Iraq Quickhits
(Reuters) "Almost 2,000 bodies were brought to Baghdad's morgue last month... recording the highest number since an attack in February on a Shi'ite shrine ...."
(CNN) "Sixty percent of Americans oppose the U.S. war in Iraq, the highest number since polling on the subject began....And a majority of poll respondents said they would support the withdrawal of at least some U.S. troops by the end of the year."
(Al Jazeera) "In at least six separate incidents since June, Iraqi reporters said they had been physically beaten, had their equipment confiscated and been falsely accused of "terrorism". Senior US and Iraqi military officials admit such attacks have occurred and a series of investigations are underway."
(Zaman) "The Turkish military has opened fire (artillery) on a Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) camp in northern Iraq, according to reports by the Peyamner News Agency (PNA)."
(AP reporter's blog) "The only store open last weekend at a shopping district in Baghdad's Mansour neighborhood was the one selling suitcases. And business was brisk."
And, we have a new term. Terrorists, insurgents, rejectionists, dead enders, and now...... "murderers associated with death squads", the statement said, using the military's new catch-all term for illegal armed groups."
(CNN) "Sixty percent of Americans oppose the U.S. war in Iraq, the highest number since polling on the subject began....And a majority of poll respondents said they would support the withdrawal of at least some U.S. troops by the end of the year."
(Al Jazeera) "In at least six separate incidents since June, Iraqi reporters said they had been physically beaten, had their equipment confiscated and been falsely accused of "terrorism". Senior US and Iraqi military officials admit such attacks have occurred and a series of investigations are underway."
(Zaman) "The Turkish military has opened fire (artillery) on a Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) camp in northern Iraq, according to reports by the Peyamner News Agency (PNA)."
(AP reporter's blog) "The only store open last weekend at a shopping district in Baghdad's Mansour neighborhood was the one selling suitcases. And business was brisk."
And, we have a new term. Terrorists, insurgents, rejectionists, dead enders, and now...... "murderers associated with death squads", the statement said, using the military's new catch-all term for illegal armed groups."
posted by mikevotes at
8:14 AM
5 Comments:
Mike, your Iraq war round-up posts are indispensable.
I love the CNN poll showing 60% (highest number ever) oppose the war on the same day Ken Mehlman says Lamont's victory last night takes the Democratic Party into the clutches of the defeatist anti-war far left crazies. And of course Nora O'Donnell and so many of the other TV parrotheads dutifully repeat the RNC talking point without ever pointing out that 60% of Americans now oppose the war, making Lamont's position decidely mainstream and Lieberman's position "crazy".
By
Reality-Based Educator, at 11:08 AM
"Baby Boom" Anti-War Effect on the Iraq War
The sentiment against an extended war in Iraq has grown much more quickly than in the past. Part of the reason was that in the Gulf War we were able to get in and out quickly. The bombing of Serbia into submission was even quicker. We were promised more of the same by the Bush Administration in our WMD war in Iraq.
It was the Gulf War, though, that got us over the supposed "Vietnam Syndrome," misinterpreted by most conservatives as Americans not wanting to fight any war. Post-Vietnam society never really suffered from a "syndrome," which sounds like a serious mental malady.
Instead, U.S society had learned an important lesson; that the U.S. could not always impose its will on other countries. Americans of the "baby boom" lived, and many fought, through that senseless, bloody war.
Back in the 1960's and '70's the anti-war movement started on campuses and moved slowly into the social mainstream. Although not a movement today, Republicans should not forget that the boomers are still here, and do remember the real lessons of Vietnam. One is that there should be no open-ended commitments to war.
The people who started the Iraq war were the Young Republicans of the 1960's. They were the guys like Cheney with the short hair, rather than the long hair, who were avoiding the draft. There were no Young Democrats because the anti-war movement was a spontaneous movement, not a political one. The anti-war movement party didn't trust either political party.
Those Young (now old) Republicans who got us into Iraq, are the conservatives who totally misinterpreted Vietnam as a "sydrome" rather than a lesson to be learned about the limits of American power. Since they refused to learn that lesson, we are all paying the price in terms of dead soldiers, huge deficits, and no "light at the end of the tunnel."
Now the "boomers" are in their 50's and 60's, and once again see their country stuck in what seems an open-ended commitment to war, another one of the real lessons of Vietnam. That's why anti-war sentiment in the country has arisen so much more quickly over the Iraq war than it did in Vietnam.
The boomers are also now in the age range that produces the highest voter turnout. So beware pro-war politicians. Don't let the Vietnam Syndrome get you down, and out of elective office.
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Marshall Darts, at 11:51 AM
Reality based, good point. I have been fascinated watching the Republicans trying to isolate the Liberman Lmont race down to a single issue. It is totally in their interests to make it about the war. Because if it's about closeness to the preseident, a referendum on Bush, then the Lieberman result presages November. If it's about the war, the Bush base can be assuaged that it's just those crazy NE libereals.
Marshall, welcome.
Let me add that I think that the "young Republicans" also felt a persecution during the Vietnam period and a projection of that personal experience filters into their Vietnam was winnable if the antiwar protesters hadn't won.
And, don't have data for this, but my memory of polling for 2004 pres election (which was an eon ago in public opinion) was that the 45-60 group was the most likely to support the war. Of course, I would attribute that to families and nesting and all that and the fact that Iraq was still successfully tied to stopping another 9-11. Now that that fallacy has been severed, I don't know where that demos war support is, but I thought I'd mention it.
One more, I think the lesson from Vietnam that was unlearned which I think you cover, is that short wars can be tricked past the public under the rubric of threat and patriotism. But maintaining that is extremely difficult.
Great Comment. Got me thinking about alot of stuff.
Mike
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mikevotes, at 12:48 PM
MADS are MAMs who've had enough of the AIFs
By
Bravo 2-1, at 1:02 PM
It took me a minute to get that one.
Mike
By
mikevotes, at 2:17 PM
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