Home > You Call This Normal? The New York Times in Fallujah

You Call This Normal? The New York Times in Fallujah

by Open-Publishing - Tuesday 19 April 2005
56 comments

Edito Wars and conflicts

Seattle, Washington, April 18, 2005

"Things are almost back to normal here. We have teachers and books. Things are getting better."

New York Times 3-26-05 "Vital Signs of a Ruined City Grow stronger in Falluja"

"I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today "my own government."

Rev. Martin Luther King

Cameras aren’t allowed in Falluja; neither are journalists. If they were then we would have first-hand proof of America’s greatest war crime in the last 30 years; the Dresden-like bombardment of an entire city of 250,000. Instead, we have to rely on eyewitness accounts that appear on the internet or the spurious reports that sporadically surface in the New York Times and Associated Press. For the most part, the Times and AP have shown themselves to be undependable; limiting their coverage to the details that support the overall goals of the occupation. For example, in the last few weeks both the NYTs and the AP ran stories on the alleged progress being made in Falluja. The AP outrageously referred to the battered city as "the safest place in Iraq"; a cynical appraisal of what most independent journalists have called nearly total destruction. One can only wonder if the editors at the AP would approve of similar security measures if they were taken in their own neighborhoods.

The NYTs also ran a lengthy story, "Vital Signs of a Ruined City Grow stronger in Falluja", which portrayed Falluja as a city on the mend’ after a healthy dose of imperial medicine: "Classes have started again two months ago and the cheerful shrieks of children can be heard in the hallways." This was just one of the more contemptuous quotes lifted from the NYT’s story of "rebirth" from the epicenter of American devastation. The quote was accompanied by a picture of a Marine in full-combat gear bending over to tie the shoe of a seven or eight year old Iraqi boy; a threatening image used to convey the spirit of American generosity.

The truth about Falluja is far different than the bogus reports in the AP and Times. The fact that even now, a full 6 months after the siege, camera crews and journalists are banned from the city, tells us a great deal about the extent of America’s war crimes. Just two weeks ago, a photographer from Al Aribiyya news was arrested while leaving Falluja and his equipment and film were confiscated. To date, he is still being held without explanation and there is no indication when he will be released. This illustrates the fear among the military brass that the truth about Falluja will leech out and destroy whatever modest support still exists for the occupation. Journalists should realize that Falluja may turn out to be the administration’s Achilles heel; a My Lai-type atrocity that turns the public decisively against Bush’s war.

The fairytales in the Times and AP are typical wartime propaganda; no different from the fabrications about Jessica Lynch’s heroics or the Dear Leader larking-about in Baghdad with a plastic turkey in tow (Bush’s "surprise" Thanksgiving day visit) The articles suggest that the administration has settled on a strategy for concealing the unpleasant facts about the obliteration of the city. Along with an active disinformation campaign featured in the nation’s leading newspapers, the administration has put together a PR operation to shape public perceptions. This explains why the State Dept’s number two official, Robert Zoellick, popped up in Falluja last week for a photo-op at a bread-making factory and a water-pumping station. Zoellick’s visit was supposed to draw attention the progress being made in Falluja’s restoration. Instead, his plans were disrupted by threats to his personal safety and he was hustled-off to a fortified military compound in the center of town. There he was beset by the cities tribal leaders’ complaining about the dismal pace of reconstruction.

Zoellick’s appearance was intended to highlight the alleged return of 90,000 Fallujans to the city and the reparations that have been made to the city’s water system. In fact, there’s no way to verify the administration’s claims about the numbers of returning residents, and its doubtful that there have been any measurable improvements to the water-treatment plants, sewage facilities, electrical grid or hospital; all of which were intentionally bombed during the siege.

Zoellick’s "confidence-building" trip turned out to be just another in a long list of bungled public relations gambits. If anything, it only further proved that the US still has no control over the security situation on the ground, and that the majority of Iraqis were better off under Saddam.

