--Purely anecdotal

[davidv <davidv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000650551


"Iraqis say that thanks to America they got freedom in exchange for 
insecurity," Fassihi wrote (among much else) in the letter. "Guess what? 
They say they'd take security over freedom any day, even if it means 
having a dictator ruler." And: "Despite President Bush's rosy 
assessments, Iraq remains a disaster. If under Saddam it was a 
'potential' threat, under the Americans it has been transformed to 
'imminent and active threat,' a foreign policy failure bound to haunt 
the United States for decades to come."

...

"The insurgency, we are told, is rampant with no signs of calming down. 
If any thing, it is growing stronger, organized and more sophisticated 
every day.

"I went to an emergency meeting for foreign correspondents with the 
military and embassy to discuss the kidnappings. We were somberly told 
our fate would largely depend on where we were in the kidnapping chain 
once it was determined we were missing. Here is how it goes: criminal 
gangs grab you and sell you up to Baathists in Fallujah, who will in 
turn sell you to Al Qaeda. In turn, cash and weapons flow the other way 
from Al Qaeda to the Baathists to the criminals. My friend Georges, the 
French journalist snatched on the road to Najaf, has been missing for a 
month with no word on release or whether he is still alive."
...


From a Wall Street Journal reporter.

D


---

"Steve Wilkinson is excellent and should have his own television show"


* Last Subject: --Only a few --*
* Last Date: Fri, 01 Oct 2004 07:54:01 -0700 --*
* 10:82-82 --*