View allAll Photos Tagged blame
Victim-blaming is an invalid legal argument, a failure of logic and of course a sign of moral bankruptcy, expecially because the “revenge porn” consumer is not aroused by graphic sexual depictions as such, but by the fact that people in them—usually
women—did not consent to being looked at. It's a clear violation of others' rights, a threat of privacy and dignity: strangers feels entitled to show to everyone people's body without their consent, violating deliberately limits posed by victim. Victim-blaming and slut-shaming are just other abuse on victims, because it's used to state that victims rather than the perpetrator bear responsibility for the crime committed by the perpetrator. We should remember that people who shared private material without consent to others are committing a crime. They are criminals and fully responsible for their actions.
(This is not mine, I just found it on the internet and I wanted to share)
En mycket nyfiken blåmes. Den kom så nära att jag blev tvungen att fota den. Vilken fantastisk fin fågel det är.
KEAS
Originally a Penn Central Boxcar. As you can see the logo is almost complete gone. Built in March 1973. Now it is owned by New York Central. This image is better viewed: LARGE
Benched in Los Angeles County, CA
Assar was in charge of the dessert. He paid 120 SEK for two liters of Swedish strawberries from Öland. Bought from a roadside stand as per usual.
A warm Summer evening and BBQ at Villa Blåmes. Around 27C. Salmon. Potato gratin. Salad. Rum. Coffee. Whisky. Strawberries and cream. Three of the usual suspects, and an old cat. Also, Truls, the hardworking robotic lawn mower. Not too many mosquitos. A decent sunset. Long conversation about this and that. Most of them true. Future trips to several places around the country came up. Jujjatook the bus home around sunset. I stayed a biot longer for another glass of whisky before jumping on the bike for the 13 klm ride home. A fine evening it was,
A pair of Wisconsin Central SD45s blast north with train BOCFD on Saint Patrick's Day 2000.
The parade of WC freights kept me coming back for more. And then Canadian National came along.
I can seeeeee youuuu, Killy
Killy & Celaeno hold the highest record of razed city during a single confrontation. An overall 100,000,000,000km3 suffered very heavy or unrecoverable structural damage, accounting for almost 5 five times the volume of the moon! A remarkable feat, and a testament that you can't lend GBE weapons to trigger-happy idiots.
Battle lasted for about 5 cycles and punctured the megastructure in more than 100 points. It ended with Celaeno’s withdrawal, after the Governing Agency issued a formal protest to the Safeguard for continued property damage.
I originally intented to use MikeVd’s head design, but a 4 studs wide face turned to be a little too big. Then I discovered lego8110’s design, which provided better size compatibility. Yay! Thanks! Credits to him!
However, while happy with the overall design, I still have concerns with the head design:
The 2x2 black plate wedges (the visor) gives Celaeno a pretty grumpy look. I would have preferred a more happy look, but it was a necessary evil to provide a thiner eye and reduce the esotropia effect.
The groove line of the cheese slopes annoys me, but I couldn’t find a better solution for it.
The hair design is very bland, but poseability requirements demanded a very compact design. Otherwise, the hair easily interfered with the arms and torso. Color election also didn’t help.
Although it uses a ball joint, the neck still lacks range of movement. I tried a MikeVd design (i.e. double joint), but I didn’t manage to properly integrate it.
It’s the spring of 1980 and a business trip has brought my old man to the Quad Cities. As one steeped in Rock Island mythology he knew right where to go, only this time he was, in his vernacular “a day late and a dollar short”. Time had run out on the Rock, growing up in his shadow I was all too familiar with is work along the storied Rock Island, but his collection of images during the final months of operations were surprisingly sparse. I remember asking him once why he hadn’t shot the end of the Rock and he just looked at me and said “gee, I wonder”…. It seems he was preoccupied with a bouncing baby boy in the early months of 1980, oops. Sorry about that pops. He managed a couple of visits to Silvia before the herd thinned too much, liberating a builders plate or two as I recall. Those too are buried amongst his archives somewhere. For now we have frog eye U25b 209 to enjoy, resplendent in her faded red funeral dress.
Almost the end of the month! :) When I started this project, I mainly began so I can attract followers and give them good daily photos. Lately, I feel like I should do this for ME. No matter how many followers I have.
I want to accomplish at least one project. Just for self-accomplishment, I guess.
Although, I do thank everyone who has ever commented or faved any of my images. You all push me to keep going when I feel like giving up on my self. No one to blame but myself. Hope you all enjoy my project!
