Comments on: British soldiers filmed beating Iraqis teens

By: F. U.

F. U. — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:42:18 +0000

this is an eye for an eye.nothing wrong with us giving a little back to these worthless, flea infested wastes of life. dirty disgusting sub-humans, this was mercy to what we should be doing to them. should be exterminated, whole race.I applaud the british and americans and any body else who puts hands to these rats.

You never here anything, or see any videos degrading these fucking animals killing americans or decapitating americans and these carbombings. You hear and see videos but you dont see outrage about it but from the soldiers and americans. British beat some worthless kids and suddenely this is the worst thing ever. These are the lowest form of life on the planet right along side with the aficans and jews and should be treated so. Fuck all you fucking terrorist and fucking muslim rats.

By: Robin

Robin — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 17:21:37 +0000

Philip,
You are either the Imelda Marcos of cultural sensitivity or have the quickest grasp of a situation with which you have absolutely no personal experience communicating via the internet from your comfortable home in Florida. I’m amazed at your grasp of the situation, because we all know that Imelda wasn’t a very nice lady.

By: Robin

Robin — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 15:25:19 +0000

Sorry Haitham, I am so frustrated and I wanted to get Philip over there to watch it by bringing it up. Raymond’s right, I’m going to have an aneurism. There’s a movie called “Pay it Forward” about a little boy who does one good deed and asks that person to then do a good deed who is then supposed to ask each person to do a good deed. If it is possible to change one American’s viewpoint so that they might talk to someone else who might talk to someone else maybe we can change what is going on here in the States which is reeking problems allover the Mideast and other places. My country is WRONG and I’m feeling overwhelmed by all I see. Apologies.

By: Haitham

Haitham — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 15:01:27 +0000

I'd appreciate discussing the "The Women's Story" over at the post thread so that others can follow the discussion.

By: Philip

Philip — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 14:36:27 +0000

Raymond is correct. I’ve seen tons of information from every sides, and I have come to different conclusions. I have put myself in Iraqis’ shoes, Iranians’ shoes, Kurd shoes, Christian Iraqi shoes, and every other kind of shoes there are. I have read stuff from the wacky to the sensible to the highly emotional to the highly analytical. I’ve digested it all, and I have come to where I am now. Since it is clearly a minority viewpoint on this blog, I decided it was nearly necessary to include. I’ll leave it at this: I agree with y’all in that I want the US troops to leave soon, and I want Iraqis to live without fear of violence. And on that point, aI bid adieu for now!

By: raymond

raymond — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 14:11:46 +0000

Robin,
Philip’s mind is made up. It’s not worth an aneurism. ;)

By: Robin

Robin — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 13:47:04 +0000

I have just watched the video on the other thread, “Iraq, a Woman’s Story” I had to pause it several times because I could not stand to see it. Here in the States we are led to believe that it is only the insurgents blowing things up. Please watch this video to see the devastation that our military is reeking on Iraq. Remember, “we’re going to fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here” Now that we have invited them to the tea party and swolen their ranks by our mere presence we have destroyed innocent lifes in the way. Don’t you see Philip that we created a monster by our invasion? No matter how bad Saddam was (take your choice of degrees of evil) nothing, absolutely NOTHING was as bad under his rule as it is now. GB swatted at a beehive and now it is the Iraqi people paying the price. What the hell are we supposed to do now that we have destroyed their country? Can we leave and let the radicals that we have unleashed take over or can we stay, with ten times the man power? This is NEVER going to work, and it would have never worked from the very first inkling of the “noble deed” to overthrow Saddam. Furthermore, this plan had been in the making for years, formerly since 1997 when the Project for a New American Century, PNAC, proposed it, LONG before 9/11 which was the excuse given to the American people (Saddam’s supposed wmd’s and connections to Al Queada.) I am honestly, physically getting tired of this debate because it is so futile when you will not face the facts of what we have done to the Iraqi people.

By: Robin

Robin — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 06:38:08 +0000

Philip,
If you can do this (I am speaking sincerely). Take a very deep breath and let it go. As your breath goes out, let all or your notions about Iraq flow free. Now imagine you are in Iraq, you are an Iraqi, not an American, now watch this http://www.vivairaq.com/
Please let it sink in before you reply.

By: Philip

Philip — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 02:33:19 +0000

Sorry, just throwing another spice in the mix. I have read many others, some for, some against. I just see a lot of reluctance here to accept voices from Iraq that don’t see things the same as the majority view here (shame on them for not hating the US!). The quote I used was less than selective (although I purposefully used a positive one; otherwise I would be contributing little in the marketplace of ideas); it was the last thing I had read in the hour or so of blog skimming. I particularly enjoyed a Kurd who said he was sick of conspiracy theories and gets looked at like he has two heads when he doesn’t believe them! Again, I am simply offering a snippet of an alternative viewpoint. If it is not welcome here, then I will leave it alone for now.
Oh, Raymond…the “Everybody Loves” thing is not meant to be insulting, but jovial! For some reason, my stupid head keeps getting the idea I’m responding to Ray Romano, so I couldn’t resist. It was all in good fun. I was going to call Robin “Rockin’ Robin” based on her lyric parodies, but methinks I’d better lay low for a while.

