I swear to God I don't know why we even bother to fight but we have strong convicted men who more valor than most mistake us not to have.
U.S. checking if body found in river is missing soldier
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/05/23/iraq.main/index.html
Showing posts with label U.S. involvement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label U.S. involvement. Show all posts
23 May, 2007
19 May, 2007
I am an American
Someone at work asked me one day what my nationality was. I said I without hesitation I am an American. Actually the pc question should have been what my ethnic origin was. Then I would have responded unhesitantly to explain my features.
I may not have been born here but I have learned so much more about myself here in America than I could have in my native country. So when people ask me this question, I don't second guess myself. I don't hesitate to think about whether I'll get judged because of what I stated based on how I look.
Why do I rant about the middle east? Because I'm just sick of the hypocrisy. I'm sick that the U.S. has become such a overused target for all the problems that have been occurring there for centuries. I'm sick of justifying our country's economic and political interests while other countries essentially have the same motivations as we do. We just happen to be bigger and annoyingly patriotic about our homeland.
I've been living here long enough to see that citizenship or any permanent status of residency doesnt make an American. It's really very typical these days to bash the government as often as possible for all its missteps in protecting its interests in the middle east and national security but I seriously think we could be silently breeding self destruction if we fail to recognize our responsibility to respect the same country that offered us a chance to be free[to be ourselves]. I mean didn't we really all come here to America from different countries anyway?
Many people increasingly treat this country as a temporary stomping ground and leave like an ungrateful bastard child. I'll work here and earn my money. I'll breed my sub-cult and leave after I proliferate apathy. Sound familiar? Where the heck have down to earth, and grounded respect for your country values gone? I am no screaming patriot let me reiterate but to not honor your American experience is just plain unsettling. If I had moved to and lived in France instead of the U.S. I would likely be saying the same thing.
It's time to make a difference. No matter how small.
I may not have been born here but I have learned so much more about myself here in America than I could have in my native country. So when people ask me this question, I don't second guess myself. I don't hesitate to think about whether I'll get judged because of what I stated based on how I look.
Why do I rant about the middle east? Because I'm just sick of the hypocrisy. I'm sick that the U.S. has become such a overused target for all the problems that have been occurring there for centuries. I'm sick of justifying our country's economic and political interests while other countries essentially have the same motivations as we do. We just happen to be bigger and annoyingly patriotic about our homeland.
I've been living here long enough to see that citizenship or any permanent status of residency doesnt make an American. It's really very typical these days to bash the government as often as possible for all its missteps in protecting its interests in the middle east and national security but I seriously think we could be silently breeding self destruction if we fail to recognize our responsibility to respect the same country that offered us a chance to be free[to be ourselves]. I mean didn't we really all come here to America from different countries anyway?
Many people increasingly treat this country as a temporary stomping ground and leave like an ungrateful bastard child. I'll work here and earn my money. I'll breed my sub-cult and leave after I proliferate apathy. Sound familiar? Where the heck have down to earth, and grounded respect for your country values gone? I am no screaming patriot let me reiterate but to not honor your American experience is just plain unsettling. If I had moved to and lived in France instead of the U.S. I would likely be saying the same thing.
It's time to make a difference. No matter how small.
17 May, 2007
What for democracy?
Here's what it comes down to. In a year, America will be electing a new president. This president will bear the biggest burden of responsibility in easing the country out of this huge mess in the Middle East. More soldiers will die, more people will die and oil prices will fluctuate like a mother. Americans will get blamed more. And for what. It's sad that our country is in this mess that's been going on for centuries. And it's substantially more tragic to see the reality that a majority in the Middle East still just can't hold their peace. Do the Iraqi majority really want democracy? Seems like for a time, Saddam Hussein had sectarian violence fractionally under control. But he was a dictator and did get his hands bloodied by killing many innocents while in the process of quelling unrest. Now that he's gone and the U.S. military has gotten involved, we might as well have painted bullseyes on our soldiers' foreheads. Look at Lebanon. After 20 years, they're at it again. Last summer's war is proof that there are more people living there who have no strength in upholding economic or social progress, undecided and at the brink of another civil war. Two years after Hariri's murder, their government is deadlocked into moving towards a tribunal that was supposed to prosecute those involved in his untimely demise. Let's see what it's government and divided people will do next to set the country back another twenty years when elections come around. As for Palestine, Hamas and Fatah just broke their truce again. So far eighteen Palestinian people died after three days of fighting and Israel was also taunted into this clash by causing an airstrike since it took place along their border. People here are so disillusioned that it's futile to hope that this eye for an eye strategy is clearly doing excessive damage. This is not a holy war. This is about power and the use of religion to proliferate propaganda over nothing more than a struggle to shift power to other selfish politicians. Sad it is that Bush and Cheney arethe worst people to carry out diplomatic missions on our behalf but one thing's for sure. These men don't have a mind sick as that of Ahmadinejad who will twist things around to benefit his agenda. Yes, his agenda. What makes me so ill that the Muslim community is blind to his politics. Doesnt anyone see his predominantly Shiite agenda? He is Shiite, people. Who doesnt see Iran's involvement in smuggling arms to Iraqi insurgents and to Hezbollah(who are predominantly Shiite) in Lebanon? Iraq's future will literally disintegrate if it fails to make a decision on its alliances. They dont have to love Americans; they just have to understand that we are not out to get them the way Iran has plans to manipulate and conquer them. I dont see Iran proactively helping to quell the violence in Iraq. Did they deploy troops trying to quell the sectarian divide? NO. This concludes my latest entry. No disrespect to Shiites on my last comment. But anyone like Ahmadinejad who has a lofty agenda and is Shiite is highly likely to take advantage of his religious status to gain votes. In the end, if Shiites continue to follow him blindly, they'll realize he is no longer the man for the masses like he originally claimed.
