Post by hunt4fun1 on Aug 19, 2007 12:15:26 GMT -5
This is the entire essay....the final instalment of a five part series.
Is a “bellyful” a standard unit of measure, like cups, pints, rods or ropanis? Just exactly how much is a “bellyful,” anyway? Throughout my life I’ve heard people complain of “having a bellyful” of something or other, but I don’t recall ever seeing it comparatively expressed in quarts, quintals or hogsheads.
All I know is when I have one. And though the condition seems incongruous — I’ve only got one belly — I could swear I’ve got several bellyfuls right now.
Weapons of Mass Destruction — WMDs. This one’s good for 3.8 Bellyfuls at least. Our so-called “journalists” are so tired of typing it they have it “macro-keyed” on their word-processing programs so it auto-enters in every other sentence, while every third politician in DC has mouthed it so many times they run it into one word — weapunzuvmastiztrukshin — which is kind of interesting since so few of them can even define the term. I’m really sick of this one.
Of course, the usual context is, “Bush lied! There were no WMDs in Iraq!” What’s going on? Is there some form of global amnesia working here? If Bush lied, then so did virtually everybody in Washington and beyond, both Republicans and Democrats. But they weren’t lying. Here’s the bullet on Saddam’s WMDs: Had ’em, used ’em, workin’ on ’em, moved ’em and hid ’em — and half the world knew it.
Osiraq
Does anyone else remember Osiraq — AKA “Tammuz” — the nuclear reactor facility, which our French pals, built for Saddam? Jacques Chirac even presented Saddam with 27.5 pounds of 93-percent Uranium-235 as kind of a “sourdough starter kit” for his nuclear bakery. Chirac blithely justified it to the world community by saying since Israel probably had nukes, Iraq should have ’em too or it’s “no fairsies.” What a schmuck.
“Osiraq” was a cute conjunction of “Osiris,” the Egyptian god of the dead, and “Iraq” — an apt name choice, considering Uncle Saddam was telling the world he was gonna turn Tehran into a bowl of glowing glass — and anybody else who ticked him off. Iran took him at his word and bombed Osiraq, but did little damage.
Then Saddam threatened to melt down Tel Aviv and use it for a paperweight. The Israelis didn’t beg permission from the French or the UN, because they wanted to survive. They bombed Osiraq into kibbles & bits. That’s when Saddam “went mobile” with most of his nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs, using special trailers.
I don’t have space here for a full history, so let’s conclude with this: If you mount a Geiger counter on the bumper of your Tahoe and drive the highway from Baghdad to Damascus, you’d better keep the volume down. The clicking would drive you nuts. When our troops came knocking, the atomic evidence had been flushed.
“The measure of a regime of terror is the victims of its peace, not the casualties of its wars.” — Samir al-Khalil
As for chemical weapons and poison gas, ask this question of the Iranians, Iraq’s own southern Shia and surviving Kurds in the north: “How many dead does it take to qualify as mass destruction?” They know. And let’s not forget the words of Ali Hassan (“Chemical Ali”) al-Majid, Iraq’s WMD program chief. When told the world disapproved of his slaughter of the Kurds, he said, “I will kill them all with chemical weapons. Who is going to say anything? The international community? F*** them.”
Poseur-Warriors
These Bozos account for about 4.7 Bf on the Bellyful Scale. My current favorites include two self-proclaimed courageous US Iraq war veterans on the lecture circuit, telling the world how they took part in or observed horrible war crimes and atrocities committed by Americans against innocent Iraqi men, women and children. Both have been absolutely and utterly proven to be fakes and liars — and they’re still on tour, being quoted in the press.
Jimmy Massey was a Marine staff sergeant with 3rd Battalion, Seventh Marines when they rolled into Baghdad. He was later discharged due to depression and claimed post-traumatic stress disorder. He has since toured the world with Cindy Sheehan and the anti-Iraq war movement, tearfully recounting the genocidal bloodbath carried out “under orders” but enthusiastically by his fellow Marines, whom he described as “psychopathic killers.” Massey has been an honored speaker at Cornell and Syracuse universities, several stops in Canada and the Perdana Global Peace Forum in Kuala Lumpur, among others.
His book, Kill, Kill, Kill! has been released to applause in France. Massey has been interviewed in Vanity Fair and USA Today, describing Marines “gunning down unarmed demonstrators” in Baghdad. He waxed eloquent about atrocities in several stories carried by the Associated Press, which furnishes “news” to 8,500 newspapers, radio and TV stations worldwide. His claims were accepted as facts across the board. The trouble is, they were all lies.