The Bush administration claims that the military is slowly providing compensation to the people whose homes were destroyed during the Falluja offensive but, again, there’s no independent source that can verify those claims and it seems inconsistent with the existing policy. Zoellick summarized the Bush policy succinctly in his remarks to the Fallujan leaders, "I know it won’t be easy. There will be many days of frustration, even threats. We can help, but YOU have to make it happen."

Zoellick’s comments are little more than a distillation of the Bush ethos, "You’re on your own;" the underlying theme of "compassionate conservatism".

It’s doubtful that anyone in Falluja is so naïve that they believe the administration will actually help-out with the reconstruction. Two years have passed since the initial invasion and Baghdad is still limited to three or four hours of electricity per day. The problems with water and sewage systems are equally grave. Only one in five Iraqis has access to clean water and there are still many places in Baghdad where raw sewage can be seen on the city streets. As a result there have been reports of outbreaks of cholera, diarrhea and other more obscure water-borne illnesses.

Falluja is undoubtedly doomed to the same fate as Afghanistan. The media will create the illusion of improvement for the American public; celebrating the meaningless trappings of democracy (sham elections, claims of sovereignty, and the writing of a constitution) while the nation remains fractured and under the brutal rule of the regional war-lords. Afghanistan is a lawless, drug-colony run by gangsters and narco-smugglers. By any standard of measurement, our involvement there has been a complete failure. The real Afghanistan bears no resemblance to the flourishing democratic republic that graces the pages of American newspapers.

Falluja and the rest of Iraq can expect the very same treatment. There is no Plan B; the Bush strategy for toppling regimes and replacing them with the Neoliberal model is a cookie-cutter approach to governance; a one-size-fits-all formula for global rule.

In Naomi Klein’s article "The Rise of Disaster Capitalism", Klein points out that there really is no intention on the part of the US to rebuild Iraq or anywhere else for that matter. When the State Dept gets involved, through its Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) "the mandate is not to rebuild any old states, but to create democratic and market-oriented’ ones". That entails selling off "state owned enterprises that created a nonviable economy" and, thereby, "changing the very social fabric of a nation."

There it is! Deregulation, privatization and control of resources; the same model applied over and over again. The real goal is a radical, fundamental change to the system; "shock therapy", the all-purpose antidote prescribed by the global banking and financial establishment. These changes are facilitated through their political surrogates in the Bush administration, and executed by their own private security apparatus (aka; the US Military). After Iraq has passed through this vicious transition from semi-socialist government to deregulated capitalist colony, it will be entered into the new world order of American protectorates; stripped of its resources and subjected to the tyranny of foreign rule. All government properties and services will be controlled by multi-national corporations and all assets will be held by the foreign lending institutions that own the majority shares of the Iraqi National Bank.

The real story of Falluja will never appear in the pages of the New York Times; the banned weapons, the bloated corpses, the thousands of dead animals killed by illicit chemicals, the wasteland of rubble and ruined lives. The magnitude of the crime simply won’t fit within the paper’s glib account of benign intervention. Rather, the Times is focused on promoting a credible story of "rebirth amid the ruins"; of lives patched together by a kindhearted father in Washington and his heavily-armed disciples.

They’re wasting their time. The cruelty of the siege and the vastness of devastation will eventually be brought to light and the Time’s feeble apologetics will amount to nothing.

The Times remains the command center of the imperial chronicle; the indispensable shaper of the colonial digest. Its pages furnish the muddled logic for the invasion of defenseless nations, the rationale for continued repression, the requisite smokescreen for American war crimes, and the dubious justification for the ongoing occupation. Their work in Falluja is just one of many services they carry out as the information-annex of the defense establishment. They perform subtler assignments others as well. They continue to be an invaluable cog in the machinery of state-terror; executing their function with extraordinary skill.

Mike Whitney can be reached at: fergiewhitney@msn.com

http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney04182005.html

Forum posts

  • I hate my country, I hate my press, and most of all I hate my representives.
    I write all of the above to the above, with no reply, ever, and I write in a civil eduacted manner. They do not represent the people, because if the truth came out they’d be lynched. Most Americans work 50+ hrs a wk, have a family and rely on that stupid little box.
    I lived abroad in the 90s and saw a lot that was NEVER reported here and it taught me to ALWAYS seek outside news outlets.

