Thrills of a less amusing sort
Feb. 12th, 2003 08:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bronwynrhMy drive to work this morning was much less eventful, although COLD. I've had other things on my mind to give me hair-raising experiences to rival the one I had yesterday morn. Last night's episode of 24 was one of those things - Hoo-boy!
Yesterday's news was another. . .
My pulse was sped up just a hair by the new love note from your friend and mine, Usama bin Laden. He's making good use of the old line, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. UBL is no friend of Saddam Hussein, seeing as SH is a socialist (not to mention he had a Koran written in blood - a BIG no-no), but UBL has decided that SH is a good enough buddy in the sand-box. Anyway, now UBL is handing out advice to bad-boy Saddam like it's candy.
Do you guys need reminders that both Israeli (the hotel in Africa) and FRENCH (the oil tanker) targets have been hit after messages like this one have been released (and that's not to mention the bombing in Bali that targeted Australians, the USS Cole, and oh yeah 9-11-01)?
It seems to me as though a threat to INTERNATIONAL interests requires a full-on INTERNATIONAL response.
I'm not saying all out war, complete with invasion and occupation, is the answer. In this case an all-out war will likely leave a lot of innocent people dead and SH unscathed. I don't need any lessons on Gulf War history, folks - I was there, and I've done plenty of reading on the subject. The man and his regime have got to go, better taken care of from inside his country or at least the region, but that'll never happen so it would be nice if the world would take care of it before the temperatures soar to 130 degrees and troops have to hang out in the sun in chemical suits. But hey, the guys in flannel suits seem to think that after more than 12 years, a unified world front allied against him saying, "pretty please with rice and sugar on top" will convince SH finally to come clean. As if.
Besides all of that static, weren't we supposed to be going after UBL?!? Oh that's right, the grandest game of hide-and-seek since the game was invented. We are still playing that one too, right? The media are so fixated on the SH thing we're just not hearing about it, right? Right? We, the Americans, virtually alone in looking for him; can we trust anyone other than Britain or other Western allies to help us in the search? Goddamn frustrating.
I don't know what the solution is. I just know that this situation is so bad, there aren't even words for it, and I'm positively, absolutely fed up with it. Somebody with the know-how and the wherewithal needs to DO something about it. And could we maybe find some more folks with some wherewithal?? Stop the bullshit and actually DO something, please!
And if any one posts a comment and mentions "cultural imperialism", you will precipitate a rant unlike any you have ever seen, so be prepared :-)
Added in edit: I must add that the advice America has been given regarding duct tape and plastic sheeting made me laugh. During the Gulf War, my family bought duct tape. We spent several air raids in a small bathroom with duct-taped air vents, gas masks on. That got old fast. Granted, that was an actual war situation. Not to rain on anybody's safety parade, but if worst comes to worst, duct tape probably won't do the trick, especially considering the type of construction most of us live in.
Yesterday's news was another. . .
My pulse was sped up just a hair by the new love note from your friend and mine, Usama bin Laden. He's making good use of the old line, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. UBL is no friend of Saddam Hussein, seeing as SH is a socialist (not to mention he had a Koran written in blood - a BIG no-no), but UBL has decided that SH is a good enough buddy in the sand-box. Anyway, now UBL is handing out advice to bad-boy Saddam like it's candy.
Do you guys need reminders that both Israeli (the hotel in Africa) and FRENCH (the oil tanker) targets have been hit after messages like this one have been released (and that's not to mention the bombing in Bali that targeted Australians, the USS Cole, and oh yeah 9-11-01)?
It seems to me as though a threat to INTERNATIONAL interests requires a full-on INTERNATIONAL response.
I'm not saying all out war, complete with invasion and occupation, is the answer. In this case an all-out war will likely leave a lot of innocent people dead and SH unscathed. I don't need any lessons on Gulf War history, folks - I was there, and I've done plenty of reading on the subject. The man and his regime have got to go, better taken care of from inside his country or at least the region, but that'll never happen so it would be nice if the world would take care of it before the temperatures soar to 130 degrees and troops have to hang out in the sun in chemical suits. But hey, the guys in flannel suits seem to think that after more than 12 years, a unified world front allied against him saying, "pretty please with rice and sugar on top" will convince SH finally to come clean. As if.
Besides all of that static, weren't we supposed to be going after UBL?!? Oh that's right, the grandest game of hide-and-seek since the game was invented. We are still playing that one too, right? The media are so fixated on the SH thing we're just not hearing about it, right? Right? We, the Americans, virtually alone in looking for him; can we trust anyone other than Britain or other Western allies to help us in the search? Goddamn frustrating.
I don't know what the solution is. I just know that this situation is so bad, there aren't even words for it, and I'm positively, absolutely fed up with it. Somebody with the know-how and the wherewithal needs to DO something about it. And could we maybe find some more folks with some wherewithal?? Stop the bullshit and actually DO something, please!
And if any one posts a comment and mentions "cultural imperialism", you will precipitate a rant unlike any you have ever seen, so be prepared :-)
Added in edit: I must add that the advice America has been given regarding duct tape and plastic sheeting made me laugh. During the Gulf War, my family bought duct tape. We spent several air raids in a small bathroom with duct-taped air vents, gas masks on. That got old fast. Granted, that was an actual war situation. Not to rain on anybody's safety parade, but if worst comes to worst, duct tape probably won't do the trick, especially considering the type of construction most of us live in.
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(no subject)
Date: February 12th, 2003 06:45 am (UTC)After the bombing of the Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya, I read an interview with an elderly Kenyan woman. Her son was a clerk at the hotel and perished in the explosion. The family lived in a poor, traditional village on the outskirts of Nairobi. Their house had a mud floor and a thatch roof. The bereaved mother said that she had heard of global terrorism after the embassy bombings, but never did she expect that politics from across the globe would reach into her thatched roofed hut and kill her own family. "What do New York and Israel have to do with poor Africans?," she asked.
What a horrible world we live in now. Terrorism is truly an international problem that endangers every corner of the globe. Perhaps this is World War III, fought on a less visible front.
(no subject)
Date: February 12th, 2003 06:54 am (UTC)I'd hesitate to call it a silent World War, but it does seem to move like smoke, doesn't it? It lies low. You smell it but you can't really see it. It finds its way into every corner.
(no subject)
Date: February 12th, 2003 06:54 am (UTC)edit...
Date: February 12th, 2003 09:48 am (UTC)hiya....
Date: February 12th, 2003 01:32 pm (UTC)Re: hiya....
Date: February 12th, 2003 02:18 pm (UTC)Their response to you would be that the smoking gun is not in Saddam Hussein's backyard. I agree with you, however, that they would be missing the point.
Pleased to meet you! Next time you eat scones with cream, dedicate them to me, ok? God I miss good scones with clotted cream.
Re: hiya....
Date: February 13th, 2003 02:15 pm (UTC)