blogging along that dusty old road

[Margot]

--- Jon Ford <jonmfordster@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Mike-- I noticed many of the Shiites carried little signs to hold up
> for the cameras saying (in English) stuff like "Americans go home. We
want to run  the country ourselves." I don't know how that will play
with the Kurds and other types of Muslims in the country(including more
educated secular types whom Americans hope will carry the day). <

----An "oddity" I noticed in all the pix of Shiites celebrating (the
shirtless ones, not the icky bloody ones):  They all look extremely
healthy & well-nourished.  Almost like a crowd of typical, shirtless
Americans.  I thought Iraq had been in dire straits re food & medicine.

______________________________________________ 
> >From: Michael Eisenstadt <michaele@ando.pair.com>
> >
> >on another subject, the evolving Iraq situation has
> >become extremely interesting. look closely at the
> >Kirbala Shiite crowd: most of them are SYMBOLLICALLY
> >beating themselves in grief over the murder of
> >Caliph Ali. only a very small number of them are
> >ACTUALLY flagellating themselves with steel chains
> >till blood flows. this is a good index of the future
> >Shia political position, no? many were chanting
> >Death to America, Death to Israel.

> >
> >on another subject, Colin (colon?) Powell
 
----useless factoid:  in his bio, Powell explains his name was always
properly pronounced, until he got into the military, where TPTB kept
mispronouncing it, so he went along.  I guess when one is a 2nd Lt.
with ambitions, it's not smart to keep correcting one's senior officers
:-(
(I've done the same thing when some people insisted on pronouncing the
T in my name; ditto when folks leave it off in writing.  Picking my
battles.)
_________________________________________________
> >on another subject, going back to fundamentals, the
> >neo-cons' argument is that paribis ceteris liberal
> >democracy is an irrestable trump card over Islamic
> >religious fundamentalism DESPITE previous opinions
> >of America and that the Arab mind like everyone
> >else's mind is malleable.

-----Talk about magical thinking!!
___________________________________________
. also,
> >which is a surprising thing to me, is that the
> >Israelis have apparently managed to surpress all
> >suicide operations at least for the moment. so it
> >seems that even suicide operations can be countered
> >with determination and lotsa modern machinery. 

---Oops.  Another murder/suicide bomber in Israel tonight.

Margot

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