Fadel,

I guess you already know, I love this most sublime form of “Jihad” (speaking the truth, unveiling the lies) and you do it so extrememly well!!

Ah, the joy of learning and teaching the truth! Now if that’s the highest form of “Jihad” even an agnostic like me can take up religion

Meantime, Patrick Henry explains the ‘Franks’ of the world very concisely here:

“...smacks of ignorance and an easy disclaimer to the small percentage which always attempts to hijack the majority.”

They DO attempt to highjack the majority, and we see from the past 8 years, that they did manage for a while.

But, the rest of us ARE still the majority, and soon enough, these purveyors of hate and chaos will be gone.

They can NEVER take the heat…

Feel free to believe or not believe what you want, religion is good for some and not for others.

A sweeping broad brush statement as “world religions are the greatest systems of lies ever devised” smacks of ignorance and an easy disclaimer to the small percentage which always attempts to hijack the majority.

Frank,

Besides demonstrating that you are a narrow-minded atheist fundamentalist, your statements also indicates that you are are an anti-Muslim chauvinist.

As to leaving 1000 troops to guard our “embassy”, I think you might as well talk about leaving 1000 troops to guard our embassy in Saigon at the end of the Vietnam war. Remember the helicopters taking off from the roof of the American Embassy with people desperately clinging to the runners? I think it’s going to be more like that. After a few years, maybe we can normalize relations with Iraq as we did with Vietnam, and have a normal embassy there.

Fadel, until you realize that Islam and the other world religions are the greatest systems of lies ever devised, you will continue to be only a warrior for fiction and delusion, nothing more. Good luck with that.

6 years and counting.  Our imperious leaders won’t “talk” to terrorists or any others not to their liking. 

So what if they have a civil war, America did, and its about time for another if this government doesn’t get its act together.

This is a no win situation, get out while we can.

Well fascist warmonger Frank! The bad news for you is that I am here to stay because what I write in favor of truth and justice is considered the highest and most sublime forms of “Jihad.” So be uncomfortable that I am not going to blow myself up, for my life is more precious than the miserable life of falsehoods you have.

Since I was a boy, my teachers and those who knew me well predicted that I will always be a warrior for the inconvenient truths that make fascist, cowards and misguided people very uncomfortable. And the more I know that I irritate your types, the more I’ll be encouraged to practice my “Jihad.” If you can’t take the heat of my kitchen, then .....

By the way, to clarify my comment title, the withdrawal of the bulk of US troops and the shifting if the US mission there from military occupation to diplomacy is the only rational plan that has a chance of saving Iraq from perpetual civil war in the future. Pulling out the military without replacing it with substantial diplomatic mission would be a recipe for disaster on a far greater scale. I am hopeful that the new embassy will in the long run be symbolic of a wiser course of action in Iraq, the middle ground between failed occupation of the Bush administration and greater irresponsibility of complete abandonment that some on the left call for.

To put this in perspective, Saddam spent $2 BILLION of Iraq’s money on new palaces for himself, most with gold plated faucets and similar excesses, after the first Gulf War.

This was during the sanctions period when Iraqi children were supposedly starving because the Iraqi government didn’t have the money to provide food or medicine for them. Of course, the world now knows it was not US sanctions that starved Iraqi children, but Saddam’s own government withholding it’s ample financial resources in order to make the US look responsible for humanitarian suffering during that period. It wasn’t until after the second invasion of Iraq that this because known, and the left has never retracted the sanctions mythology since.

Tony, while I support pulling out the majority of the troops and turning security over to the Iraqis, you can’t have a US embassy without SU troops to protect it. Even in friendly European countries, our embassies are guarded by Marines. In a place like Iraq, it will require a more substantial force than the symbolic handful of Marines at most embassies. Going from 140,000+ to 1000 troops would be a huge step in the right direction.

Fadel Abdallah, why not just give up the internet trolling and go blow yourself up for jihad like the Islamic nutters you admire so much?

You got that RIGHT-and WHO IS COUNTING??? 2.9 billion there-3 billion there-474 million over there-And OUR TROOPS DO NOT HAVE ADEQUATE HOSPITAL CARE-And OUR CHILDREN DO NOT HAVE HEALTH CARE-And OUR WORKERS CAN NOT FIND EMPLOYMENT-And OUR INFRASTRUCTURE[i.e. roads-electric power grids-etc etc etc]HAS BEEN FALLING APART FOR 30[at least] YEARS---WHEN DO WE PUT THE BLAME ON THESE IDIOTS “RUNNING THIS COUNTRY” AND HOLD THEM RESPONSIBLE???????

This embassy shall serve as a reminder to the populace what a bunch of arrogant bastards Americans are.

It shall also serve as a large target.

I can believe I’m subsidizing this.

You’re right Tony, and it’s been my primary criticism. It does need to be ZERO.

My guess is that he could come to that same realizaton quickly enough, but I know that he’s not going to commit to that until he actually knows what’s going on in Iraq, and what Dick Bush has going with Maliki et al. For the moment, Obama can’t know even as much as Hillary does.

