If you're genuinely interested in knowing what's really happening in the world ... look to the world for your news, not just media in the US. Media outlets in other countries are not afraid to be critical of the US in their everyday reporting. With the internet, it's easy to look up news from other countries.

Language barrier? Just read the Aussie news (reg. required, sorry).

My reading is that US actions in the late 70s and early 80s destroyed the political lives of just about every moderate in Iran (most of them ended up dead), and pushed Iran from being neutral/pro US into being a heavily anti-US radical Islamic state. We're still dealing with that debacle -- including the very new quagmire in Iraq which has raised anti-US sentiment in the region to an entirely new level.

When Bush I led the Invasion of Iraq in 1991, Iraqis saw the incoming coalition as a savior. When Bush Sr. called on them to revolt against Saddam, many did so. Even after receiving a brutal drubbing at the hands of the US, Iraqi soldiers were doing things like spontaneously chanting "Long Live George Bush".

There was even a case of a tank crew coming across a bunch of American soldiers with their jeep stuck. The tank crew pulled the American soldiers out of their quagmire, and then happily surrendered to them.

What did the Bush Sr. do for them? Once he had achieved his objectives, he stopped what would have been a victory drive into a breathlessly waiting Baghdad, and modified the terms of Iraq's no-fly orders to allow Saddam to use his helicopters to brutally suppress the very revolt that Bush had called for.

He completely betrayed his allies (the people of Iraq). That is probably a very big part of what Bush Jr. had going against him when he invaded Iraq in the first place -- the name of his father who murdered part of the Iraqi population, and then betrayed the rest.

US actions in Iraq in this invasion (being very careless of neutral Iraqi lives) have made things even worse. Things like the debacle in Abu Gharab prison and the killing if Iraqi kids who had gathered around a disabled US tank have made things much worse.

For the time being, as long as Bush is in power, the USA has absolutely no chance of succeeding in Iraq.

If Americans want to salvage any sort of success in Iraq, the first thing they have to do is vote Bush out of office. -- Then Kerry needs to completely shift the attitude of the US military in Iraq to one of protecting and aiding Neutral Iraqis -- The US said that they went into Iraq to protect the Iraqi people, and they now need to act consistent with those words -- or eat them along with bombs and bullets.

My Home Page

Powered by  awp-hosting.com™