Sean and I dragged our sorry, exhausted, and malnourished selves to the car at 6:30 in the morning just a few hours northwest of the Turkish-Iraqi border. For the first time we had a look at our surroundings in daylight.
Turkish Kurdistan is a disaster. It is not where you want to spend your next holiday.
One village after another has been blown completely to rubble.
Gee, I didn’t know Turkish Kurdistan looked so much like Sudbury but without soldiers, in Canada, and yeah, I’m making this up.
That Michael has some big cajoles. Remind me not to bum a ride from him though. This story is what journalists should be writing about, not reporting live from the lobby of the Bagdad Hilton where “we heard some gunfire and saw some smoke in the distance”. Does anyone in North America really know how a lot of the world lives?
This guy can really tell a story. It is a good read.
This weirdness reminds me of
“I’ll have the Turkey ”
“I’ll have the Turkey”
“I’ll have the Turkey”
From: Son Of The Circus, John Irving .
Sort of
What were they thinking to strike off like that?
But it presents the harsh realities of that other world, in a way few others have provided.
Very interesting read!
If Otten-meister and his Brokeback friend wish to impress us, perhaps they will go to Kuwait City, and then drive North. If they can make it without being featured in one of the video-films from Iraq, we should then be mightily impressed.
Aside: The US army has lost more soldiers in the first 12 days of April than they did in the entire month of March. But, freedom is on the march. Success is around the corner … blah, blah, bulls*it.
OT: Breaking news: Vancouver,Graham Mclynn 22 kiddnapped last Tueday has just been found alive. CTV.net. This doesn’t happen very often, a happy ending.
sorry name is McMynn typo!
James Frey would be proud of that writing.
anon – for the record, are you in favour of a free in democratic Iraq? Or would you prefer an American defeat, no matter the price paid on all sides?
When you answer, provide your real identity, please.
In the lastest news from Iran we have the following statements, which should give all western civilization peoples cause to sleep not particulary well. Those suggesting EMP(electro magnetic pulse) weapons are not an issue, better get a “heads up”.
Enjoy:
http://www.wnd.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49698
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
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NUCLEAR WAR-FEAR
Iran 1 step from atomic bomb
With 3 developments this year, Tehran’s pace startling analysts
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Posted: April 12, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
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� 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
Satellite image of Iranian nuclear facility at Bushehr
Confounding the predictions of many Western analysts, Iran’s announcement yesterday that it successfully enriched uranium was the third major development this year on the way to producing an atomic bomb, leaving only one more step.
That next development � metalizing the enriched uranium to fit it into a warhead � could come as soon as four months from now, says author Jerry Corsi, who has watched the predictions in his book “Atomic Iran” unfold since it was published one year ago.
“They have only one more problem to solve,” Corsi said. “The world has got to stop thinking about these Iranians as backward, just because Ahmadinejad has a radical religious agenda. They have all the technical knowledge and all the money they need to solve these problems.”
In February, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte told Congress that Iran was as much as a decade away from producing a nuclear weapon.
But Corsi, noting it took just four months to produce enriched uranium, argues Tehran is only trying to solve technical problems to make an atomic bomb, not come up with breakthroughs. With the help of China, Russia and their own scientists, who have received world-class training, they could easily have a bomb by the end of the year, he said.
Yesterday, in a nationally televised speech, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that with the production of enriched uranium, “I formally declare that Iran has joined the club of nuclear countries.”
The audience, which included top military commanders and clerics, broke into cheers of “Allahu akbar!” or “God is great!”
In January, Iran successfully tested a missile with solid fuel, and last week, a U.S. official reported Iran now has ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
Tehran has rejected a demand by the U.N. Security Council to stop all uranium enrichment activity by April 28. Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the U.N.’s watchdog agency, plans to travel to Iran this week for talks.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Tehran’s latest boasts “continue to show that Iran is moving in the wrong direction.”
WorldNetDaily first reported one year ago that Shahab-3 ballistic missiles, capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, were being designed to destroy America’s technical infrastructure. Scientists, including President Reagan’s top science adviser, William R. Graham, said there is no other explanation for such tests than preparation for the deployment of electromagnetic pulse weapons � even one of which could knock out America’s critical electrical and technological infrastructure, effectively sending the continental U.S. back to the 19th century with a recovery time of months or years.
In December, WND reported that while the U.S. always has refused to take the military option off the table in dealing with Iran, new developments indicated Washington had gone from acknowledging the possibility of action to preparing its allies for a strike.
In November, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threatened to “wipe Israel off the map.” One month later, Israeli officials said then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had instructed the Israeli Defense Forces to prepare for a possible military strike against Iran.
As WorldNetDaily reported in January, Ahmadinejad told a crowd of theological students in Iran’s holy city of Qom that Islam must prepare to rule the world.
“We must believe in the fact that Islam is not confined to geographical borders, ethnic groups and nations. It’s a universal ideology that leads the world to justice,” Ahmadinejad said Jan. 5, according to Mehran Riazaty, a former Iran analyst for the Central Command of the Coalition Forces in Baghdad.
Ahmadinejad, who drew global attention for his contention the Holocaust was a “myth,” said: “We don’t shy away from declaring that Islam is ready to rule the world.”
Riazaty, in a post on the website Regime Change Iran, said the Iranian president emphasized his current theme that the return of the Shiite messiah, the Mahdi, is not far away, and Muslims must prepare for it.
According to Shiites, the 12th imam disappeared as a child in the year 941. When he returns, they believe, he will reign on earth for seven years, before bringing about a final judgment and the end of the world.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (courtesy Radio Netherlands)
Ahmadinejad is urging Iranians to prepare for the coming of the Mahdi by turning the country into a mighty and advanced Islamic society and by avoiding the corruption and excesses of the West.
“We must prepare ourselves to rule the world and the only way to do that is to put forth views on the basis of the Expectation of the Return,” Ahmadinejad said. “If we work on the basis of the Expectation of the Return [of the Mahdi], all the affairs of our nation will be streamlined and the administration of the country will become easier.”
Kate – I choose to remain anonymous because there are probably Bandidos members who visit your website confused by the “small dead animals” moniker.
The US has already lost Iraq. Read real newspapers. Read op-eds from longtime conservatives like George Will and William Kristol. You might learn something.
By definition, a country can never be “free and democratic” when there is an occupying army. Therefore, a free Iraq would necessarily imply a US defeat – or at least – a withdrawl of US forces.
I am quite certain the latter would not be helpful to peace and security, and I am reasonably confident that none of Iraq’s neighbours would really want the former (including possibly Israel).
I didn’t ask that. Try again.
“a country can never be “free and democratic” when there is an occupying army.”
Hmm I’m thinking Japan, Germany.
How’d that go?