A British military helicopter apparently was hit by a missile Saturday and crashed in Basra, triggering a confrontation in which jubilant Iraqis pelted British troops with stones, hurled firebombs and shouted slogans in support of a radical Shiite Muslim cleric. The Iraqi state television and on the Al-Jazeera satellite station broadcasted the scene.
It is definitely frustrating to see how unpopular the US-led coalition is among the people in Iraq, and it calls into question whether or not this war can really be "won." Sure, sure, the US military has wins military battles, but our leadership needed to be better prepared for the task of post-war reconstruction and nation-building. It needed to keep Al-Qaeda out, negotiate with Iraqi leaders (even if it meant making some concessions to clerics), and show the Iraqi people the benefits of getting rid of Saddam. Life, as far as I can tell, years after the initial invasion has been worse than pre-invasion standards. Eventually, the US will continue to be villified amongst the Iraqi people, and in a few years any US-sponsored plan will basically have no chance of success.
That is not to say that I think President Bush himself lied to get us into Iraq. I wouldn't be surprised if virtually every government on Earth pre-2002 was absolutely certain that Saddam at least had plans for a nuclear weapons program. And I understand the merits of pre-emption and acknowledge that modern weapons delivery systems make non-proliferation all that more important. What worries me is the behavior of people in the Bush administration (like Rumsfeld, Cheney, and their supporters) who if they don't recieve the answer they want from their intelligence sources, simply coercive their agents to tell them what they want to hear, regardless of the best available information and experts. It was war-mongering at the highest level. Bush was duped along with the rest of us.
That is, of course, not to say that he is without blame. After all, according to our president, we invaded Iraq because God told him to in a dream... Perhaps there are a large number of people on this Earth that believe that or at least consider it as a possibility. Those people are idiots. I cannot believe that the leader of the free world is this clueless. But, in my humble opinion, problems in United States when it comes to our worldview is much worse than most people believe. US news is dominated by Michael Jackson, Angelina Jolie, the abortion issue... pointless. Isn't is scary that most people probably wouldn't be able to tell you the first thing about the candidates they vote for other than their party identification and their stance on gay marriage? And journalism in America... God forbid our news organizations begin to care about the laws and policies that affect us day-to-day, global disease, or genocide in Darfur.
Sigh... what the #$&@ is wrong with you, ____. It will be a happy day when I finally get away from this crap. HOORAY, I think it's better... spoke too soon. :(
Yanks and Mets are both on top of their division. Good time to be a New York baseball fan.
