National Review writer: ‘Iraqis remain ingrates.’
National Review writer: ‘Iraqis remain ingrates.’
Dave Noon pulls out a passage from a new piece by the National Review’s Andy McCarthy on why Iraqis should be more grateful to the United States:
Thousands of American lives and hundreds of billions in taxpayer funds have been expended to provide Iraqis the opportunity to live freely. And this despite the facts that (a) the U.S. interest in Iraqi democracy remains tenuous (our interest was the elimination of Saddam’s terror-mongering, weapons-proliferating regime), and (b) Americans were assured, when the nation-building enterprise commenced, that oil-rich Iraq would underwrite our sacrifices on its behalf. Yet, to be blunt, the Iraqis remain ingrates. That stubborn fact complicates everything.
Matt Yglesias responds: “Because, of course, historically people have welcomed being invaded and occupied by a foreign power whose actions lead to years of chaos, a huge civilian death toll, and millions of displaced people.”
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Heh…those damned ungrateful wretches!! We LIBERATED ‘em!! They had ELECTIONS!!
Sheesh.
November 19th, 2008 at 10:31 amWho wouldn’t welcome the opportunity to be forced out of their country to work as prostitutes?
THE IRAQIS.
November 19th, 2008 at 10:34 amYeah, Annie, you’d think that they’d be so grateful for all that ’shock & awe’ bombing, no/very little electricity, torture, inadequate clean water, ethnic cleansing, and >1 million dead, wounded, missing, and some 2 million refugees.
Some people will NEVER be grateful for all you’ve done for them, no matter what.
MAJOR SNARK!
November 19th, 2008 at 10:36 amSlip in that 2004 rhetoric as a last gasp, neo con.
*GASP* *GASP* *GASP*
November 19th, 2008 at 10:37 amSadly, No! whacked this idiot yesterday.
November 19th, 2008 at 10:37 amSorta makes me wish China would come and liberate Dave Noon’s state from its evil Govenor and see how grateful he is for it.
November 19th, 2008 at 10:37 amI bet Dave Noon wildly celebrates Columbus Day, when a gold-hungry “explorer” looking for gold “discovered” an already occupied continent, and then raped and pillaged it.
November 19th, 2008 at 10:41 amunbelievable Says:
I bet Dave Noon wildly celebrates Columbus Day, when a gold-hungry “explorer” looking for gold “discovered” an already occupied continent, and then raped and pillaged it.
It wasn’t Dave Noon that wrote the article, it was Andrew McCarthy.
November 19th, 2008 at 10:45 amAmericans were assured, when the nation-building enterprise commenced, that oil-rich Iraq would underwrite our sacrifices on its behalf.
Time to fix the internets…
Americans were assured by Paul Wolfowitz, when the nation-building enterprise commenced, that oil-rich Iraq would underwrite our sacrifices on its behalf. In reality, the Iraqis never agreed to this. And only dipshits would expect them to.
November 19th, 2008 at 10:48 ama bit of editting brings it a little closer to truth:
Thousands of American military and Iraqi citizen’s lives and hundreds of billions in American taxpayer funds borrowed from China and weapons myteriously disappearing have provided Iraqis the opportunity to live under endless occupation without safety, water, electricity and the continued threat from an insurgency that sees them as colateral damage in their struggle against US Forces. And this despite the facts that (a) the U.S. interest in Iraqi democracy was never serious(our interest was the removal of a leader who had the audacity to disrespect Bush Sr., big money for Dick Cheney’s friends and the prospect of big money for George W’s oil buddies), and (b) Americans were assured, when the nation-building enterprise commenced, that oil-rich Iraq would underwrite our sacrifices on its behalf. Yet, to be blunt, the Iraqis remain ingrates. That stubborn fact complicates everything. If only they would sign off on oil contracts to satisfy Bush’s friends so they won’t be so jealous of Dick’s deep pocketed cronies maybe we could finally leave them to run their own country. The Republican Party has proved over the last eight years that they cannot run their OWN country with any competence so how were they expected to run Iraq?
November 19th, 2008 at 10:51 amIraqis: We got invaded by a country we didn’t attack, get bombed into the Stone Age, and millions of our people are dead — and all I got was this stupid t-shirt!!
November 19th, 2008 at 10:53 amimpeachcheneythenbush Says: It wasn’t Dave Noon that wrote the article, it was Andrew McCarthy
Ooops… Sorry Dave.
