micah holmquist's irregular thoughts and links |
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Welcome to the musings and notes of a Cadillac, Michigan based writer named Micah Holmquist, who is bothered by his own sarcasm. Please send him email at micahth@chartermi.net. Holmquist's full archives are listed here.
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Sites Holmquist trys, and often fails, to go no more than a couple of days without visiting (some of which Holmquist regularly swipes links from without attribution) Aljazeera.Net English Blogs that for one reason or another Holmquist would like to read on at least something of a regular basis (always in development) Thivai Abhor |
Monday, April 12, 2004
"My view and the view of the British chain of command is that the Americans' use of violence is not proportionate and is over-responsive to the threat they are facing," or why you shouldn't trust those stupid Brits who need to shut the fuck up The "fog of war" of course makes it hard to tell what is going on exactly, but what the U.S. has done over the last few days in Iraq doesn't look good. From the moving but anecdotal file, there is this compilation of photos put together by Axis of Logic. Tragic, for sure, but the degree to which this damage is widespread is not discernable. It would be quite widespread if the allegation made in this April 11 AP piece is correct: More than 600 Iraqis have been killed in Fallujah since Marines began a siege against Sunni insurgents in the city a week ago, most of them women, children and the elderly, the head of the city's hospital said Sunday.Not content to say the new mass graves are better than the old ones, the U.S. military is now criticizing reporters for saying unflattering things about U.S. troops. Charges presented in an article published today by Sean Rayment of The Telegraph don't exactly back up Uncle Sam's story: Senior British commanders have condemned American military tactics in Iraq as heavy-handed and disproportionate.Personally I think you have to believe America, a country that would never help cause harm to civilians, be in a situation where "Six soldiers who have fallen ill since their return from Iraq said Friday that the Army ignored their complaints about uranium poisoning from U.S. weapons fired during combat," or tolerate a situation where "soldiers accused of rape and other sex crimes while serving in Iraq routinely dodged prosecution during the last year with the help of commanders who gave them light punishments such as reprimands and pay cuts." But if America did, as Freud might have said, it was because Saddam was evil! |