Registered: Jan 2002
Location: UK
Posts: 13002

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/mi...ast/5058304.stm

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Registered: Apr 2002
Location: At Home
Posts: 4192

One down, 75 mil to go.

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Registered: Apr 2004
Location: Den
Posts: 11476

No no, just look at Israel's success with killing Hamas leaders. Hamas has no power today.

I liked this one:

quote:

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The prime minister urged Iraqis to join political dialogue rather than violence, vowing to "carry on on the same path... by killing all the terrorists".

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Registered: Apr 2002
Location: At Home
Posts: 4192

What, a politician guilty of double-talk?? Surely not?

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Registered: Apr 2004
Location: Den
Posts: 11476

The Iraqis are so new at it, it's kind of cute.

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Registered: Apr 2002
Location: At Home
Posts: 4192

Tonu Blair just made a statement about the incident, he spouted "democracy" very many times, I was wondering where this democracy was when the descision was made to invade irak in the first place?

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Registered: Jun 2006
Location: A happy place.
Posts: 6

I'm all for wasting taxpayers money, but it's about time we did something right.

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Registered: Apr 2005
Location: wookin pa nub
Posts: 10792

Things would move along so much faster if they'd just use nukes.

We ought to start using nukes for everything.

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Kansas City
Posts: 7504

quote:

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Originally posted by FuhQall
Tonu Blair just made a statement about the incident, he spouted "democracy" very many times, I was wondering where this democracy was when the descision was made to invade irak in the first place?

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35736

You can't really undeclare war after the event; we're sort of committed. But legally speaking, the British PM doesn't require parliamentary approval to declare war, as he or she holds the Royal Perogative in this matter. That Blair did, in fact, put the issue to a vote in the House of Commons was both weird and a mistake, I think, particularly in light of stuff like the '40 minutes' claim being bullshit.

The 'democracy in Iraq' rhetoric is getting somewhat old now; the extent to which the final outcome will be democratic is itself somewhat debateable. We could end up with an ethnically/religiously gerrymandered hackjob ruling over a country that slowly falls apart and there's a limit to how much lipstick can be applied to that pig*.

*The lipstick/pig stuff has beaten out 'shark jumping' and 'strawman argument' for favourite cliche, although I think that it's also on its way down now.

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: ........
Posts: 15040

war was declared?

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35736

Well, authorisation of the use of force. I believe that direction of the UK's military forces and declaration of war are both within the Royal Perogative exercised by the Prime Minister.

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: ........
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Please remind me exactly who ( or what ) war was declared against?

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location: Disgusting den of creepitude
Posts: 10597

That news gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. Or maybe it's just the hydrocodone I just took.

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Registered: Dec 2004
Location: Beringia
Posts: 5262

it's a war on war.

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: ........
Posts: 15040

Have the coalition won yet?

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35736

quote:

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Originally posted by skalie
Please remind me exactly who ( or what ) war was declared against?

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: ........
Posts: 15040

Does anyone else think that the US deliberately demonized Zarqawi and exaggerated his significance as a militant leader?

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
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It's been suggested in PDM before now. Both the US/UK and Zarqawi had motive to play up his importance.

Still, no one will be mourning him a great deal, even Iraqis that want the Americans out.

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Registered: Dec 2004
Location: Beringia
Posts: 5262

I dunno, I think he could have been great, like Stalin.

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: ........
Posts: 15040

To quote the Iraqi I used to play darts with at work...

"I don't like no-one. I don't like Hussein, I don't like the Americans"

... kind of hard to find the middle ground.

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: ........
Posts: 15040

Damn shame Iraq didn't make the world cup, and Denmark for that matter.

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Kansas City
Posts: 7504

quote:

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Originally posted by skalie
Does anyone else think that the US deliberately demonized Zarqawi and exaggerated his significance as a militant leader?

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35736

Zarqawi's death occurred in something of a lull in anti-US violence (although Iraqi civilian deaths continued apace), from the last part of May through to today. I guess that a few months might tell the effect. I would imagine that the figure to look at is Iraqi civilian deaths from suicide bommbers, etc, as it appears that that was Zarqawi's main push, in efforts to start a civil war. It might be that his lot have already done enough and that the militias are doing much of the killing now; ~250 Iraqis have been reported killed in the last 8 days, which is about the same sort of rate as over the last few months.

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35736

I also wonder about the 'putting a name' on the problem approach. I do think that it has advantages, pinning a lot of the troubles in Iraq on Zarqawi; he's foreign, he's Al Quaida (good for making the old faithful Iraq-11/9 link), it simplifies things for the domestic audience. On the other hand, you do have to get the guy; eventually, Zarqawi has been got, but I'll be interested to see if the US starts talking up another bad guy (preferably an Al Quaida affiliate, at least) or if someone will have to do something to draw attention to himself as well (beheading videos or something like that). I think that good things to downplay would be the militias, particularly the involvement of Shia militias with the security forces and the allegations relating to their actions. It has to be politically better for people to believe that the problems are linked to the same 11/9 bad guys, rather than arising out of the downfall of Saddam and the security vacuum that followed it, because the former was carried out upon the US wheras the US had a significant role to play in the latter..

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