Meanwhile Back in Iraq:HUGE Shiite Demonstration Against Israel/America!

[leftchick]

yikes.....





Iraqi Shiites in their thousands gather in a mass demonstration against Israel's bombing of Lebanon, Friday, Aug. 4, 2006, in the Sadr City area of Baghdad, Iraq. Over 200,000 Shiites filled the streets of the Shiite dominated Sadr City slum to attend a rally in support of Lebanon after Friday prayers. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060804/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq


<snip>

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Tens of thousands of Shiites draped in white shrouds gathered in Iraq's capital Friday for a pro-Hezbollah rally, while violence around the country left eight people dead.

In the northern city of Mosul, a car bomb killed three policemen, and clashes between Iraqi security forces and Sunni insurgents left one policeman dead and eight people injured, officials said. Four Shiites were shot dead overnight by unidentified gunmen near Baghdad.

The streets of the Shiite-dominated Sadr City slum in Baghdad were packed with thousands of people for the rally, called by anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Organizers said about 250,000 people had gathered, but the estimate was impossible to confirm.

Dressed in white shrouds — a symbol of their willingness to die — the demonstrators waved Hezbollah's yellow flags and chanted "Death to Israel" and "Death to America."

"I am wearing the shroud and I am ready to meet martyrdom," said Mohammed Khalaf, 35, owner of a clothes shop in the southern Amarah city.

[malaise]

1. Freedom is on

the march? Are those garlands or Hizbollah flags?

[Hubert Flottz]

3. Bush said himself he thought it was great for the Iraqis to enjoy

freedom of speech!

Shit Happens!

[malaise]

4. Bushco's warmongering foreign policy

is fugged. Time for Impeachment.

[Hubert Flottz]

16. "Time for Impeachment"

Every GOPer in congress has failed to uphold the Constitution and remove the criminals! Why do they hate America?

[SammyWinstonJack]

2. That's just a "fringe group", right DUHbya?

:sarcasm:

[EFerrari]

19. There were so many people, they couldn't even do a good estimate.

Bunch of dead enders, not doubt.

[SammyWinstonJack]

35. Yeah us "dead enders" will eventually make a difference! One day

TPTB will have no choice but to pay attention to us! :thumbsup:

[EFerrari]

36. It's going to be sooner than later. Because Americans don't

forgive lies. You can lie to them till your caught and then, you're done for. That's why the BFEE devotes most of its resources to cementing its lies.

Unforgiven. :evilgrin:

[SammyWinstonJack]

37. I'm all about sooner! And I know that the majority of Americans

belong to the reality based community! And we are fed up and highly pissed off! Power to the People!

[underpants]

5. So THAT'S the uniting W has been talking about all this time

:wow:

[chimpymustgo]

7. He's a uniter, all right. This is madness.

The whole Middle East inflamed and in flames.

[leftchick]

9. it gets worse. check this out....

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34228

MIDEAST:
U.S. Watches Dreams of Transformation Dissolve
Analysis by Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Aug 3 (IPS) - Entering the fourth week of war between Lebanon's Hezbollah militia and Israel, the George W. Bush administration's ambitions to transform the Arab Middle East into a pro-Western, more democratic region are fading fast.

Not only is Washington's thus-far staunch support for Israel losing Arab ''hearts and minds'' at an astonishing pace, but the ''moderate'' governments and non-governmental forces which the administration had hoped would act as catalysts for reform are increasingly isolated across the region, according to Middle East specialists.

''I have never seen the United States being so demonised or savaged by Arab commentators, by Arab politicians,'' Hisham Melham, veteran Washington correspondent for Lebanon's An-Nahar newspaper, told a conference this week at the Brookings Institution, an influential think tank.

''People are clinging to Hezbollah, clinging to Hamas, because they see them as the remaining voices or forces in the Arab world that are resisting what they see as an ongoing hegemonic American-Israeli plan to control the region,'' he said.

[underpants]

10. Dare I quote Kissinger?

Okay maybe Kissinger didn't come up with this I just remember hearing him say it.

You never back someone into a corner you back them into a wall so they can still move they can still go left or right and you can influence which direction they take but if you back someone into a corner they have only one way out and that is right back at you.

[Recursion]

27. Kissinger was an evil genius

...along with Nixon.

And frankly, the past 6 years have proven that it's better to have evil geniuses at the helm than evil incompetent morons. There's no way in Hades Kissinger and Nixon would have allowed this situation to get this far out of control. Israel tried to pull this exact same crap during the Yom Kippur war, to delay a ceasefire until they had made the military gains they wanted. Kissinger saw through that really quickly and pressured them to stop with what they had. He also correctly judged the strategic significance of the war as showing that peace could no longer be based on Arab military powerlessness, and adjusted his diplomacy accordingly. Finally, the US came out of that war with stronger relations with Syria and Egypt than it had started it with, not weaker.

[mom cat]

29. I do not think that the US will come out of this stronger this time.

[madokie]

6. yikes is right

What a mess the buffoon has perpetrated on the world. And yes it is bush* fault, the whole damn thing.

[bvar22]

25. No, bush* was just the "puppet" frontman.

This disaster was engineered by the powers behind the Republican Party ( AND inside the Democratic Party) that took over the American Democracy during the Reagan years.

[BOSSHOG]

8. They are in their last throes of demonstrating

All the result of "conservative" republican foreign policy.

