Watch out for that shoe, Mr. President!

[Deckard]

On a rather more serious note (and this needs corroboration):

The brother of the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US President George W Bush has said that the reporter has been beaten in custody.

Muntadar al-Zaidi has suffered a broken hand, broken ribs and internal bleeding, as well as an eye injury, his older brother, Dargham, told the BBC.

Dargham al-Zaidi told the BBC's Caroline Wyatt in Baghdad he believed his brother had now been taken to a US military hospital in the Iraqi capital. Mr Zaidi told our correspondent that despite offers from many lawyers his brother has not been given access to any since being arrested by forces under the command of Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security adviser.

If true, well... that should teach that terrorist shoe-bomber never to attempt to assassinate the president.

[cacophony]

Originally Posted by myrrh

I don't think that the situations are quite the same, but now that you mention it, our current situation is worse because the Iraqi's weren't doing anything to justify us killing so many of their people. At least we were technically at war with Japan when we decided to start dropping bombs on them.

you're right. those innocent civilians going about their business in japan totally deserved to die.

[dubman]

technically

of course it makes sense that we never hear about iraqi deaths. we're not supposed to care.

[cacophony]

[Deckard]

Originally Posted by cacophony

Your boingboing image didn't load.

Was it this one?



(I keep watching expecting at least ONE to hit him!)

[//\/\/]

Originally Posted by cacophony

you're right. those innocent civilians going about their business in japan totally deserved to die.

the second world war brought civilians into play on an unprecedented scale. the germans, japanese and the allies all targeted civilian populations - it was a tactic brought about by technological advances in aviation. they didn't deserve to die, but their country was at war and they became targets; just as millions of europeans did too.

and looking at the way the uk population viewed the war, they were supportive of their country's actions and took being targets as something that went with the territory; so does that make them complicit in some way?

[IsiliRunite]

Nanking anyone?

[cacophony]

Originally Posted by //\/\/

the second world war brought civilians into play on an unprecedented scale. the germans, japanese and the allies all targeted civilian populations - it was a tactic brought about by technological advances in aviation. they didn't deserve to die, but their country was at war and they became targets; just as millions of europeans did too.

and looking at the way the uk population viewed the war, they were supportive of their country's actions and took being targets as something that went with the territory; so does that make them complicit in some way?

i accept no argument that makes civilians acceptable targets of war.

[King of Snake]

Originally Posted by myrrh

I don't think that the situations are quite the same, but now that you mention it, our current situation is worse because the Iraqi's weren't doing anything to justify us killing so many of their people. At least we were technically at war with Japan when we decided to start dropping bombs on them.

yeah that was kinda the point i wanted to make.
While I don't exactly want to go into an argument about whether or not dropping atomic bombs on civilians was justified or not. At least from a historic standpoint I think we can safely say that the war on Japan in general was justified, since they allied with Nazi Germany and actually attacked the US (not to mention attacked and occupied many other countries before that).

[myrrh]

Originally Posted by cacophony

you're right. those innocent civilians going about their business in japan totally deserved to die.

Now you are taking my statement out of context. I am not justifying the actions of the US, since in my original post I compared the death-toll in Iraq to the death-toll in Hiroshima.

I am saying however, that while I don't agree either actions, we were at a state of war with Japan, and the way that the US fights wars is by bombing the country it is fighting. When you take this factor into play, I can see (even though I don't agree) with how the actions of the US can be justified by the US government and it's supporters.

My whole point though, was to show by examples of their act's of terrorism how the US is a terrorist nation, though it has brainwashed the majority of it's population to think otherwise.