Mr. Bush, Tear Down this Wall

by emptywheel

Stars and Stripes via scout prime:

U.S. soldiers with the 82nd Airborne Division in a Baghdad district are “building a three-mile protective wall on the dividing line between a Sunni enclave and the surrounding Shiite neighborhood,” according to a U.S. military press release issued Wednesday.

Troops with the 407th Brigade Support Battalion began constructing the wall on April 10 and will continue work “almost nightly until the wall is complete,” the release read.

“The area the wall will protect is the largest predominately Sunni neighborhood in East Baghdad. Majority-Shiite neighborhoods surround it on three sides. Like other religiously divided regions in the city, the area has been trapped in a spiral of sectarian violence and retaliation,” according to the release.

It's not enough that Bush's vanity war is leading toward a Cold War between Sunni and Shiite in the Middle East. Now, he's building the walls to go with it.

Comments

[landreau]

Oh, for cryin' out loud.

1. Those people have enough high explosives to blow up any wall we build, ten times over.

2. Do we believe that this is ANY kind of solution to ANYTHING?? Looks to me like Bush saw Olmert building a wall and though, "Shucks, we can do that, too."

Obviously, we're out of ideas.

[kaleidescope]

Yikes. It sounds like they're building the Warsaw Ghetto.

[eyesonthestreet]

Oh come on, this is so much like America, look at the walls surrounding the neighborhoods in Atherton or Hillborough, or the endless gated communities that protect the elite in this country. Walls built for scared people with their own small armies of body guards and expensive security equipment. That is all the elites can think of, build a wall. We are living in the middle ages.

[Mauimom]

Oh please, please, please take down that picture of "St. Ronnie." I hate that toad.

[P J Evans]

Think of the wall the neocons want built between the US and Mexico, to keep out all those Evil Brown People. (Never mind that they didn't provide the money to build the whole thing; it's the *idea* that matters to them.)

[janinsanfran]

Of course the analogue that anyone in Iraq is going to think of is not what Bill Richardson calls our "idiotic" border wall, but the Israeli apartheid wall.

Our rulers are madmen.

[Jodi]

Don't you think the Sunnis want the wall?

[landreau]

>Don't you think the Sunnis want the wall?<

You mean, the Sunni's who are blowing up our troops as insurgents?

Or the Sunni's who killed 3000 New Yorkers and Washingtonians?

Like I said, we're out of ideas. The only thing we know how to do is kiss the asses of the Saudi ruling elite. Jodi, you first--pucker up!

[LabDancer]

Ms. E. Wheel -

Sorry for this mostly off topic query.

AlG's watery plant-like responses and that the first scheduled members of the Senate Judiciary Committee were unable to yank him from the doldrums sent me wandering at the first pee break for something stronger, and I stumbled right into some redistilled Old Bushit - Rep Waxman's exchange with Secretary of State Rice's Cyrano de Bergerac two days ago.

The letter written on behalf of Ms. C. Rice appears to revive one of the early temporary water lily pad talking points on one word among the 16 most notorious in Resident Bush's 2003 SOTU address, to wit that "Dear Leader didn't say "Niger", he said "Africa". And so to the extent Ambassador Wilson may be correct, which we won't admit until it's forced down our throats, he is only correct about Niger, which is this itty bitty country right in here somewhere that we don't know very much about - - whereas Africa is this entire continent chock FULL of LOTS of little countries we don't know much about, and so long as it remains arguable that Dear Leader meant to indicate one or more of those other countries, that's the story we're sticking with."

And then I thought that lily pad started to take on water so fast that first the departed Mr. Laurence Fleischer [on the First Day of Leak Week] and then Ms. C. Rice [higher than a kite somewhere over Africa just before her early long distant warning call to a sleeping Mr. G. Tenet near the end of Leak Week] jumped off it - and let the pretense that Resident Bush meant to indicate any wider geography than Niger in reporting what "The British government [has] learned" to sink into the weeds of history.

Is it possible I was dreaming? And if so, please also tell me the occupation of Iraq is no more than a bad dream brought by midnight snack on underdone potato.

