Bizarre Bazaar

Wow. Bizarre is right. This is the kind of report that you could only get from being there. It makes you wonder, if the insurgents were to target only garbage collectors, instead of police, would they be even more effective?

So why isn't my government (USA) collecting the garbage and keeping things clean. Remmember the saying 'You broke it, you fix it'. Being the sole authority and military power in Iraq its America's responsibility to provide clean water,power and waste disposal.
What happened to all those billions given to Halliburton and Iraq's CPA to fix this mess?

"slovenliness in the midst of war.", this is obviously another insult against the islamic culture. Iraq is not a dirty country. Thanks to the USA it IS now a free country. Is it more dangerous? Maybe but freedom is worth it. How lucky we are to have a genius, George Bush leading the United States. The price of freedom is high. Some day the people of Iraq will bask in freedom. When the Israeli freedom fighters bringing freedom to Lebannon maybe some day all the mid east will bask in America's freedom. Till then accept the bloodshed that's the price of freedom!

I agree with Nathan. All the Iraqi's who are blown up by car bombs, tortured to death with electic drills, or shot down in the streets died with the sweet taste of freedom in the mouths!!!

Nathan, What flavor is the koolaid? My god is not thanked for Bush. Johnn

I think I'd much rather have the big problems where I can see them, rather than buried in mass graves a la Saddam.

I'd be interested to know what is happening with the children orphaned in Iraq. Are they taken out of the cities to safer areas?

Speaking as someone who has actually served in Iraq, the war you see on TV and read in the news is qute different in reality than as observed while sitting in your livingroom sofa.
This author paints every Iraqi street as a dump - Should we then assume that a few polluted streets in America represents the entire nation?
The truth is that the entire nation of Iraq is not a war zone, only the ones that are sensationalized in the media.

to anonymous; are you kidding me. Your still on the Halliburton thing. What an uninformed liberal. God I hope your not smart enough to find your polling station. If you dont like it in this country get the hell out.

Jules, there are many more Iraqi "war zones" than those just sensationalized in the media. I am in Iraq now, in Al Anbar, and every town from the Syrian border to Fallujah is a war zone. Most if not all of the cities surrounding Baghdad are also war zones.

To Anonymous, please go to a Halliburton job fair and come to the streets of Iraq and pick up the garbage for the Iraqis. We need YOUR help. Are you ever going to contribute to the effort outside of the requisite taxes that even us soldiers pay and incessant complaining?

John thanks for doing the dirty work, so we all can enjoy our lives in america. Your the real bad ass heros in our minds. Were not all a bunch of whiners like anonymous. Keep up the good work and stay safe.

It seems that the routine, everyday services which we all-too-often take for granted are truly essential when they aren't provided. It would never have occurred to me that trash collection could be so dangerous!

Thank you to those who have served and are still serving...as the wife, sister, sister-in-law and daughter-in-law of former soldiers I know what your families go through as you are going through even worse. When will people realize that for the safety of our military it is not essential that they know every detail of what is being done? The liberal media should get paychecks from the enemy. The trash problem will only correct itself when the people there police there own and stand up for themselves. There is power in numbers.

john and chris, both loyal supporters of the Bush Administration's debacle in Iraq, evidently are about as keen in their perception as the President was in hallucinating weapons of mass destruction. After several posts they still don't seem to have noticed that it was Nathan, and not anonymous, that wrote the perfectly appropriate commentary on Halliburton.

john, chris and Wanda -- good Germans all. It's no wonder this country is in such a mess.

The price of freedom isn't free. Read the Declaration od Independence and the story behind it. Many innocents will pay for it with their lives and all will suffer until the criminals there are extinguished. It didn't happen in the USA overnight and Americans paid for their freedom with their OWN blood.

That was lovely Mr. herc, short for Hercules I presume. You must be a good angry Greek. I on the other hand am American, not German. Your cold reading skills are dull.
Still lost in the miasma your beloved media has given you? Still fussing about about in the WMD hysteria that the weak-minded fell into? I'm sorry; I hope you find your way out soon.
Evidently, something has ticked you off to where racism, ethnocentricity, and political posturing are your stepstones. I hope you find your way out of that soon so you can realize there is a global war going on that is much more than a couple of paltry oil fields and a stash of chemical mortar rounds. There is an ideal out there that has physically and ruthlessly attacked a large number of lovely places: America, Canada, all of Europe, Russia, India, Australia, northern and eastern Africa, the Middle East, India Indonesia, China, and the Phillipines. I believe that takes us all the way round the globe. You ought to pay attention to all of your blessed media not just the little parts that make you really, really angry.
Think about this a little while. Go ahead and join the military while you are mulling this over and relieve one of "your" troops, many of whom are on their second and third combat tours in this war protecting your right to be angry. You don't have to be republican to join the military.
Its also a good outlet for your anger.

