crozby

don't subs these days give any warnings that they are a bit close to external objects? or do they all have to be switched off when running silent?

That's the problem - someone needs to open a DZ on the beach! My (shitty little) map makes it look like it'd be an hours drive from Maroubra to Picton (getting on 1 then 31 or 1,3,5,31). Do you think it'd take much longer?

So how would you explain the inconsistency between your account of Iraqi feelings towards the coalition and that suggested by the polls conducted by the various (US owned) polsters?

If the USA had been playing by the "rules" it would not be in Iraq now. period.

i fucking hate all these reality shows. why can't the lazy unimaginative bastard tv companies make real telly programs like in the good old days.

Remember in the film War Games where the WOPR computer eventually works out that the only way to not lose is to not play? http://161.58.5.90/wargames/not2play.wav

Yeah you're right. I looked at house prices when i was plannng on moving 3 years ago and they were loads cheaper than now. There seems to have been a real hike in prices lately. This is what puts me off geting a train to work there though: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4032395.stm

I have. You seem to be implying that the CIA backed these wars to protect the Afghans and Iraqis. Read your history books - that wasn't the reason. The current US administration is 100% to blame for the mess in Iraq. They are also to blame for the fact that much of Afghanistan is still a warlord-ridden, heroin producing anarchy. The only thing I blame the US population for is being too easily led into wars in countries they can't even spell, let alone point to on an atlas.

I don't doubt that Dexter has had some iraqis tell him they are happy he is there. That is very different from suggesting that the majority want the US there. And frankly, a soldier on the ground gets a very blinkered view of the situation. It's a bit like suggesting that an insurance clerk has a better understanding of the running of the insurance company than market analysts specialising in insurance. The clerk is a small cog in a big machine. Additionally soldiers are of course fed propaganda by their superiors, so their picture of what is going on is bound to be more upbeat. The question was not if the coalition are doing a good job but whether the Iraqis want the coalition there. You can turn that statement on it's head too. I guess the difference between my post and yours is that mine contains some evidence backing up my claim, whereas yours clearly does not.

No. The CIA trained them and the USA funded them for the purpose of fucking over the Soviet Union and Iran. Neither of them would be where they are today without the backing of the USA. The CIA trained and funded these guys. Then these guys turned against the USA. Its not the first time either is it? It's pretty difficult to not blame someone in the USA for making the same mistake over and over and over again.

Take a look at this report: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5217874/site/newsweek/ of this poll http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5217741/site/newsweek/ Or this http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-04-28-poll-cover_x.htm Gallup have a whole load of polls saying the same kind of stuff, but you need to subscribe to get them in detail. Spend 10 minutes googling and you'll find a whole load more. Why do you ask anyway? Do you think they actually do want the coallition there? If so, what on earth gives you that idea?

If only that were true... And he's not the only one. SH was also upported by the CIA.

Thanks. If you can't see the hypocrisy of his words and actions look harder. I clearly think the US should leave. BTW, isn't the rate that people are dying in Iraq today higher than it was when SH was in power? Why? Because doing it in secret would make it more morally right?

I'd like to hear what Bush thinks God would have to say about this idea.

Err .. in the news? Repeatedly. By many different news sources. The truth is that here and there Iraqis welcomed US forces in the streets, but it wasn't as Rumsfeld had expected (which was grateful Iraqis lining the streets, throwing flowers at the heroic US liberators). To be fair, because neither SH nor his sons, nor many of the top party people were captured many Iraqis who might have welcomed the US intervention were too cautious to do so. Maybe if the first US actions had been to find those people and to secure the country, instead of focussing on oil production things might have panned out differently. Anyway, that was then. Now, after months of ineffective security, hopeless communication with the Iraqis, piss-poor reconstruction, continuing high unemployment, relentless heavy-handedness, and countless deaths at the hands of US troops and insurgents, the vast majority of Iraqis absolutely do not want the coalition there. And who can blame them? The US bombed their civic infrastructure to shit. The US accidentally on purpose killed thousands of the Iraqis they were there to liberate. The US disbanded their armed forces, police and other security forces, leaving in its place near anarchy. The US allowed the total looting and destruction of their civic offices and other structures absolutely critical to the running of the country. And if all that wasn't dumb enough the US then sent in American companies to try to put it all back together again (oh and coincidentally make mega-bucks in the process) If you were an Iraqi, after all the shit that has gone on, would you want the US in your country?

i've got a wife and baby so was planning on living not too central - want to rent something detatched in a nice suburb no more than 30-45 mins commute from work (i'm guessing my job will be central sydney). looking at rental prices it seems i'd have to live a little way out to be able to afford something nice. have you lived in sydney? can you recommend any suburbs?

To be totally accurate, the US denies every mistake until journalists provide overwhelming evidence that there was a fuckup. Only then might there be an admission and subsequent compensation.

What does that have to do with Iraq?

Yeah you're right, the campagn has been, is currently, and will continue to be a roaring success. And the daily killings of US troops and Iraqi civilians is simply negative reporting by all the journalists working together in a big conspiracy to discredit the USA. Even the Reuters reporters are in on the scam. Makes you wonder why the puppet Iraqi government is even bothering with things like curfews if the anti-coalition sentiment is so minor, everyone is so happy and things are so rosy.

What a crock. Any company that gets rid of an employee when there is no evidence of wrong doing can hardly be described as treating them well, let alone a thousand times better than other employers. If an employee does something wrong, or associates with someone that does something wrong then fair enough, but to get rid of them when there is no evidence of wrong-doing is selfish cowardly shit. Dont like someone? Send a load of lies to their company and bank on their employer consisting of the kind of spineless turds that will get rid of them rather than defend what is right. A truely decent employer should have satisfied themselves that PK was cool and stuck by the guy.

excellent post

So true. My favorite goes something like: "If thou hast time to panic, thou hast time to do something more productive".

This silly, but apparently true story was in Private Eye this week (a uk based satirical magazine). I was wondering if you would say the woman in this story was totally responsible for her actions... Freaky if its true!

I'm moving to Sydney later this year and want to make sure I end up living within 45 minutes drive of a good DZ. Can anyone recommend a good DZ and a nice area to live close by?

Wow. What a fuck-up. If this had happened in the UK the Social Services departments would have been shat on from a great height for not identifying and dealing with the potential danger she and her children were in from her illness.