I think there may be two solid reasons why the Bush bunch seem so unamenable to being questioned up oath: [1] Their first instinct is to say "I'm not coming and you can't make me.", and [2] once in captivity it turns out we don't share enough genetic material with them to allow for meaningful cross.

[Jodi]

landreau

well, maybe I should have said, both sides might want the wall to protect against each other. Many of the killings are retaliation killings. Others are to stop the country from moving forward, and of course attack the Americans.

And both sides kill our troops.

And landreau your obsessing about kissing asses is not healthy.

[P J Evans]

At the risk of feeding the permanently-resident troll:

Jodi, what part of 'civil war' do you not understand? Because that's what the Sunni and the Shi'a have. We're the foreign occupiers who took the lid of that pressure cooker, for no good reason (and a lot of very bad ones).

[Jim DeRosa]

They hate because of our freedom.

[freepatriot]

tokyo jodi the worm tongue never fails to disappoint

what's next worm tongue ???

are you gonna say that maybe some of those students wanted to be dead ???

how dispicable does your fucked up logic allow you to be ???

maybe the Jews really wanted Hitler to kill them ???

maybe the Christians really wanted to be fed to the lions ???

you can say redicoulous thing to protect your corrupt and incompetent "DADDIES" in office, can't you worm tongue ???

[greenhouse]

PJ and landreau,

Someday you'll learn as MTwheel already has and say, "I'm busy now. Can I ignore you some other time, as in permanent?" and never feed again, no matter how temptingly, deliciously delirious the analyses are, our resident alien -- you guessed it, Tokyo Jodi.

[landreau]

greenhouse, I suppose you're right. There's nothing to be gained.

[freepatriot]

tokyo jodi the worm tongue is COMIC RELIEF

just another free service from this excellent blog

everybody needs to vent once in a while, and tokyo jodi the worm tongue provides ample opportunity to launch pot shots at an easy target

tokyo jodi the worm tongue is here till tuesday, try the veal

[freepatriot]

hey, didn't we try this before ???

Falujah, Sammarra ???

how'd that work out ???

come to think of it, ain't there a wall around the Green Zone ???

how'd that work out ???

on the other hand, I seem to remember there was a wll in Berlin, and a wall around the Warsaw Ghetto too, so at least the Sunnis are in good company, right worm tongue ???

[Dismayed]

LOFL Nobody flails a troll like free. The rest of you should just quit trying. Though Kargo did once rise to greatness in an tyrade of derision not seen since Calligula shamed the Senate. I forget the topic, but that was the beginning of the end for jodi.

Should be some good stuff coming in on Abu any time now. Did anyone remember to send him a jar of vaseline?

[Dismayed]

Raw story has pretty good coverage of the latest on Abu at the moment.

[Dismayed]

Just watched the tape of Schumer cutting through Gonzo. It's posted at Raw and it's withering.

[P J Evans]

greenhouse - you *did* notice that first line I put in, didn't you? ;)

[Jodi]

A lot of people here sure are touchy.

Perhaps it is because of the withdrawal pangs of the "Frog Marching Rove out the White House" dream. Or maybe it is the "Impeach the President" dream's demise. Or better still the soon to be departed "Congressional law with a binding timeline for withdrawal" plan. That one I was rooting for.

I try to bring a little reality to this blog, and get very little appreciation.

Instead I only get called names. It is disappointing.

[Adigm]

Related to David Wheeler? He's pretty interesting with Al Gore and pollution charges.

Anyway, he worked in development too.

Some web sites:

BOOK] Controlling Industrial Pollution: A New Paradigm - group of 6 »
S Afsah, B Laplante, D Wheeler, World Bank Policy … - 1996 - worldbank.org
... and transactions cost problems to implement any instruments ... hope that these ideas
will help promote a ... Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico and Philippines. ...
Cited by 48 - Related Articles - Cached - Web Search - BL Direct

ASEAN

PDF]
Microsoft PowerPoint - Philippines
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTMLterms of compensation and claims are on the rise in the Philippines ... pollution charges, and providing access to credit; and ...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070419/pl_nm/un_awards_dc;_ylt=AvdtMRAg5a9LfHWrotLBJ5iyFz4D

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=avFRGWnCI3pw&refer=home

[Brooklynite]

The stenchof raw feces you bring is quite real, Jodi, but unwelcome nonetheless.