So, he may be employing a technique that I leaned long ago from my own elders..better to commit to less until you know what you can actually do, and possibly accomplish far more, than to make promises based on a limited picture of what is really at hand, and be unable to follow though at all, once those things are discovered.

Now I can’t say that’s what’s in his head, because I don’t know, though I admit that I’ve frequently hoped that he was carefully/cautiously manipulating the truth to an extent in this area.

So, we’ll have to see. IF he has in mind leaving troops behind ONLY to ‘guard’ the Embassy, that isn’t gonna go over. But IF he feels the need to keep some staff of civilian personnel on hand, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

I say that because of all the billions of tax dollars that have poured into Iraq, there will come a time, (which ‘appears’ to possibly be happening now) when SOMEBODY is gonna have to get some measure of accountability on Maliki and his crew. There’s not much way to deny that at least a portion of that US installed puppet regime has played the installers for fools, so it would not be even in Obama’s best judgment, to simply walk away without some sort of understanding of exactly where all of our dollars might still be going.

I mean, just thinking about it, there are very few democrats that have had ANY access to information about what the hell has been going on in Iraq, and we know that most of them aren’t talking to anybody there that can tell them. Anything Obama or anyone else knows is coming from the same people the rest of us get the same lies from. (Like Patraeus and Crocker). How many times has Obama even been ‘allowed’ over there? I think once, and it’s been a while. Hillary most certainly knows more, but the bottom line is that this cabal has been so damn secretive, that I don’t see how either one of these candidates can provide us with any DETAILED plans, until either or can actually get a grip on what is really happening in Iraq. To that extent, Obama is gonna have to start relying more on independent sources, including independent media sources.

Like for instance, this article:

Can Iraq’s Parliament Fight Back?
By Maya Schenwar
t r u t h o u t | Report
Friday 18 April 2008
A surprise announcement by Iraq’s Cabinet on Monday opened up the possibility that resistance to a prolonged US occupation may come from a much-ignored source: the Iraqi Parliament.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s administration, moving into the third round of negotiations with the Bush administration over a “status of forces agreement” (SOFA) to establish a long-term US military and economic presence in Iraq, declared that the agreement must be approved by Parliament before it becomes law. Previously, Maliki had maintained that Parliamentary ratification was unnecessary.

See the link for the rest

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041808J.shtml

So, how much of this is Obama keeping track of? It’s hard to know, as he’s been under constant attack by the Kitchen Sink of the campaign. Once one has to spend all of their energies defending themselves and their positions in a constant attack, just to get to a position where they CAN do something, it leaves little time for the stuff that they NEED to be doing.

Believe me, I know, and it can be a relentless cycle. At least in his case, this primary campaign DOES have to end, at which point we can hope that he’ll have more time to concentrate on what it will take to know enough of what’s actually going on in Iraq, to make more detailed committements.

Something on this magnitude?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_face#The_Face_on_Mars

I was more optimistically hoping that the new Shiite government Iraq would convert it to subsidized housing for some of the families rendered homeless by the war.

And WE HOPE they[Bullsh*t and Chained Up]will GO THERE SOON...MAYBE THE IRAQUI’S HAVE THE GUTS TO TRY THEM BOTH FOR WAR CRIMES...AND HANG THEM[just like SADDAM]

Despite all the criticism, this US Embassy in Baghdad is not a waste.

When the Iraqi citizens come to their senses, and their freedom fighters succeed in throwing out the invading US Army, the ex-Embassy will make a munificent neighborhood hang-out for Iraqi youth, as they use the endless concrete security walls for spray-painting ‘Yanqui Go Home’, in Farsi, and the offices and guest rooms as classrooms for instruction on how to finally defeat ‘The Terrorist Devils of Washington’.

Iraq was not a training ground for ‘terrorists’ before we attacked, but we not only changed that, but provided the infrastructure to insure they succeed.

Yours is the best read so far. Loved the horse’s ass aspect for the architecture as well. One suggestion, have it painted with glow-in-the-dark paint, so it can be seen at night as an eerie greenish ghoulish glow. It will compliment the creepy feelingof dreed and doom that people now experience that have had the misfortune to have had any contact-no matter how small, with the Madness of King George and his Minions.

Excellent post TDoff! Very relevant and expressive of the anger and frustration patriotic citizens feel towards all the nonsense, misguidance and pure evil, that these centers of power have visited upon our country.

We should engage First Kuwaiti General Contracting and Trading to build the tomb of George W. Bush.

It should cover the entire area now occupied by Washington D.C, the Pentagon, the CIA, and most of Arlington.

In order that this enormous expenditure not be made to just glorify one man, it should be in the shape of a colossal horse’s ass, visible from space and ships far out at sea, and be in remembrance of all the politicians who served during the reign of the NeoConZionistCabal of the Bush maladministration, as well as insuring that the unwitting, unwitted, incompentent quasi-leader of the cabal remains interred for eternity, with no possiblity that his ghost be loosed.

And serve as a monumental ‘Lest We Forget’ reminder of how easily a ‘democratic’ population can be bamboozled by a mendacious, amoral, despicable group backed by wealth, power, and naked ambition, claiming, mendaciously, to be doing the work of ‘god’.

