More powerful insight from a Baghdad blogger named Riverbend...
Warning- the following post is an open letter of sorts to Americans.
So elections are being held in America. We’re watching curiously here. Previously, Iraqis didn’t really take a very active interest in elections. We knew when they were being held and quite a few Iraqis could give an opinion about either of the candidates. I think many of us realized long ago that American foreign policy really had nothing to do with this Democrat or that Republican.
It sometimes seems, from this part of the world, that democracy in America revolves around the presidential elections- not the major decisions. War and peace in America are in the average American’s hands about as much as they are in mine. Sure, you can vote for this man or that one, but in the end, there’s something bigger, more intricate and quite sinister behind the decisions. Like in that board game Monopoly, you can choose the game pieces- the little shoe, the car, the top hat… but you can’t choose the way the game is played. The faces change but the intentions and the policy remain the same.
Many, many people have asked me about the elections and what we think of them. Before, I would have said that I really don’t think much about it. Up until four years ago, I always thought the American elections were a pretty straightforward process: two white males up for the same position (face it people- it really is only two- Nader doesn’t count), people voting and the person with more votes wins. After the debacle of four years ago, where Bush Jr. was *assigned* president, things are looking more complicated and a little bit more sordid.
I wouldn’t normally involve myself in debates or arguments about who should be American president. All I know is that four years ago, we prayed it wouldn’t be Bush. It was like people could foresee the calamity we’re living now and he embodied it. (Then, there’s that little issue of his being completely ridiculous…)
So now there are three different candidates- Bush, Kerry and Nader. We can safely take Nader out of the equation because, let’s face it, he won’t win. We have a saying in Iraq, “Lo tetla’a nakhla ib rasseh” (if a palm tree grows out of his head) he won’t win. The real contest is between Bush and Kerry. Nader is a distraction that is only taking votes away from Kerry.
Who am I hoping will win? Definitely Kerry. There’s no question about it. I want Bush out of the White House at all costs. (And yes- who is *in* the White House *is* my business- Americans, you made it my business when you occupied my country last year) I’m too realistic to expect drastic change or anything phenomenal, but I don’t want Bush reelected because his reelection (or shall I call it his ‘reassignment’) will condone the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq. It will say that this catastrophe in Iraq was worth its price in American and Iraqi lives. His reassignment to the White House will sanction all the bloodshed and terror we’ve been living for the last year and a half.
I’ve heard all the arguments. His supporters are a lot like him- they’ll admit no mistakes. They’ll admit no deceit, no idiocy, no manipulation, no squandering. It’s useless. Republicans who *don’t* support him, but feel obliged to vote for him, write long, apologetic emails that are meant, I assume, to salve their own conscience. They write telling me that he should be ‘reelected’ because he is the only man for the job at this point. True, he made some mistakes and he told a few fibs, they tell me- but he really means well and he intends to fix things and, above all, he has a plan.
Let me assure you Americans- he has NO PLAN. There is no plan for the mess we’re living in- unless he is cunningly using the Chaos Theory as a basis for his Iraq plan. Things in Iraq are a mess and there is the sense that the people in Washington don’t know what they’re doing, and their puppets in Iraq know even less. The name of the game now in Iraq is naked aggression- it hasn’t been about hearts and minds since complete areas began to revolt. His Iraq plan may be summarized with the Iraqi colloquial saying, “A’athreh ib dafra”, which can be roughly translated to ‘a stumble and a kick’. In other words, what will happen, will happen and hopefully- with a stumble and a kick- things will move in the right direction.
So is Kerry going to be much better? I don’t know. I don’t know if he’s going to fix things or if he’s going to pull out the troops, or bring more in. I have my doubts about how he will handle the current catastrophe in Iraq. I do know this: nothing can be worse than Bush. No one can be worse than Bush. It will hardly be fair to any president after Bush in any case- it's like assigning a new captain to a drowning ship. All I know is that Bush made the hole and let the water in, I want him thrown overboard.
Someone once wrote to me, after a blog barrage against Bush, that I should tone down my insults against the president because I would lose readers who actually supported him. I lost those readers the moment I spoke out against the war and occupation because that is what Bush is all about. He’s not about securing America or Iraq or ‘the region’- he’s about covering up just how inadequate he is as a person and as a leader with war, nonexistent WMD, fabled terrorists and bogeymen.
