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

Good one Delicia!
To buttress my argument that it´s America that has gone berserk, not the Americans: some bumper stickers I picked from another hootoo thread.



1) These colors don't run the world.
2) One nation under surveillance.
3) How did our oil get under their sand?
4) Go Solar, not Ballistic.
5) Whom would Jesus bomb?
6) Start Drafting SUV Drivers Now.
7) Don't blame me, I voted with the majority.
8) Buck Fush!
9) It's NUCLEAR, not NUCULAR, you idiot!
10) Patriots are idiots - Matriarchy Now!
11) Resistance is Fertile.
12) (Pictures of sheep carrying flags) Stop Mad Sheep Disease Now.
13) (UFW sign) Pick Fruit, not Fights.
14) (On a five year old) More Candy Less War.
15) Say can you see my democracy?
16) (With pictures of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld) Asses of Evil.
17) It's the oil, stupid.
18) War is expensive, Peace is priceless.
19) Read between the Pipelines
20) No More BuShit.
21) Smart weapons, Dumb president.
22) The only thing we have to fear is Bush himself.
23) How many Lives per Gallon?
24) Peace Takes Brains.
25) Anything War can do, Peace can do better.
26) Negotiation Not Annihilation.
27) Make touchdowns, not war - Go Raiders!
28) Another patriot for peace.
29) Oh Say can You Cease?
30) Star Spangled Bummer
31) Don't Arm a Son of a Bush
32) Don't do it George, Dad will still love you.
33) Power to the Peaceful
34) Draft Jenna Bush
35) The last time we listened to a Bush, we wandered in the desert for 40 years.

I think it was Harry Harrison (SciFi author) who once wrote "Every democracy in the world was spawned by a few people who picked up some big sticks and decided to get rid of the b*****ds"...let´s hope some Americans are looking for solid fallen branches; there ought to be enough wood over there.

to them
Pit

Yeees, on the other hand I've met pro Iraq war advocates whom I can't easily qualify as "poor, deluded" (on my tolerant days) or rabid war mongers (when I feel crotchety). At least not since the day i sat me down before the tv news with a plate of dinner and on came pictures of people digging the horrid yellow bones of Saddam's victims out of the desert sands with bare hands. I know health experts advise against eating while reading the newspaper or watching tv, and I sure won't do it again.
But what it boils down to really, if one clears away the side issues and petty interests, is the old, old, tricky question of should one interfere, or rather not? Dear old Scholl-Latour called the fall of Saddam the positive side product of the Iraq war. That is, clear away the oil, and there is something very positive. Lucky the Iraquis had oil, other than the Tutsi? On the other hand they might have a civil war now that we don't know the death toll of yet, nor how far it might spread.

Most of these are excellent, Pit. Very good!

Yes that's right Iraqis, the US has come to put a stop to torture and other human rights abuses.
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/040502/w050246.html

the MP working as prison guards claim they were not informed about the Geneva Convention.
I guess that makes it okay then.....


(mutter mutter mutter ignorant jarheads mutter mutter)

Yeah, this is pretty sad. As if it wasn't bad enough already...

I just do not believe some of the excuses I am hearing on the news - we were only following orders is favourite.. but as someone asked on another thread "where have we heard that before?"

Hah... Yes, many people compare the war in Iraq to the Vietnam War. The only difference is that the war in Iraq will cause a lot of terror attacks against the U.S. after we're supposedly done with the war. The Vietnamese, at least, left the Americans alone.

It must be bad and widespread because everybody is blaming the higher and lower ranks and the private contractors.
We know it happened in Afghanistan(sp)
It may have only gotten worse, so did they learn to do more of the same?

There needs to be more information about the private contractors involvement. It is looking like bringing them in was done intentionally to skirt the responsibilities all the way around.
Nobody should be excused, this crosses everybodies boundaries of humane treatment.

They could easily be innocent citizens pulled out of their beds in the middle of the night, in one of the first days of conflict. They could be people that have been in that very prsion before at the hand of Saddam. Innocent or not it is not right.

It is shameful that our President and Bremmer did not apologize and take immediate action.
Forget another study .....
There have been 3 on this situation!
There were other "studies" about the Afghanistan prisoners atrocities.

No more studies! Just Stop it!
They should have Burned that former prison and interrogation suite of Saddams.

Don't want to be too much over the top, but it's almost as if the place, the building excerted an influence, over those whose minds can be influenced in that direction. That sadistic type seems as endemic as it's incomprehensible to most of us.
What's also incomprehensible to me is why the military authorities don't crack down on that sort of thing with all their might, if not out of conviction of the heinousness of such behaviour, then at least out of consideration what damage that sort of act does to a reputation that's already very much called into question.

it also puts other US and coalition soldiers in more danger, and it also increases the risk of terrorist attacks,

There are 5 studies now
The first 3 told them enough to take immediate action.

The US troops lead by Bremer should march in Today with enough troops (a lot)to remove all persons and then destroy it.

That would be taking immediate and swift responsibility.
That could help the other troops and build confidence.
It should be a very high priority.

<>
What we heard here in NZ is that 'private contractor' = mercenary... This is so bad!

Whuf. That wouldn't surprise me. But I get the impression that most of these private contractors are hired for their oil drilling or construction experience, not their ability to handle a gun. I think Thomas Hamill would have been killed if he had been a mercenary.

The whole private contractor thing is really getting out of hand, and the major issue here is that they were selected by the Burning Bush. If it wasn't mostly Halliburton and its subsidiaries, it wouldn't look so suspicious. (Speaking of which, guess who got the Hussein villa by the river in Iraq? Halliburton's minions.)

December 1, 2003

"He's wounded"

"Hit him"

film at 11:

http://www.xmission.com/~knhmeads/224Helicopter_kills.mpeg

Have a nice day.

We were led to believe they were mostly oil and reconstrcution contractors but that was easy because we expected that.

All of those companies need security plus there was private security forces headed by the CIA. They were trained by and in the style of the Israel security forces(sp)Now that is a scary thought if you run with it.

They have been telling how the thousands of private security and intelligence contractors are not subject to the laws everyone else is because there is no court to try them in

That is no excuse for planning to take advantage of the *loophole*( if that is so) and allowing it to continue after reports came in. There is a childrens(not known idf any are there) and womens wing there and less than 2 weeks ago the free Iraquis bombed it from the outside. They wished for those women known to be inside to die quickly rather than live through imagined and rumored events of torture and sexual assault.(Evening Leher Report-PBS)

Mm.... good point, abbi. I hadn't considered that these contractors would try to bring in their own security. And knowing how low the quality of screening is here in the U.S. for private security places like Pinkerton, it's really scary to think that people like that are given guns and asked to protect large groups of people.

Trunt, that's awful. I'm sorry I watched that.

best way to end the the torture is to leave