sigh...i hate to use facts against you, but you have this 100% backwards. on september 13, 2001, the wapo (i've posted it elsewhere, use the handy search function) released a poll showing 79% of americans believed iraq was involved in the atrocities of 9/11 a tear later, as the admin began its 8 month rush to war, the figure was 72%. and in september 2003, after 5 months of war and two years of deceitful press coverage, the figure remained at 69%.
Zogby has about as much credibility as harry pelosi- he went on the daily show a week before the election to trumpet his finding that kerry would win. and really, nominating a country that just went through weeks of riots by young muslims as "the country most respondents would like to be a superpower" is just too hilarious for words. mark, i would say you've shot your credibility all to hell with this post, but then, that assumes you have any to begin with. next thing you know, you'll be reporting details on rachel corries' celestial orgies w/ 72 young studs...
Hum... Everything the rest of the world has said about the war and the runup to war has been right. Everything the admin has said has been wrong. Forgive me if I go with the world and France on this one.
"Polling data show that right after Sept. 11, 2001, when Americans were asked open-ended questions about who was behind the attacks, only 3 percent mentioned Iraq or Hussein." link
Once again, I ask: How many Muslims has Saddam killed? Perhaps, you can break it down into categories: 1. Killed in Iran-Iraq war - Saddam was the President during this war and saw no active combat. Casualties are unknown. 2. Killed in Gulf War 1 - Saddam was the President during this war and saw no active combat. According to "Gulf War Air Power Survey" by Thomas A. Keaney and Eliot A. Cohen, (a report commissioned by the U.S. Air Force; 1993-ISBN 0-16-041950-6), there were an estimated 10-12,000 Iraqi combat deaths in the air campaign and as many as 10,000 casualties in the ground war. This analysis is based on enemy prisoner of war reports. The Iraqi government claimed that 2,300 civilians died during the air campaign, but has yet to be proven. 3. Killed in Gulf War II - Saddam is exiled, arrested. No Muslims are killed by Saddam. 4. Marsh Arabs killed - Cannot find any reports. 5 Shiite Arabs killed - 143, Dujail is known for being the place where an unsuccessful assassination attempt was staged against then Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, on July 8, 1982. The town was a stronghold of the Shiite Daawa party, a group strongly opposed to Saddam Hussein and his war with Iran. Saddam Hussein was visiting the town to make a speech praising those who had served Iraq in Iran. While driving through the village centre, his motorcade was attacked by one or more members of the Daawa party. The president was unharmed in the three hour firefight which ensued. Saddam Hussein allegedly ordered his special security and military forces to carry out a reprisal attack against the town. His orders were obeyed. A total 143 of the town's inhabitants were killed in the attack or executed later, a number of these were boys 13 years of age 6. Kurds killed - On March 16, 1988 Iraqi troops, attempting to crush a Kurdish uprising in the Al-Anfal Campaign, allegedly attacked the Kurdish town of Halabjah with a mix of poison gas and nerve agents, perhaps killing around five thousand people, mostly civilians. This action was not condemned at the time. Saddam's regime claimed at the time that Iran was responsible for that and some other chemical attacks, a claim that is largely supported by the evidence gathered by international observers and accepted by most governments. 7. Political prisoners killed - Unknown. Moot because of the fact the death penalty is legal in Iraq. 8. Killed by international sanctions - This is the UN's decision, not Saddam's. As for Arab armies, don't you remember the Mujahideen, ex-soldiers from Islamic countries, who came over to fight for the Muslim dominated Bosnian army during the war?
Gwayneco, I am not sure if you're familiar with the billions of dollars in weapons and cash being funnled to Bosnians and Kosovans to fight against the Serbs. I was in Saudi Arabia during the Bosnia conflict, and you'ld have a hard time believing how much help and assistance was being provided to the Bosnians in different forms (cash, weaponry, thousands of Mujahideen fighters covertly backed by multiple Muslim states, etc.) that eventually helped turn the tide in the war to the Bosnian's favor (along with American help, of course). In this day and age, there are a lot of different ways in which you can contribute to the 'cause', and sending in uniformed soldiers is one option that's rarely used, because countries favor taking a more covert role and many regimes in that region (the Saudis, Egyptians, Pakistanis, Iranians just to use a few examples) are very well-connected with various militant groups and know how to facilitate fighters/money/etc in case it's needed. That's just how those countries operate: through proxies.
I don't know if that's appropriate considering that texxx is a jorge ripoff. I would consider him more basso-style armchair weekly standard type, with some obvious riffs of his own. (whereas basso is an opera man, gweenie is an indie music funkmaster flex). So, I dub him "bassito". He usually flys off the handle a bit more than basso, to, so let's see how long it takes him to meltdown and tell me f-k off/eat sh-t, etc
LOL, basso, you're using the wrong enemies list. Zogby has long been a favorite of the conservative hot air machine of which you aspire to be a part of. http://www.slate.com/id/76221/ If you keep trashing the wrong horse, you'll never get promoted from your current position of basketball bbs communist hunter. Shape up little man.
I don't think the opinions of the Islamic masses are very influenced by the mass media anyway. The Islamic system of thought control makes the Catholic Church look unbiased. The Mullah and madrasas system has been railing against the crusades for 800 years. A 30 second TV spot on building a hospital isn't going to change that. It's always easy to make the case that it is us versus them no matter how oppressive the us is. Nazi's, Communist Totalitarians, Monarchy's, The McCoys, Aggies, YOF's. He who controls the definition of the community controls the community. That's whay I don't see a lot of hope for Iraqi nationalism versus Sunni,Kurd, Shiite isms. It just doesn't seem to carry any natural validity. The trump would be Arabism or a Saddam-like restoratin of the Babylonian empire but there is no real Arab state and you would need a super charismatic leader to give an identity to an empire. That kind of charisma typically only comes from military victory and guerilla forces are too shadowy to ever claim victory over.