November 19th, 2008 at 10:53 am
Yes sir, we liberated approximately one million Iraqi’s of their life and a couple million more of their homes. And they are not grateful to us? Who knew?
Every time a Republican opens it’s mouth these days something ridiculous comes out.
November 19th, 2008 at 10:55 amHow many people are grateful for the opportunity to:
1) Experience violence resulting in physical harm and the loss of life of 1.2 million people
2) Not have reliable electricity and safe drinking water
3) Experience gross corruption and mismanagement in the rebuilding of their country
While the Iraqis did much of the above, America provided the training and served as role models in many cases.
November 19th, 2008 at 10:57 amYeah, Unka Ho – damn them!! DAMN them, I say!!! They didn’t deserve our Shock & Awe!!!
I …fart… in their general direction!!!!! Join me, everyone!!
Hoooooo, boy, I *love* the smell of snark in the morning!!
November 19th, 2008 at 11:00 amBilbo Hussein Baggins Says: Every time a Republican opens it’s mouth these days something ridiculous comes out.
These days? :)
I’ve been mostly appalled by the Republicans who have taught their second and third grade aged children to shout “assassinate Obama” from the windows of their school buses. How utterly demented must you be to teach an innocent child to hate someone he or she has never met just because of the amount of melanin in that person’s skin?
The amount of hate spewing from these “people” is appalling.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:03 am“Years of chaos, a huge civilian death toll, and millions of displaced people.”
Sounds like the Republican party platform?
November 19th, 2008 at 11:04 amEventually there have to be consequences for the illegal invasion, occupation, and killing of one million fellow human beings. Forget being “grateful”, justice is all we should care about. Democracy like sex has to be consenting, not forced.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:07 amwe now know that saddam’s regime was neither:
a) terror-mongering
nor
b) weapons-proliferating
November 19th, 2008 at 11:07 amAndrew McCarthy, you arrogant prick. Comments like yours are not only inane but borderline sociopathic. We killed hundreds of thousands of their civiians, destroyed their infrastructure and economy, stole their only national resource and opened their country to terrorism. What do you expect them to do, throw roses at us??? Have you no shame, no conscience?
November 19th, 2008 at 11:11 amOf course they should be grateful for the US bringing them freedom:
>>Ah, the freedom. Look, we have the gas-line freedom, the looting freedom, the killing freedom, the rape freedom, the hash-smoking freedom. I don’t know what to do with all this freedom.
—AKEEL, A TWENTY-SIX-YEAR-OLD BAGHDAD RESIDENT, ON LIFE IN THE NEW IRAQ<<
The abbove is from the excellent book by Christian Parenti “The Freedom”.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:11 amDon’t they even appreciate how much those bombs cost? They’re not cheap. Not to mention the navy and aircraft to deliver them… I can’t believe after all we’ve spent on blowing them up they don’t want us to hang around their neighborhood forever and ever and ever.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:13 amIngrates?? I could have sworn that Wolfie testified that we’d be “greeted as liberators.” I guess the Iraqis missed the Roger Ailes memo on this one. Heckuva job.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:14 am“despite the facts that(a) the U.S. interest in Iraqi democracy remains tenuous….”
That makes absolutely no sense!
1) Why should the Iraqis be grateful for a tenuous US interest in their democracy?
2) Once Iraq was occupied (in all of three weeks) Bush and his minions spent the next five years insisting in public that it was all about establishing Iraqi democracy, so US interest in Iraqi democracy was not tenuous but absolutely firm (or rather the pretense was).
“…( [In fact] our interest was the elimination of Saddam’s terror-mongering, weapons-proliferating regime),”
Saddam Hussein was no more of a “terror-monger” than any other national leader, nor was he involved in weapons proliferation ( whereas IN FACT the US is the world’s largest proliferator of conventional AND nuclear weapons).
“(b) Americans were assured, when the nation-building enterprise commenced, that oil-rich Iraq would underwrite our sacrifices on its behalf. ”
Americans like David Noon were promised by stupid Americans like Andrew Natsios and Paul Wolfowitz (not Iraqis) that the invasion, occupation and reconstruction would be paid-for by the Iraqis.
Smart Americans (like us) knew it was bullshit.
Call whaaaaambulance!
November 19th, 2008 at 11:22 am(a) the U.S. interest in Iraqi democracy remains tenuous (our interest was the elimination of Saddam’s terror-mongering, weapons-proliferating regime)
Translation: you know how we explained that the lack of terror connections or WMD’s was justified by the fact that we’re spreading freedom? Well, we’re reversing ourselves on that. We don’t actually give a rodent’s rectum about Iraqi freedom, we just really hated Saddam ‘cuz he had terror connections and WMD’s.