I guess what I’m trying to say is this: Americans, the name of your country which once stood for ‘freedom and justice’ is tarnished worldwide. Your latest president has proved that the great American image of democracy is just that- an image. You can protest, you can demonstrate, you can vote- but it ends there. The reigns were out of your hands the moment Bush stepped into the White House. You were deceived repe ively and duped into two wars. Your sons and daughters are dying, and killing, in foreign lands. Your embassies are in danger all over the world. ‘America’ has become synonymous with ‘empire’, ‘hegemony’, and ‘warfare’. And why? All because you needed to be diverted away from the fact that your current president is a failure.
Some people associate the decision to go to war as a ‘strength’. How strong do you need to be to commit thousands of your countrymen and women to death on foreign soil? Especially while you and your loved ones sit safely watching at home. How strong do you need to be to give orders to bomb cities to rubble and use the most advanced military technology available against a country with a weak army and crumbling infrastructure? You don’t need to be strong- you need to be mad.
Americans- can things be worse for you? Can things be worse for us in Iraq? Of course they can… only imagine- four more years of Bush.
RiverBend Blog
This is a bunch of BS. Things in Iraq must be very bad when a guy can write a several paragraph essay in a blog. How the does this guy even have internet access if things are so desperate. I doubt this is even written by an Iraqi. It's propoganda, plain and simple.
If he had the time to wax philosophical four years ago about the US presidential race, then he's a Baathist thug.
And NaziDan supports him? No surprise here.
Thats some funny there Dan, and you say I've been "debunked"? This is the mother of all mothers.
this er doesn't even condone the war in afghanistan... him...
this er doesn't even condone the war in afghanistan... him...
This is about the intelligence level of Bush supporters. Did I even say anything about Afghanistan? Did RiverBend?
Yes.
This is about the intelligence level of Bush supporters. Did I even say anything about Afghanistan? Did RiverBend?
God, you're an idiot...Who am I hoping will win? Definitely Kerry. There’s no question about it. I want Bush out of the White House at all costs. (And yes- who is *in* the White House *is* my business- Americans, you made it my business when you occupied my country last year) I’m too realistic to expect drastic change or anything phenomenal, but I don’t want Bush reelected because his reelection (or shall I call it his ‘reassignment’) will condone the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq. It will say that this catastrophe in Iraq was worth its price in American and Iraqi lives. His reassignment to the White House will sanction all the bloodshed and terror we’ve been living for the last year and a half.
thanks, i was just about to show him that...
Does anyone actually believe this was written by a real Iraqi?
Interesting point.
i don't..it sounds too much like the american anti-bush comments
I have proof it is real.
Regards,
Dan Rather
Typical right-wing BS. All they have to do is go to RiverBends site and read some of her previous posts to find our how real she is and how desperate life has become for average Iraqis under American occupation, but since it's not on FOX News, Newsmax or the latest right-wing source of choice - The National Review, none of this is real.
If riverbend is protesting the war in Afghanistan, you have to understand she does so from the viewpoint of a person living in occupied territory, many of her family and friends killed by George Bush's illegal invasion of her country.
For Right-wingers, it's a lot easier to dismiss reality as a left-wing media conspiracy than to have to deal honestly with mistakes. Travis, like George Bush, is filled with moral cowardice.
The only moral cowardice I see is left-wing Nazis like Dan celebrating violence against conservatives, jumping for joy every time a service member is killed, spewing his racial hatred against blacks and Hispanics (hey, does the term "mouthpiece" mean anything to you?).
People like Dan are exactly why I would never vote Democratic ever again. He is the rank and file liberal poster child.
All he's missing is the armband and the brown shirt.
It's been around a while but yes, that is an example of a right of center media outlet, unlike NBC News as you have previously claimed.the latest right-wing source of choice - The National Review
I do find it humorous that you should question the validity of anyone else's sources considering the drivel which you have posted in here, such as in this thread.
I'd like to second travis' sentiments as well, but I won't since danny is either clinically insane or is someone's boorish idea of a practical joke, one that ceased being funny from the start.
Last edited by Marcus Bryant; 10-27-2004 at 09:34 AM.
Riverbend = Nbadanallah (in soiled underwear and "wife-beater" t-shirt, at the computer, between porn sites.)
If things are SO BAD then why does she have access to the internet!!!!!!!!!
Give me a freaken break! Can you say Tokyo Rose? Add the fact that she is a woman who is speaking her mind in a coutry where that was not exactly the norm is an amazing thing. I truely believe this was a piece written by some one trying to portray a certain view. They want others to believe this is a common view amoung Iraqis. There are tons of stories like these on a mul ude of subjects. Just go to www.snopes.com and check out a few of them.
if you agree with your precious riverbend that the war in afghanistan was wrong then you're just as ill-informed as she is... get off the computer for a few minutes and step into reality please... or wait, maybe you should just stay in your hole.
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