General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSo, yeah...remember that whole Iraq war thing? Remember all the refugees flooding into Syria?
Last edited Tue Aug 27, 2013, 07:34 PM - Edit history (1)
Remember the Iraq war? Millions of displaced Iraqis running for their lives? A couple million of them wound up in Syria, thanks to Syria's open-door citizenship policy for Muslims around the world.
To wit: if you're Muslim and come to Syria, you'll get housing and assistance until you land a job...but hundreds and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees tore that welcome mat apart by dint of sheer mass.
There were food riots in Syria a few short years ago. The government had to sharply curtail the largesse they gave their new Muslim immigrants, and resentment festered. Plus, a lot of people were pissed about what happened in Iraq. Syrian society was put under enormous stress, and began to fray.
So, yeah, the Iraq war probably had at least something to do with the reasons why Syria descended into civil war. Kinda sorta. And stuff.
And the lead cheerleader for that disaster?
Oh, he's painting cats now.
These New George W. Bush Paintings May Herald a "Cat Period"
http://gawker.com/these-new-george-w-bush-paintings-may-herald-a-cat-pe-1209373403
Motherfucker.
Dreamer Tatum
(10,926 posts)WilliamPitt
(58,179 posts)You fail.
Civilization2
(649 posts)War begets war,. peace begets peace.
If we would simply not fight/cause wars, for corporations and banksters, and instead work at social uplift, the world would be a much better place.
reminds me;
The world is like a ride in an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. The ride goes up and down, around and around, it has thrills and chills, and it's very brightly colored, and it's very loud, and it's fun for a while. Many people have been on the ride a long time, and they begin to wonder, "Hey, is this real, or is this just a ride?" And other people have remembered, and they come back to us and say, "Hey, don't worry; don't be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride." And we
kill those people. "Shut him up! I've got a lot invested in this ride, shut him up! Look at my furrows of worry, look at my big bank account, and my family. This has to be real." It's just a ride. But we always kill the good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok
But it doesn't matter, because it's just a ride. And we can change it any time we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings of money. Just a simple choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one. Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace.
― Bill Hicks
truedelphi
(32,324 posts)Lot about Bill Hicks myself, during these troubled hours.
leftstreet
(36,108 posts)DURec for the post
joeybee12
(56,177 posts)Cats are wonderful...he should not be associated with them at all.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Kennah
(14,265 posts)progressoid
(49,990 posts)I'm sure after we drop a few dozen bombs on them, they'll be right as rain.
HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)The Baghdad is Burning blogger. Her last posts were shortly after arriving in Syria, IIRC.
TexasProgresive
(12,157 posts)http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/
... I'll meet you 'round the bend my friend, where hearts can heal and souls can mend...
Tuesday, April 09, 2013
Ten Years On...
April 9, 2013 marks ten years since the fall of Baghdad. Ten years since the invasion. Since the lives of millions of Iraqis changed forever. Its difficult to believe. It feels like only yesterday I was sharing day to day activities with the world. I feel obliged today to put my thoughts down on the blog once again, probably for the last time.
In 2003, we were counting our lives in days and weeks. Would we make it to next month? Would we make it through the summer? Some of us did and many of us didn't.
Back in 2003, one year seemed like a lifetime ahead. The idiots said, Things will improve immediately. The optimists were giving our occupiers a year, or two The realists said, Things wont improve for at least five years. And the pessimists? The pessimists said, It will take ten years. It will take a decade.
HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)I followed her blog. Glad to hear she's alive and as well as can be expected. I hope she'll still post occasionally.
Ghost Dog
(16,881 posts)to be much respected.
whoopingcrone
(98 posts)She posted again this April and mentioned that the
family left Syria "before the heavy fighting started."
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)was another large chunk of our moral authority for an attack crashing to the ground.
bvar22
(39,909 posts)...bears a marked likeness to Hitler's.
Hydra
(14,459 posts)Just screams "blah..."
I have to say though, the German blah is almost pleasant compared to the Faux Texan's.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)Your posts today have been excellent.
WilliamPitt
(58,179 posts)Autumn
(45,079 posts)of history. I was wrong, his policies and murderous mistakes still endure.
Link Speed
(650 posts)The faces you see on teevee and the floors of government are merely Trick Ponies.
spanone
(135,831 posts)lastlib
(23,226 posts)FUCK 'EM ALL!! with a rusty syphilis-infected pitchfork!
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)We need a smiley that is sadly shaking its head.
Zorra
(27,670 posts)We spoke beforehand of the existence of new territories, at the end of the Third World War, which awaited conquest (the old socialist countries), and of others which should have been re-conquered by the "new world order". In order to achieve it, the financial centers carried out a criminal and brutal third strategy; the proliferation of "regional wars" and "internal conflicts", which mobilized great masses of workers and allowed capital to follow routes of atypical accumulation.
The results of this world war of conquest was a great ring of millions of migrants in all the world "Foreigners" in the world "without borders" which the victors of the Third World War promised. Millions of people suffered xenophobic persecution, precarious labor conditions, loss of cultural identity, police repression, hunger, prison, death.