25 April, 2007
Iraqi government failing
Finally Iraq taking responsibility...
With sectarian violence continually on the rise, this has to be dealt with by the Iraqis on their own. The U.S. can continue to assist and lose more troops but they are just moving targets like the locals amidst the chaos. It's so sad.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi politicians -- frustrated by violence throughout the country and the glacial pace of parliamentary lawmaking -- say the nearly one-year-old government is failing.
Iraqi lawmakers told CNN the government's impotence and inability to bring peace to the chaotic environment is basically structural, and not the product of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish legislator, was quoted in the USA Today newspaper as describing al-Maliki as weak, but in an interview with CNN, he said, "It's not Maliki, it's the whole government."
That government, he said, is failing on many fronts, such as providing security, fostering reconciliation and offering public services. (Watch patrol in 'no man's land' help dying woman )
He believes Iraq, not the U.S. government, should set deadlines for goals, and the government must "deliver" them or resign.
Hasan al-Shimmari, a Shiite member of the United Iraqi Alliance's Fadhila party, said the government is weak because the political process and the government's structure are "based on partisan allocation of ministries."
"The Maliki government should be strengthened by correcting the political process and allocating ministries democratically," he said.
Hasan al-Sneid, a UIA parliament member who is close to al-Maliki, blamed political forces and parliament for problems, but he praised al-Maliki's efforts to foster reconciliation among Sunnis and Shiites.
Another legislator pointed to Baghdad's two-month-old security plan as evidence of the government's inefficiency.
The plan is "not working," according to Maysoon al-Damalouji, a secular Sunni lawmaker.
She said many people believed that services would be restored to neighborhoods "cleansed" by U.S. and Iraqi troops. However, once troops leave a cleansed region, militias move back in and take revenge on people who have cooperated with the troops.
Al-Damalouji believes that the essential problem is the division of parties by sectarian affiliation.
Suicide bombers kill 9 U.S. soldiers
Nine U.S. paratroopers were killed Monday when a pair of suicide bombers attacked a small U.S. patrol base in Diyala province, the U.S. military said. (Watch how Diyala province is becoming a major battleground )
It was the deadliest attack on U.S. ground forces in Iraq since December 2005.
U.S. military officials said initial reports indicate insurgents used two 30-ton dump trucks full of explosives to attack what they call a combat outpost. The massive blast resulted in the northern and western walls of the compound collapsing. Remains of several troops were recovered from the rubble.
An additional 20 U.S. soldiers were wounded in the attack.
The direct assault is a departure from the usual tactics of the insurgents, who in the past have been more inclined to use hit-and-run sniper attacks, or launch mortars from a distance.
The Islamic State of Iraq, the insurgent umbrella group that includes al Qaeda in Iraq, claimed responsibility for the attack in a posting on an Islamist Web site.
The same insurgent group claimed responsibility for the suicide attack at Iraq's parliament complex two weeks ago.
The insurgents said that the U.S. confirmation of the Diyala attack "is a rare confession by the Americans about an operation against their soldiers" and that "God guided the soldiers of ISI to a new method of explosion."
The Diyala region is emerging as a major battleground in the Iraq war, along with Baghdad and Anbar province, with insurgents shifting their operations into the area.
The Diyala attack has jolted the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, based in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where all the dead and wounded soldiers are based, according to the U.S. military.
A Fort Bragg spokesman, Maj. Tom Earnhardt, said the Diyala attack is "the worst incident we've had in the whole global war on terrorism."
Other developments
At least 15 people were killed and 25 were wounded Tuesday in a suicide truck bombing north of Ramadi, police in the Anbar provincial capital said. The bomber struck a police patrol, killing at least four officers. Women and children were among those wounded, police said.
