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Post by HStorm on Apr 9, 2006 17:50:31 GMT
Three years to the day since Saddam's statue was hauled down, and the Egyptian President has reiterated the claim that Iraq is in a civil war, to which their has been a fresh spate of hurried denials from the Iraqi administration.
Still, whatever we think of that, I was wondering, can people remember what they were doing when they saw the pictures of the statue being torn off its pedestal?
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Post by modeski on Apr 10, 2006 6:33:20 GMT
I was indulging in a *cough* herbal remedy, and thinking such a marvellous TV moment couldn't possibly have been manufactured.
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Post by Naselus on Apr 10, 2006 11:36:43 GMT
I recall basking in the back garden, fulfilled with the knowledge of a job well done, and glad that I could now say the people of Iraq were better off now we'd blown up their houses, destroyed their infrastructure, stolen their oil and...
Oh, wait, no, that's what Dick Cheney was doing. I don't think I was paying attention.
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Post by HStorm on Apr 10, 2006 12:00:50 GMT
Either that or you were indulging in a herbal remedy as well...
I remember it was a stinking hot day in Broughton, where I was living at the time, and I just saw the opening moments on TV before nipping out, and then seeing it in every Electronics shop window in the Arndale Centre.
I was very pleased, but I still wasn't remotely fooled.
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Post by HStorm on Jun 8, 2006 9:53:33 GMT
Nouri Maliki has announced that Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of the Sunni insurgents calling themselves 'al-Qaeda-In-Iraq', has been killed in an air raid just outside Baquba.
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Post by modeski on Jun 9, 2006 0:00:14 GMT
Brilliant news. He was majorly involved in hundreds of suicide bombings, be-headings and other atrocities. Ideally, I'd like to have seen him tried in the Hague, but I guess this is good enough.
What no one seems to be addressing is the fact that Osama Bin Laden is still alive and well, in places unknown.
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Post by HStorm on Jun 9, 2006 9:52:30 GMT
Well, in some ways I actually find myself agreeing with Bush's policy on this; I can't tell you how painful it is to find myself saying that. Although Bush is happy for the public demonisation of bin Laden to continue, he doesn't treat his elimination as all that important. And he's probably right. So far as we can see, bin Laden is pretty well a secondary issue nowadays. While he should be captured and brought to justice, the threat from him is largely gone since the destruction of the Tora Bora training camp. And that threat was overstated in the first place.
Yes, they should try to catch him, but that shouldn't be seen as a priority when the insurgent groups in Iraq present a real, ongoing threat.
As for the death of Zarqawi being brilliant news, I'm not sure it's quite as undilutedly wonderful as all that. On the one hand, it is the end of a key strategist and mentor for the salafist cause, and that is bound to hamper the insurgents, at least in the short term.
On the other hand, it's only the demise of one man, not the demise of his ideas. As is often the case, the death of the leader simply means someone else will be pulling the strings next week. There's also the ever-present trouble of martyrdom; as one of Zarqawi's relatives implied yesterday, every time a high-profile extremist is killed while gloriously fighting for the cause, it inspires a thousand others to rise up and fight in his place.
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Post by HStorm on Sept 22, 2006 20:03:53 GMT
It's 'Either-choke-in-embarrassment-or-laugh-till-you're-sick' time. US army chiefs have reinvented an old strategy for defending Baghdad against insurgents.
A very old strategy.
They have attempted to defend the city by... I had to double-check this to make sure it wasn't a joke... they have attempted to defend the city by... well there's no other way of saying it really. They have attempted to defend the city by building a 5 metre-deep trench around it, so successfully defending Baghdad from the evil bayonet-wielding, Fritz-sucking forces of the ignoble Hun.
I'll allow you all to make up your own punchlines.
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Post by modeski on Sept 25, 2006 3:53:57 GMT
Gentlemen, prepare the trebuchets. Reginald Front-le-Bouef will not stand for this!
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Post by HStorm on Sept 25, 2006 9:46:12 GMT
Georgius Bucius thinx, "This will hold back the lightning chariot attacks of Queen Boudicca, and no mistake!"
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