Collective Blame.
Противоречия опоздавших неописуемые усталость нигилистов диалектики против,
hypothèses déductives de la mamelle théâtrale véracité possessions mesure instincts joués,
فضائل الفسيولوجية التدابير الأساسية إلى الوراء الفلاسفة الدبلوماسية الأفكار,
Emanzipation Verfälschungen Skepsis Verfälschungen Anstifter Intellektualität Mantel Glauben Lügner Anforderungen,
conseguenze appare documenti contraffazione tremende lotte dissimulando compensazioni inimicizia,
κατακριτέες ενέργειες εγωισμός αποκρατικοποιήσεις επιφαινόμενα τιμωρία εννοιών ηδονή της εγκληματικότητας,
damnationis dithyramb comic ballades strenuus pactionibus subsistens mores axiomata assumpsit unionem quaint verses,
zacienione wykonawcy nękani epidemicznie winić spragniony starczego przedwczesne umysły wskazać,
geleend vijanden loeiend clowneske vertalingen verbannen dichters echo herinneringen trots,
狂乱の勝利をエスケープ楽しいギロチン首は自由の夢に乗っスタンザ.
Steve.D.Hammond.
"Blame it on the vodka blame it on the henny. Blame it on the blue tap got you feeling dizzy" - Jamie Foxx
I figured it was about time that I called out @photosip's photo so that's what I did for tonight. I had asked @monatheism if we still had any liquor left and she gave me the "duh" look. So I packed a few bottles with me and headed out.
I placed the bottles on the ground to somewhat judge focus then proceeded to light the area with 1 430EX. I took a test shot and felt that a bit of colour would work with this, so I gelled a 550EX blue, placed it on the ground and pointed it directly at the tall clear bottle.
In the van was my MacBook running onOne's DSLR Remote server software and a ad-hock network to which I was able to trigger the shot via my iPhone. If you look closely at the OOF right hand you can see I'm trying to conceal the iPhone while triggering it. Honestly, I can't wait for it to do focus as that will help out tremendously.
Strobist info:
1 430EX 1/8 power 1/4 CTO shoot through umbrella high camera right
1 550EX 1/16 power blue gel x 2 ground camera left
Camera settings:
1/40 f/2.8 ISO800
Lens used:
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM
Triggered via onOne Software DSLR Camera Remote Pro Edition
Setup shot can be found here
Explore May 30, 2009
Pew!
In the Blame! universe, weapon’s pwning level is inversely proportional to their size. Be sure to remember it. For your own safety.
When posing, the weakest articulation is the knee double joint. The technic pins do not provide enough friction and collapse easily under weight. Anyway, cool poses can still be achieved without need for auxiliary supports.
Iraq Crisis Is Not Obama's Fault ..THERE'S A GROWING POLITICAL DEBATE OVER WHETHER THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION DESERVES BLAME FOR THE CHAOS There are lots of competing incentives for the ..Arms-to-Iraq...Churchill's Folly: How Winston Churchill Created Mode
The crisis in Iraq is tectonically important. Fighting between the Iraqi government and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (or, as it's abbreviated, ISIS) is tearing Iraq apart. The conflict has the potential to transform the politics of the broader Middle East.
It's also extremely complicated. So we've broken down the 11 most important things you need to know to understand the issue, starting from the beginning.
1. ISIS used to be called al-Qaeda in Irack
ISIS is, in a roundabout way, a product of the Iraq war.
It's essentially a rebooted version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, the Islamist group that rose to power after the American invasion. US troops and allied Sunni militias defeated AQI during the post-2006 "surge," but it didn't demolish them. The US commander in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, described the group in 2010 as down but "fundamentally the same." "What they want," the general continued, "is to form an ungoverned territory or at least pieces of ungoverned territory, inside of Iraq, that they can take advantage of."
In 2011, the group rebooted. ISIS successfully freed a number of prisoners held by the Iraqi government and, slowly but surely, began rebuilding their strength. The chaos today is a direct result of the Iraqi government's failure to stop them.
2. ISIS wants to carve out an Islamic state in Iraq and Syria
Their goal since being founded in 2004 has been remarkably consistent: found a hardline Sunni Islamic state. General Odierno again: "They want complete failure of the government in Iraq. They want to establish a caliphate in Iraq." Even after ISIS split with al-Qaeda in February 2014 (in large part because ISIS was too brutal even for al-Qaeda), ISIS' goal remained the same.