By: Robin

Robin — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 02:18:26 +0000

I made a technical mistake in my above post. The quote and link I gave was from the #1 link on the Neurotic Iraqi Housewife site, but if you check you will see they go back and forth with each other. But just in case you miss some more of the above quote by Philip, here’s some more: “I am leaving here with very little hope, close to none, but its there…Maybe more of a dream than hope…This is probably my last post ever from Baghdad…Im gonna miss it, miss everyone I met…But I know that one day I will be able to tell my kids and my grandkids all about this place…And maybe just maybe they will get to see the Baghdad, the Iraq we all envision…” No one ever said here that the insurgents are not reeking havoc in Iraq, except our own government who has said over and over that we are seeing the “tail end of the insurgency”
(Rumsfield). No fewer than eight generals have called for his resignation for mishandling of the war and failing to secure Iraq. Good news, the Pentagon announced today that all troops in Iraq will now be given training in how to handle situations better after the Haditha massacre. GLORY BE. Wasn’t the same said after Abu Gharib. WE BROKE IT WE OWN IT! If any fool still holds onto the belief that this was a noble venture, they can keep their “noble ideas” but admit that it was not a feasible plan in the first place. Not ALL noble ideas (although I don’t buy into the noble idea theory) are doable, pure and simple. We BROKE IT WE OWN IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By: Robin

Robin — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 01:51:19 +0000

Philip has done some very selective pickin’ of the Neurotic Iraqi Housewife blog. Here’s just something I came across among a host of other entries on this blog:
“And what did Bush and Blare give us to ease the daily hell?
The occupation forces riding on tanks?
And now, with every step full of Iraqi blood-shed, while we want to build a better future for us and our children, Bush and Blare come along to invest in the Iraqis’ anguish, saying with all insolence: I was right when I decided on the war against Iraq.
Have you seen the Iraqis happily picking flowers, you fool, and came to boast that you are the donator of this achievement?
The Iraqis now are blinded by pain and sadness; they want to get out of the war’s calamity, and what negative aspects it exuded to the society, and to the country’s future. Iraq now is but a heap of rubble, a ruin. We want to know where to start? Thousands of complicated problems need solving in Iraq.
We need time, efforts, and money to repair the dumb calamities that Bush and Blare are responsible for” For more like this entry log onto the blog here: http://afamilyinbaghdad.blogspot.com/
What Philip also failed to notice is that there are four contributors on this blog besides the owner. Faiza, an engineer and one of the most prominent contributors was here in the US with guess who?
CINDY SHEEHAN!!!!!!!! There are also letters from Code Pink to the blog, apparently they are close friends.
You see Philip, you are once again, not L-I-S-T-E-N-I-N-G
You see only what you want to see and are not willing to look beyond your tunnel-visioned God Bless America ruler of the free world attitude. Sigh Sigh Sigh, you could be learning so much rather than lecturing all of us that we are wrong in the beliefs we base on fact. Yes there are always two sides to the story, the Iraqis that are cooperating with the occupation are called “half sleeves” 87% of the Iraqi population say they want our forces out and that we should have NEVER COME IN THE FIRST PLACE. You see, no matter which way you cut it, the Iraqis overwhelmingly blame the US for this disaster for UNLEASHING THE INSUGENTS AND NOT BRINGING PEACE TO THEIR COUNTRY. So even if the majority of violence now is done by the insurgents as opposed to US bombing, the fact remains, the US broke it and the US owns it. Maybe Philip you would do well to do a community service gig
of some sort in this country that our country blew to smithereens. And if that’s not possible, maybe you could explain to us what we should do now.

By: Philip

Philip — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 00:54:19 +0000

From a self-described “Neurotic Iraqi Housewife’s” blog:
“I went to work late today, and as I was saying hello to Dr A, HUBBY told me that Dr A was about to get blown up because of us…I was shocked and said how???Apparantely Dr A wanted to get an Iraqi sweet called Min Il Sima (literally translates into from the sky)…Its a very well known sweet here and very yummy…The best known place that sells it is a shop called Al Khasaki…which unfortunately got blown up….Why did it get blown up, nobody knows…The so called insurgents target everything that is successful, everything that brings joy to the Iraqis….They know no mercy…They want Iraq to fail….They blow up water pipes, they blow up generators…For Gods Sake they started putting bombs in dead bodies and detonate them…They are criminals and I pray that they will burn in hell….”
There is more than one side, my friends. This is one tiny excerpt from a plethora of Iraqi blogs.

By: raymond

raymond — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 06:50:08 +0000

Philip-
Everybody loves Raymond? Very original.