[karlrschneider]

11. Golly, there must be over a dozen of them!

:sarcasm:

[enigma000]

12. I thought Iraq was to chaotic and violent to have demonstrations

Won't they be gunned down or blown up? I don't understand.........

[Marie26]

24. It's probably

organized by the people that were blowing stuff up. IMO.

[peekaloo]

13. They're stomping all over the flowers and candy!

Didn't DimWit once remark, in reference to our "welcome" in Iraq, that "we were welcomed, it just wasn't a friendly welcome".

:-(

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

14. Those durn "unexpected consequences" again.

How shocking that the Shi'a in Iraq link America and Israel as aggressors.

[sistersofmercy]

15. Who are the figures in the silhoutte pictures?

I can't tell. Geez, this is scary stuff.

[leftchick]

17. olmert, blair and bush

Iraqi Shi'ite men carry effigies of U.S. President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert during a protest after Friday prayers in Baghdad's Sadr City August 4, 2006. Thousands of supporters of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, chanting 'We are your soldiers' and burning the Israeli flag, massed in Baghdad on Friday to protest against Israel's offensive in Lebanon. REUTERS/Kareem Raheem (IRAQ)

scary shit indeed. look here....http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/1479

[me b zola]

34. Scary stuff? Nah, Condi says it's just "birth pangs"

:yoiks:

[leftchick]

18. Iraqi Shiites chant 'Death to Israel'

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060804/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_060804114923

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Hundreds of thousands of Shiites chanting "Death to Israel" and "Death to America" marched through the streets of Baghdad's biggest Shiite district Friday in a massive show of support for Hezbollah in its battle against Israel.

No violence was reported during the rally in Sadr City. But at least 26 people were killed elsewhere in the country, most of them in a car bombing and gunbattle in Mosul in the north.

The demonstration was the biggest in the Middle East in support of Hezbollah since Israel launched its attacks against the guerrillas in Lebanon on July 12. The protest was organized by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose political movement built around the Mahdi Army militia has been modeled after Hezbollah.

[Jacobin]

20. Neo-cons have brought us to the brink

and I don't see any turning back

After November, when we/Israel start bombing Syria and Iran, with the democrats full support (except for a view lone voices), life as we know it will be over.

I mourn for our country and I mourn for the catastrophic loss of life we are about to witness.

http://billmon.org/archives/002627.html <<<<<Pretty much sums it up.

[Marie26]

21. Great

Sometimes I wonder if Iran actually planned all of this. They are the major beneficiaries.

Here's my conspiracy theory: Iran asks its militia proxy, Hizbollah, to capture some Israeli soldiers in retalitation for the bombing of Gaza. They tell Hiz. that this will make Israel release key Hiz. leaders - but they knew the whole time what Israel would really do. Hizbollah follows orders & captures the soldiers. Israel goes batshit crazy, just like Iran knew they would, & begins bombing all of Lebanon. At this point, regardless of the outcome for Lebanon, Iran has already won. World opinion turns against Israel; Arab sympathy solidifies w/Hiz. & the Shiites. The Iranian Pres. gives speeches decrying Israel's violence & calling for Israel's destruction. Millions cheer. Iran helps organize massive protests of Shiites in Iraq against Israel & the US. The Lebanese people rally around the Shiites & Hizbollah. Iran has now shown the extent of Shiite power in Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon. They have shown that they are a regional power, w/a sphere of influence stretching from Iran to Israel. If Iraq becomes a Shiite state, & Lebanon becomes a Shiite state, Iran has become the new superpower in the region.

[leftchick]

22. lol! Iran?

This is a direct result of "A Clean Break" and the PNACers. Eternal war in the Mideast.

[Marie26]

23. It's BOTH

Can't you see that? They feed off of each other. US neocons scare Iran into putting a hardliner in power. The Iranian hardliner scares Israel into putting a neocon gov. in power. The Israeli neocon gov. kills Lebanese civilians, creating Arab support for Iran. Iran's hardliner gives speechs provoking Israeli neocons into more reactions against Lebanon, creating more popular support for Iran. And on & on it goes.

[enigma000]

26. Iran is an independent actor

They have their own agenda too.

[Gregorian]

28. Is this standing up? Is this standing up!

I believe it is.


I also believe I'm ashamed of myself. Here I am. And there they are.

[mom cat]

30. Great pics! ... Thanks.

[Horse with no Name]

31. It looks like the frigging Crusades

[iconoclastic cat]

32. 200K of them, and 130K of our soldiers. Get them the hell out of there!

This is not good at all.

[jayfish]

33. We Are Often Told By The Media That Iran Orchestrated The Current...

conflict between Israel and Hizbollah to take focus off a UN vote regarding it's nuclear activities. Is it just as feasible the the United States orchestrated Israels overreaction to take focus off of the debacle in Iraq?

Jay

[Chulanowa]

38. Anyone else notice that whenever Arabs protest something...

The only words quoted by the press are "Death to America, Death to Israel"? EVERY time?

I wasn't alive in the civil rights movement, but I'll bet the journalists put "Kill Whitey" in the mouths of Dr. King's marchers plenty.

See the trick is, we don't speak Arabic, and the Arabs in question aren't likely to read the article.

It's sort of like how Ahmedinejad has gone from disparaging Israel's current leadership in Farsi, for calling for a total eradication of earth's Jewry in American English. Just fascinating.