Today, ISIS holds a fair amount of territory in both Iraq and Syria — a mass roughly the size of Belgium. One ISIS map, from 2006, shows its ambitions stopping there — though interestingly overlapping a lot of oil fields:
Another shows their ambitions stretching across the Middle East, and some have apparently even included territory in North Africa:
Now, they have no chance of accomplishing any of these things in the foreseeable future. ISIS isn't even strong enough to topple the Iraqi or Syrian governments at present. But these maps do tell us something important about ISIS: they're incredibly ambitious, they think ahead, and they're quite serious about their expansionist Islamist ideology.
3. ISIS thrives on tension between Iraq's two largest religious groups
Marwan Ibrahim/AFP/Getty Images
Perhaps the single most important factor in ISIS' recent resurgence is the conflict between Iraqi Shias and Iraqi Sunnis. ISIS fighters themselves are Sunnis, and the tension between the two groups is a powerful recruiting tool for ISIS.
The difference between the two largest Muslim groups originated with a controversy over who got to take power after the Prophet Muhammed's death, which you can read all about here. But Iraq's sectarian problems aren't about relitigating 7th century disputes; they're about modern political power and grievances.
A majority of Iraqis are Shias, but Sunnis ran the show when Saddam Hussein, himself Sunni, ruled Iraq. The civil war after the American invasion had a brutally sectarian cast to it, and the pseudo-democracy that emerged afterwards empowered the Shia majority (with some heavy-handed help from Washington). The point is that the two groups don't trust each other, and so far have competed in a zero-sum game for control over Iraqi political institutions.
So long as Shias control the government, and Sunnis don't feel like they're fairly represented, ISIS has an audience for its radical Sunni message. That's why ISIS is gaining in the heavily Sunni northwest.
4. The Iraqi government has made this tension worse by persecuting Sunnis and through other missteps
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shia Muslim, has built a Shia sectarian state and refused to take steps to accommodate Sunnis. Police have killed peaceful Sunni protestors and used anti-terrorism laws to mass-arrest Sunni civilians. ISIS cannily exploited that brutality to recruit new fighters.
WHEN ISIS REESTABLISHED ITSELF, IT PUT SUNNI SECTARIANISM AT THE HEART OF ITS IDENTITY AND PROPAGANDA
When ISIS reestablished itself, it put Sunni sectarianism at the heart of its identity and propaganda. The government persecution, according to the Washington Institute for Near East Studies' Michael Knights, "played right into their hands." Maliki "made all the ISIS propaganda real, accurate." That made it much, much easier for ISIS to replenish its fighting stock.
That wasn't the only way the Iraqi government helped ISIS grow, according to Knights. The US and Iraqi governments released a huge number of al-Qaeda prisoners from jail, which he thinks called "an unprecedented infusion of skilled, networked terrorist manpower - an infusion at a scale the world has never seen." US forces were running sophisticated raids "every single night of the year," and Knights believes their withdrawal gave ISIS a bit more breathing room.
5. ISIS raises money like a government
Unlike some other Islamist groups fighting in Syria, ISIS doesn't depend on foreign aid to survive. In Syria, they've built up something like a mini-state: collecting the equivalent of taxes and selling electricity to fund its militant activities.
My colleague Max Fisher has an in-depth breakdown of how they managed to do this, which includes extorting money from humanitarian workers and selling electricity to the Syrian government that it's currently fighting.
There are two important takeaways here. First, as Max explains, these clever revenue bases have made ISIS much more effective on the battlefield than other militant groups:
This money goes a long way: it pays better salaries than moderate Syrian rebels or the Syrian and Iraqi professional militaries, both of which have suffered mass desertions. ISIS also appears to enjoy better internal cohesion than any of its state or non-state enemies, at least for the moment.
Second, it makes the idea that ISIS' near-term goal is to hold Iraqi oil and power facilities more credible. Some reports suggest they've restarted oil fields in eastern Syria. If that's true, then ISIS isn't just a strong military force: they're also smartly laying the economic groundwork to accomplish their dream of an Islamic state in Iraq and Syria.
6. Iraq has another major ethno-religious group, the Kurds, who could matter in this fight
Kurds are mostly Sunnis, but they're ethnically distinct from Iraqi Arabs. They control a swath of northeast Iraq where a lot of the oil fields lie, and are something of a wild card in the conflict between the Iraqi government and ISIS.
