Moonbat BBC

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6476907.stm

Its worth reading the whole of this article. Not because it says anything novel- it doesn't. In fact, it is a perfect distillation of the mainstream media's moonbat dirge relating to Iraq.

Middle East fears broken Iraq

By Jeremy Bowen BBC Middle East Editor [The BBC seems very top-heavy these days...]

There was a time in 2003, between the removal of Saddam Hussein and the start of the insurgency, when you could stroll through Baghdad down to one of the teahouses on the banks of the Tigris without worrying too much about getting kidnapped or blown up. [This is very important psychologically for moonbats- this is the moment that the world stopped for them. Virtually every article by a moonbat, virtually every public speech by a moonbat stops at this point. Why? I don't know, but somebody needs to get a megaphone and stick it in their faces and remind them that that was four years ago, and a lot of stuff has happened since then]

For those few months, supporters of the Iraq war [this is a constant in Moonbat analysis. The word supporters is used over and over again, as if wars were football games. There can be no sober, reflective, taking-the-least-worst option view of the war, just jingoistic cheerleaders standing on the sidelines whooping] generally felt pretty good about the way things had gone. No weapons of mass destruction had been found, but it was just a matter of time [I was in favour of the war from the beginning, and like millions of like-minded individuals never gave a flying **** whether weapons of mass destruction were found. This piece of minutiae was never important to any except the MSM and their communist chums. After 1992, Saddam Hussein was living on borrowed time. In 2003, the sword of Damocles descended- thats why we went to war. Its only people who were paying NO attention during those eleven years who thought the main reason Mr Hussein was taken out had to do with a WMD program. The WMD was the immediate and subsidiary reason for the invasion- the main reason was that Mr Hussein was a dangerous, evil man in charge of a large country who was corrupting the international system with every tool at his disposal, and he needed taking out]. Yes, there had been looting and banditry, but it would pass. It seemed, to the instigators and supporters of the war, that the dream of the American neo-conservatives was coming true. Iraq was being remade a beacon of democratic values [It is. See copious recent news reports for details, although don't bother with the BBC website]. It would become such a successful friend of the West that all its neighbours would want to copy it. [Get back to me in 10 years about that one]

Watershed year
Of course, it has been clear for some time that the neo-con dreams were delusions [just like it's clear that human-generated CO2 is causing global warming... the only people this is clear to are people who hate Republican conservatives, Conservative conservatives and indeed, all conservatives wherever they might be] But they should not be forgotten, because they are, after all, a big part of the reason why we all ended up in this mess [this is the central argument of the Moonbats. For them, nothing subsequent to the WMD speeches by Bush and Blair are in any way important. Everything that occurs in the Middle East, all the Islamist agitation in Britain and Europe, every damn thing that happens round the world, can and must by linked back to those WMD speeches]. I say "we" because it is going to be very hard for anyone to avoid the consequences of having a broken country and a bloody series of wars at the centre of the world's most strategically important region [What breathtaking arrogance and hubris. How many of the Bowen family have been dismembered by Shia death squads? How many of Jeremys children have been blinded by Chlorine by Al-Qaeda 'resistance' fighters? For most people in the world, apart from the fun of participating in grievance theatre on behalf of the far-away Iraqi people, the insurgency in Iraq has no impact on their lives whatsoever. And to pretend otherwise is disgusting and an insult to the real living breathing Iraqi's getting up today and going to work not knowing if they will die]

The year 2003 was a watershed in the modern history of the Middle East [more than, say, the end of the Ottoman empire? more than, say, the foundation of Israel? more than, say, the Suez crisis? more than, say, Egypt and Jordan making peace with Israel? more than, say, the Shah being kicked out of Iran by the Islamist/fascist clerics? What unutterrable crap]. The results of the invasion are going to be rumbling around the region for a long time - a generation or more [evidence? Why should we believe this stupid prophecy when so much else in this article is unsupported by evidence? I read many such prophecies during the FIRST invasion of Iraq in 1991, supposedly because of the presence of US troops in Saudi, which 'enraged' the Arab street. The Arab street is permanently enraged about one thing or another- who gives a shit?].
Some are already clear. The war has already produced the biggest movement of people in the Middle East since the Palestinian refugee crisis after the establishment of Israel in 1948.
More than a million refugees from Iraq are in Syria, around a million more in Jordan and almost two million have been displaced inside Iraq [can you say 'Darfur'? Oops No you Can't. And if you don't think Sudan is in the Middle East, go to the Government website and read the names of the people who run the country].