With different names, under a judicial differentiation, sharing an equality of misery, the migrants or refugees or displaced of all the world are "foreigners" who are tolerated or rejected. The nightmare of migration, whatever its causes, continues to roll and grow over the planet's surface. The number of people who are accounted for in the statistics of the UN High Commission on Refugees has grown disproportionately from some 2 million in 1975 to 27 million in 1995.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)NealK
(1,867 posts)Now let's bomb Syria because we cannot wait for the final proof, the smoking gun that could come in the form of a Sarin cloud.
obxhead
(8,434 posts)They will fear once again being injured or killed by American missiles and bombs.
I just don't get it. If Romney were talking about a strike on Syria today DU would be in a unanimous uproar over it.
Cleita
(75,480 posts)Maybe one of his models might claw his balls off. It will be the only justice he will ever be served.
LuvNewcastle
(16,844 posts)KoKo
(84,711 posts)Pleasure with them..and his connection with those of us who Love the Kitteh's.
He does have a least ONE Good Side to his BLACK HEART....he loves our Kitteh's.
And God will shine on him for that...if he repents for the "kitteh's he KILLED" with his War Policy. THEY WERE INNOCENT and HE KILLED THEM!
It's true, Will...he did. Along with the Children and Families who loved them...
And when you kill a kids and families fellow dwellers (their pets) you've killed another or other "Innocents."
Just saying.... War kills everything in it's path. And the things that matter the most.
Bush needs to REPENT HIS SINS...before he paints another KITTEH Portrait.
He's still SCUM...but, his whole personality is so twisted...that Repentance for his Crimes is the only way he will ever find his true artist's talents in DARING to PORTRAIT PAINT...a KITTEH...because....THEY KNOW! They ALWAYS KNOW...
(Just going off on this...pay no mind..)
etherealtruth
(22,165 posts)(immigrated prior to "the war" to escape Saddam Hussein)
Many in their family moved to Syria when we attacked Iraq hoping to flee war zones. They are weighing heavily on my mind.
Not that it really matters, but they are Christian ad have not fared well.
kelliekat44
(7,759 posts)But of course this really doesn't matter to the US.
etherealtruth
(22,165 posts)Tarik Aziz (sp) was Christian .... however, Samir and Maisa fled specifically because of Saddam Hussein
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)Don't let people fool you, this agenda didn't appear with PNAC - they just articulated and consolidated the points that had been in motion since Truman.
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)railsback
(1,881 posts)Man, we are evil!
ozone_man
(4,825 posts)I would offer a corollary that in the run up to war, the first casualty is truth. Who is funding these so called rebels? Will Syria look like Iraq does now if we invade? I think so.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Or is it perpetual war yet?
Drunken Irishman
(34,857 posts)Don't be fooled by the propaganda. Trust Russia on this. They're really the truthful nation. Nothing is happening in Syria. All these videos are fabricated.
Don't buy the lie!
truedelphi
(32,324 posts)I mean, I''m not sure that we can be blamed for this, if it indeed happened. But those of us who ave been around the block a few times are understandably dubious - Gulf of Tonkin, Weapons of Mass Destruction and all that. Kuwaiti babies thrown out of their incubators by the ever nasty Iraqi soldiers, and how that turned out to be a "fib."
And then there is the overwhelming notion that maybe as a nation, we are not the best nation to come forward and say, Shame on you!
After all, Assad did not give the orders for My Lai, or Abu Gharib. Nor did he lie a nation of three hundred million people into our attack on Iraq.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)steve2470
(37,457 posts)KrazyinKS
(291 posts)Thanks for refreshing out memory, a little history always helps to try to understand things. A little point we haven't heard about from other news sources.
TBF
(32,058 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)William Faulkner
sinkingfeeling
(51,454 posts)an absolutely adorable Syrian lad of about 15 or 16 in Alexandria last fall. He came up to my sister and I in a mall and asked if we were American. I told him yes and he expressed his 'love of your Obama' He said he had been sent to relatives in Egypt to avoid being caught up in the violence in Syria. I wish I could have brought him home. I think of him a lot these days.
Tom_Foolery
(4,691 posts)He is just a number now.
Township75
(3,535 posts)Our Dem president didn't have much of a choice because of that Bush guy?
We can support it if somehow attacking Syria is a reflection of how bad Bush was.
truedelphi
(32,324 posts)In the Toilet:
When as President your polling numbers start declining, proceed at once to announcing the moral high ground of having to fight a new war. Ignore any common sense facts about why it would not be good to do so.
Also do not be concerned about the cost. There is ALWAYS enough money for the military endeavors; the middle class has no ability to resist the tax increases.
suffragette
(12,232 posts)When so many others are busy pounding the drums of war.
Love you for doing that
Keep it up!
libodem
(19,288 posts)For bringing this out. Syria has a very vulnerable population of refugees from Iraq because of us. Putting them back in a war zone seems horribly wrong. Those people need protection and help. Not more war.
Mr_Jefferson_24
(8,559 posts)...cats or whatever he likes -- so long as it's from behind prison bars where he, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Blair and a host of other war criminals rightly belong.
Response to WilliamPitt (Original post)
Name removed Message auto-removed
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)I mean, what the hell can possibly be gained from prosecuting petty crimes like manufacturing war?