Iraqi Kurdistan in northeast Iraq is governed semi-autonomously. The Kurdish security forces are partly integrated with the government, but there's somewhere between 80,000 and 240,000 Kurdish peshmerga (militias) who don't answer to Baghdad. They're well equipped and trained, and represent a serious military threat to ISIS.
You'll notice that Mosul is inside the dotted lines of territory under defacto Kurdish control. Indeed, according to Knights, Kurdish security forces control eastern parts of the city. More broadly, Iraqi Kurdistan borders ISIS territory at a number of different points.
So far, there hasn't been any major conflict between the Kurds and ISIS. The Kurds have taken advantage of the chaos to occupy Kirkuk, a city near massive oil deposits that they've wanted for some time. That means the crisis has been, in a strange way, a boon to the Kurds — provided that they can remain out of the fighting.
7. The Syria conflict has made ISIS much stronger
The crisis in Syria is one of the most important reasons why ISIS grew capable of mounting such an effective attack on the Iraqi government. To see why, take a look at this map from March, paying special attention to the blue ISIS-controlled areas in eastern Syria:
The chaos in Syria allowed ISIS to hold this territory pretty securely. This is a big deal in terms of weaponry and money. "The war gave them a lot of access to heavy weaponry," Michael Knights said. ISIS also "has a funding stream available to them because of local businesses and the oil and gas sector."
It's also hugely important as a safe zone. When fighting Syrian troops, ISIS can safely retreat to Iraq; when fighting Iraqis it can go to Syria. Statistical evidence says these safe "rear areas" help insurgents win: "one of the best predictors of insurgent success that we have to date is the presence of a rear area," Jason Lyall, a political scientist at Yale University who studies insurgencies, said.
8. Mosul, the big city ISIS recently conquered, is really important — and ISIS has spread out from there
Mosul is the second-largest city in Iraq, second only to Baghdad. It's the capital of the northwester Ninevah province, and fairly close to major oilfields. The Mosul Dam, according to McClatchy, plays an important role in the country's water supply. ISIS conquered most of Mosul on June 10th, and it's unclear when the Iraqi army will make a serious play to take it back.
Since then, ISIS has moved out to other parts of northern and central Iraq, including Saddam Hussein's hometown Tikrit and the significant oil town Baiji. Here's a good map of where things stood on June 12th, and how far ISIS is from Iraq's biggest oil fields:
Securing America's Future Energy
As Brad Plumer explains elsewhere on Vox, ISIS' gains threaten one important oil pipeline that ships to Turkey, but not the broader oil infrastructure. Right now, then, ISIS controls a significant part of Iraq's territory, but hasn't yet majorly threatened the industry that makes up 95 percent of Iraq's GDP.
9. Iran is already involved, and this conflict could get much bigge
The Iranian government is Shia, and it has close ties with the Iraqi government. Much like in Syria, Iran doesn't want Sunni Islamist rebels to topple a friendly Shia government. So in both countries, Iran has gone to war.
THESE IRANIAN TROOPS OUTCLASS ISIS ON THE BATTLEFIELD
Iran has sent two battalions of Iranian Revolutionary Guards to help Iraq fight ISIS. These aren't just any old Iranian troops. They're Quds Force, the Guards' elite special operations group. The Quds Force is one of the most effective military forces in the Middle East, a far cry from the undisciplined and disorganized Iraqi forces that fled from a much smaller ISIS force in Mosul. One former CIA officer called Quds Force commander Qassem Suleimani "the single most powerful operative in the Middle East today." Suleimani, the Journal reports, is currently helping the Iraqi government "manage the crisis" in Baghdad.
These Iranian troops outclass ISIS on the battlefield. According to the Wall Street Journal, combined Iranian-Iraqi forces have already retaken about 85 percent of Tikrit. That alone demonstrates the military significance of Iranian intervention: Iraqi forces have previously floundered in block-to-block city battles with ISIS.
IRANIAN INTERVENTION COULD ALSO HELP ISIS IN ITS QUEST TO BUILD SUPPORT AMONG IRAQ'S SUNNIS
However, Iranian intervention could also help ISIS in its quest to build support among Iraq's Sunnis. The perception that the Iraqi government is far too close to Iran is already a significant grievance among Sunnis. That's part pure sectarianism and part nationalism. Many Iraqis don't like the idea of a foreign power manipulating their government, particularly Iran (memories of the Iran-Iraq war haven't faded).
