December 16, 2003
PROGRESS NOTED
Seeking the truth about Iraqi reaction to Saddam’s capture, the ABC interviews unbiased former human shield Donna Mulhearn:
She says there has been a mixed reaction from the Iraqi people.
"Some were very excited, many were not very excited," she said.
"Some were very sad, some were very angry, most are very sceptical. Most feel 'well okay one man has been captured but nothing has really changed for us'."
Donna bravely shields a hallway. And an indoor plant.
Actually, according to Donna’s earlier wartime reports, a great deal has changed:
"The Iraqi people are very, very angry ... they now are fully, fully supportive of the Iraqi government."
And now they’re not. That’s progress. Let’s not be too mean to Donna ... after all, she is one of the few on the antiwar left to come up with a feasible alternative plan to military intervention. Here it is, extracted from a postwar Mulhearn speech:
While those concerned about human rights welcome a regime change, we knew there was another path to such a change.
• a path that was democratic
• a path that did not flout international law
• a creative, compassionate path
• a better path
• a peaceful pathA path that did not leave more than 5000 people dead and thousands more maimed, injured and devastated for life.
I challenge all media commentators to spend 24 hours in a Baghdad hospital ward.
You will leave asking - there must have been another way?
There was and there is!
And here it is, the Mulhearn Plan, in complete, exhaustive detail:
The other way is the way of peace.
If only George W. Bush had known.
(Via Paul & Carl.)
Posted by Tim Blair at December 16, 2003 11:57 PMI'm thinking this Mulhearn woman is not too bright.
Posted by: Tim Shell at December 17, 2003 at 12:12 AMbut she's earnest and concerned, and i imagine she *sighs* alot
Posted by: Mr. Bingley at December 17, 2003 at 12:35 AMWhere do they get these people from? Next time somebody better throw her a clue. And put handles on it and have it sound a loud, loud foghorn so she can find it.
Posted by: Richard Cook at December 17, 2003 at 12:47 AMshe's not really really bright but she's very very concerned and really really tries to come up with much much
better ways other than bloody bloody wars.
the sad sad fact is evil evil Saddam
really really resisted any and all of the many many>/i> attempts to resolve this in a really really peacefull way
How thoughtful of her to wear a sweater featuring a number of handy bulls-eyes. Must be the latest in human shield attire.
Posted by: R. C. Dean at December 17, 2003 at 01:01 AMThat is a terrible sweater. Knit your own jumper, knit your own brain, knit your own peace plan, knit your own pot plant.Knit.
Posted by: Julie Cleeveley at December 17, 2003 at 01:29 AMA haiku:
Moral vanity up and down.
Probably can't be loved.
By humans.
She's BRILLIANT! A true inspiration!
Here is my own modest proposal...
"There are millions across the world who are dying of starvation. We must find another way to end their suffering.
The other way is the way of food."
See how easy it is?
I'm prety sure that i just got blocked from posting comments on Howard Dean's blog. It seems anyone who is not aganst Dean is a troll.
I encourage everyone to go visit and rile the moonbats.
www.blogforamerica.com
Posted by: Bill at December 17, 2003 at 05:53 AMIf she was supposed to shield Iraqi targets from the Americans, then how did she survive the war?
I look forward to her future memoir "I Was A Suicide Bomber For Hamas".
Wow, that chick would look hot in a burqa!
Posted by: Cuzima bin-Hidin at December 17, 2003 at 08:21 AMShe's super special because she trys extra hard! Pizza party, pizza party!
Posted by: Amos at December 17, 2003 at 10:38 AM"Some were very sad, some were very angry, most are very sceptical. Most feel 'well okay one man has been captured but nothing has really changed for us'."
Oh, yeah sure... I recently got this from a friend in an email:
Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...
.... The first battalion of the new Iraqi Army has graduated and is on active duty.
.... Over 60,000 Iraqis now provide security to their fellow citizens.
.... Nearly all of Iraq's 400 courts are functioning.
.... The Iraqi judiciary is fully independent.
.... On Monday, October 6 power generation hit 4,518
megawatts-exceeding the prewar average.
.... All 22 universities and 43 technical institutes and colleges are open, as are nearly all primary and secondary schools.