Didn’t Happen
The events he described never occurred. There were five reporters embedded in his regiment, one of whom, an AP reporter named Ravi Nessman, knew Massey during that time and saw virtually everything Massey saw.
After reading Massey’s version, a confused Nessman said, “When (the Marines) were driving into central Baghdad, they were cheered.” Nessman was one of two AP reporters with the regiment. An AP exec later admitted but could not explain why AP had not contacted their own reporters who were there — or the Marines Corps — to corroborate or refute Massey’s claims. Then they denied permission for Nessman to be interviewed further on the matter.
Under questioning, Massey slowly admitted the lies himself, backing down step by step Clinton-style until finally asserting his claims were based on “what others told him.” Not surprisingly, his alleged incidents don’t even match fictitious incidents in Al Qaeda propaganda. At least, his lies could have corroborated theirs, don’t ya think?
Another Rambo-Commando
If Jimmy Massey is the anti-war movement’s darling, Jesse Macbeth is their rock superstar. This “heavily-decorated many-times-wounded Army Airborne Ranger” has trotted the globe in his medal-festooned killer-clown “uniform,” complete with a tan beret worn like a pastry chef. Macbeth’s claims are even more violent and mercilessly bloody than Massey’s, as he weeps and recalls murdering every worshipper in a mosque and personally killing an Iraqi mother who was pleading for mercy, along with her three children. All of this and more, he says he “had to do” in obedience to his orders.
Macbeth, who was born Jesse Adam al-Zaid, was discharged from Army basic training as “unfit or unsuitable” for service. His adventures may arguably have occurred in some parallel universe, but not in this one. Jesse’s confessions have circled the earth in English and Arabic, and even after being exposed as a fraud, he is still being ridden like a carnival pony.
Rats. I’m outta space, and I didn’t get to tell you about Micah Wright, another hero-of-the-left and “Army Ranger.” He never served a day on active duty. Or, the 8.5 Bfs attributable to these four connected words: “Al Gore” and “global warming.” Maybe it’s best I stop now. There ain’t enough antacids for all of us.
Is a “bellyful” a standard unit of measure, like cups, pints, rods or ropanis? Just exactly how much is a “bellyful,” anyway? Throughout my life I’ve heard people complain of “having a bellyful” of something or other, but I don’t recall ever seeing it comparatively expressed in quarts, quintals or hogsheads.
All I know is when I have one. And though the condition seems incongruous — I’ve only got one belly — I could swear I’ve got several bellyfuls right now.
Weapons of Mass Destruction — WMDs. This one’s good for 3.8 Bellyfuls at least. Our so-called “journalists” are so tired of typing it they have it “macro-keyed” on their word-processing programs so it auto-enters in every other sentence, while every third politician in DC has mouthed it so many times they run it into one word — weapunzuvmastiztrukshin — which is kind of interesting since so few of them can even define the term. I’m really sick of this one.
Of course, the usual context is, “Bush lied! There were no WMDs in Iraq!” What’s going on? Is there some form of global amnesia working here? If Bush lied, then so did virtually everybody in Washington and beyond, both Republicans and Democrats. But they weren’t lying. Here’s the bullet on Saddam’s WMDs: Had ’em, used ’em, workin’ on ’em, moved ’em and hid ’em — and half the world knew it.
Osiraq
Does anyone else remember Osiraq — AKA “Tammuz” — the nuclear reactor facility, which our French pals, built for Saddam? Jacques Chirac even presented Saddam with 27.5 pounds of 93-percent Uranium-235 as kind of a “sourdough starter kit” for his nuclear bakery. Chirac blithely justified it to the world community by saying since Israel probably had nukes, Iraq should have ’em too or it’s “no fairsies.” What a schmuck.
“Osiraq” was a cute conjunction of “Osiris,” the Egyptian god of the dead, and “Iraq” — an apt name choice, considering Uncle Saddam was telling the world he was gonna turn Tehran into a bowl of glowing glass — and anybody else who ticked him off. Iran took him at his word and bombed Osiraq, but did little damage.
Then Saddam threatened to melt down Tel Aviv and use it for a paperweight. The Israelis didn’t beg permission from the French or the UN, because they wanted to survive. They bombed Osiraq into kibbles & bits. That’s when Saddam “went mobile” with most of his nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs, using special trailers.