The war between Shia and Sunni Muslims in Iraq terrifies people [I think thats why its called 'War' and not 'communal hugging'].
In Saudi Arabia last month a Shia engineer told me how worried his community had been during Ashura, the annual commemoration of the death of their martyr Hussein, the grandson of the prophet Mohammed. "It's simple," he said. "Some of the Sunnis, the extremists, regard us as infidels. We're terribly worried that what's happening in Iraq could happen here." [The Sunni and the Shia have been fighting each other for about 1300 years. I'm guessing they're not done yet, whether Bushitler and Bliar remain involved or not]

When you travel around the Middle East and ask people about how the war in Iraq has affected them you get a combination of regret, anger and trepidation. Last week I visited a senior Saudi security official, a general. I asked him whether the invasion by America, Britain and their friends four years ago had made Iraq into a recruiting sergeant for Islamist extremists [Thank God you went to someone objective, with no possible personal stake in the answer to that question!]. He said it had, and explained. "It inspires these people," he said. [Really? Well Gosh-Darn! Finally some genuinely new information for us. I think the words 'No shit sherlock' cover this revelation satisfactorily] "Some of them think it is their duty to go and perform jihad in Iraq. They think they are supporting the Muslims in Iraq and actually protecting the Islamic civilisation and culture in Iraq." He denied, by the way, that Saudi Arabia's tolerance of some religious extremists was also making matters worse [File this away under "Well I for one believe him"].

'Sound of freedom'
Saddam Hussein was a never a good neighbour, but after his armies were expelled from Kuwait in 1991 he was contained [At last! Some historical backgrounding. Ok, he was contained. Who was doing that, by the way? Was it France and Russia and China? Didn't think so... Was there, perchance, a No-Fly-Zone and a denial by whoever-it-was-doing-the-containing of the whole of Kurdistan to Saddams military? Really? So you could say, if you were of a slightly mischievous disposition, that the invasion of Iraq started in 1991 and was finished mid-2003? Also, perchance, was this all done at the behest of the original coalition and the UN? Really? How interesting... because it changes the complexion of what went on significantly away from the Janet-and-John playground version of Iraqi history touted by the MSM]. The conservative, mainly elderly Sunni royalty who run the Arab Gulf like predictability.[Eh? Whats that got to do with anything?] What is happening in Iraq now is not at all predictable, and that makes them nervous [Ah, I see. Arabs are simpletons who just like simple, predictable lives. Thats not at all racist!] . At the biggest arms fair in the Middle East, which was held in Abu Dhabi last month, the best-selling items were weapons and equipment for border security and counter-insurgency [bought by a bunch of old Sunni princes to protect their simple, simple lives].

And what about the Americans?
Some of them still seem to be believers in the dead dreams of four years ago [what a bunch of frickin' morons. How they ever built the largest economy on the face of the planet, the best universities in the world, the best standard of living the world has ever seen for 300 million people is quite, quite inexplicable]. On the flight deck of the enormous US aircraft carrier the USS Eisenhower in the Gulf this week, warplanes were being shot out of the steam catapults on the flight deck with engines that roared and screamed so loudly you felt it in your sinuses, teeth and jawbone. "Listen to it," one of the officers told me when the warplanes were launched and streaking up the Gulf to Iraq. "It is the sound of freedom." [Fascist!]

So to sum up: Jeremy Bowens take on the situation in Iraq is ahistorical, confused, ignorant, bizarre and impossible to defend in most respects. But fortunately he doesn't hold a position of influence or stature with the public...