What? Nothing On the US' New Baghdad Wall?

[Idaho]

I'm suprised no-one has mentioned the new wall being built across Baghdad to protect the Iraqi's from themselves.

PM Opposes Baghdad Wall

Only the US military could come up with a gem of an idea like this. They seem to think they are completely immune from the lessons of history

[Fragony]

I hope the PM doesn't foil, if he can stop this it at least appears as if he has any authority. Americans better listen, this is a great oppertunity.

[Adrian II]

Only the US military could come up with a gem of an idea like this.

The Israelis suggested this. Israeli generals and planners have been on U.S. military panels since before the invasion in 2003. Coming soon to a war theatre near you: giant bulldozers.

[doc_bean]

Errrr...if the US doesn't obey the PM, doesn't this make them a de facto occupational force (instead of 'friendly helpers') and aren't the Iraqi insurgent perhaps justified in trying to kick them out (by any means necessary).

Seriously, if you want this project to succeed, listen to the PM, you'r emaking a mockery out of democracy.

[Odin]

The Israelis suggested this. Israeli generals and planners have been on U.S. military panels since before the invasion in 2003.

Please post a refrence.

The "wall" hasnt had much coverage here most of the media is winding down the Virginia tech coverage and will turn back to Iraq soon enough. Heard an intresting take on it from NPR where the critic described it as the "balkanization" of Baghdad.

It just seems with every passing day the straws we are grabbing at in Iraq are becoming less and less centered in reality.

[rory_20_uk]

I heard about it, but there are few things in Iraq that move me any more.

Marines devalue Iraqi civilian life? Yup
Marines lying when gun down people? Sure.
200+ die in bomb attacks during the "big safety push"? Uh huh.

A wall / demolish all bridges over the river / send more troops / less troops... who knows what the next great idea will be...

[KukriKhan]

who knows what the next great idea will be...

Throwing the Mother of all Farewell Parties...

and leaving.

[Adrian II]

Please post a refrence.

Seek and ye shall find references all over the media. Israelis involved in 'Surge' planning, Israelis advising on village encirclement, raids, drones, &cetera &cetera. And this started well before the invasion.

[Odin]

Seek and ye shall find references all over the media. Israelis involved in 'Surge' planning, Israelis advising on village encirclement, raids, drones, &cetera &cetera.

I didnt doubt your claim, you normally back your statements up, I was genuinely curious as to your source, I would be lying though if I said I wasnt trying to give you a poke too, so I wont say it. :)

thanks, israel's influence in US policy is very troubling to me personally but to be blunt, it gets so little coverage here in the states that its hard to speak intelligently about it.

The BBC reports I see on the TV dosent touch it either, and to be fair it isnt a subject I have delved deep into, but as I become more educated on the overall U.S. efforts in the middle east I find more and more paths lead to the Israeli's.

[Major Robert Dump]

The wall will work and keep the Mexicans out of Iraq for good!!!!1111

[Fragony]

Oh stop the defeatism you can't afford that. Why don't you see the oppertunity instead, the only way the Iraqi's will ever believe in a government is when it can actually make a fist, to the americans out of all nations, and the only thing you have to do is stop laying bricks and drink beer instead, if I was in the desert I would settle for the latter whatever the cause. This can be disastrous or a possible blessing, up to you.

[Adrian II]

(..) the only thing you have to do is stop laying bricks and drink beer instead, if I was in the desert I would settle for the latter whatever the cause.

Imagine hundreds of planeloads of beer being flown in, transferred to fuel trucks and driven to the front line. Gives a whole new meaning to the word 'surge'.

[KukriKhan]

Imagine hundreds of planeloads of beer being flown in, transferred to fuel trucks and driven to the front line. Gives a whole new meaning to the word 'surge'.

Throwing the Mother of all Farewell Parties...

I rest my case

(of Budweiser)

[Ronin]

I say the US military stop this foolish plan and just follow the wise words of Denis Leary:

've got the solution to the Middle-East crisis. Paint a tit on the Goodyear Blimp and fly it over there. They will all look up and stop fighting: "look at the tit... LOOK AT THE TIT!"

[Fragony]

Budweiser

See this is what I mean. Why don't you guys think more practical, why fly in budweiser when you can dig normal wells instead?

[Lemur]

Throwing the Mother of all Farewell Parties...

$20 million will buy you a heck of a party. So far as I know, it's still in the budget.

[monkian]

I rest my case

(of Budweiser)

Man, at least give them some decent beer that actually tastes of something...

[Husar]

See this is what I mean. Why don't you guys think more practical, why fly in budweiser when you can dig normal wells instead?

There is beer in the ground in Iraq?

[Hosakawa Tito]

