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May 14, 2004
Last Items on Berg: An UltraMaroon. [Edited to Add link, and comment on art on Arab reactions]
Again, I am sure there will be a a storm of protest, statements that I lack compassion (true enough, I do. For idiots.)
The more detial I read on Berg, the more I think, "What the bloody fucking hell was he fucking thinking?"
Reports have him:
(a) Flying into Tel Aviv then Amman, apparently picking up an Israeli stamp (not at all necessary and a real liability) in the process.
(b) Taking Taxis/Services around, both to get to Baghdad and to travel around Iraq. As if he's travelling in Morocco in the laid back 1960s, and not in a country that had by January already seen most NGOs evacuate most staff for fear of assasination.
(c) Staying out late in Baghdad, until 10 pm, coming home with beers. Taking public transport to the Green Zone and meeting with Americans.
(d) Sporting a short military style cut, looking like, well an American toughie travelling about in Civies.
(e) Shrugging off increasingly dangerous encounters (robberies, detentions) as if they were adventure.
(f) Declining Consular help and urging to get the fuck out of Dodge.
Let me say then that no one deserves to be slaughtered like a cockamamie sheep by an incompetent butcher, as he was, but fucking hell, he might as hell have been walking about with a bloody sign saying "Hi Kill Me, I want to be a Martryr to Cluelessness!"
Why am I so fascintated and horrified by this? I must say it is because having spent the past two years here, sitting on the powder keg, I am keep meeting clueless European and American youth coming through dangerous areas with nary the slightest sense of their own idiocy. I am not talking about simply visiting Jordan, which is not that dangerous (although fucking around in Maan wearing shorts as if you're in fucking Cali is fucking stupid), but rather heading into the territories (yes, yes, I did so, but I was taking a nice fat fee for that. Pity the fucking check did not fucking clear, lying piece of shit. But at least it was, except the detention part, first class).
I was recently reflecting that I think I saved a kid's life when I tore into him just a few weeks ago, perhaps three, for his dumb ass idea of "hitching" to Iraq to look for part time work and see the country.
What is it about these American kids? Now, I like that they're coming out here to learn (as opposed to one whinging little snot who is out here to "learn the language and ways of his enemy" and per his teacher who I know, petitioned the Embassy for armed guards for his little self. What a fucking weak little piece of garbage. I am sure he will return to the States an "expert" on a Jordanian culture he's had no contact with because he was so fucking afraid of the evil Muslims - Pipes profile by the way.), but bloody hell, someone has to teach people the middle route. A bit of fucking attention to one's life. Now, having been to some quite fucked up places, I am not pretending that I have not gambled a bit, or a lot even, but it was at least for money, and bloody hell, I wasn't stupid about it. And at least I blend, and I really fucking blend. That takes the danger down a lot. But these all so American wheat fed fools....
Well, in any case, we have the wonderful folks with the nice shiney new m16s out now, and the funny, fancy comms gear. It's WEF time, and that means the Royal Army is out in force. Not the bloody conscripts with their shoddy shit, or even the Boys in Blue, nope, we gots the Red Berets out every where, with real live ammo in the mag.
Gov't is worried, things are simmering, a little more heat, and ... well I guess the King got his letter in re Palestine for something. Hopefull the DoD morons have been sidelined for the Agency in re comming the danger.
Added:
Obs above, largely but not entirely derived from:
"Loved Adventure"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25401-2004May13.html
as well as CNN and other reporting.
Added:
Morley of the WP has this:
The online media in the Islamic world reacted with revulsion to the videotaped beheading of American businessman Nick Berg. "
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A26698-2004May14?language=printer
He only deals with English lang., but I can say the mainstream Arabic language press reaction was substantively similar to the characterizations he gives in the linked art. Mainstream. I don't bother buying the whack shit, so...
Posted by The Lounsbury at May 14, 2004 11:33 PM
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Jan-Jul 2004
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