Wake up and smell the mid term elections people - The war in lebanon is all about trying to find an excuse to bomb Iran back into the dark ages as well as Lebanon and Gazza before Nov 2006 . That way GW can continue to scare the US people into voting Republican and avoid getting impeached for starting an illegal war ( which is a certainty if the DEMs win) Oh by the way Iran used to be a democracy before the US oil interests (CIA) overthrew it to install their own puppet - and Hezbolah didn't exist before Israel's last invasion. It has been successful because it is doing what the West has to encourage ( and stop Israel from bombing back to the dark ages yet again) - providing jobs, education and health care to it's people. That is the only long term answer to Isreal's security - not 600, 000 displaced pissed off families and billions of dollars in civilian infrastructure damage breeding a new generation of Arabs hating the West

So the Lebanese crisis is a smokescreen for GW? That's interesting. The Hezbollah must be on Halliburton's payroll then? Did Ms. Rice cut them a check to run across the border and launch rockets? I am trying to understand where you are coming from. You make some broad sweeping, disconnected implications. Oh and then there is the CIA (another beaten dead horse) suggested for what's wrong with Iran. I agree that the Lebanon issue is too heavy-handed and I do not agree with range of destruction Israel has chosen. But I believe the Hezbollah is a root for radical terrorism, regardless of its origins. I understand and appreciate the fact that it served its purpose by pushing out Israel and the Americans from Lebanon allowing that country to semi-recover, but now it is Hezbollah that is the aggressor. It is the Hezbollah (and Iran since you want to drag them into this) that have undone the progress that they made in Lebanon. The Hezbollah has become but just another radical Muslim militia. It has no political agenda other than to foment war in the Middle East, and I seriously doubt they are doing it on GWs behalf.

As a warrior and intel vet, I can tell you that nothing is ever what you hear from either side. If you believe that nothing is good about this administration's policies, then you won't listen to anyone. If you follow blindly, then you are equally ignorant.

The WMD's are and haven't been reported, for good reason, on both sides.

There are more then one battleground and hot spots, but that is because largely to the fact that there is a continued need for us to help the Iraqi people learn what democracy means, and what it costs. Few discussions I have heard or read remember our own history that took decades to catch on in our own fight for representative democracy; and that required help from the the French, the Russians, and the Spanish.

I have friends who have died protecting the Afghan President, patrolling the streets of Baghdad, and trying to go in and save our own. The whole picture is NOT obscured, but most of these takes ARE overly simplistic. But, then as a former special operations type, I wouldn't expect most who would post here to understand little things like Foreign Internal Defense, and the nature of fighting a war that crosses the spectrum of Low to Mid-intensity conflict.

The one thing that I will fight to the last breath in my body is the only thing that would make this seem like it was another "Viet Nam" scenerio; Namely people who are unwilling to do anything constructive listening to those with anti-war agendas and parroting the diatribe or worse propogating it purposely. I defended your right to say it, but I won't listen to it without answering the sophistry. I would rather fight it there and get them to help us fight it, then to deal with it here. I do not believe that this administration is perfect, nor do I agree with it's every action, but I would rather GW or a Mccain then anthing that the Dems can put-up, and I am glad Kerry isn't sitting as president, it would be much worse.

As to the garbage, the terrorists are doing what terrorists do, inflict terror to cower the people, and to try and bend the will of those who should be supporting our actions. It takes courage to stand-up, take responsibility, and take action. The Iraqi's are trying to stand-up, and we must help them continue. This is a conflict we can win, but it takes something that many of you will never understand, because you have an Ameri-centric view. It will take violence, and it will take more sacrifice. We have perpetuated the idea that we are fat and lazy and whiny (wanting everything fast, large, and cheap)in our media. Ironically, that is the way that much of the world sees us.

If you want to help, by all means do, but if all you can do is complain, please don't, talk is cheap, but it can do much more damage then bullets and bombs, especially if you really want the end to this to be a good one. I won't accuse you are being treasonous, but it would be my feelings. If we remain united, we can find a way out with a total victory, even if it doesn't seem like we know what that looks like, yet. Just another lesson from history, there were many times during WWII when that idea of knowing what victory looked like was hotly debated and contested in the beltline (which I know didn't yet exist), but they knew they couldn't afford to lose. We stand with the same prospect, looking at the same, and we dare not lose. Actually, we have have been here during EVERY conflict, so what is it that will cause us to take up united front and fight the enemy (which by the way isn't Americans with a differing view, I already said, I defended your right to say it), that focuses on the wrong thing - each other, and is both negative and self-defeating. Look at this positively, it takes a desire to find a way to win - that IS what happened in WWII, and it took everyone. Similarly, it will take all of us again.

