After the beheading of a captured American, pleas are going forth to the kidnappers for mercy on behalf of two others being threatened, and to Tony Blair to negotiate the release of the British hostage.
A Foreign Office spokesman today said the government would not change its stance and give in to the kidnappers. "We just cannot. It would be open season for the terrorists," he said.
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Please. What is it now?
The "terrorists" were demanding the release of all female prisoners in Iraqi coalition prisons in Abu Ghraib and Umm Qasr in exchange for the lives of the three hostages. What are the female prisoners but hostages?
What are the thousands and thousands of civilians who are killed in "precision" airstrikes but murdered hostages?
We can't negotiate with terrorists. Bullfuck. We are terrorists. And we don't even ask for reasonable deals. Give us control of your land, your oil, and your livelihood, or we'll kill thousands of your children, your wives, your mothers and fathers.
Oh, you think that's a little overblown? Okay, I'll bring it down to where you can see it. Turn over your rebels and terrorists, and we'll quit bombing your cities.
Sound like a reasonable request to you? How about this - American citizens in Chicago: turn over your drug dealers and mafiosi, and we'll let you live. Otherwise, we'll have to bomb some of those houses where we believe they're hiding out. Too bad about the innocents living nearby.
We're holding entire Iraqi cities hostage, and our blood boils when they take a few hostages (who are only there trying to rebuild and help those ungrateful ragheads), notably without torturing them (unlike any number of the female hostages we hold in Abu Ghraib), and cut off a head.
And get a load of apparently crack-smoking Derr Rumsfiend at Ft. Leonard Wood in Missouri...
I guess one of the best things about my job is that I can get out of Washington once in a while and either get to Afghanistan or Iraq and have a chance to thank the troops there or go to bases elsewhere in the world and have a chance to thank the young men and women—all of whom volunteered to serve our country.
Absolutely thrilled to go to Afghanistan or Iraq I imagine. Wolfowitz is, I know.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, [I was] with a Marine group when they first went into Iraq back in May and April in which time after a month they lost no soldiers at all through the combat. I went back a year ago and we lost 8 guys within a two-week span. A couple of questions. We still continue to sort of refer to May 2003 as the end of major combat and I’m not clear on that and the second thing is why do you think it is that we haven’t been able to make Iraq more secure. Every soldier I talk to and that’s my own personal experience, every soldier I talk to or marine say that it’s much more frightening now, it’s tougher now, we’re taking more combat now and the latest reports seem that we have less security now than we did say a year ago.
RUMSFELD: Thank you. We did lose lives during major combat operation. Major combat operation is just that—it involved the air and the land and the sea and it was opposing organized armies and elements of the Iraqi armed forces. That ended and major combat ended and what we have been in since that period has been an insurgency. And the reason it’s tough and the reason we’re losing lives is because an insurgency is an ugly business. It’s a tough business and our forces are doing a terrific job over there. It is a tough job. And the reason that it’s tough is because you have foreign terrorists coming the county, you have former regime elements that were part of the Baathist party and the regimes of Saddam Hussein, and you have criminals they are paying to do this.
RUMSFELD: Thank you. We did lose lives during major combat operation. Major combat operation is just that—it involved the air and the land and the sea and it was opposing organized armies and elements of the Iraqi armed forces. That ended and major combat ended and what we have been in since that period has been an insurgency. And the reason it’s tough and the reason we’re losing lives is because an insurgency is an ugly business. It’s a tough business and our forces are doing a terrific job over there. It is a tough job. And the reason that it’s tough is because you have foreign terrorists coming the county, you have former regime elements that were part of the Baathist party and the regimes of Saddam Hussein, and you have criminals they are paying to do this.
Do you think that satisfied the questioning soldier?
We’re training up their security forces now. .... They are doing a good job. They are losing more Iraqi security forces than coalition security forces, which shows they are out providing security for their country.
Look on the bright side. Saddam was worse than us when it came to torture. The rate of U.S. forces injuries in Iraq is rising faster than the rate of U.S. deaths. And more of them than us are getting killed providing security.
QUESTION: We just talked a lot about what’s going on in Iraq. I was wondering if you could address some of the progress being made in Afghanistan. Some are concerned that a lot of effort is being concentrated in Iraq now instead of Afghanstan.
