Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

This morning it's image update time for me, so there's no news update. As any of you that's reading the news knows, casualties (Iraqi civilian and US military) in Iraq are starting to escalate quickly, and the outcome seems shockingly unsure, especially now that the US forces have started reclassifying civilian areas as “legitimate military targets“.

What doesn't make sense to me is that America outguns Iraq by a factor of something like 1000:1. If America is unable to “win” this war with a minimum of casualties on both sides, it tells us that the US is monstrously incompetent. After all, Iraq is the weakest target available. It's largely unarmed and totally impoverished… Iran, North Korea, even Syria, will prove far more resilient targets.

Now, large technologically advanced forces have been beaten by small guerilla-based forces before. I thought it couldn't happen in Iraq because the political situation didn't exist to create effective guerilla forces (for anyone interested in this subject I strongly recommend both Chairman Mao and General Giap's books on warfare), but if America keeps screwing up and hitting civilian targets and even the wrong country on a regular basis, serious resistance could occur.

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Why do reporters have no balls? I want someone to ask Bush, “As a religious man, how do you feel about the Pope's edict that supporting this war is a mortal sin?”

(And yes, I realize he's not a Catholic, but it's still an interesting question.)

That said, I see no real move by Catholics in America to stop backing their President, so I guess in America, Bush has more authority than God… Either that or God never really had any authority; more like the figurehead of a symbolic monarchy.

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Quick “war-business” news:

• Show me the money! The British recently froze as much as a half billion dollars in Iraqi assets. The US government claims that money is “theirs” and that they need to have it handed over to them… Claiming it'll be used for “humanitarian” purposes.
• US refu$$$$es to let UN humanitarian forces in. Britain has been petitioning to allow the UN to handle the hospitals and care of post-war Iraq, but the US has said that all those contracts must go to private US companies and that the UN may have no involvement.

Still think this war is about freeing the Iraqi people? Bullshit. This is about making a bunch of fat cats that seized control of America a whole lot richer, paid for with the money earned by the American worker and the blood of Iraqi children and civilians.

You still think Saddam is the only evil leader out there?