The Huck Finn method.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

So just you march right outdoors and start whitewashin' the fence. It will keep you out of mischief for a while at any' rate." "But, Ma," Sam protested, "this is Saturday." "Now do as I say!" Sam shuffled outside. Slowly he carried the long-handled brush and the whitewash to the sidewalk. There he looked at the board fence, 30 yards long and higher than his head. He dipped his brush and started stroking. The brush got heavier and heavier, and he had painted only half a board when he heard John Robards coming down the street, acting the parts of boat, captain and engine bells of the Big Missouri, drawing nine feet of water. Sam, now painting with zest, paid no attention to the vocal steamboat. He touched up each brushstroke, gazing at his work as if he were an artist. "I'm goin' swimmin'," John said, "but I reckon you can't, 'cause you got work to do, huh?" "You call this work? A boy doesn't get a chance to whitewash a fence every day," replied Sam, gingerly brushing a board with care. John watched for a few moments, then could stand it no longer. ''Here, Sam, let me whitewash a little." Sam explained that he would not dare entrust the job to anyone else. "I'll give you the core of my apple," John pleaded. "I'd like to, John, but . . ." "The whole of it?" Sam turned over the brush, took the apple and sat down in the shade, watching John, happily honored, whitewash furiously. Boy after boy came by that afternoon, all heading for the swimmin' hole. Yet each one stayed to outdo the others in the craft of whitewashing - paying Sam well for the chance. The afternoon was still young when Sam ran out of whitewash. The fence had three coats on it, and Sam had acquired an enormous stock of payments - part of a Jew's harp, a brass doorknob, a dead cat, 12 marbles, the handle of a knife and a kitten with one eye. When he called his mother to inspect the job, she allowed that she had underestimated her boy and, feeling self-reproach for it, gave him a choice apple and sent him off to play.

[Ice]

Man, at least give them some decent beer that actually tastes of something...

Agreed.

[doc_bean]

Perhaps Belgium can finally contribute something ?

[Randarkmaan]

See this is what I mean. Why don't you guys think more practical, why fly in budweiser when you can dig normal wells instead?

Hehe! Reminds me of Monty Python's three Bruces (Australians) sketch:
*Bruces throw Australian beer to the audience*
Bruce 1: You see, the reason we are doing this is because we find your American beer to be a little like making love in a canoe.
Bruce 2: Making love in a canoe?
Bruce 3: Yeah, it's close to water!

EDIT: Sorry the sense of the joke is lost, but swearing is not allowed. BG

[Csargo]

The wall will work and keep the Mexicans out of Iraq for good!!!!1111

Indeedily do

[Samurai Waki]

Perhaps Belgium can finally contribute something ?

Headline:

Belgian Beer Ends War In Iraq.

Insurgents too drunk to give a ****, US Military too drunk to give a ****. Maliki Praises Allah for the Stout Lager without too much head. Shi'ite Clerics condemn the Newly allowed Alcohol tolerance, Many have been driven out of the country or have been beheaded.

[Husar]

Was just on the news here that wall.
A soldier later said he believed this was the Vietnam of our generation, makes me wonder where that wall in Vietnam is, or do we count the great wall in China?

[KukriKhan]

$20 million will buy you a heck of a party. So far as I know, it's still in the budget.

Wow. Great find Lemur. In addition to Belgian assistance in the beer department, we need French expertise in developing this Theatre of the Absurd.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Wow. Great find Lemur. In addition to Belgian assistance in the beer department, we need French expertise in developing this Theatre of the Absurd.

Ask and we shall deliver.

There is a world out there that the non-francophone audience is almost completely unaware of: the françafrique. Whatever mistake America is making in Iraq, no matter how silly: we've been there and done that, supported it and regretted it, or are still in it and can't get out.

Here you go, a system of walls as solution to etnic strife in the Arab world, I present the 'Wall of Shame' in Western Sahara:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Their territory split by a huge wall built at enormous expense, an occupied Arab population suffers under police raids and arbitrary imprisonment while the occupiers try to swamp the territories with settlers from their own population. In response, the locals are beginning an intifada, but face a much larger, better-equipped military force, the beneficiary of substantial overseas aid. Refugees living in camps are refused the right to return to their homes.

Despite clear decisions of the International Court of Justice and the UN Security Council, the occupiers hedge whenever it comes down to the question of a peace settlement that grants independence even when American emissaries try to nudge them towards serious talks.

Welcome to Western Sahara, the occupation that admittedly has lasted only three decades compared with Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, but which has excited much less media interest.

The Moroccan one is superficially attractive after all these decades, offering Scottish-style devolution. But their track record on keeping promises is far from stellar. Over 15 years ago, Morocco accepted a peace deal that involved the referendum on self-determination. The cash-strapped UN has spent hundreds of millions on keeping a force there to monitor the cease-fire and arrange a vote. But as soon as it became clear that Morocco would lose any vote that involved independence, the king and his father before him, gave prevarication a bad name. They tried to stack the voters' rolls, and when that failed, simply refused to allow a vote that asked the question.

Morocco's human rights record leaves much to be desired, as indeed did Polisario's in the old days. But the Moroccan reticence about allowing a vote is eloquent testimony to the government's assessment of the popular mood.

What is the secret of Morocco's success? In essence, it is choosing friends carefully.

Morocco claims Arab solidarity - and is one of the best friends of Israel in the Arab World. Immediately after the Moroccans occupied the territory despite the ICJ ruling that rubbished its territorial claims, the UN security council passed resolutions 379 and 380, which explicitly and unconditionally called on Morocco to withdraw. However, the French and Americans blocked the enforcing of these resolutions. According to then-US ambassador to the United Nations Daniel Patrick Moynihan, "the Department of State desired that the United Nations prove utterly ineffective in whatever measures it undertook. The task was given to me, and I carried it forward with no inconsiderable success."

While the US's anti-communist fervour has died down - with communism - France has remained an important and unprincipled supporter of the king. Despite all that Cartesian rhetoric with which it opposed the invasion of Iraq, over the Sahara it has a novel and disturbing principle: the security council cannot impose its decisions on parties if they disagree.

[Colovion]

Humanity needs something other than rock and plaster to solve their problems. We've been using geographically seperating maneauvers for thousands of years and we're still as quick to destroy our neighbors as ever.

After reading The Coming Anarchy and reading your post Louis, I suddenly felt very nauseous.