<Rainbow Heron>

Saturday, April 12, 2003

Baq to Iraq

There are about a dozen or so blogposts I would have loved to make about the war during the week and a half I've been offline but then again I'm glad I kept my mouth shut cuz I REALLY don't feel like spewing about the war too much online or anywhere else. So here's the long (oh alright just the short) of it:

War in general: I hate war. I hate it when people kill each other. But when murders kill too many people and even if you put him in a cell for the rest of his life, he'll still try to kill the guard. I hate the death penalty and I hate the war not because of what they are necessarily, but because they *are* necessary...IN SOME CASES. (note the emphasis on "some cases" there cuz I don't wanna fight with anyone on any of that.

This war: Saddam won't leave. Saddam kills people. Saddam's a tyrant and forces all of his people to lick his ass and kiss his boots cuz he'll kill them if they don't. They can't get rid of him and everyone else who is able to would rather talk it out for another 12-30 years. Fuck that, we've been there, done that, and while everyone's been dickering about, Saddam's killed more people. In short "It's a damn dirty job but somebody's gotta do it."

What did Congress say? I still don't know but I remember saying quite often aloud "isn't Congress the only government entity that can declare war?" I remember being taught that at school but according to my parents, that's not totally accurate. I'm SO confused now. All I know is that Congress passed something this past fall and I think that was being used a pre-declaration of war. Whatever, I still haven't heard anything. >:-P

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Is Saddam dead? I really hate to say this but I really to hope he is. And if he isn't, I hope an Iraqi whom he's tortured is the one to behead him.

Is bin Laden dead? Ditto for Saddam only I don't care who kills him just so long as he's dead. Actually, if you could get Saddam and bin Laden into the same place, you could gas Saddam to death in one room Regime-style and then strap bin Laden to a fully-loaded jet plane and fly him into the same building 9/11-style.

Is Iraq offended? Some gal was on the news recently saying how "oh she's so offended by ___ because the Arab world sees it as offensive". Then they showed a picture of a VERY jubilant Iraqi crowd. They didn't look the least bit offended to me.

Down with the monolith: I did indeed see this live on tv. The whole ~2 hours of it. Even if I had muted the tv, there was no doubt that Iraq was happy to see that statue come down. It was kinda like being at a football game in that there was cheering in the house of "bring it down! bring it down!" I don't care what your nationality or religion is, seeing that thing come down should be a VERY happy thing! One less dictator in the world.

Why were there no women? Probably something to do with Islam or something. I dunno. BUT (and you knew there was a "but" coming) there were indeed women in the street with some children watching the men bring it down. I made a point of looking and I did indeed see some.

Why was the crowd so small? Some of them still think that Saddam is alive and if they were caught celebrating, they'd be killed. Just because they've been liberated doesn't mean they aren't still scared. Fear doesn't disappear overnight, and I don't blame them in the least.

The American flag? A BIG MISTAKE. Even I was booing to get it down. Notice that they did indeed take it down swiftly and that the same soldier put up the pre-Gulf War Iraqi flag in its place.

Pre-Gulf War Iraqi Flag: YOU GO IRAQIS!!! WOOHOO!!! That's the PERFECT flag for such a moment! I'm certain the reason they took it down was so that when the statue came down, the flag wouldn't go with it.

Dancing on the statue: They've more than earned it and more than well deserve it. Too bad we couldn't really hear the screaming and cheering on tv. I really wanted to hear that.

The shoes: Took the media (ignorant idiots) FOREVER to explain the significance of the shoes. In the middle-east, it is considered highly offensive to show someone the sole (bottom) of your shoe. It's like giving the finger only worse. So when people throw their shoes at something, that's really damning it (altho I don't think they'd use that word) pretty bad. When they POUND something with the sole of the shoe- that's even moreso.

Why the Marines? Because a tattered rope and a single sledgehammer can't do it. Some reporter said that the whole thing was quite symbolic (which it was and I was quite moved watching it) in that the Iraqis tried but needed help in order to accomplish it. And as I recall, the Iraqis solicited the Marine tank for help in this case.

Died with his boots off: One funny thing about that statue- military folk talk about soliders 'dying with their boots on'. The statue in Bagdad on the other hand, broke off at a point in the mid-calf where the top of a large combat boot would have been. Waiting for the other shoe to drop? More like waiting for many more shoes to fly thru the air at it (or what's left of it which I hope there isn't).

Heading downtown: They beheaded the statue and dragged it thru the streets of Bagdad while slapping it with shoe soles the whole way. VERY befitting! :-)

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Shock and Awe: If you really wanna be "shocked and awed" for entertainment value or to hear yourself speak on tv to millions of people, go rent a movie. If you wanna explain and really impress on said millions of people that this is for real, that people are dying, and that Bagdad is ONLY *ONE* OF MANY cities in Iraq getting this treatment, you need to do a hell of a lot better job that that!

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David Bloom: I MISS HIM!!!!!!! He's always had a VERY familliar face and voice to me for the longest time and never made the connection as to why until they did that Sunday (same day of his death) eulogy and mentioned that he was the one who did the reporting for Hurricane Andrew. I have a 2-hour program that's nothing but realtime news and interviews and stuff from then and David Bloom was the #1 reporter on that thing. I must've seen that tape a billion times (being the natural disasters freak that I am) and never made that connection until after he died. That's the second time I've ever seen Tom Brokaw cry and inside I was crying too. :.-(

Peter Arnet and Geraldo Rivera: YOU IDIOTS!!!!!!!!! <Artie the Rainbow Trout MAJORLY body slams then in a NOT so loving way> <everybody else forms the *MAJOR* MAJOR DUH posse and wonders which stick they should whack them with: typo, ping-pong paddle, canesaber, sledgehammer, or all of the above>

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Peaceful Assembly? Not if you're blocking traffic it isn't. Sheesh! I think people should study the Bill of Rights before they start throwing it around.

France: before the war, they hated us. Now that we've almost won, they like us again. Anyone else wanna chant the words "french fried hypocritical chicken" with me?

"The Axis of Envy": LOL! Sometimes the press does come up with a few shiners every now and then (well duh, I mean hey, it's their job to make headlines out of headlines). But really, what're France, Germany, and Russia gonna do? Have a big bitchfest or what?

The Dixie Chicks: Why do I SO not give a damn about this?

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SARS: It's not a "mystery illness" if it has a name and you know what it does. It also doesn't need a name cuz it already has one and it's called SARS. Sheesh you press people, grow a brain- not everyone wants to read long sentences on that scroll. Nor are as so thick that we need everything repeated to us several different ways in a single story (ok so that's mainly directed towards some of the online British articles I read, but CNN still counts y'know).

The Matrix Reloaded trailer: COOLNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Watched the original again tonight: gets cooler every time, altho those flashing lights are beginning to bother me more and more.

Yellow snow: AKA pollen- "tis the season to be sneezin!" ...and for the cars to say "WASH ME!"

Stomach bug: BARF!

Windows XP: conversion sux

Being offline for almost 2 weeks: sux more- I miss everybody!

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31 Days of Oscar: I never taped so many movies in 4 weeks in all my life!

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Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, I think that's it. I'll put up my Windows XP rant tomorrow.

posted @ 11:54 PM  |   0 comments  |