It's a strange curiosity that of most of the blogosphere that concern themselves with Iraq, as opposed to diarising their bowel movements for the perusal of voyeurs, tend to be rabid right wingers, neo-con cheerleaders that are very effective in drowning out rational, intelligent, informed debate. With very few exceptions these Bush babes seem to think that repeating meaningless slogans and reciting Orwellian doublespeak somehow represent opinion rather than merely repeating baseless propaganda generated for them courtesy of the Joseph Goebbels arm of the Whitehouse. We all know them, wearily, by now:

With us or against us!

The terrorists (in Iraq - everyone that is shot by or resists the US)

Traitor! (I think we should reconsider what's going on in Iraq)

You're on the same side as the terrorists (You criticise Bush)

And so endlessly on droning like the most irritating of barflies. Like Bush, they seem to believe that repeating something often enough somehow gives gravity to their sloganeering and mindless chants of slavish loyalty to their monarch the president. For example, there are still those that genuinely believe that Saddam was connected to 9/11 (he's a towelhead presumably - their words not mine). That they actually did find WMDs in Iraq (so why not tell the world?). That Saddam had WMDs but magically spirited away his one defence threat to the advancing US led forces to locations unknown (he invented a technology that 'invisiblised' them).

They seize on frankly risible comments by people like Cheney (insurgency death throes), Rice (insurgency running out of steam) even while GI Joe is getting cut to pieces almost every day. We've been hearing the same tall tale spun for nearly 28 months now at every junction. And the greatest giggle of them all, that Iraq is not as bad as the liberal media makes out. One of the greatest con-jobs of the Bush era is sewing the perception that the US media is controlled by left-wing liberal fags (well the rabid right are usually rabid homophobes as well). Whereas the most watched feed is Fox news followed by CNN - either hardly liberal. Your average American would be truly shocked should they dare to peep over their right wing dominated Berlin-media-wall and learn what the rest of the world is saying about the Iraq debacle. And so I present a few quotations today from non-US media sources for perusal. The sources are the Bangkok Post, the British Independent, the British Guardian, the BBC, the International Herald Tribune and the Nation (Thailand).

'Baghdad is still a disaster...you still can't drive to the airport [and there is] rampant corruption by Iraqi government officials, the Iraqi contractors and some American contractors [who] are stealing money in the billions of dollars that is supposed to be helping the Iraqis' (Col. David Hunt)'

'But the readiness of Americans and British to invest more in the enterprise is diminishing almost by the week, and the otherwise incomprehensible plans for partial military withdrawal by both nations are a reaction to that. As the American Iraqi expert Phebe Mar says: 'If you can't garner adequate resources - and public opinion at home and abroad - to rebuild a nation - don't start.' But we did start and now history has us by the throat' (Martin Woollacott - the Guardian)

'By a record 57-34% margin, Americans believe some or all of US troops should be withdrawn from Iraq - a record 33% said all troops should be pulled out' (AGENCIES)

'A degree of anxiety is perhaps expected with the American adventure in Iraq going so badly...' (Michael Vatikosis, Singapore)

I could not find one positive statement from the worlds press agencies when it came to Iraq. When it comes to the political forums things are hardly any better. Again dominated by loud mouthed ignorant neo-con cheerleaders some of their assertions and comments are truly breathtaking. Here are some gems:

In response to 'the US cannot even secure the road to Baghdad airport'

The war [in Iraq] is over - we won.

'We deliberately invaded Iraq so that we could fight the terrorists over there and not over here' [a new excuse for the invasion and occupation that contradicts the next comment...]'

If the Iraqi governments ask us to leave then we will' [hang on, since when has the US under Bush respected anyone's wishes? And if you leave Iraq in the hands of 'terrorists' then isn't the US abandoning the war against terror? If they're there in Iraq, why are you running away rather than engaging them?]

The with us or against us brigade are well and truly present and counted. One poster pointed out that Iran was supplying the 'terrorists' with sophisticated weaponry so how could Iran be making trade deals with Iraq? Followed by the usual neo-con ad hominem insults. Totally failing to grasp the concept that Iran might well like to destabilse Iraq, and could be supplying the Sunni insurgents at the same time as the Shia militias, not to mention that the arms that might well originate in Iran could be supplied by criminals or splinter insurgent groups. But thinking doesn't sit comfortably for most of the rabid right.

The other prevailing tendency is to ignore uncomfortable facts that fly in the face of their almost religiously held belief that Bush and his fellow travelers on their criminally incompetent marathon can do no wrong. They reject opinion polls that show the American public finally waking up and smelling the napalm of understanding, that they were and are being misled by an administration of breathtaking incompetence not witnessed since the US lost in Vietnam. [And they have an excuse for that of course, we didn't lose a single military encounter in Vietnam therefore we didn't lose in Vietnam - and argument so risible it's scarcely worth mentioning but they really do believe this stuff!].

They attack the worth of anyone that stands up and says 'hang on - what are we actually doing in Iraq - is there a plan? They don't believe in freedom of speech 'Traitor! Terrorist!' they want all people in Guantanamo asassinated, innocent or not, they regard torture as understandable 'pranks', they approve of torture and almost line up to volunteer to commit that most heinous of crimes. And for some strange reason they are obsessed with homosexual sex, violence and lay claim to esoteric knowledge that they alone know as in:

'what do they know, they're all commie, ignorant fag lovers, not like us, we know better.

And yet they can never explain why.

yechydda,