Naturally they under estimated the cost of this palace. Cyrena, are you sure it’s not higher than $736 million, or maybe that’s the price of the guest house out back to assure more privacy for their dirty dealings. And don’t forget the country club, golf course, hunting range, and private fishing and boating lake, Nascar race track and the horse track and all the casinos so the Iraqi people can work in them like they have the casinos in Michigan for the Indians. And THE CHICKEN RANCH-from Texas fame.

...this seems pretty minuscule and unremarkable compared to the kind of development going on in Qatar.

I’d also like to say “word up” to the Senators who are pushing for Iraq to use its oil revenue for reconstruction costs and domestic programs and for converting some of our aid into loans; it’s about time.

I’ve seen places like this go up before - its not that unusual. The worthless monuments and white elephants of a society pre-occupied with its view of itself yet a self-serving philosophy of “let the Devil take the hindmost”.

Utterly bereft of morality, the final act of the duplication of the old Roman Empire is now upon us. The Eastern Empire has now arrived in all its fantasy. All it needs is a Byzantine Pope.... and look who just stepped off the plane in the USA!?!?

Are we finally going to be honest about Iraq? It’s all about oil. We in this country are so hypocritical about out politics and our religion, especially politicians. We wave our democracy and religion like some badge of honor. Few countries can handle democracy and no one would want our God. Shame on us anyway.

This I have to see. Like, how many troops? 400, or 4000 or 40000? No matter what number I think of, the only one that computes is zero.

Yup. And Israel will be protected, God bless her!

Nope...I want ‘em at Guantanamo. Why should they enjoy the lavish digs at the Embassy. Let the Iraqis live there. Gitmo is fine for the Dick Bush gangsters. Remember, it was either Cheney or Rumsfeld who said it was ‘the tropics’.

Sending them to Iraq would just be that much more salt on the wounds of the Iraqis. That is unless Fadel’s prediction pans out sooner than later.

It will just “remove” the reply to a post from the thread.  Mostly it is just for readability.  If the reply is hidden, there should be a tag that says “show reply (# of replies).

Sometimes there are glitches, though.  Your post below says “hide reply” but no reply appears posted.  It may be a glitch, or it may show up.

Hope that helps

We went in for oil and we are stayng till we get control of the oil and it runs out and then Iraqi’s can have their country back with our profound thanks.To the oil companies it does not matter if the oil stays in the gound or is pumped as long as we control it.Blood for oil.A good trade as long as it is not your blood.

Another tragic symbol of the civilization of cement, mortar and steel built over the spilled blood of thousands of Iraqi and American lives, to commemorate and stand witness to the greatest human tragedy of the last seventy years.

But wait! After the guns fall silent, and this evil war is formally concluded and life seems to go back to normal, many thousands of Iraqis whose lives have been shattered beyond repair would wake up to the terrible reality of what the so-called American democracy has brought them and their country: massive deaths, massive displacement and dispossession, and massive number of refugees.

Then many among those psychologically troubled souls will want to seek revenge for their dead love ones and for themselves. And I am sure this embassy, symbol of evil for them, will be the first target of their revenge. And if and when this happens it will certainly dwarf the events of 9 /11. And America would be reaping the fruits of what it has sown in Iraq.

As I am computer illiterate, what does ‘Hide (a reply)’ mean?  I emailed Truthdig and got no reply.  Thanks

That’s an excellent idea, jatihoon.  We should exile the entire Bush administration to the new embassy in Iraq.  It’s a much, much better idea than the Hague or anything else.

This is the first time in ages that I’ve heard/read the $474million quote, which makes this outdated by at least 5 years.

The finished product actually has cost $736million according to the more recent and consistent figures that I’ve seen.

I think they went a little bit over budget, in part because of the shoddy work, still not completely resolved.

We must stay in Iraq in order to defeat those who don’t want us in Iraq.

The new, larger-than-life embassy guarantees that we will remain in Iraq to keep the factions who don’t want us there actively resisting us, which, of course, is why we must be there.  Can anyone doubt that from the beginning Iraq and her poor beleaguered people were and have been set up to serve the needs of a super power?

Emulating your predecessor like building something bigger than ANYTHING Saddam built for himself severalfold.

And nothing says “we have learned jacksquat about displays of power” like building a structure that rivals the Forbidden City in China.

The least we should demand of our ‘BigOil’ monsters, is that as soon as they have the multi-billions flowing in from their ‘negotiated’ deals with our puppet government in Iraq, they should tear down this monstrosity (if it hasn’t self-disintegrated by that time), and build an even bigger, better, and more expensive one to replace it, enclosed in a mortar and bomb-proof dome.
Just to show the Iraqis what THEY could have had, had they been smart enough to throw our asses the hell out of the country.

Hopefully democrats will get into seat of power, and exiled Bush and CO, to live in Imperial Palace, being built for their,"Rest and Recration”,after all, they desrve it, for fighting such a long drawn war.

Follow the example of France, either you behead,or exile their king or president.