    I want out, I hate the country I was born in, it is sick, depraved, deprived of any compassion or common sense, corrupt as sin, the dollar rules the land. It’s a case of the Lemmings waving their little flag with their finger pointing of being #1, without checking the facts or sensiblity of their thinking.

    • Don’t let the door smack you in the ass on your way out.

      I’m starting to think the USAF should have just dropped a daisy-cutter on Fallujah, after all.

      Get help. You’re clearly one of the most unhappy people on the planet.

    • Your are sick.

    • Its alright -he’s just trying to shock or play devils advocate. His bigoted ignorance was obviously successfully challenged once upon a time by a rational person.
      He now has to vent his spleen of the right wing bile that leaks into his nervous system. It is meaningless drivel designed to try to upset all normal people. Mirroring his Bush cabal support, he was probably the one who egged on the bully at school, but was to cowardly to partake himself. He’d wet his pants in any fair conflict, be it a mental or phisical challenge.

    • A few months after Germany surrendered in 1945, a GI standing guard duty in a town in Germany was murdered early one morning by an unknown Nazi. The US army closed off the town, had artillery brought in, and shelled it for 8 hours. Was this right or wrong?

      The world is a rough place. The recent invasion of Iraq is historically signifigant because it’s probably the first time that the invading force has showed more concern for civilian inhabitants than the defending force.

      Okay, okay, the USAF should not have demolished Fallujah with one big bomb. It’s awfully tempting to say that’s how it should have happened, though, especially knowing that it was done the hard way, with a lot of brave Americans giving their lives in an effort to minimize civilian casualties, for which they receive no credit whatsoever from people like you.

      I genuinely feel bad for the previous poster’s misery and hatred of his native land. You can try to psychoanalyze me all day long based upon brief comments on the internet, I really don’t care.

    • What those Fallujans did to those US ’contractors’ was barbaric -but showed the depth of feeling towards invaders that had bombed women and children. It’s no different to how downtown people in Chicago or any other US town would treat Iraqi parasitical contractors, following an illegal invasion of the US by Iraq.
      The bombing and invasion of Iraq is just a big bully in action, that has no moral justification whatsoever. Every fight back by the Iraqi people, no matter how futile, we are morally obliged to condone.

    • So you’re saying that whatever the jihadists in Fallujah do, no matter how depraved, they’re the good guys? The utter contempt they show for the laws and customs of warfare (beheading kidnapped aid workers, chopping hands off of liquor vendors, desecrating the bodies of their enemies, ritually slaughtering kidnapped truck drivers on webcams, etc.), that’s all stuff we should not only expect but "condone"? Basically, you’re on their side?

    • Only in as much as what the US invaders do, no matter how depraved is ’right’. Cruise missiles, cluster bombing, napalming. , shooting in cold blood, rape, electrocution, sodomy with electric lights. Humiliation, degradation, and collapse of infrastructure. All of which is done under an illegal occupation in order to steal the natural resources, and youre ON THEIR SIDE ? Nationalism is probably one of the greatest evils.
      No any right minded person has to be on the side of the oppressed, the same as if the US had been invaded.

