4
Another brilliant “NO ONE SAW IT COMING!!!” moment
“Two former high-ranking Shiite government officials charged with kidnapping and killing scores of Sunnis were ordered released Monday after prosecutors dropped the case. The abrupt move renewed concerns about the willingness of Iraq’s leaders to act against sectarianism and cast doubts on U.S. efforts to build an independent judiciary.
The collapse of the trial stunned American and Iraqi officials who had spent more than a year assembling the case, which they said included a wide array of evidence.
Uh, dudes? Why should you be stunned? The super-awesome purple-finger elections held in Iraq produced a government elected largely along sectarian lines. This government has since done a lot of things to isolate Iraq’s Sunni minority. Why were you expecting something different?
“This shows that the judicial system in Iraq is horribly broken,” said a U.S. legal adviser who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly. “And it sends a terrible signal: If you are Shia, then no worries; you can do whatever you want and nothing is going to happen to you.”
Does anyone know how to say “Scooter Libby” in Arabic?
[Via Hilzoy.]
Update: Oy:
“I appreciate the fact that you really snatched defeat out of the jaws of those who were trying to defeat us in Iraq.”– George W. Bush to Lt. General Ray Odierno today, as quoted by the Associated Press.
[Via.]
tofubo said,
March 4, 2008 at 16:34
??? ???
tofubo said,
March 4, 2008 at 16:35
well, naskh script, doesn’t translate into html very well, does it
g said,
March 4, 2008 at 16:39
Well, the Bushies tried to remake the iraqi justice system in the image of the US justice system THEY aspire to – political cronyism, biased prosecution, no regard for law on the part of the ruling party. So – viola! there you have it.
javafascist said,
March 4, 2008 at 16:46
Shorter g: Mission Accomplished!
actor212 said,
March 4, 2008 at 17:09
I guess I’m so used to Bushisms that one actually made sense to me…
mikey said,
March 4, 2008 at 17:20
Um, George? Quick question.
Exactly HOW does one go about defeating an occupation?
Thanks. I’ll take my answer off the air…
mikey
Legalize said,
March 4, 2008 at 17:22
Teh Surge is Working.
This is another reason the Dems need to wrap up their Primary – to remind the liberal MSM that the fucking war is STILL a fucking disaster no matter how much St. McBush asserts otherwise.
robert green said,
March 4, 2008 at 17:37
seriously. how many jaws was defeat sitting in, said jaws agape, waiting for some kind of a snatching? is odierno some kind of winged beast, perhaps an eagle? and was defeat one thing somehow separated into several jaws for the snatch, or does defeat exist a thousand places at once.
you can do this with pretty much any sentence that bush utters, and finds yourself standing in two places at once: one, in the place of confusion: “what the fuck does that mean” and two, sheer horror: “could he possibly mean that liberals and democrats and the MSM are the same as al-qaeda?”
both are true. he’s the higgs boson of presidential proclamators.
Some Guy said,
March 4, 2008 at 17:38
Reminds me of an old talking head section from The Onion, when Bush pulled out of the Kyoto Treaty. One of the “everyday people” asked, “As a full blooded Native American, I’d like to know why everyone is acting so damn surprised.”
Viola said,
March 4, 2008 at 17:40
Where? Where do I have what?
Nimrod Gently said,
March 4, 2008 at 17:46
The Bush Administration has spent seven years shitting on the bed of human civilisation, and then attempting to torture the bed’s owner because he won’t admit to causing the smell.
Candy said,
March 4, 2008 at 17:53
Excellent piece about Teh Glorious Surge here, which goes into much detail about how we’ve been trying to buy peace between Sunni and Shia and how clueless we are about what is really going on . Also a good article on crazy John McCain that pretty much supports what mikey’s been saying about how dangerous he is. If we screw up with this Hillary/Obama feud and let McCain win we are fucked.
SamFromUtah said,
March 4, 2008 at 17:56
Picking a nit – I think it’s “No one could have foreseen”, not “No one saw it coming.” If it’s impossible to predict, you still get to play the wounded genius just doing the best (s)he can.
montysano said,
March 4, 2008 at 17:57
Please………… make it stop. I’ll pay good money, right now.
Fozzetti said,
March 4, 2008 at 18:11
They wouldn’t see a locomotive coming towards them if they were tied to the railroad tracks.
D.N. Nation said,
March 4, 2008 at 18:44
Ralph Nader will be on TDS tonight.
Righteous Bubba said,
March 4, 2008 at 18:50
Ralph Nader will be on TDS tonight.
A credible showing and he’s got my vote.
D.N. Nation said,
March 4, 2008 at 18:53
The title of this thread says it all.
