samuraipanda.com

I’m always amazed at the,well, stupidity of reporters at times. First Arnett goes and says that the Coalition war plan has failed. Then Geraldo Rivera goes and reveals the location of the unit in which he was embedded.

With Arnett, he was speaking a bit of truth, albeit not a military truth. I’m sure that the coalition military leaders knew this was going to be a tough war, but up until last week, a great number of analysts, reports, people in government were saying that this was going to be a quick war, with thousands of Iraqis surrendering. Then suddenly everyone stopped talking about a quick war and started talking about a long war. Bush, in his usual eloquence, has said over and over again that this war would take “as long as it takes”. Let’s here it for decisiveness .

Okay,

here’s something for those ladies that have everything. That’s right, it’s a cell phone for that special lady in your life, with such features as: - A 32 cubic zirconia decorated LCD - Mirror Screen - 40 Polyphonic Melody (what ever that is)

… and menstruation cycle tracker, so your special lady doesn’t feel alone at that time of the month.

Ug, talk about catering to the sexes . I’ll assume that when they list features like Biorhythm and menstruation, they are talking about tracking them for the woman. I gotta wonder if this will be a big seller.

And what the hell is a Pink Schedule?

Sever Acute Repritory Syndrom (SARS) represents one of the may reasons I believe world organizations are necessary. It is through the World Health Organization (WHO) that diseases can be fought in todays global community. It is not possible for a single country to separate itself from the world and still operate effectivly to prevent pandemics.

Here is a story of how WHO has handled SARS and how they recently lost the first doctor to identify the disease.

Hmm, do you suppose he’s eligible for unemployment? I don’t envy the guy as the US effectively controls the air and Iraq isn’t known for having too much air capability. Hmm, I wonder if this is a sign of the Saddam’s regime is collapsing.

So I’m sitting at home, watching the Daily Show and they are talking about the Coalition of the Willing, so I decided I wanted to find out more. Here is a nice explanation of the Coalitions. Is it just me, or is the Coalition a joke? Bush has been saying that there is a strong international push for the war on Iraq, but with countries like Solomon Islands and Eritrea do really scream International powers. Yes, technically they have the support of multiple countries, but it seems as if the Coalition is an attempt to legitimidefinitelyze what is essentially the US and Britian attacking Iraq and calling them the international community. History will definitely be interesting.

My personal belief is that many in the USA would rather the world follow us then for us to achieve consensus with the world, this belief being founded on the premise that the USA is an arrogant country. So, when I read something like this, I can actually see people thinking this was a good idea. The concept of the U.S.U.N., while being a parody, still a number of people would probably agree this would be a good organization.

Well, this is just impressive (or lucky). I can’t imagine what it’s like to get shot once, much less four times, in the head. True, the guy had a kevlar helmet, but it still had to hurt.

I’m sure some will call Raed’s blog a tool for the Iraqi government to make the Coalition of the Willing look like the bad guys (and he might be), but I think it is a good read for those interested to the people inside of Baghdad during the war.

Further, Raed’s blog illustrates something that I’ve been theorizing about for a while. With the advent of instant communications via un-filtered channels (read biased reporting), people can form their own ideas about something based on the reality of the situation instead of the projected reality. At it’s best, the media is objective, but still run by people who have biased opinions and report the things they think are news worthy. At it’s worst, the media is controlled by those who want to convey a specific message, regardless of the facts. With the Internet, people can suddenly have access to the facts, giving them a chance to make their own decisions about something.

A basic belief of mine is that the reason WW1 and WW2 were perceived as glorious wars is because the media coverage was limited. Korea and Viet Nam the start of the covered wars, showing people the horror and insanity that war can be. Whereas before, the truth could be hidden behind glitz, instant access to information allows people to see the truth. The Internet (and I think blogs) now allow for that truth to be seen even more quickly. Whether that is good or bad remains to be seen.

One of my biggest fears about the Iraq war is the chance that the Willing does not find any evidence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). This entire campaign has been on the belief that Iraq posed a clear threat to others in the world because he had WMD and refused to destroy them. Of course, you can’t prove a negative, so Iraq was screwed from the beginning.

If no weapons are found, then the entire reasoning for the war falls apart and suddenly the USA (and it’s allies) become the world threat and would make a great argument against the USA.

Officials were hoping a recently captured plant would be a “smoking gun”, but it turned out to be abandoned.

is an idiot. Okay, that may a bit too harsh, but he seems to be getting more and more conspiratorial. The speech he made at the Oscars was inappropriate and seemed more geared toward a shock value then actually conveying a message. Personally I liked Susan Sarandon’s method of just flashing a peace sign. It was simple and imparted her basic message.

If you listen to his rant, you can hear someone in the background very clearly yelling “NO”. I have to wonder if that was the producers of the Oscars begging him to stop .