Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Il massacro e il ciclista

The New York Times - August 18, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com
Blood Runs Red, not Blue
By BOB HERBERT
You have to wonder whether reality ever comes knocking on George
W. Bush's door. If it did, would the president with the unsettling
demeanor of a boy king even bother to answer? Mr. Bush is the
commander in chief who launched a savage war in Iraq and now
spends his days happily riding his bicycle in Texas.
This is eerie. Scary. Surreal.
The war is going badly and lives have been lost by the thousands,
but there is no real sense, either at the highest levels of government
or in the nation at large, that anything momentous is at stake. The
announcement on Sunday that five more American soldiers had
been blown to eternity by roadside bombs was treated by the press
as a yawner. It got very little attention.
You can turn on the television any evening and tune in to the bizarre
extended coverage of the search for Natalee Holloway, the Alabama
teenager who disappeared in Aruba in May. But we hear very little
about the men and women who have given up their lives in Iraq, or
are living with horrific injuries suffered in that conflict.
If only the war were more entertaining. Less of a downer. Perhaps
then we could meet the people who are suffering and dying in it.
For all the talk of supporting the troops, they are a low priority for
most Americans. If the nation really cared, the president would not
be frolicking at his ranch for the entire month of August. He'd be back
in Washington burning the midnight oil, trying to figure out how to get
the troops out of the terrible fix he put them in.
Instead, Mr. Bush is bicycling as soldiers and marines are dying.
Dozens have been killed since he went off on his vacation.
As for the rest of the nation, it's not doing much for the troops, either.
There was a time, long ago, when war required sacrifices that were
shared by most of the population. That's over.
I was in Jacksonville, Fla., a few days ago and watched in amusement
as a young woman emerged from a restaurant into 95-degree heat and
gleefully exclaimed, "All right, let's go shopping!" The war was the
furthest thing from her mind.
For the most part, the only people sacrificing for this war are the troops
and their families, and very few of them are coming from the privileged
economic classes. That's why it's so easy to keep the troops out of
sight and out of mind. And it's why, in the third year of a war started by
the richest nation on earth, we still get stories like the one in Sunday's
Times that began:
"For the second time since the Iraq war began, the Pentagon is
struggling to replace body armor that is failing to protect American
troops from the most lethal attacks by insurgents."
Scandalous incompetence? Appalling indifference? Try both.
Who cares? This is a war fought mostly by other people's children.
The loudest of the hawks are the least likely to send their sons or
daughters off to Iraq.
The president has never been clear about why we're in Iraq. There's
no plan, no strategy. In one of the many tragic echoes of Vietnam,
U.S. troops have been fighting hellacious battles to seize areas
controlled by insurgents, only to retreat and allow the insurgents to
return.
If Mr. Bush were willing to do something he has refused to do so far -
speak plainly and honestly to the American people about this war - he
might be able to explain why U.S. troops should continue with an effort
that is, in large part at least, benefiting Iraqi factions that are
murderous,
corrupt and terminally hostile to women. If by some chance he could
make that case, the next appropriate step would be to ask all
Americans to do their part for the war effort.
College kids in the U.S. are playing video games and looking forward
to frat parties while their less fortunate peers are rattling around like
moving targets in Baghdad and Mosul, trying to dodge improvised
explosive devices and rocket-propelled grenades.
There is something very, very wrong with this picture.
If the war in Iraq is worth fighting - if it's a noble venture, as the hawks
insist it is - then it's worth fighting with the children of the privileged
classes. They should be added to the combat mix. If it's not worth
their blood, then we should bring the other troops home.
If Mr. Bush's war in Iraq is worth dying for, then the children of the
privileged should be doing some of the dying.

The war is going badly
*STRA-ROTFL*
Deve aver fumato davvero roba buona! :)
-Stefano

 spends his days happily riding his bicycle in Texas.
fra l'altro con uno che se non erro proprio oggi - leggo da repubblica -
e' stato accusato di doping. Insomma na bella coppia di ciclisti <g>
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interessante, ma noto che non si parla degli iracheni come principali
vittime di questa guerra voluta dalla coppia Bush & Blair .
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