    • To the person (s) who thinks the USA is on the right course in Iraq:
      If the Iraq invasion is such a fine and noble effort to protect the freedoms and security interests of USA citizens, then why is there not a massive call for volunteers to join the over-extended miiltary forces to share the burden? Why doesn’t the Bush administration and its supporters call for volunteers to join the miltary and support this noble movement to install democracy throughout the middle east? Why shouldn’t anyone under 50 years of age, such as political commentators, volunteer to fight the war they so vigorusly and righteously support? Why is it acceptable for the US government to spend billions killing innocent civilians, but won’t fund the cost sof building new public high schools in the urban centers of these democratic United States of America? Why is it acceptable to bomb a foreign country - thatwe continue to occupy, but it’s not okay to allow a husband to make a very personal decision about the quality of life for his spouse? Why is it okay for elected and (non-fairly and legally elected politicians to rush to the bedside of one vegetative woman and not rush to the HIV/AID ward in big city hospitals? Why is it acceptable for Bush to fly to Rome and attend the pope’s funeral, but not acceptable for Bush to fly to one United states of america and attend a fallen soldier’s funeral? When you can provide reasoned and truthful answers to these questions, then talk belligerently about leaving this country or loving it? i love my USA, it can be so much more than it is - without killing and occupying other countries. the USA should take care of all its citizens first - I support the building of a new public high school to replace Castlemont High School in Oakland, California before i will ever support war. We were not attacked on 9/11 - not by foreing sources - but everyday we are rotting a little bit more from the inside.

    • Too much to respond to, so I’ll take the easiest one (I’m in a hurry).

      "Why is it acceptable for the US government to spend billions killing innocent civilians, but won’t fund the cost sof building new public high schools in the urban centers of these democratic United States of America?"

      Because education is historically and traditionally the responsibility of local and state government. Federalism 101. You didn’t learn that in Social Studies in the 7th grade?

    • The incorrect assumptions in your post are too numerous to address right now. To start with, you might want to take a look at this, on the theory that those with opinions have a moral responsibility to get their facts right:

      http://assyrianchristians.com/i_was_wrong_mar_26_03.htm

    • When you don’t have the arguments you just give some spurious web link to some mumbo jumbo christian ? Brilliant.

    • The fact that the guy happens to be Christian is really irrelevant to his site. If you’d set aside your bigotry long enough to read (or even scan) his site, you’d realize that. Do so at your own risk, though—it’ll challenge your world view. Not for the narrow-minded.

    • It is just one christians view -when I graduated in Politics and History one of the first things we learned was to to have various CREDIBLE sources to ascertain the truth -not just ONE christian Bush supporter.

    • Still, let’s not stray too far from the articles intended response.
      The mainstream media would have us believe through misleading reporting or just omission, that things are getting better in Iraq. Apologists on Bellaciao for the illegal invasion of a sovereign nation, often leave a link of some dubious Green Zone blog.

      The reality is, that by far the most Iraqis want the US murderers OUT of THEIR COUNTRY. Saddam for all his faults (no more than any other dictator that Washington has supported) managed a country with a perfect health service, a first rate education system, and utilities that put many western nations to shame. The Iraqi people have watched all this deteriate since 1990, withh appalling loss of life.

      If you’d just unwrap yourself from the star spangled banner for a minute and realise we all live on a revolving ball, the idea of one nation being better than the other is a ridiculous idea that leads to a downward spiral of competitive destruction. It is just another ’divide and rule’ tactic used by a minority to control the majority.
      OK I’ll get off the soapbox now.

    • An Assyrian-Japanese Bush supporter? Did you read the thing? I suppose the entire website could be agitprop, but I only posted it as one more example I recently stumbled across. I’ve read the same thing numerous other places.

      US forces have died in an effort to minimize civilian casualties, while the insurgents have deliberately set off bomb after bomb on crowded streets. If you think the US has bombed indiscriminately, why are the major cities in Iraq still standing? If you’ve been to Germany, you’ve probably noticed that in large towns and cities, most of the architecture is less than sixty years old.

    • "Saddam for all his faults (no more than any other dictator that Washington has supported)"

      Really? Saddam = Noriega = Marcos = Pinochet? And since France sold five times more weapons to Saddam than the USA, and Russia five times more than France, when did those two governments decide that he’s bad news?

      Uh, in comparing countries, I assume we’re comparing governments, cultures, and societies? If so, I feel pretty comfortable saying that Australia is better than Afghanistan, that Japan is better than Serbia . . . I could go on, but I’d just needlessly annoy people other than Afghans and Serbs. To say all countries are the same is to say they are static, and they’re not. At any given moment, some are getting better and some are getting worse. To deny that is to deny the hope of improvement. I guarantee you that a society that practices slavery is worse than one that doesn’t. In that sense, America is certainly a better country now than it was 160 years ago. Do you deny that?

