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*Originally posted by Nadia_H: *
Sadly, Majestic, they will be able to stay this way but i still believe US/British forces will eventually overpower the city. That they have fought so bravely so far, for their homes and for their villages, speaks volumes i think of this brave people, with so little in their hands yet so much courage in their hearts. They are fighting not just for themselves, but for their culture and history - this is the cradle of civilization (and location of the city of Ur, birthplace of Prophet Abraham (may God's peace and blessings be upon him)).
i am not entirely certain for how long the city will survive the onslaught - remember, it's all about overwhelming 'shock-and-awe'.
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RIO DE JANEIRO (R) — Brazil’s tourist centre Rio de Janeiro has reacted to what lawmakers called “US aggression” against Iraq by declaring President George W. Bush “persona non grata.” Fernando Gusmao, author of the mainly symbolic measure unanimously approved by the municipal legislature, said it would not stop Bush from visiting Rio but if he came the legislature would not give him honours due to a head of state. “The motion is an institutional position of rejection towards the president of the United States in the view of the absurd US aggression in Iraq,” said Gusmao of the Communist Party of Brazil. Gusmao said he would hand the document to the US consulate in Rio de Janeiro and the embassy in Brasilia and called on other Brazilian cities to follow suit. Opposition to war is widespread in Brazil, where the new centre-left government has called the conflict illegitimate and some federal lawmakers urged a boycott of US products.
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*Originally posted by Nadia_H: *
Those who know the country say that it can hold people together, whether they are Kurds, Sunnis or Shias. It appears to be a factor in the current phenomenon.
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So that's all it takes to hold a nation together? A brutal regime to torture, rape, kill, displace, imprison and suppress its people? How is it that the US can hold together a nation conisting of every ethnicity and religion without resorting to these policies? I wonder if Iraq's decade old institutionalized policy of torture and killing of dissidents has anything to do with their reluctance to go against the government. Poor Iraqi people, they get all your sympathy for US ending this tyrannical regime, but none for the pathetic conditions they have lived under for 30 years. None for being used as human shields by fellow Iraqis. None for Iraqi military using hospitals and residential areas as military forts. None for being placed in the middle of war that Saddam could have prevented.
Seminole, Just for the record - those were the words of the BBC reporter. i do agree with him however.
i wish i shared your optimism and faith in the US government. Do you honestly, in your heart, believe that there will be a truly democratic government in a post-Hussein Iraq?
[QUOTE] Originally posted by Nadia_H: *
**Seminole*, Just for the record - those were the words of the BBC reporter. i do agree with him however.
i wish i shared your optimism and faith in the US government. Do you honestly, in your heart, believe that there will be a truly democratic government in a post-Hussein Iraq?
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Yes I do. For the benefiit of Iraq. Yeah. I do. I believe it. I believe it. My heart can't tell you why. I believe it. I think it will happen. I think no doubt.
I think a military government for a bit, but only to keep the peace and teach people who never had the opportunity.
I think it will take awhile. More than six months. Probobly six years. But yeah. I believe it will occur.
Do you think Americans have to stay that long? Gosh I hope not.
I believe that freedom is a thing to be earned, and that freedom takes time, especially if one was never free before and never lived under a free government.
If one wants freedom there can be no stopping it.
After the Major's and the Colonels and the Generals are gone. Because they will be there to try to keep the peace, all the time wanting to go home to their families.