It seems to me people don’t take their time to connect things together. Iraq was attacked in the name of WMD that we have not yet seen. A nation was attacked because of one man we don’t like. I guess we don’t need an expert to tell us that we have created more enemies for Americans after the invasion of Iraq. Bush also created more enemies by publicly saying that he wouldn't pressurize Israel for cease-fire while innocent children die. This is the same Bush who wants to spread democracy to the world. How do you spread democracy without the spirit of peace? I know all the participants in crisis – US, Israel, Syria, and Iran have their own agenda, but I tell you, Israel and US has fallen into the trap of Iran. How does the American president justify himself for supporting continued bombardment of Lebanon when Innocent civilians die? How would Bush convince Iran to trust his incentive package? Can you imagine an American president who publicly supports the destruction of a country because of two soldiers in the name of self defense? For those who can make the connections, it needs to further explanation that Israel and the US lead Republican government has been waiting for this opportunity, so also are Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah. While the US and Israel may be thinking things are going in their way; it is Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah that the crisis has benefited. Hezbollah popularity has increased since the attack, so also is Iran's. It has even provoked more anger towards the Americans. Almost everybody in Syria, Iran, and Palestine now take pride to be associated with Hezbollah. I hope the authority would take a serious step to remedy the situation.

In the 1st place, Bush wanted to depose Saddam so badly like an alcoholic so wanted a drink. He insisted in invading Iraq despite all the precautionary warnings about the consequences. Bush is to blame for the Iraq debacle; it was done willy-nilly when 911 presented him & the neocons a "cover" to invade. Only fools like Bush & Rumsfeld & Cheney could have envisioned a bloodless invasion.

The garbage in the streets is normal here. People generally just throw it out the door and expect the government to pick it up. For awhile, the US was picking up the garbage, but this has fallen back to the municipal governments. But with a shortage of funds (or funds which have not made it down the foodchain yet), and the danger to garbage collectors, then it generally sits and stinks. This is true not only in Baghdad, but all over the country (maybe not in Kurdistan, but I have not been there to know about that.)

IEDs are placed in garbage, in dead animals, in dead human bodies, so clean streets mean safer streets. And the public looks at dirty streets as a sign that the local governments cannot perform their function. So this really is a big problem.

To quote John above:

"There is an ideal out there that has physically and ruthlessly attacked a large number of lovely places: America, Canada, all of Europe, Russia, India, Australia, northern and eastern Africa, the Middle East, India Indonesia, China, and the Phillipines. I believe that takes us all the way round the globe."

This quote from John says it all.....far more convincing arguement for war than the WMD/Bush lied example that liberals always use for anti-war. FYI, it's getting to be a very OLD and wornout philosophy that many people (even some dems) think that WMD's were on Iraqi soil but were moved out or buried in the desert.

But even if you put aside the reason for being in Iraq, you have to come face to face with the ideals and fanatasism of the few who are recruiting young men and women (even in the US!) to join their jihad against all who do not suscribe to radical muslim theology.

Think about it.........! How about Hitler!???
He marched right across Europe taking it country by country. All along these countries either embraced him passively or they thought -- "Oh, it's no big deal - it won't happen to us" The US saved all of Europe otherwise Hitler would have won.

Spreading Jihadist attitudes, radical muslim recruiters are more dangerous to the world today than Hitler was because they are more easily hidden amongst us ....and rightly so until they unleash their wrath upon us.

That in itself is enough to engage whomeven it takes NOW, while it's not on OUR soil. Wake up people...Now is the time, not later.

As an AMERICAN {not a democrat or republican ]and a ex militay i am proud of our country and men& women fighting in the middle east. its the right place to do a little cleaning house. if more countries would step up & help us put pressure on these terrorist & their leaders harboring them we could make the world safer.. let the UN outlaw terroist & suicide bombers and make the bombers family pay restitution for death or damages done by them.. maybe they would teach their children better things at home.. arabs have got to learn to live with the idea of ISRAEL is a force that they cant beat. It could take over the region if needed,but [GET OVER IT AND MOVE ON ]!!!! Alot of people in the USA should go read a few books at the library and learn about the real world [something the schools lack doing nowdays]. a mind is a terrible thing to waste and so many people in the world are doing it..support our troops & bush HISTORY WILL TELL IT ALL.
. GOD BLESS AMERICA.

To arlie o: I don't think that Americans are assign by a heavenly superpower to police the world and change it according to whatever fits their interests in this or that country, and i don't think that you are in a position to say "Arabs have...."

Yes, America is a great country and a powerful player in every corner of this globe, yet, you only gain the power from the respect of other nations.

I respect the men and women you mentioned only when they come in peace, not when they come with M16s and Abrahams.

I’m not against or with any side, but it really annoys me when I hear people in Washington say that the world hates America because America is democratic and successful. Before saying they hate us, think of why they hate you.

It’s funny that you started you comment by saying you are neither a democrat nor a republican and ended it by supporting Bush, it’s even funnier that even republicans don’t support Bush.

I do apologize for commenting, Terry. The pervious comment just pushed my buttons.