      By the way, as far as the invasion being "illegal," it was much more "legal" than NATO’s undeclared war on Serbia (which was long overdue, but should have been done differently—and without the USA), as well as France’s recent unilateral invasion of the Ivory Coast. (No one cares about this except for the Ivorians, parrticularly the dead ones.) I can connect the dots if you want—I’m just making the point that I don’t feel the need to "apologize" for the invasion.

    • What the article seems to intonate is that the media is putting a spin on Iraq that doesn’t exist. Most independent accounts of day to day life in Iraq, accounts that have no political axe to grind, seem to point towards a deterioation of services and infrostructure, with increasing violence.

      When the mainstream media misreports events in Iraq, ’’Things are getting back to normal...’’or as in the UK at present, omits events and scenarios because an election is imminent, lying by omission makes the media equally culpable. Someone made a good point on the BBC that if invading Iraq was such the right thing to do, why has there not been ONE mention of it during Blairs electioneering ? The truth is he’s ashamed and embarassed, in having no backbone in standing up to Bush.

      No, I don’t think you’re to blame for the invasion, though to support it seems either stupid or callous.

    • THIS IS ABSOLUTELY THE MOST REMORSELESSLY HILARIOUS WEBSITE ON THE NET.
      THE HUMOR IS ALMOST PORNOGRAPHIC.
      STUPIDLY FUNNY, THESE PEOPLE ARE THE POLITICAL EQUIVALENT OF JERRY LEWIS, OR THE THREE STOOGES!!!!!!

    • Wow, I just love watching bald people fighting over a comb. Just work it through logically.... War is bad...... period. Both sides in this conflict have behaved barbarically and you can spend the rest of your life arguing over which bit of barbarity is worst. Is it really that different to have your head removed by American shrapnel or by an insurgent? Either way you are 100% dead. The reporting of Iraq is an absolute disgrace with all those fearless journalists hiding (with good reason) and therefore reporting "another quiet day in Iraq... our policy is working". I appreciate their reluctance to go out and do too many vox pops but they could at least be honest about why they have nothing to report. They might as well be sitting here with me for all the insight they have gained by skulking in the green zone. It is never - and I repeat in big letters for the slow of thought, NEVER - acceptable for a journalist to set aside truth in favour of propaganda. (By the way I speak as a fully qualified journalist). Resolutions to world problems do not come through the cowardice of the fourth estate. Publish and be damned because if you’ve done your job and told the truth then you can do no more. Those working in the US mainstream media should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. They aren’t journalists they are prostitutes offering their souls for a paycheck from Murdoch etc......

    • and you are irrelevant

    • Nice contribution, and your point is........ ?

    • No, I took it in 6th grade in my racially segregated public elementary school.

      And i also learned only CONGRESS has the power to declare war....not the office of the president of the usa.

      and bilions to murder innocent civilians... in a country that did not attack us?

      and when are you shipping out to iraq... no excuses, even if you’ve been. the JOB’s not done.. there are still some iraq’s living and resisting the usa’s immoral, illegal and utterly pointless war.

    • He is not sick, he is historically accurate. Only two men ever succeeded in subduing Islam: Gengiz Khan, and Timur Lenk [Tamerlane], and used identical strategy: kill everything, men, women, children, dogs, cats, chickens, goats, EVERYTHING. Ya can’t knock success.

    • MY POINT IS: LEFTISTS ARE NOT [as has been rumored] ENTIRELY USELESS, THEY ARE ALWAYS GOOD FOR A LAUGH.

    • Those right wing boys with their Forrest Gump impressions, Reagan, Bush snr, Bush Jnr are real rib ticklers as well. Hitler was also a hoot, and who can forget old Dan Quayle ?? Ha Ha !! ’’I’ll spell potatoe any way I like’’. Brilliant.