President Bush said Tuesday he will veto a war spending bill that sets a deadline for U.S. troop withdrawals to begin. The House of Representatives and Senate agreed Monday on a bill that requires a pullout of troops to begin by October 1. (Full story)
Thousands of Iraqis took to the streets of Baghdad on Monday to protest a concrete wall surrounding Adhamiya, a Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad. The U.S. and Iraqi militaries said the wall is a temporary structure to prevent insurgent attacks. But many Baghdad residents fear walls will exacerbate the sectarian divide fueling the insurgency in the Iraqi capital. (Watch why the wall is controversial )
CNN's Yousif Bassil, Arwa Damon, Jomana Karadsheh, Octavia Nasr, Jomana Karadsheh and Brian Todd contributed to this report.
With sectarian violence continually on the rise, this has to be dealt with by the Iraqis on their own. The U.S. can continue to assist and lose more troops but they are just moving targets like the locals amidst the chaos. It's so sad.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi politicians -- frustrated by violence throughout the country and the glacial pace of parliamentary lawmaking -- say the nearly one-year-old government is failing.
Iraqi lawmakers told CNN the government's impotence and inability to bring peace to the chaotic environment is basically structural, and not the product of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish legislator, was quoted in the USA Today newspaper as describing al-Maliki as weak, but in an interview with CNN, he said, "It's not Maliki, it's the whole government."
That government, he said, is failing on many fronts, such as providing security, fostering reconciliation and offering public services. (Watch patrol in 'no man's land' help dying woman )
He believes Iraq, not the U.S. government, should set deadlines for goals, and the government must "deliver" them or resign.
Hasan al-Shimmari, a Shiite member of the United Iraqi Alliance's Fadhila party, said the government is weak because the political process and the government's structure are "based on partisan allocation of ministries."
"The Maliki government should be strengthened by correcting the political process and allocating ministries democratically," he said.
Hasan al-Sneid, a UIA parliament member who is close to al-Maliki, blamed political forces and parliament for problems, but he praised al-Maliki's efforts to foster reconciliation among Sunnis and Shiites.
Another legislator pointed to Baghdad's two-month-old security plan as evidence of the government's inefficiency.
The plan is "not working," according to Maysoon al-Damalouji, a secular Sunni lawmaker.
She said many people believed that services would be restored to neighborhoods "cleansed" by U.S. and Iraqi troops. However, once troops leave a cleansed region, militias move back in and take revenge on people who have cooperated with the troops.
Al-Damalouji believes that the essential problem is the division of parties by sectarian affiliation.
Suicide bombers kill 9 U.S. soldiers
Nine U.S. paratroopers were killed Monday when a pair of suicide bombers attacked a small U.S. patrol base in Diyala province, the U.S. military said. (Watch how Diyala province is becoming a major battleground )
It was the deadliest attack on U.S. ground forces in Iraq since December 2005.
U.S. military officials said initial reports indicate insurgents used two 30-ton dump trucks full of explosives to attack what they call a combat outpost. The massive blast resulted in the northern and western walls of the compound collapsing. Remains of several troops were recovered from the rubble.
An additional 20 U.S. soldiers were wounded in the attack.
The direct assault is a departure from the usual tactics of the insurgents, who in the past have been more inclined to use hit-and-run sniper attacks, or launch mortars from a distance.
The Islamic State of Iraq, the insurgent umbrella group that includes al Qaeda in Iraq, claimed responsibility for the attack in a posting on an Islamist Web site.
The same insurgent group claimed responsibility for the suicide attack at Iraq's parliament complex two weeks ago.
The insurgents said that the U.S. confirmation of the Diyala attack "is a rare confession by the Americans about an operation against their soldiers" and that "God guided the soldiers of ISI to a new method of explosion."
The Diyala region is emerging as a major battleground in the Iraq war, along with Baghdad and Anbar province, with insurgents shifting their operations into the area.
The Diyala attack has jolted the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, based in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where all the dead and wounded soldiers are based, according to the U.S. military.
A Fort Bragg spokesman, Maj. Tom Earnhardt, said the Diyala attack is "the worst incident we've had in the whole global war on terrorism."
Other developments
At least 15 people were killed and 25 were wounded Tuesday in a suicide truck bombing north of Ramadi, police in the Anbar provincial capital said. The bomber struck a police patrol, killing at least four officers. Women and children were among those wounded, police said.
President Bush said Tuesday he will veto a war spending bill that sets a deadline for U.S. troop withdrawals to begin. The House of Representatives and Senate agreed Monday on a bill that requires a pullout of troops to begin by October 1. (Full story)
Thousands of Iraqis took to the streets of Baghdad on Monday to protest a concrete wall surrounding Adhamiya, a Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad. The U.S. and Iraqi militaries said the wall is a temporary structure to prevent insurgent attacks. But many Baghdad residents fear walls will exacerbate the sectarian divide fueling the insurgency in the Iraqi capital. (Watch why the wall is controversial )
CNN's Yousif Bassil, Arwa Damon, Jomana Karadsheh, Octavia Nasr, Jomana Karadsheh and Brian Todd contributed to this report.
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