The argument that other gov’ts should have this information, but ours should not, is what this boils down to.

I can go one worse. (neo)Conservative Sean Hannity has expressed on more than one occasion that not only should the Iraqis show gratitude for their “liberation”, but they should provide free oil to the U.S. to help pay for it. 44 yrs old going on ten.

Entertainment keeps getting more and more compelling, I think for the majority of people who have a television, even w/o cable. And the more that people feel bewildered, overwhelmed, and afraid, the more likely they are to turn on the tv just to feel better.

If people start getting restless, a good scare in the news is enough to send them back to their favorite tv shows & a nightly dose of ~Lunesta~ which is an illusionary promise of beauty and peace if there ever was one.

People do want to feel good, and safe. TV and legal drugs, provided by the government and those who support the government, are a very effective means of keeping people moderately quiet and non-bothersome, sheep-like, dull-witted, dependent… allowing the people in power to do whatever they want, paid for by… ta-da… us. I think Noam Chomsky calls this approach “Mind Control in a Democratic Society.”

Do you think broadcast television would suffice to keep them subdued, or do we have to wire all the homes with cable?

I think the Bush team is far more concerned about imposing their own reality than about understanding life in Iraq.

It is not like Bush himself has required any blood transfusions after patrolling Baghdad and having bullets and bombs come his way.

My Iraqi friends for years have tried to explain to me how they under Saddam grew quite used to say one thing and still believe another. Even within ones own family, having the Mukhabarat everywhere. To save ones own skin for some, to rise in power for another. A form of duplicity as national conscience, they admitted.

It will take a long while for this to fundamentally change. And an occupier who only deals with the local power brokers these more subtle realities of the country are possibly non-existent, until of course these realities slowly settle in, making various decision makers feel increasingly embarrassed with their former assumptions.

Thanks Jim, for the NYT catch and analysis.

I see your point if you’re talking about James Russell and Maria Lowell or Lowell, MA, etc. But any quibble along Mason-Dixon line is child’s play compared to the monumental Leviathan now ensconced in that swamp on the Potomac.

Regarding Bush siding with the Sunnis and Kurds in Iraq, I was simply extrapolating from all his problems with the Shia in the entire region, Hezbollah, Iraq, Syria (although the rulers there are Alawites), etc.

Without any personal aspersions, I going to have leave, the Connecticut/Mass - born/educated (Phillips, Yale, Harvard), Bush at the feet of Northeasterners!

Regards.

A most interesting historical analysis. My last name and the geography with which it is usually associated will probably suggest to you the likelihood of any near term agreement between us.

In any case, I see that the militia involved in the episode in Iraq has been identified as an alleged “death squad”, one now out of the control of the cleric to whom it owed fealty. It’s certainly possible that the attack on it may have been inspired more by legitimate security concerns than our taking sides with the Sunnis against the Shi’ites. I hated to admit that that I may have been too hasty here - long experience with Mr. Bush causes one to expect the most nepharious - but that may be the case.

We have a helluva lot more Poli Sci profs and grads than we did 50 years ago, and govt has gotten a lot bigger and more oppressive.

I recall the “Buy Iraqi War Bonds” held up by some of the US hostages during the parade in Washington in early 1981 after they were released from Teheran.

I reckon if you had held up the same sign in 2002, you would be imprisoned, or at least hassled to the Nth.

I am just a simple computer programmer nothing fancy just Character based unix…
I voted for Bush 1 at around the 2nd Iragi War i was dumb founded as to why a secular wiskey guzzling corrupt Sunni dictator was being replaced and the opening the floodgates of
the Shia/Sharia fanatics ???
I was even fired from a hell hole of a job in riverside calif for expressing such views !!!
What I am saying is I am not a poli sci major .. the only thing I have going is I watch history channel and have use logic in
my work ..
But I was able to forsee the Iraqi Quagmire before the start of the Iraqi War !!!
OH I also remember the bumpers stickers “BUY IRAQI WAR BONDS” . during the Iraq/Iran War …
All of the present situation is about “DONT F’ WITH BALANCE OF POWER” !!!!

But if you were a True-Blue Conservative, you would realize that drug abuse is even worse than carpet bombing. Thus, the U.S. has apparently already done so much damage to the Tour de France (if the allegations on Landis juicing up) is true, we can take them off the target list.

On the flipside, if he did actually consume that much whiskey during the weeks of the competition, maybe any official inquiry should balance that against whatever else he ingested.

It seems that we need to impose our good will on Iran, North Korea, Syria, France, Great Britain, Spain, the Tour de France, Russia, Japan, Venezuela, Peru, Connecticut, and some other places I might have left out. I KNOW they would appreciate some good old urban renewal. Or at least, we can blow up things, and then leave it up to whomever to do the rebuilding.

Bill Anderson