    • At least we "leftists" know where to find the Caps Lock key...... It’s on the left hand end of the keyboard. I presume your keyboard only has an extreme right hand end. By the way, before you start knocking other people you might take the time and trouble to find out what you’re talking about.
      If leftist means concerned, compassionate and fearful for the future of the world then thanks for the compliment.

    • You righties always have your heads planted so far up Bush’s ass that all you can remember is Stalin a dictator who died in your hayday. As to Hitler, he was a Catholic Christian nothing more and certainly not a socialist or a communist as you keep trying to rewrite the history to suit your limited brain capacity and support our fascist dictator Bush your hero. A moron hero for a moron like you. One who wishes someone on Bellacio would believe his troll crap. We all have your profile gramps go back to sleep you stupid old geezer. Or go on over to the church and cop a feel on some poor little alter boy you nasty old thing.

    • I’m a "leftie" as you lot might say but I would like to distance myself from the comment above. The one thing we have on our side (and it’s not much in the scheme of things) is that we don’t lower ourselves to petty homosexual or religious insults. Please grow up.

    • HOW DO YOU SPELL "GULAG"? HOW DO YOU SPELL "LAOGAI"? HOW DO YOU SPELL "100,000,000 + MURDERED AND COUNTLESS ENSLAVED IN 80 YEARS [1917-1997], YOU PHONEY BASTARD.

    • IT IS GOOD THAT YOU CAN FIND THE CAPS LOCK KEY. KEEP LOOKING, AND PERHAPS YOU WILL FIND YOUR CONSCIENCE

    • No quite sure what the hell you’re talking about -but Gulags were part of the Soviet prison system, the Soviet system was State Capitalism.

      Anyway the US since 1945 -bombed 23 countries, that’s one every 3 years. Ignorant murdering SCUM.

    • Yep, the Caps Lock key is right here nicely set to the left where my conscience is. Is it really necessary to be quite so certain of your opinions. Most people filter their opinions through various sources in order to arrive at a vaguely sensible and considered result. You, on the other hand, seem to have failed to realise that the first step in this process is to remove your head from your arse.
      Dammit, I’m giving free advice to "righties"....
      By the way, if "lefties" are Stalin loving commies (see above for a very sensible refutation of that one!!) that presumably makes you a Hitler loving "rightie". Okay?

    • HAVE I TOUCHED A NERVE? TWO FACED DOUBLETALKING APOLOGIST FOR MASS MURDERERS!

    • "FILTER YOU OPINIONS THROUGH VARIOUS SOURCES"? BBC? NY TIMES? PRAVDA??
      YOUR DISHONESTY IS MADE MANIFEST BY YOUR INSISTANCE THAT HITLER WAS A MAN OF THE RIGHT. HITLER WAS A SOCIALIST, SWEETHEART, A "NATIONAL" SOCIALIST!!!!!!!!!!!
      CHOKE ON IT.

    • IT WOULD SEEM THAT YOUR CONSCIENCE IS AS FAULTY AS YOUR HISTORICAL UNDERSTANDING.

    • You’re possibly a few dimes short of the dollar in the intelligence department

      (PS Ctrl +Caps Lock) switches them off

    • Er, uhm how can I put this .. ? Ready ? right here we go...

      National Socialism is another name for fascism OK ? got that ?

      Now, caps lock off, OK ? ...and back into bed with your medication

    • Wrong person, bozo! But I have to admit that National Socialism is indeed fascism. So perhaps you could find yourself a nice book and check out a few of the facts. Funny, but it’s always been a bit awkward to find a copy of Pravda around here and if you think the BBC is left wing you really haven’t got a clue.

    • And, by the way, please don’t call me "sweetheart". The devil will be making snowballs before that day comes.

