coalition of the unwilling say Go Alqueda, we've switched sides

Lets give a big hand to the boys at the recruiting office of AlQueda Pty Ltd, they are scoring big time in the HR department. At a time when the US military are having such a bitch of a time that they have let their standards drop to include hardcore felons and soy eaters to make up the numbers, AQ goes from strength to strength. Big name players like Tony Blair, the Danes, the Spanish, the Italians, Kevin Rudd, the Democratic Party, the majority of the US/UK/Australian populations and Melbourne Football Club round out a great end to the financial year.

Some have suggested that by kicking too many own goals, the Forus Coalition Inc, have no one but itself to blame. But then weve all heard the same tired old excuses from the Carlton Football Club for years and never get tired of watching the "own goals" sail through.

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2007/s1854103.htm

Anyone who has ever read a history book on Iraq would instantly recognise the strategy for the UK "redeployment" from Iraq.

Declare success, then leave, sure it may take year or so, and a good ten years less than thier previous occupation (1914-1930's).

Watch the Bushies use the same rehtoric in a short while.

Regardless of the facts on the ground, scream "mission accomplished" and then run like hell.

I am all for the "redeployment" of all foreign forces out of Iraq, but there is the knowledge that we do owe the Iraqi's a enormous amount for the damage we have done to their country (and the damage that they are doing to their country), and my real worry is not so much the chaos that will ensue after a withdrawl, but that we will simply wash our hands of the whole affair, as we did with Vietnam.

Nixon was able to secure an "honourable" peace with the North by promising them billions in reparations in return for a ceasefire to allow the US to get its troops safely out of the country. These promises were quickly reneged upon by that notoriously corrupt regime once the South had fallen and the Vietnamese had to foot the bill for the horrendous damage done setting reconstruction and theri economy back decades. Along the same lines, when the French left Indochina, they did pay reparations to the North Vietnamese, and suprise, suprise, the Vietnamese "found" dozens of French POW's that had somehow gotten lost in the North, you will notice that this is in stark contrast to the lack of US missing who returned in the immediate aftermath of the war. Im not trying to buy into the right wing conspiracy of US service men still sitting behind bars in the North, I find that hard to believe after so many years, just trying to point out that sugar works better than waving your dick at someone and cursing them when they are out of range.

Still who could trust a single Iraqi politician (see the laughably corrupt Achmed Challabi for a great example of the calibre of representative they have) with anything more than a sharpened pencil, let alone the many, many billions we should be distributing after we leave. I just know, that like the US after the Vietnam quagmire, whatever administration will find a convienient trigger to stop the bleed from thier treasury.

For all Alexander Downers hysterical denounciations of Rudds position, his passionate defence of the Iraqi democracy, his "12 million Iraqis voting, three times", it should be pointed out that nearly 70% of Iraqis now say that they would not have voted for their representative and that the vast majority really had no idea who they were voting for. Why? The election campaign was confined to watching the candidates on tv with the streets just not safe enough to have anyone move outside the greenzone or thier campaign headquarters in Jordan or Oman. With a vast majority of the same Iraqis Alex loves to embrace saying that their vote was meaningless, will we ever see another vote. Will we ever see a "free and fair" election? Or is this just a another step along the road to the next Saddam?

For all that I may say about us getting the fuck outa dodge, its still very true that by our lies, corruption and incompetence, we broke the china, we gots to pay for it, regardless of how it may end. Me, I am hoping to see that worm Howard in tears with a gun pressed to his temple and a dead hooker beside him in a cheap motel room after he loses his seat of Bennelong at the next election (current status he will lose his seat by a margin of 10 percentage points according to the latest opinion polls). But thats a personal dream, and one I would gladly video tape and send to you free of charge.

Scooter Libby trial update:

Jury still deliberating after 1 day

cant decide wether to call Cheney "an asshole" or "a vacation for shit in a suit",

ask Judge wether they can say both in their guilty verdict

...............................................

The Great Chained Granny Outrage

Couldn't let this one pass, while flicking the dial on TV, caught the apology and didnt stop laughing for a lot of ACA moments. Commercial news and current affairs? Please, stop, your killing me.

On Tuesday night, the current affairs show's host Anna Coren had told viewers about an "extraordinary situation that's reached boiling point".
"As we go to air tonight, this 84-year-old grandmother remains locked up in her nursing home room chained to a cupboard.

So what has she done to deserve this?"

The only catch was that Boot himself had brought the chains along to the woman's aged-care facility, something he failed to mention in his report.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/tv--radio/chain-stunt-truth-unlocked/2007/02/22/1171733932163.html