Iraq analysis

[Khokom]

Originally posted by voltaire

Originally posted by Khokom

Originally posted by Bilderbooger
Everyone who thinks brutal dictatorships are cool, raise your hand.

Rumsfeld shook Saddam's hand and supported him. I dont see you putting democracy in many African countries where there are plenty of dictators, how about North Koria too.

Your post is a joke, people have woken up to this democracy joke the US administration keep using.

Khokom.

Take the USA out of the equation and answer an abstract question.

Are you against democracy as a concept?



V

First of all, before you can ask that question, you must define democracy. I take it you define it the same way the west has always defined it, UK, USA, Europe,..etc. That definition has failed miserably and has been the cause of the death of many lives all over the world.

Sorry but I cant see democracy in its pure image, western leaders have always bragged about how democratic they are, yet they achieved exactly the opposite, they lied to their people, they deceive their people into making them think their votes or their choices matter.

And they stopped the course of democracy in many countries when it doesnt suit them. Israel has messed with the election process in Palestine when the people have voted democratically their parties. Too bad for Israel they see those parties as "terrorists".

What other aspects of democracy you want me to bring up? Human Rights? Thats an easy one. Equality? Respect? Rights of citizens?

Khokom.

[voltaire]

No, as we've discussed before, "I don't like America and Israel" is not an adequate answer to every question in the political lexicon

Actually, I would dispute whether the enlightenment concept of democracy has failed, but that's another question. I may well start a thread on it when I have time though, because it's an important and interesting one.

For the purposes of this thread, let's boil it down to its bare bones. Do you believe that governments should be chosen by majority vote of the people in a given state?



V

[Khokom]

Originally posted by voltaire


For the purposes of this thread, let's boil it down to its bare bones. Do you believe that governments should be chosen by majority vote of the people in a given state?



V

Before you can ask me that question, I wanna ask you this.

What if the majority people of a nation are illiterate and utterly incapable of understanding the complicated economic and political issues of modern life. Controlling and exploiting the masses comes to mind. Democracy will surely face problems dont u think?

Khokom.

[voltaire]

Was that a yes or a no?

Seems to me that you're dodging questions left, right and centre tonight. What a surprise



V

[Al-khiyal]

Iraqi money gambled away in the Philippines. Thousands spent on a swimming pool that was never used. An elevator repaired so poorly that it crashed, killing people.

A U.S. government audit found American-led occupation authorities squandered tens of millions of dollars that were supposed to be used to rebuild Iraq through undocumented spending and outright fraud.

In some cases, auditors recommend criminal charges be filed against the perpetrators. In others, it asks the U.S. ambassador to Iraq to recoup the money.

Dryly written audit reports describe the Coalition Provisional Authority's offices in the south-central city of Hillah being awash in bricks of $100 bills taken from a central vault without documentation.

It describes one agent who kept almost $700,000 in cash in an unlocked footlocker and mentions a U.S. soldier who gambled away as much as $60,000 in reconstruction funds in the Philippines.....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060129/...squandered_aid

No surprises there, only the fact that as usual reality takes a while to reach a U.S. audience. In Iraq people have been well aware of the massive looting and fraud for some considerable time, requiring no great audit but merely the use of their own eyes. It has been an education to read of 'completed projects' in U.S. military reports, U.S. media reports and pro-occupation Iraqi shills' blogs while Iraqis have stood before the ruins of what has been claimed to have been rebuilt or otherwise reconstructed and marvelled at how this or that hole in the gorund is being presented to the American public as some shiny new project. It is a matter of record now that some so-called 'completed projects' boasted of by the Americans were never undertaken at all - and yet the money disappeared and was somehow charged against this 'work' that had never been carried out. Note that the audit referred to in this report is only partial - the extent of the thieving and lying propaganda attached to U.S. actions in Iraq should make Americans hang their heads in shame.

[Al-khiyal]

WASHINGTON — A secret U.S. military program that pays Iraqi newspapers to publish articles favorable to the American mission appears to violate a 2003 Pentagon directive, according to a newly declassified document released Thursday.

The information campaign run by U.S. troops in Baghdad and a Washington-based private contractor is the subject of a high-level military investigation. Last month, the top U.S. general in Iraq said a preliminary investigation into the program had found it did not violate U.S. law or Pentagon regulations.

"We concluded that we were operating within our authorities and the appropriate legal procedures. And so we have not suspended any of the processes up to now," Army Gen. George W. Casey told reporters then.

A secret directive on the Pentagon's information operations policy released Thursday, however, appears to prohibit U.S. troops from conducting psychological operations, or psy-ops, targeting the media.

"Psy-op is restricted by both DoD [Department of Defense] policy and executive order from targeting American audiences, our military personnel and news agencies or outlets," says the directive, dated Oct. 30, 2003, and signed by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

The document, titled "Information Operations Roadmap," was released by the National Security Archive, a research institution based at George Washington University that obtained it under the Freedom of Information Act.

A Pentagon spokesman did not return calls seeking comment…..


More:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...infowar27jan27,0,1706616.story?coll=la-headlines-world

[Jannah]

This really shows them up, a supposed democratic society paying newspapers to print stories they want! How democratric is that?!