PS: Unless you point out the facts that those connections and WMD’s don’t exist, and then we love the Iraqi people and their freedom again!
(b) Americans were assured, when the nation-building enterprise commenced, that oil-rich Iraq would underwrite our sacrifices on its behalf.
Here’s the bill for all those bullets we shot at you. Yeah, we actually believed we could get away with that.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:26 amdarladooner; Some of us were fully aware of that BEFORE the first shot was fired in this illegal, immoral, and totally unjustified SUPREME WAR CRIME!
November 19th, 2008 at 11:28 amArn Gunnutes
Hey Arn, where have you been. How about the recent turn of events…….so far so good, eh?
November 19th, 2008 at 11:29 amAgreed, Americans did want to kick someone’s ass at the time…..how’s that working for ya America?
November 19th, 2008 at 11:30 amThey SHOULD be grateful to us: for destroying the historic city of Babylon by building a base right next to/on top of it, for destroying Ninevah, by building a base right next to it, for allowing the looting of their national museums. They should be grateful for the people we imprisoned and tortured at the various prisons in Iraq. They should be grateful for their new “gated communities” with all the concrete barriers separating people from each other (and creating and condoning the conditions that led to their need). They should be grateful that they have no healthcare, no clean water, no industry.
What is there NOT to be grateful for?
November 19th, 2008 at 11:47 amYeah, no kidding. You drop a few thousand pounds of explosives on people, abduct them in the dead of night, torture the innocent and where’s the gratitude?
November 19th, 2008 at 11:54 amMay I suggest that Canada invade us and see how grateful Kristol becomes ?
But its not just Iraq who should be grateful. The invasion funneled large amounts of resources into the destruction of Iraq which led to record deficits in the USA economy. At the same time, it destabilized the region and disrupted oil supply.
It would be proper for all nations on earth to thank us for the current economomc meltdown. They should thank us for being at the brink of war with Iran. They should thank us for heating up the nuclear nation of Pakistan. Not to mention all the drug junkies should thank us for returning Afghanistan to tribal rule – leading to an increase in the supply of poppies.
November 19th, 2008 at 12:02 pmAnd big surprise, the damned ingrates are now friends with Iran……who could have seen that coming?
November 19th, 2008 at 12:03 pmThis is disgusting. How can a parasite like this look at himself in the mirror and not want to put his fist through it. So the Iraqis are supposed to be grateful that their country has been in disarray for five and one-half years? They’re supposed to suck the neocon’s cocks because we removed Saddam from power that resulted in the emergence of a foreign terrorist group (al-Qaida in Mesopotamia)? They’re supposed to be happy that the occupation caused millions of people to flee Iraq for Syria and Jordan?
November 19th, 2008 at 12:07 pmYou know who else are ingrates? The Vietnamese! And the Panamanians, and the Lebanese, and the Palestinians, and the Afghans, and the Nicaraguans, and the gays, and the African-Americans! We try to help them, but do we get any thanks? No siree!
November 19th, 2008 at 12:12 pmI totally agree, if another country comes into America and destroys are infrastructure,kills innocent civilians,sends millions of refugees into the wilderness and shoves
November 19th, 2008 at 12:49 pmdemocracy down my throat via the barrel of a gun, I guess I would feel like I owed that country something……..NOT!
Why do people like this even get mentioned anymore?These guys on the Reich are as irrelevant as ever…..
Silly Fascists and their silly statements.
Perhaps we as Americans should demand an International Tribunal to finally Investigate 911. We need to expose who the real terrorists are.
19 Arabs with boxcutters defeating NSA, CIA, FBI, NORAD and the US Airforce? I think not.
PNAC is where I would start the investigation. Motive, Motive and Motive. I bet this clown is a PNAC fascist.
November 19th, 2008 at 1:41 pmLets see, some possible reasons…
November 19th, 2008 at 2:59 pm1. Supporting Saddam to power
2. Arming Saddam
3. Helping Saddam with his war against Iran
4. After Kuwait occupation left Saddam in power
5. Years of sanctions and bombings
6. Saddam now removed, country “liberated” (except that people don’t believe it. See military bases plus super large embassy)
7. Oil profits to go to multinationals..
Just how insane can these rightwing morons possibly be?
November 19th, 2008 at 5:06 pm