You cannot so easily dismiss the fact that the US unilaterally decided to attack Iraq. And these “bad seeds”, these 18-25 year olds are trained killers. For every Haditha that comes to light, there are surely at least 10 that we will never hear of.

Your Christian ethics are selective, condoning murder on the one hand, abhorring it on the other. Doesn’t sound too Christian to me.

And who cares if Condoleeza Rice is African American? She is a tool of the state, a face that says “We’re not racist” while the reality of the majority of African Americans speaks differently.
And Clinton moving his office into Harlem, and popular culture embracing rap and hip-hop doesn’t change anything. The racist and bigoted hate groups are still protected under the first amendment. What a farce.

And here’s a train of thought that I find doesn’t swim.
“The US’s past errors like slavery and such are not unique to the west.” Well, everyone else was doing it, so why are you blaming me? Please think that one through. The Zionists like to divert attention away from their crimes in a very similar fashion, stating that Arab countries expulsed the Jews after the Jews expulsed the Palestinians, and the French did it to the Algerians, and the Turkish did it to the Armenians, and everyone is killing everyone, so why are you pointing at us? Oppression and genocide can never be condoned, regardless of what good company you are in. Full stop.

As for the Native Americans, shame on you for claiming heritage and brushing off their ongoing oppression. That they were, and still are, kept on reservations is horrendous enough. Their livelihoods were stolen from them and replaced with alcohol and gambling. Fine trade, that.
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096413009

You make too many exceptions in order to condone your capitalist lifestyle. This is the problem with Americans, generally speaking. They claim to be better and more ethical than everyone else, while turning a blind eye to the atrocities that must be committed to keep them on top.

By: Robin

Robin — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 06:41:05 +0000

By the April 7,2003 (20 days into the attack) 4338 Iraqi civilians were dead due to US bombing http://iraqbodycount.net/database/bodycount72.php?ts=1149139949
These figures are taken from actual body counts of those dead found or who died in Iraqi hospitals. The total dead on 9/11
was 2976. The United States reacted to the terrorist bombings with overwhelming firepower in both Afghanistan and Iraq (though Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11) We take “democracy” in the pockets of our 19-25 year old service men to deliver to Iraq, a country that did not attack us, did not have wmd’s (NONE ABSOLUTELY NONE have been found), and did not pose a threat to us. After years of sanctions, and the hardships of those sanctions, my country chose to ignore the UN and mount an attack upon an innocent population. Is not the life of an Iraqi every bit as precious as an American life? There are various statistics put forth concerning the total dead, currently according to http://www.iraqbodycount.org/ is a minimum of 38,059 and a maximum of 42,434. Another study done by the British Lancet estimates well over 100,000 as of 2004. The rate of malnutrition in children has soared to twice as much prior to the occupation. Unemployment has skyrocketed since the occupation while our government pays Halliburton, Brown and Root and private US security and construction companies putting wages that many Iraqis could be earning back into our own hands. Critical infrastructure has still not been replaced while daily electricity rationing is still in place three years after the “liberation”. Daily life poses a risk to every citizen. There HAVE been elections. Yesterday the prime minister accused the US military of the death of his neice in an incident similar to the one reported in Haditha (indeed it was Haditha, but a separate incident). Why is it that I, a 52 year old house wife living in Southern California who lived in the Mideast for five years take my PERSONAL experience and predict from the beginning that a US invasion of Iraq would be a disaster? It’s because some of us who care to L-I-S-T-E-N know more than any one in this neocon administration ever cared to know. I offer two tried and true axioms: “Know your enemy” and “If you break it you own it”. GWB and his cohorts neither took the time to assess the possibilities or L-I-S-T-E-N to any one other than themselves. They took my country down a road of ruin and now “own” the problem of Iraq. If we had not invaded, this would not have happened, can I make myself anymore clear? If we had not invaded there would not be a civil war there now. Pictures of Abu Gharib, thousands dead, Haditha, incompetance, ignorance, these are all “owned” by the US. If anyone were to ask me what I would do to fix it my reply would be, honestly, from the bottom of my heart I do not know. It all depends on what our government is willing to sacrifice, either the astronomical cost of getting the job done right (if that is even possible) or the humiliation of admitting we were wrong. What can we possible do to atone for our mistake. Can we give back all the lost Iraqi lifes? We can all dispute and argue the merits of either choice, but I suggest that more of the same is NOT a choice. How long can this go on? How many more innocent Iraqis will die at our hands or the hands of the insurgents who have been granted power by our incompetance. God help us all. This is the greatest injustice my country has ever perpetrated. I don’t pretend to know everything, but this I do know, my country made a mistake and for this we are judged.

By: Philip

Philip — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 04:18:49 +0000

Fair enough. I’m not trying to get anybody worked up here, just stating a point of view which is apparently intolerable. “Who started it” is an age old battle that will rage on in every conflict, so I will be courteous enough not to respond to the arguments made. I have stated my case and am satisfied that I did so effectively. Last word is yours, and I wish you well!