EW, anybody, how about a new post?

[greenhouse]

Yes PJ I did notice, and I salute you for the level-headed attempt at reason. But still, you just couldn't resist now could you and look what it got you. Just a lame delirious diatribe -- I think something along the lines of projecting withdrawal pains from failed frog marching, impeach demise, no binding timeline and indignation over name calling instead of a response to your question.

Dismayed knows what it's like to be Sisyphus, right Dism? Check out this golden nugget from our halcyon days of last February:

Jodi says:
"Kagro Xm
I think you have missed or are ignoring one of the more salient points of Will's column, that we will have a real mess if we withdraw too soon, and that is the mess the Democrats are ignoring in their rhetoric, though probably the implict reason they aren't demanding the "defunding" of the war, they profess to now hate so much.
That doesn't mean we should have gone over there in the beginning, but now we seem to have the bear by the tail. Best not to let go yet."

Kagro X responds:

Jodi,
You're in error before you reach the third word of your message.
And by the way, clinging to the idea that there's only one "bear" in this scenario is precisely the reason you and your people have failed in Iraq. You're holding one by the tail while another half dozen are mauling you, and clinging to the moronic proverb about the wisdom of not letting go."

You're in error before you reach the third word of your message. BAM! Couldn't have done it better myself. Kagro X is the best!

[Dismayed]

Yep - You can't roll that rock up the hill. No matter how far you push it it's always at the bottom in the morning. Brilliant analogy then, still fits today. Moving on.

[Neil]

I try to bring a little reality to this blog, and get very little appreciation. Instead I only get called names. It is disappointing. Posted by: Jodi | April 19, 2007 at 15:56

Imagine trying selflessly to bring a hint of reality to a bunch of hopelessly liberal (wrong-minded) bloggers only to be called names and ultimately failing to enlighten them? Damn, you're too young to give up.

Here's a question somewhat on topic. If by August the esclation proves ineffective, does Bush actually consider a change of strategy that does not include more of the same?

[Neil]

"Gonzales's protestations of uninvolvement are "significantly if not totally at variance with the facts," said ranking minority member and former chairman Sen. Arlen Specter (R) of Pennsylvania.

Gonzales's testimony leaves senators frustrated
By Peter Grier | Christian Science Monitor
link

[Jodi]

Gee, I think Conzales testimony has left everyone frustrated.

He built this mountain out of a molehill almost single handed.

Neil,

I orignally came here because this was a great source of info on the Wilson-Plame-Rove thing. My boss wanted to know what was going to happen.

I now come and go to see what is happening. I tried to help out a bit with the technology as concerns emails, communications etc., and what I said made everyone madder than they had been when I questioned the Rove thing. A very touchy crowd.

Neil,
you may or may not know this but my oldest brother is in Iraq now. A Combat Commander. He has had several tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. Once he was seriously wounded and came back early. He has a bit of titanium to remind him of that.

Two other members of my family served in those awful places, but they are safe now.

The reason for Iraq can be argued. The debacle after the first 4 weeks, can't! If you want to impeach Bush, for that, I am with you.

I want my brother home. My brother argues that they need to straighten it out now, or it will haunt the US and the world even more in the future.

I still want my brother home.

[freepatriot]

yo, tokyo jodi, we DON'T believe you

lay down with dogs and you wake up with fleas

you have exactly the same credibility as your idiot heros george bush, dick cheney, and abu gonzo

you have been weighed, measured, and found to be a fool

and we do more than call you names

we LAUGH AT YOU AS WELL

enjoy the rest of your life

[Jodi]

yo, tokyo freepatriot

the master of cliche reruns.