I don’t have space here for a full history, so let’s conclude with this: If you mount a Geiger counter on the bumper of your Tahoe and drive the highway from Baghdad to Damascus, you’d better keep the volume down. The clicking would drive you nuts. When our troops came knocking, the atomic evidence had been flushed.
“The measure of a regime of terror is the victims of its peace, not the casualties of its wars.” — Samir al-Khalil
As for chemical weapons and poison gas, ask this question of the Iranians, Iraq’s own southern Shia and surviving Kurds in the north: “How many dead does it take to qualify as mass destruction?” They know. And let’s not forget the words of Ali Hassan (“Chemical Ali”) al-Majid, Iraq’s WMD program chief. When told the world disapproved of his slaughter of the Kurds, he said, “I will kill them all with chemical weapons. Who is going to say anything? The international community? F*** them.”
Poseur-Warriors
These Bozos account for about 4.7 Bf on the Bellyful Scale. My current favorites include two self-proclaimed courageous US Iraq war veterans on the lecture circuit, telling the world how they took part in or observed horrible war crimes and atrocities committed by Americans against innocent Iraqi men, women and children. Both have been absolutely and utterly proven to be fakes and liars — and they’re still on tour, being quoted in the press.
Jimmy Massey was a Marine staff sergeant with 3rd Battalion, Seventh Marines when they rolled into Baghdad. He was later discharged due to depression and claimed post-traumatic stress disorder. He has since toured the world with Cindy Sheehan and the anti-Iraq war movement, tearfully recounting the genocidal bloodbath carried out “under orders” but enthusiastically by his fellow Marines, whom he described as “psychopathic killers.” Massey has been an honored speaker at Cornell and Syracuse universities, several stops in Canada and the Perdana Global Peace Forum in Kuala Lumpur, among others.
His book, Kill, Kill, Kill! has been released to applause in France. Massey has been interviewed in Vanity Fair and USA Today, describing Marines “gunning down unarmed demonstrators” in Baghdad. He waxed eloquent about atrocities in several stories carried by the Associated Press, which furnishes “news” to 8,500 newspapers, radio and TV stations worldwide. His claims were accepted as facts across the board. The trouble is, they were all lies.
Didn’t Happen
The events he described never occurred. There were five reporters embedded in his regiment, one of whom, an AP reporter named Ravi Nessman, knew Massey during that time and saw virtually everything Massey saw.
After reading Massey’s version, a confused Nessman said, “When (the Marines) were driving into central Baghdad, they were cheered.” Nessman was one of two AP reporters with the regiment. An AP exec later admitted but could not explain why AP had not contacted their own reporters who were there — or the Marines Corps — to corroborate or refute Massey’s claims. Then they denied permission for Nessman to be interviewed further on the matter.
Under questioning, Massey slowly admitted the lies himself, backing down step by step Clinton-style until finally asserting his claims were based on “what others told him.” Not surprisingly, his alleged incidents don’t even match fictitious incidents in Al Qaeda propaganda. At least, his lies could have corroborated theirs, don’t ya think?
Another Rambo-Commando
If Jimmy Massey is the anti-war movement’s darling, Jesse Macbeth is their rock superstar. This “heavily-decorated many-times-wounded Army Airborne Ranger” has trotted the globe in his medal-festooned killer-clown “uniform,” complete with a tan beret worn like a pastry chef. Macbeth’s claims are even more violent and mercilessly bloody than Massey’s, as he weeps and recalls murdering every worshipper in a mosque and personally killing an Iraqi mother who was pleading for mercy, along with her three children. All of this and more, he says he “had to do” in obedience to his orders.
Macbeth, who was born Jesse Adam al-Zaid, was discharged from Army basic training as “unfit or unsuitable” for service. His adventures may arguably have occurred in some parallel universe, but not in this one. Jesse’s confessions have circled the earth in English and Arabic, and even after being exposed as a fraud, he is still being ridden like a carnival pony.
Rats. I’m outta space, and I didn’t get to tell you about Micah Wright, another hero-of-the-left and “Army Ranger.” He never served a day on active duty. Or, the 8.5 Bfs attributable to these four connected words: “Al Gore” and “global warming.” Maybe it’s best I stop now. There ain’t enough antacids for all of us.