h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Your last post Mudhooks reminded me of something I've been thinking lately in this Election Season (a very adequate replacement for the Hockey Season, I'd say).

When people say "I can't be bothered voting" I think "Okay. Voting is simple. Just two things are required: Pay attention! and Think!. These are things we demand of our smallest children, often very loudly in embarassingly public places. Why is it that some people are so ridiculously slothful as to not demand it of themselves for that ten minute walk to the Moravian Church basement or the community hall (I'm thinking of the Canadian voting experience)?

"So, did you vote yet today"

"No. I can't be bothered paying attention or thinking."

Great.

These are the same people who winge endlessly about how awful the government that was voted in is.... If you didn't vote, you don't have the right to make any comment whatsoever on the outcome, now, do you?

Yeah, I'd go for an "ask Anhaga" page!

Here's a little something I noticed buried in a CNN story. I wasn't sure where to post it, so I'm dropping it here:

"Insurgents riding in a convoy shot and killed two Iraqi national guardsmen near Baghdad on Sunday morning, Interior Ministry spokesman Col. Adnan Abdul Rahman said. The two soldiers were brothers. About four and a half hours later, police found the burned bodies of two other Iraqi guardsmen in Baghdad's Al-Orfalli neighborhood, police said."

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/31/iraq.main/index.html

"a convoy"! They're riding around in convoys?! That doesn't sound like the behavior of a bunch of shadowy terrorists trying to hide from massive American air power; that sounds like the behavior of a regular army.

Do you think maybe there's something Mr. Bush isn't telling us?

"Witnesses said Iraqi forces fired randomly and threw hand grenades, hitting three minibuses and three vans, after a U.S. convoy came under attack near Haswa, a town about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of the Iraqi capital, the AP reported. A hospital official said at least 14 people were killed and 10 others wounded, according to the AP"

This sounds like numerous convoys in a number of places....

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Of that, I have no doubt... Right now, I am listening to a lunatic on local radio, pushing Bush for all he's worth. There are 20,000 Americans in NZ (a huge %age of whom haven't received the ballots they applied for in August... yeah, that's a surprise!) What makes this guy think they haven't made up their minds? It's 1/11/04 here for goodness' sake!

Speaking of dead Iraqis there is a theme in this thread: F72190?thread=450280&post=6040410#p6037871 about the sanctions against Iraq, and then the oil for food thing which I don't know much about. But it does seem like there is some strange skewing going on there.

>>>
the United Nations ... who were secretly doing "Oil for Food" scandal dirty business with Saddam Hussein, along with the French, Germans, and Russians who were supplying him with armament.
<<<

and

>>>Kofi Annan Was up to his elbows in the oil for food scam. Shame on all thay were involved in that taking food out of the mouths of babies.
<<<

I thought the Americans were behind the sanctions, and that other countries found ways around this by trading food for oil. And that it was the decade of sanctions that killed Iraqi babies

Can someone give me a quick explanation of what actually happened?

This should help explain things. Contrary to a certain person's "opinions", here, these documents are declassified US Government documents, not propaganda pieces. http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/press.htm

They clearly demonstrate what people outside the US knew for years, that the US was actively, both overtly and covertly supporting Saddam Hussein, before, during and after the first Gulf War. This was not something whispered about in "underground" papers. This was information delivered by respectable news sources such as the CBC and BBC.

Here is another one detailing contact prior to 9/11 between the Taliban and Washington: http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB134/index.htm

Thanks Mudhooks. I have no problem believing the US involvement with Hussein, and the Taliban, and it's good to have some useful links on this.

I was probably banging my head against a brick wall in the other thread anyway . Still I might go and look up the oil/food thing just so I am clear in my own mind.

I've been picking bits of brick out of my forehead for months, now.