    • IN YOUR DREAMS PINKO. JUST COS YOU REPEAT IT AD-NAUSEAM DOES NOT MAKE IT A FACT. MUSSOLINI’S GIG WAS "fASCISM". STALIN’S PROPAGANDA MACHINE WAS THE FIRST TO REFER TO NATIONAL "SOCIALISM" AS "FASCISM" BECAUSE HE REALIZED HOW ABSURD TWO SOCIALIST STATES ENGAGED IN A DEATH STRUGGLE WOULD APPEAR TO THE WORLD. MUSSOLINI’S FASCISM IS SOMETHING HE COOKED UP AFTER A PREVIOUS TENURE AS HEAD OF THE ITALIAN COMMUNIST PARTY. WHAT A BLESSING SOCIALISM IS.....................FOR UNDERTAKERS.

    • SEE MY ABOVE POST, DWEEB.......................

    • Mr. Cap Locks, thank you for posting in all caps, it makes it so much easier to just skip anything you write. When I see all caps, I just do not bother to read the post. That saves me time since nothing you post is based on intelligent or factual statements. So again thanks for saving me time.

    • Besides the dumbing down of America is very important to the government, if they can keep us stupid and fighting with each other, they can do whatever they want to with the tax money. 50% of the kids drop out of high school because they never learn to read in grade school and they get further and further behind. Skilled American jobs go to imported educated labor, science is becoming a thing of the past while we teach creationism and other fables which will never get you a job as a rocket scientist.

      And besides don’t you know that as a citizen and a taxpayer in a Capitalist country you should not expect ANYTHING for your tax money. You’ll get nothing and like it. We only have money for war and weapons and corruption.

    • THANX FOR REPLYING TO A POST YOU DID NOT READ.................................ASSHOLE

    • Probably best to ignore Mr caps Lock, he’s like the kid in class who doesn’t want to learn and disrupts everyone else.

      Attacks on the illegal invaders are increasing, Bush’s statement two years ago that ’’hostilities have ceased’’ and ’’we’re winning hearts and minds’’ ..what a crock of shit from the Dumb One.

      Reality check..Brave Iraqi defenders with $35 rocket propelled grenades MORE effective than $35 000 000 tanks paid for by US taxpayers.

    • BUSH PERE, AND BUSH FILS, AS LIFETIME MEMBERS OF THE MASONIC ORDERS AND THROUGH THE "SKULL AND BONES", AS ILLUMINATISTS, COULD NEVER BE TRUE MEN OF THE RIGHT. THEY ARE TRYING TO USE A POLITICAL MOVEMENT FOR WHICH [AS ELITISTS] THEY HAVE NO SYMPATHY IN ORDER TO FURTHER THEIR ILLUMINATIST/MASONIC AGENDA IN THE SAME WAY THAT JOHN COHN [KERRY], BILL & HILARY CLINTON AND THEIR COHORTS USE THE LEFT. [JOHN COHN [KERRY] IS SKULL & BONES, CLINTON IS MASONIC, FROM THE VERY HEART OF DARKNESS OF THE AMERICAN MASONIC MOVEMENT: ARKANSAS, HOME OF ALBERT PIKE]....................................WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE PINK BOY. YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS ARE BEING USED AS STOOGE FOOTSOLDIERS IN AN ARMY THAT YOU WILL NEVER CONTROL. IN A MOVEMENT THAT WILL ONLY BRING YOU CONFUSION, DESPAIR AND DISILLUSIONMENT. WHAT I HAVE JUST REVEALED TO YOU IS AMPLY DOCUMENTED EVEN IN LEFTIST LITERATURE AND COULD HAVE BEEN FIGURED OUT BY SOMEONE WITH EVEN RUDIMENTARY POWERS OF LOGICAL ASSESSMENT. ARE YOU ASLEEP???????? OR IS YOUR ATTACHMENT TO THE UNTHINKING LEFT AN EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT THAT WILL ADMIT NO DETACHED, LOGICAL ASSESSMENT?

