis. What Bush and the rest of us miss, or fail to acknowledge, is that Iraq is still a tribal country, ruled by tribal culture. Until the Sunnis and Shites sit down and figure out their differences, they will continue to kill each other! THAT is a fact. We in the west are still making the grave error and mistake of trying to apply OUR ways to the ways of a 13th century culture. Until we accept the fact that they understand only one thing, POWER, and its use, we will fail, and Islamofacism will win.
The really funny (NOT) part is in the comments. According to one kook, GWB personally killed these Iraqis. What Bush and the rest of us miss, or fail to acknowledge, is that Iraq is still a tribal country, ruled by tribal culture. Until the Sunnis and Shites sit down and figure out their differences, they will continue to kill each other! THAT is a fact. We in the west are still making the grave error and mistake of trying to apply OUR ways to the ways of a 13th century culture. Until we accept the fact that they understand only one thing, POWER, and its use, we will fail, and Islamofacism will win.
posted by Justthinkin at 11:06 AM
Welcome back, Justthinkin'! You have been missed.
In the respect of the Sunnis and Shiites only respecting power, they seem to have that in common with many politicians here at home.
You're right though; we can lead a horse to water but we can't make it drink. Sorry for that old saw, but it's the truth, and in this case the entire Middle East is not a mere horse, but a stubborn mule! If the Iraqis don't co-operate this time, according to Bush, we will pull out of Iraq. I hope they will be determined to do better than what they've been doing. It wouldn't take much, just some effort on their part to get really serious about this. We can only wait and see!
Based on Iraqi history over the last 25 years or so, "Until we accept the fact that they understand only one thing, POWER, and its use,.." rings true. Saddam, recognized and used the concept, keeping the tribal quarreling under control, even to the point of poison gas. I doubt
we should aspire to that! But, given the current circumstances, it appears that some Iraqis have more interest in power than democracy. And it may be they
understand the former better than the latter. Peoples who have never had democracy have great difficulty in accepting and understanding, as for example, the former USSR. Our own democracy
is the culmination of years of thought and action by the founding fathers. And it was not 'forced'
on us-we went and got it. Therein
lies the problem, in my opinion. We shall likely have to settle for
'stabilization' of one sort or another..which means controlling the civil war there. Similar discussion along these lines over
at http://dons-mind.blogspot.com/
where there are further observations regarding the role of the military, the economic infrastructure and the like.
Only about 36,000?... every time I see a LIEberal commenting about this on TV, their claiming either hundreds of thousands, or bazillions ... same difference in their brains... I would also have to ask how many of those plain clothed civilians died while firing their AK's at the American's ... That's what's always been nice about listening to LIEberals ... they never let facts or history get in the way of their talking points.
Welcome Back!
Gayle...thanks...you are now the proud owner of the first one back since I left..arrrgghh..did I say left?..lol
bb-idaho...you are bang on IMHO. Supppose your better half decides that buddy/gal next door is better then you so....let's just kill off bb and carry on. And BTW...it has been going on for longer than 25 yrs...more like 1400 yrs, ever since the fall of Jeruselum.
ABF....good point...how many where shooting back when they died? Funny...nobody asks that question.