Righteous Bubba said,
March 4, 2008 at 19:02
Shorter Jerusalem Post:
Spare the rod and Obama the child.
Jerkstore said,
March 4, 2008 at 19:08
Why bother with a conviction, then pardon, when you know the pardon’s coming anyways? They just cut out the hard stuff.
Hmmm…..wonder where they learned such partisan activity?
PeeJ said,
March 4, 2008 at 19:15
Wasn’t that case being handled by Abu Gonzalez?
Jay B. said,
March 4, 2008 at 19:19
“This shows that the judicial system in Iraq is horribly broken,” said a U.S. legal adviser who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly. “And it sends a terrible signal: If you are Shia, then no worries; you can do whatever you want and nothing is going to happen to you.”
Replace Iraq with “the U.S.” and Shia with “Republican” and you can pretty much write the same story.
In this version, “Don Seigleman, Democrat” stands in for “Sunni”.
LD said,
March 4, 2008 at 20:39
I wonder what exactly do these guys see? As it seems they can’t see the future (as shown here), they can’t see the past , and they seem pretty blind in present too.
Are they pretending to be blind so they can use the handicap parking slots in Washington?
Smut Clyde said,
March 4, 2008 at 21:41
“I appreciate the fact that you really snatched defeat out of the jaws of those who were trying to defeat us in Iraq.”
I’m not even going to try parodying that level of cliche-mangling inarticulacy. It is as if he has no idea that words can actually convey meanings and create images; that they can be more than the noises you make when you move your lips while breathing out.
It is as if Bush’s speeches are written by JanusNode. Or possibly Mark Noonan.
foreigner said,
March 4, 2008 at 22:11
Bad timing for any quotes from Bush:
National Grammar Day.
mikeinportc said,
March 4, 2008 at 22:42
“I appreciate the fact that you really snatched defeat out of the jaws of those who were trying to defeat us in Iraq.”
As I say ~ every time he opens his mouth “SHUT UP! STFU! YOU DUMBASS! You’re embarassing 100% of us not just the 19%ers”
( even if they don’t realize it) . That said LOL!
Ken Lowery said,
March 4, 2008 at 23:03
Good god. Before this guy was president he was a governor, and before that he was a high-level executive. You would think that after, oh, 30 YEARS OF LEADERSHIP POSITIONS ENTAILING LOTS OF PUBLIC SPEAKING would rub off on him, just a little. But no, he still talks like a goddamn moron.
And that’s not just me laughing at the village idiot. I’m just pointing to something that indicates something is seriously wrong with this guy’s thinking process. “Duh,” I know…
OneMan said,
March 4, 2008 at 23:52
Well what with the flower of democracy that is Iraq blooming in the desert, how could you not expect some little hiccups along the way?
Dave D said,
March 5, 2008 at 0:08
Am I missing something? That Bush quote, which I’m sure celebrated Grammar day somehow, does not appear in the linked AP story–just quotes from Odierno, Fallon, and Sen. Warner.
Have they edited it without notice again?
Smut Clyde said,
March 5, 2008 at 0:19
Looks like a new story at the AP link.
On the brighter side, it contains Sen. John Warner, complaining that Iraq has betrayed “…the sacrifices of life and limb that we have suffered in trying to provide Iraq the ability to become a strong and sovereign nation,” by acting like a sovereign nation.
Christopher said,
March 5, 2008 at 3:00
“Looks like a new story at the AP link.
On the brighter side, it contains Sen. John Warner, complaining that Iraq has betrayed “…the sacrifices of life and limb that we have suffered in trying to provide Iraq the ability to become a strong and sovereign nation,” by acting like a sovereign nation.”
You know, I often use “we” to mean “The United States” as in, “We have somehow fucked Iraq up so badly that it’s worse now then it was under Saddam.”
But man, it takes a lot of balls for someone who is sitting safe at home here in America to tell people living in a goddamn war zone that they’re insufficeintly grateful for his sacrifices.
Americans have a lost a lot to this war, but I’m pretty sure Senator Warner hasn’t sacrificed jack shit. When politicians in Washington D.C. are routinely being kidnapped and tortured to death, then you can talk to the Iraqi government about the sacrifices you’ve made.
The Oracle said,
March 5, 2008 at 4:44
Everything Bush touches turns into a stinking, foul heap of Cheney.
The Oracle said,
March 5, 2008 at 4:45
And vice versa.
Everything Cheney touches turns into stinking, foul heap of Bush.
Dr, BDH said,
March 5, 2008 at 6:09
Where did you find the photographic record of Condi Rice’s govermental tenure?
Anthony Waller said,
November 13, 2008 at 3:25
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