So Iranian participation in actual combat risks legitimizing ISIS' propaganda line: this isn't a conflict between the central Iraqi government and Islamist rebels, but rather a war between Sunnis and Shias.
Here's one other scary thought. Iran is now helping both the Iraqi and Syrian governments fight largely Sunni rebels. What happens if the two battlefields get joined?
10. The Iraqi Army is much larger than ISIS, but also a total mess
ISIS cannot challenge the Iraqi government for control over the country. On a basic level, it's simple math. A rough count of ISIS' fighting strength suggests it has a bit more than 7,000 combat troops, and it can occasionally grab reinforcements from other extremist militias. The Iraqi army has 250,000 troops, plus armed police. That Iraqi military also has tanks, airplanes, and helicopters. ISIS can't make a serious play for the control of Baghdad, let alone the south of Iraq, without a serious risk of getting crushed.
But the Iraqi army is also a total mess, which explains why ISIS has had the success it's had despite being dramatically outnumbered.
TAKE ISIS' VICTORY IN MOSUL: 30,000 IRAQI TROOPS RAN FROM 800 ISIS FIGHTERS
Take ISIS' victory in Mosul. 30,000 Iraqi troops ran from 800 ISIS fighters. Those are 40:1 odds! Yet Iraqi troops ran because they simply didn't want to fight and die for this government. There had been hundreds of desertions per month for months prior to the events of June 10th. The escalation with ISIS is, of course, making it worse.
Sectarianism also plays a role here. The Iraqi army is mixed Sunni-Shia, and "it appears that the Iraqi Army is cleaving along sectarian lines," Yale's Jason Lyall said. "The willingness of Sunni soldiers to fight to retake Mosul appears limited." This makes some sense out of the Mosul rout: some Sunni Muslims don't really want to fight other Sunnis in the name of a government that oppresses them.
This suggests a natural limit to ISIS' expansion. Mosul is a mostly Sunni city, but military resistance will be much stiffer in Shia areas. ISIS needs to stick to Sunni land if it doesn't want to overreach.
11. Iraq may secretly want American drone strikes, and Obama may be considering
Multiple reports say the Iraqi government has quietly requested American military aid in the form of drone strikes against ISIS. Let's assume those are correct. Will Obama say yes?
That's not 100 percent clear. So far, there's no evidence that the administration is leaning towards strikes. But in a press conference about Iraq, Obama didn't rule them out.
THERE'S A GROWING POLITICAL DEBATE OVER WHETHER THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION DESERVES BLAME FOR THE CHAOS
There are lots of competing incentives for the president on this issue. His administration has always touted withdrawal from Iraq as a major accomplishment, but it also (rightly or wrongly) sees drone strikes as a highly effective way of fighting extremist groups like ISIS. The administration is skittish about siding with a repressive creep like Maliki, but it has already publicly committed to assisting the Iraqi army in as-yet unannounced ways.
There's also a growing political debate over whether the Obama administration deserves blame for the chaos. Some conservative critics say Obama should have convinced Iraq to allow him to leave a residual force of American troops to conduct raids on ISIS. The administration's defenders say that would have been impossible, and probably wouldn't have prevented this regardless.
So, to recap. Iraq has essentially just began another civil war, and it's totally unclear how long it's going to last or how it's going to end. And no one's sure what to do about it.
The Arms-to-Iraq affair concerned the uncovering of the government-endorsed sale of arms by British companies to Iraq, then under the rule of Saddam Hussein. The scandal contributed to the growing dissatisfaction with the Conservative government of John Major and may have contributed to the electoral landslide for Tony Blair's Labour Party at the 1997 general election. The whole affair also highlighted the weakness of the constitutional convention of individual ministerial accountability.
Churchill's Folly: How Winston Churchill Created Modern Iraq Paperback
by Christopher Catherwood (Author)
Following the first Gulf War of 1991 there was interest in the extent to which British companies had been supplying Saddam Hussein's administration with the materials to prosecute the war. Four directors of the British machine tools manufacturer, Matrix Churchill, were put on trial for supplying equipment and knowledge to Iraq, but in 1992 the trial collapsed, when it was revealed that the company had been advised by the government on how to sell arms to Iraq. Several of the directors were eventually paid compensation.
Matrix Churchill
Classified documents released at the trial indicate that Britain violated the embargo in an effort to keep the country's machine-tool industry, including Matrix Churchill, whose managing director Paul Henderson had been working unpaid for British intelligence for 15 years, in business.
