They say you keep trying and sometimes change happens. They say you're supposed to be grateful for any kind of result, the effort is always worth it.
Don't look at me like that, man, that's what they say. Maybe their is a tipping point. Maybe there is divine intervention. Maybe there really will be a collective karma of justice on the motherfuckers, hell, prepare to be surprised by life, it's all I'm sayin.'
[sigh] It's not that hard to be so much better than this. At least there's that.
Posted by paradox at June 24, 2007 06:27 AMThis is beginning to piss me off...just heard the host on WJ read something from the paper that use the Al-Qaida terminology while speaking to a correspondent in Baghdad ...when he gave his reply he most definitely used the term "insurgents"...this subtle change (ala Lutz) will slowly take over all media coverage...watch CNN, FAUX News, and right wing talk fall right into place.
Posted by Dancer at June 24, 2007 07:08 AMI used to be a "humanist" but I've come to believe lately that humans are a cancer on the planet and that eventually our population will metastasize to the point where, through our violence and greed, we make our home uninhabitable and destroy our species, along with many others. The good news is, the Earth itself will probably survive us. I can only hope that the next "intelligent life" to evolve here will be smarter than we are.
Posted by dalloway at June 24, 2007 07:46 AMDancer, of course the media will fall in lockstep. It's what they do best.
Your list Soccerdad reads like the war crimes of Germany during WWII. They are just as grievous and criminal.
Posted by Judith at June 24, 2007 07:47 AMI am an athiest, but I wish to Gawd war would end, everywhere.
Posted by tempus at June 24, 2007 07:53 AMDalloway, I use to actually believe that there was good in most everyone. However, now I believe that man is either out and out evil, willfully stupid or driven by greed. How sad.
Posted by Judith at June 24, 2007 07:55 AMYou are equating all of humanity to the Mad King, idiot son of George, and his administration. You are equating all of humanity to PNACers. You are equating all of humanity to the knuckle-dragging republi-cons. All of humanity is not these people. These people are a minority regardless of how brutal or stupid they are. Do their acts have horrific consequences? Surely, but they are not the acts the majority of us would engage in.
If you want to see what people the world over are really like, catch the San Diego trolley to Tij on any weekday at 5:30 p.m. when the people are going back home from their jobs. That is humanity. Laughing people talking and happy, warm and gracious even to the weird Gringo riding with them. If you want to see what Americans are like, take the trolley back with the Americans and their shopping haul. People sitting alone or in small groups, furtive glances, fearful of others. But you also have those who are open and warm, and even the fearful engage in a bit of friendly chatter.
We're in a country much like Brazil is these days, with Government policy driving separation through economic means. We are actively encouraged to despise and ridicule those with less means. Selfishness is encouraged beyond any other act. Considering the Iraq war deaths, since WWII America has killed well over 35 million civilians through armed conflicts we support, often in secret. But these are the acts of the government, not you. I will always believe humanity is inherently pretty decent unless someone leads them astray (and generally that has been christianity or the other really stupid religions of Abraham).
You cannot tell me all of humanity is as you describe it. You would do better to say the Administration and its supporters -Democratic Congressmen included- are war criminals, should be charged and tried as such, and suffer the death penalty if found guilty. I certainly believe this, oh yes I do!
Posted by phidipides at June 24, 2007 09:20 AMAll this pessimism around here, and after you drove pessimist away. While I won't accept Phid's rant against this admin., he is right. There is humanity all around us. You only have to look, open your eyes and behold. There is plenty to be optimistic about. These bloggers here have forgotten about the JFK Democrats completely. That's the Democratic Party that Republicans feared. These modern day Democrats are a bunch of pansies. They have virtually nothing in common with JFK's Party. No wonder they've become a bunch of losers. And yet so many of you placed so much hope in them on some November Wednesday last year. Misguided then, misguided now.
"Apocalypse Iraq", Soccerdad, such a drama queen. Go back to the movies.
Posted by peter at June 24, 2007 10:28 AMI won't accept Phid's rant against this admin.,
then you have no credibility and are part of the problem
Posted by soccerdad at June 24, 2007 10:49 AMThank you Soccerdad. Your post fully describes the horror that Bush/Cheney have inflicted on both the Iraqi people, with which even Bush has never voiced a complaint in the run-up to his Invasion, but the American people who are now being held as powerless onlookers. Are we, as citizens, really that powerless? Shameful.
Posted by T2 at June 24, 2007 01:11 PM"Maybe there is divine intervention" (paradox)
I will re-join the Lutheran Church if they will guarantee Cheney gets hit by lightning.
dalloway: I have long believed that cockroaches and crocodiles will be cavorting on our graves long before the Sun goes Super-Nova.
Posted by TIKI AL at June 24, 2007 04:51 PMYour summary of Fallujah is factually accurate. And, as others have pointed out, it is as bad as some of the worst wartime slaughters anywhere. Yet, in US discourse, anyone who points out the facts of Fallujah is seen as a wacko extremist.
I predict that the greatest invention of the 21st century will be the set of techniques and tools used to counteract the great military-industrial-media-complex (MIMiC) propoganda machine. What the Pentagon and the US corporate media are now able to do in terms of shaping opinion is astounding -- and just plain evil.
My other prediction is that the evil people running the MIMiC machine will inevitably overreach and lose it -- like how the unbeatable Mike Tyson went down to a nobody when he ceased to take his opponents seriously. And once this happens and the dust clears -- say, 20 years from now -- we will find out that 80-90% of what the conventional wisdom regards as obvious truth will be instead be revealed as big lies.
Posted by Just one more little mint at June 24, 2007 08:24 PM