    • IT PROBABLY WOULD BE BEST TO IGNORE ME. WE CERTAINLY WOULD NOT WANT TO UPSET YOUR DIALECTICAL HOUSE OF CARDS, NOW WOULD WE? IT IS TRUE THAT ON OCCASION $35 R.P.G.S CAN DEFEAT $35,000,000 TANKS. IT IS ALSO TRUE THAT STOLEN AIRLINERS CAN BRING DOWN SKYSCRAPERS, AND THAT 15 OR 20 MUSLIMS WITH MACHINE GUNS AND GRENADES CAN AMBUSH AND MASSACRE 300+ PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN [BESLAN]. YOU WILL NEVER WIN ANY MUSLIM HEARTS AND MINDS UNTIL THE LAST QUR’AN IS BURNED, UNTIL THEN, IF WE ARE WISE, WE WILL JUST HAVE TO SETTLE FOR PUTTING BULLETS IN THEIR HEARTS AND MINDS WHENEVER THEY START TO GET OUT OF HAND.

    • I’m sure many a Muslim feels the same way about you, but it’s not very constructive towards the development of the human race is it now ?

    • " SEE MY ABOVE POST, DWEEB....................."
      A perfect example of the wit and wisdom of Mr Caps Lock. A tribute to the grace and beauty of language. A whimsical walk on the wild side ...... with Shakespeare’s little brother.

    • STUDY THE QUR’AN FOR A FEW YEARS, AND THEN GET BACK TO ME. IT IS OBVIOUS THAT YOUR OPINIONS COME FROM A VAST, BARELY TAPPED RESERVOIR OF IGNORANCE. IT IS EVERY MANS RIGHT TO HAVE AN OPINION EVEN IF HE HAS NO IDEA OF WHAT THE HELL HE IS TALKING ABOUT, THEREFORE, I BOW BEFORE YOUR EXERCISE OF YOUR GOD GIVEN RIGHTS.

    • THANK YOU, THANK YOU. YOU HUMBLE ME WITH YOUR PRAISE.

    • Anytime.... I always reserve my praise for those who most need it.

    • OH, THERE ARE MEDIA OUTLETS THAT ARE FARTHER LEFT, IT IS TRUE, BUT OPERATIONS LIKE THE BBC AND THE NY TIMES AND THE WASH. POST ARE INDEED CLASSIC AND PROVABLE LEFTIST PROPAGANDA OUTLETS. BY PRETENDING TO BE MAINSTREAM THEY ONLY AMPLIFY THEIR EFFECTIVENESS. BY PUBLICLY IDENTIFYING THEM FOR WHAT THEY ARE THEIR EFFECTIVENESS IS DIMINISHED. HAVE YOU NOTICED, THEIR SUBSCRIPTION RATES AND READERSHIP HAS DECLINED CATASTROPHICALLY IN THE LAST TEN YEARS?

    • Oh come on..... next you’ll be telling me that Rupert Murdoch is a closet communist! Fair and balanced....... So fair and balanced that it is illegal to show Fox News over here because it is regarded as entertainment not news and is, ergo, not an organ of the truth.

    • YOU LEFTIES ALWAYS HAVE BEEN VERY TOLERANT OF CENSORSHIP.
      THE TRUTH CAN BE VERY TROUBLING [PARTICULARLY TO LEFTISTS], SO I CAN ENTIRELY UNDERSTAND WHY YOU WOULD WANT TO AVOID IT AT ALL COSTS..............THE BBC IS AN "ORGAN OF TRUTH"?.............CNN IS AN "ORGAN OF TRUTH"?...............CBS? NBC? ABC? NEWSWEEK?...................A LEFTIST [REMEMBER RIGOBERTA MENCHU?] TALKING ABOUT TRUTH, OR CRITICIZING SOMEONE ELSE’S PERCEIVED LACK OF TRUTHFULNESS IS AN AMAZING THING TO CONSIDER. ADMITTEDLY, YOU AND YOUR COMRADES DO TEND TO SURROUND YOURSELF WITH A BALLISTIC GRADE AURA OF UNREALITY. ENOUGH! IT IS TIME FOR A TUMBLER OF SCOTCH AND A CIGAR. YOU HAVE DRIVEN ME TO DRINK.