Posted on 12/06/2003 6:37:33 AM PST by Holly_P
Edited on 05/07/2004 5:22:00 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Last week, his biggest concern was fixing his pool pump. This week he stood atop a roof in Baghdad, talking to The Republic by cellphone.
East Valley restaurateur Mike Lopercio is part of a human rights group delegation to Iraq, grabbing a firsthand look at life after the war. He has serious concerns about the lack of progress with reconstruction and is stunned with the differences between the Iraq seen on the television news and the Iraq he sees by walking the streets.
(Excerpt) Read more at azcentral.com ...
Maybe if the jihadist nutcases would stop blowing things up, it would proceed faster.
Common Dream Progressive Newswire
Just look at the contact info in the news release and who he went with:
* MICHAEL McPHEARSON, http://www.occupationwatch.org
McPhearson, who has a son in the military, said: "Both George Bush and Hillary Clinton have a hidden agenda. They are both using their trips to Iraq to better position their political parties in the upcoming elections. The only agenda of our delegation is to uncover the truth."
Mickey, you are judged by the company you keep.
Today, with the phantom weapons of mass destruction undiscovered and Iraq sinking into anarchy, it is clear that the peace movement was all-too right.
The Iraqi military clearly did not have the means to deploy chemical or biological weapons, or even the ability to defend its own capital, much less the strength to attack the U.S. or its neighbors. American military planners were scandalously unprepared to deal with governing Iraq. U.S. relations with the rest of the world remain unsteady. This was an unjust and unnecessary war, one that needlessly took the lives of thousands of innocent people.
Global Exchange is now working to end the U.S. occupation of Iraq while helping the Iraqi people achieve their aspirations of creating a democratic country. We are urging the U.S. to hand over the administration of Iraq. And we have set up an Occupation Watch Center in Baghdad to monitor the behaviors of the U.S. military and U.S. corporations in Iraq.
The peace movement remains on the move.
All of them remind me of the little terriers and similar small dogs people have in their homes when visitors come over. They bark and growl and raise a commotion as long as it is clear that they aren't in danger. You swing your arm at them and they run away. These protestors are the same way. Its safe to "bark" about what the U.S. does or doesn't do, but no complaints against real human rights violators (it isn't safe for them).
That's still better than what was going on during Saddam's rule when everyone was worrying about being thrown in jail for no reason without trial and tortured or killed. Iraqis might not be rich but at least now they have the most important thing of all, freedom. Economic recovery is something that takes a decade. It hasn't even been a year yet and everyone's already complaining.
Mike's wife, Cindy, meanwhile, is in the Valley worrying about both her husband and her son, Tony, who is a petroleum specialist with the Army on his second rotation into Iraq
Apparently Tony is a lot more convinced of the good he is doing than is his father.
And here is what Tony told his father when he found out he was coming to Iraq:
Postwar Iraq is the two hospitals he visited that didn't have any drugs, or the schools that don't have lights or heat. Some neighborhoods have trash and sewage in the street. Cars line up for blocks waiting for gas. All the while, Iraqi frustration is high.He said many residents feel they were promised a better way of life once Saddam Hussein's regime fell, but that hasn't materialized.
"They're just totally frustrated. They really feel like they were conned. That's what we're hearing over and over," he said. "People are PO'd. They're so grateful that we got rid of Saddam . . . but we've bungled it so badly since the war itself.
"I don't want to be painted as an anti-war activist," he said. "I'm just a guy who wanted to learn more about what's happening. . . . If I can add some perspective and illumination for people who have sons and daughters and husbands and wives over here, then that would be a great thing.
"There's more to the story than shootings and explosions," he said. "It's the evolution and the redevelopment."
Agree or disagree with the politics of the author and the man acting in the capacity of small-time investigative reporter, there are these things to fix, and we can do that:
Two hospitals need drugs (and presumably some repairs).Some schools that are in need of repair.
Trash that must be collected.
Sewage that must be helped along its way to sewage treatment plants.
Gasoline for transportation.
If I were in the middle of all that, I'd be real frustrated too, and I would not wait around for some bureaucrat to come to me with a plan.
No.
I'd go find "the suit" and give him or her "What for!" Read 'em the Riot Act. Collar some news hound and drag them to these sites and demand that something be done about getting my neighbors and me the means that we require to get things working again.
It just so happens, that for such purposes, the ground commanders have learned on their own, that they need help with this and these problems --- but they are not yet getting enough of it from the Bush Administration.
The White House is constantly reminding us that the ground commanders are not asking for more troops (except a few).
Well, what the ground commanders are asking for, is the help they need with the above problems.
They are not getting it, or they are not getting enough of it, or "it" is somewhere lost in the mass of mal-Administration --- all of which, is President Bush's responsibility.
I would bet that he thinks that the job is getting done, which points to the problem that he has, wherein the flow of information is being controlled, yet that is by his own choosing, of his management style.
My belief is that letters and other mail to him, will convince him to step into his chain of command, all along it, to light a fire under the butts that are lagging in self-interest.
Such is my complaint, and my Christmas wish with which to help our troops and us achieve victory.
What a pretentious pantload! The only Washington official this guy is going to "debrief" is probably the customs agent when he lands.
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