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Bashing Baghdad International

In further proof that democracy is even more untidy then we thought, Time magazine is reporting that the theft and vandalism at Baghdad's airport was not caused by native looters but by bored American troops in the weeks after the airport was captured. The troops stole duty-free items, needlessly shot up the airport, broke every window in the place, and trashed five serviceable Boeing airplanes. Damage estimates range up to $100 million but, hey, it's only American taxpayer money that will pay to have it rebuilt.

posted by Jerry Bowles 7:36 PM

Get Over It

As usual, Fareed Zakaria nails it:

There is one group of nations with large numbers of well-trained troops, experienced in peacekeeping and in working with the United States Army. It’s called NATO. The problem for the Bush administration is that calling on NATO means bringing France and Germany back into the fold. My suggestion: get over it.

posted by Jerry Bowles 4:03 PM

Onward Christian Soldiers

Other than protecting a few antenna farms, the big reason Shrubby is bullish on Liberia is that, unlike Iraq, there’s a big market for Christian aid. In the jargon of the Christian aid industry, the keywords are: missionaries, evangelism, churching, revival meetings and, in lieu of democracy, something called “peacebuilding.”

Christian Aid USA is already boasting on its website that it is holding revival meetings in Liberia to break the power of witchcraft.

BBC reports that the Movement for Justice and Development (MJD), based in Sierra Leone, is calling for the arrest of Liberian thug Charles Taylor for his human rights abuses against Christians. MJD is a sister organization of Action of Churches Together (ACT) which operates in Liberia.

Mercy Corps, which has its stronghold in Orgeon's Klanland, boasts as its honorary chairman Sen Mark Hatfield, is top heavy with ex-spooks like Arthur Johnson, retired deputy director of the US weather satellite program and others who got sheep dipped through World Vision and Save the Children.

Taylor’s genocide campaign surpasses Saddam’s greatest hits. But, hey, it's Africa, there’s no oil politics, and there ain’t no WMD action to jack the intel. Merge and shut down a few more embassies. Let the god squadders build a few more “peacebuilding” centers... get the picture. In five years we’ll have the Liberian clone of Yao Ming.

posted by Groom 1:41 PM

As Others See Us

The questionable legality of the war and the absence of weapons of mass destruction notwithstanding, the US is in Iraq, and there's no doubt that American credibility will be measured against the success of the Iraqi adventure. The de facto guerrilla situation is conditioned by two undisputed factors: a foreign invasion, and the unwillingness of the foreign invaders to restore order, basic public services and most of all, sovereignty to the Iraqi people. No matter the spin from Washington, for Iraqis, the American "liberation" thus far has been synonymous with foreign invasion, deprivation and chaos. Pepe Escobar, Asia Times, July 4, 2003

posted by Jerry Bowles 10:36 AM