—The Economist (1992)[3]
Matrix Churchill was an engineering company based in Coventry, with expertise in both the design and manufacture of precision machine tools. Established in 1913 by Walter Tattler and his brother in law Sir Harry Harley, the company had its origins in gauge and tool manufacture, the original company being known as Walter Tattler Ltd..
In 1989, as the result of a debt settlement, it was acquired by "Iraqi interests" for nothing. New directors were appointed including two who worked for the Iraqi security services and the company began shipping components for Saddam Hussein's secret weapons programme.[4] According to the International Atomic Energy Authority, its products found in Iraq were among the highest quality of their kind in the world. They were "dual use" machines that could be used to manufacture weapons including artillery shells and parts for medium range missiles.
As one of the other directors claimed to have been working for the British intelligence services, the Ministry of Defence advised Matrix Churchill on how to apply for export licences of materials that could be used to make munitions in such a way that would not attract attention. When Alan Clark admitted under oath that he had been "economical with the actualité" in answering questions about the policy on arms exports to Iraq, the trial collapsed and triggered the Scott Inquiry, which reported in 1996.
This case also raised the issue of public interest immunity, the process by which information believed to be highly sensitive is kept outwith the public domain. In order to prevent information being public the relevant government minister must issue a public interest immunity certificate.
Did Churchill Have the Right Idea About Iraq?
by Shannon Monaghan
Shannon Monaghan studies history at Yale University and writes for the History News Service.
On Sept. 1, 1922, Great Britain's colonial secretary, the man responsible for the administration of the British presence in Iraq, wrote a scathing letter to his Prime Minister on the miserable state of that country and Britain's interests there. He closed his letter with these crushing lines:
"At present we are paying eight millions [in] pounds Sterling a year [the equivalent of half a billion dollars today] for the privilege of living on an ungrateful volcano out of which we are in no circumstances to get anything worth having."
The name of that colonial secretary? Winston Churchill.
The phrase "history repeats itself" is overused; the greater tragedy is that in this instance the cliche is entirely appropriate. President Bush appears to think that he can somehow escape the lessons that the past can teach us and that history will treat his misadventure in Iraq well. Experience does not bode well for his hopes.
By 1922, Churchill had no such illusory hopes about Iraq. In fact, he declared the task of managing the country "impossible."
Little has changed since Churchill came to that sobering conclusion. Like those who would today challenge the American president on Iraq, Churchill paid a price for his view. His prime minister severely rebuked him, and refused to allow even the notion of withdrawal to be brought before his cabinet. It took Great Britain ten years more of harsh lessons before it finally granted that nation its independence.
In making his case to Prime Minister David Lloyd George, Churchill argued that Britain's course of action in Iraq was a waste - a waste of money, effort, time and political capital. The difficulties with Britain's stance that Churchill emphasized are those that the American public faces day after day, month after month, year after year.
Churchill declared the Arab officials of Iraq's British-backed King Feisal "incompetent." He noted the gross over-expenditure of monies in the region by the British government, which "it is almost certain Iraq will not be able to pay." Furthermore, he lamented that "no progress has been made in developing the oil." He was worried about British troops and desperately concerned about increased Turkish influence in the region and a potential Turkish invasion. He insisted that "there is scarcely a single newspaper . . . which is not consistently hostile to our remaining in this country."
In fact, Churchill strongly advocated immediately removing the British presence in Iraq if the provisional Iraqi government did not co-operate. Furthermore, he pointed out that in Britain the party had "no political strength to face disaster of any kind," and that the British public's opinion of the situation was so poor that a newly formed government at home would have to order "instant evacuation" to gain immediate support. After reciting at length this litany of failures, Churchill crisply stated, "Altogether, I am getting to the end of my resources."
One need only to turn on the news to realize that the United States is futilely struggling with the very same problems that Churchill struggled with - and more. The U.S. government and its military leaders cannot find a solution to the problems besetting the Iraqi government, the development and allocation of the country's oil, the influence of Iran and other countries in the region and sectarian violence. U.S. military forces face unrelieved dangers. Public opinion at home has soured on the war. Americans, like Britons in Churchill's day, have reached the end of their resources.
Ironically, Bush declared in 2004 that "I've always been a great admirer of Sir Winston Churchill, admirer of his career, admirer of his strength, admirer of his character -- so much so that I keep a stern-looking bust of Sir Winston in the Oval Office." If the President so admires Churchill, he should heed that great man's warnings about involvement in Iraq and remove American troops from that nation now.