.... By October 1, Coalition forces had rehab-ed over 1,500 schools - 500 more than scheduled.
.... Teachers earn from 12 to 25 times their former salaries.
.... All 240 hospitals and more than 1200 clinics are open.
.... Doctors salaries are at least eight times what they were under Saddam.
.... Pharmaceutical distribution has gone from essentially nothing to 700 tons in May to a current total of 12,000 tons.
.... The Coalition has helped administer over 22 million vaccination doses to Iraq's children.
.... A Coalition program has cleared over 14,000 kilometers of Iraq's 27,000 kilometers of weed-choked canals which now irrigate tens of thousands of farms. This project has created jobs for more than 100,000 Iraqi men and women.
.... We have restored over three-quarters of prewar telephone services and over two-thirds of the potable water production.
.... There are 4,900 full-service telephone connections. We expect 50,000 by year-end.
.... The wheels of commerce are turning. From bicycles to satellite dishes to cars and trucks, businesses are coming to life in all major cities and towns.
.... 95 percent of all prewar bank customers have service and first-time customers are opening accounts daily.
.... Iraqi banks are making loans to finance businesses.
.... The central bank is fully independent.
.... Iraq has one of the worlds most growth-oriented investment and banking laws.
.... Iraq has a single, unified currency for the first time in 15 years.
.... Satellite TV dishes are legal.
.... Foreign journalists aren't on 10-day visas paying mandatory and extortionate fees to the Ministry of Information for minders and other government spies.
.... There is no Ministry of Information.
.... There are more than 170 newspapers.
.... You can buy satellite dishes on what seems like every street corner.
.... Foreign journalists (and everyone else) are free to come and go.
.... A nation that had not one single element - legislative, judicial or executive - of a representative government now does.
.... In Baghdad alone residents have selected 88 advisory councils. Baghdad's first democratic transfer of power in 35 years happened when the city council elected its new chairman.
.... Today in Iraq chambers of commerce, business, school and professional organizations are electing their leaders all over the country.
.... 25 ministers, selected by the most representative governing body in Iraq's history, run the day-to-day business of government.
.... The Iraqi government regularly participates in international events. Since July the Iraqi government has been represented in over two dozen international meetings, including those of the UN General Assembly, the Arab League, the World Bank and IMF and, today, the Islamic Conference Summit. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs today announced that it is reopening over 30 Iraqi embassies around the world.
.... Shia religious festivals that were all but banned, aren't.
.... For the first time in 35 years, in Karbala thousands of Shiites celebrate the pilgrimage of the 12th Imam.
.... The Coalition has completed over 13,000 reconstruction projects, large and small, as part of a strategic plan for the reconstruction of Iraq.
.... Uday and Queasy are dead - and no longer feeding innocent Iraqis to the zoo lions, raping the young daughters of local leaders to force cooperation, torturing Iraq's soccer players for losing games, or
murdering critics.
.... Children aren't imprisoned or murdered when their parents disagree with the government.
.... Political opponents aren't imprisoned, tortured, executed, maimed, or are forced to watch their families die for disagreeing with Saddam.
.... Millions of long-suffering Iraqis no longer live in perpetual terror.
.... Saudis will hold municipal elections.
.... Qatar is reforming education to give more choices to parents.
.... Jordan is accelerating market economic reforms.
.... The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded for the first time to an Iranian -- a Muslim woman who speaks out with courage for human rights, for democracy and for peace.
.... Saddam is gone and in jail.
.... Iraq is free.
It's funny, isn't it, to think that if Ms Mulhearn had TRULY been successful as a human shield, either:
a) Saddam Hussein would still be in power, or
b) Ms Mulhearn herself would be dead
Kind of an odd way to gauge success. But at least, thank God, she seems to have "transitioned" (as they say) safely back into her job as a dental receptionist. Something to hold onto in these difficult times!
Posted by: David Kuner at December 17, 2003 at 03:06 PMAnother possibility, following Kuner, she could now be in an Iraqi prison explaining why she attempted to aid and abet the murdering cowman Saddam.
Would you care to explain Donna why you shouldn't be so charged along with other `human shields'.
Posted by: d at December 17, 2003 at 04:52 PM