national philistine

January 30, 2003 11:32 AM

national philistine is putting a very neccessary look at iraq and it's people - an american in iraq, the blog on the front page is one of the most humanizing things i've read in months.
.. part of the iraq peace team
posted by Peter H (10 comments total)

Aside from the oddity of the name Philistine, the pics of the young ones very moving. So, too, to dead kids killed by suicide bombers sent by Palestinian terror groups whose families are rewarded with 25, 000 for each of their kids that kills himself in killing innocent people. This is well documented. Now, if Saddam can spend that kind of money for killing youths outside his country, what is he doing for kids within his country? And the lavish cars etc that he showers his military officers with (also documented and on TV) to keep their loyalty?

Prhaps we ought not invade; perhaps we ought to. But to badmouth America and imply that Saddam and his cronies are just plain nice folks and innocent is at best silly.
posted by Postroad at 12:50 PM on January 30, 2003

What's a philistine?

Oh, you know, like a dirty person.
posted by xmutex at 12:51 PM on January 30, 2003

as far as i can tell, the ntl philistine is a monicker for other art projects on the website, or something, dunno.
this is pretty good satire - icons of wounded cabinet members !!
posted by Peter H at 1:10 PM on January 30, 2003

Maybe he knows where raed is.

One of the hardest questions over Iraq (indeed, any war) is what part the presence of civilians should play in determining whether to go to war or not. The casualty of innocents is the greatest tragedy a war can bring, but does not remove, absolutely, the possibility that war is still necessary.

The harder question for the individual is how much to allow the civilian question to affect your decision on the war. Even in a war universally thought just, it wouldn't be difficult to oppose action after seeing the faces of children that will be the victims, but it would be mistaken to hinge your decision on that alone, as it would be mistaken to disregard the civilian question completely.

I work with refugee children a few times a week, most of whom are Iraqi, and it's heartbreaking to look at them and think "this is the face of the victim". But it hasn't swayed me from thinking the war is ultimately necessary, and whether that makes me intellectually responsible or morally bankrupt is a haunting question. It's vital to put a human face on those who will be affected by war, but it isn't the end of the discussion, only a part of it.

Elegantly written blog. Tragic photographs.
posted by apostasy at 1:17 PM on January 30, 2003

"... imply that Saddam and his cronies are just plain nice folks and innocent is at best silly..."

Sigh.

No one does any such thing. Saddam and his cronies are right bastards.

What people are concerned about, though, is that thousands or tens of thousands of innocent civilians, people who are lot like you or me, are going to be snuffed.

These civilians have done nothing to deserve death. Indeed, they deserve our compassion: they're struggling to survive in an evil regime, which is a helluva lot more difficult than anything any of us is doing.

The USA needs to make a better effort to eliminate Saddam and his cronies without taking out civilians.

Instead of using a sledgehammer, use a stilletto.
posted by five fresh fish at 4:01 PM on January 30, 2003

pantloa postroad, you're something else. you manage to trivialize and downplay the ongoing and imminent mass casualties of iraqi innocents while at the same time putting in a plug for ongoing israeli casualties, which the iraqi tragedy dwarfs by two orders of magnitude.

as someone once noted here, postroad must be a particularly zealous anti-semite. nothing else could explain his sundry and inept derails and sabotages in the service of his ostensible zionist compulsion. it's reverse psychology or something.
posted by donkeyschlong at 4:34 PM on January 30, 2003

The single most compelling argument against invading Iraq is this: We will be raining massive numbers of bombs down on the heads of the people in these pictures.

Nothing Bush has said provides even 1/1000th of the moral justification needed to begin that bombing. Thank you, Peter H.
posted by mediareport at 10:24 PM on January 30, 2003

thanks mediarpt - it's a pretty stunning website. the blog itself moves me most; just for the sheer balls of going to iraq to back up your position or see if it's really a hellpit of scheming villians like others want you to think of it as.

of course you could always stay at home at read the ever growing mountain of slanted bullshit Matched 1,345 pages in 0.05 seconds and counting.... ug.
posted by Peter H at 9:11 AM on January 31, 2003

of course you could always stay at home at read the ever growing mountain of slanted bullshit

• Look for war against terror at eBay - The World's Online Marketplace - Find it at eBay - Over 5 million items for sale! The most fun buying and selling on the web! Try it, you'll love it!

so thats where so-damn insane is hiding the WMD!
posted by mcsweetie at 12:07 PM on January 31, 2003

ha, i like the special rates on war against terror from orbitz myself.
posted by Peter H at 1:39 PM on January 31, 2003