RUMSFELD: I’ve heard that concern. I don’t know quite where it comes from. We’re focusing a good deal of attention on Afghanistan and we’ve got a wonderful group of men and women in uniform there. We’ve got civilian leadership there and the ambassador and his team—the country team. They have successfully selected a president, they are in the process now of having a nationwide election for president and they have a constitution. In the election the United Nations is helping to administer it they were hoping to have, as I recall, 4 or 5 or 6 million people register to vote. There are now, something like 10 and half million the last time I looked, of which 41 percent are women, which of course in that country is most unusual. There continues to [be] periodic Al-Qaeda and Taliban attacks along particularly the Pakistan border. The country is not fully pacified but it is — it’s economy is booming. Refugees have come back from all over the world to that country; the[y're] voting with their feet and they want to be there. The government is functioning and the NATO countries have agreed to take over first, the international assistant security force in Kabul and more recently, some of the provincial reconstruction teams in the northern portion of Afghanistan. And things are going very well.
RUMSFELD: I’ve heard that concern. I don’t know quite where it comes from. We’re focusing a good deal of attention on Afghanistan and we’ve got a wonderful group of men and women in uniform there. We’ve got civilian leadership there and the ambassador and his team—the country team. They have successfully selected a president, they are in the process now of having a nationwide election for president and they have a constitution. In the election the United Nations is helping to administer it they were hoping to have, as I recall, 4 or 5 or 6 million people register to vote. There are now, something like 10 and half million the last time I looked, of which 41 percent are women, which of course in that country is most unusual. There continues to [be] periodic Al-Qaeda and Taliban attacks along particularly the Pakistan border. The country is not fully pacified but it is — it’s economy is booming. Refugees have come back from all over the world to that country; the[y're] voting with their feet and they want to be there. The government is functioning and the NATO countries have agreed to take over first, the international assistant security force in Kabul and more recently, some of the provincial reconstruction teams in the northern portion of Afghanistan. And things are going very well.
Indeed. Very well.
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QUESTION: If I may follow up, have you any comment about the new assertions in the book by Seymour Hirsch [sic] about how high up and when the administration knew about abuses of prisoners.
RUMSFELD: No, I’m not aware of it. I know that when he wrote a couple of articles for some magazine that we put a team of about 4 or 5 people...to find if anyone could find any scrap of truth in anything that he had written and we were unable to do so.
QUESTION: Are you saying the book is false?
RUMSFELD: I haven’t seen the book. You just heard me answer the question. I have not seen the book. I’m not aware of these allegations. I’m saying that — you should listen very carefully — when there was an article, I think, in the New Yorker that he wrote we had a team of people go out and see if they could find any proof in it. We were unable to validate anything in that article. But I have not seen the book, maybe somebody else has.
RUMSFELD: No, I’m not aware of it. I know that when he wrote a couple of articles for some magazine that we put a team of about 4 or 5 people...to find if anyone could find any scrap of truth in anything that he had written and we were unable to do so.
QUESTION: Are you saying the book is false?
RUMSFELD: I haven’t seen the book. You just heard me answer the question. I have not seen the book. I’m not aware of these allegations. I’m saying that — you should listen very carefully — when there was an article, I think, in the New Yorker that he wrote we had a team of people go out and see if they could find any proof in it. We were unable to validate anything in that article. But I have not seen the book, maybe somebody else has.
Soldiers aren't supposed to ask those kinds of questions. Makes Demon Rumsfiend testy. No weekend leave for that guy.
I think that the United States and the coalition countries, of course unlike other countries, we have no desire to stay there or to be there at all other than to help that country get on it’s feet. We’re in the processing of doing that and they’re making good progress politically. They’re making progress economically. The schools are open. The hospitals are open. They have a stock market functioning. They sent some teams to the Olympics. They have a symphony and at the same time, amidst all those good things that are happening, people are being killed. Iraqis are being killed, as they were yesterday and the day before. At some point the Iraqis will get tired of getting killed and we’ll have enough of the Iraqi security forces that they can take over responsibility for governing that country and we’ll be able to pare down the coalition security forces in the country. [emphasis mine]
Totally mad.
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