Dangling a juicy carrot.

December 5, 2006 3:53 PM

We all know that the plan over in Iraq was to win the people's hearts and minds and then we'd win the war. Recently, american soldiers are trying to do that by giving water to Iraqi kids whose throats are parched with thirst. They have to chase after a speeding military jeep to get it, sure, but umm... hmmm. It also dosen't help when we're crushing the main source of income for an Iraqi taxi driver. Is it any wonder, then, that Defence Secretary nominee Robert Gates has today said that the US is not winning the war in Iraq?
posted by Effigy2000 (28 comments total)

At any rate, you will probably be happy to know that the Pentagon is apparently investigating the water bottle incident.
posted by Effigy2000 at 3:54 PM on December 5, 2006

The water bottle thing was a quadruple post.
posted by rxrfrx at 3:55 PM on December 5, 2006

"The water bottle thing was a quadruple post."
posted by rxrfrx at 9:55 AM AEST on December 6

I only just noticed that. I did do a search for 'watter bottle' but found nothing.

The rest is new though, as far as I can tell.
posted by Effigy2000 at 3:56 PM on December 5, 2006

I only just noticed that. I did do a search for 'watter bottle' but found nothing.

How about checking the "iraq" tag? The water bottle link is the 8th post down.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:02 PM on December 5, 2006

This is like a sextuple post at this point.
posted by mr_roboto at 4:04 PM on December 5, 2006

This has been posted at least a hundred million times.
posted by Astro Zombie at 4:05 PM on December 5, 2006

I just wanted to write "sex".
posted by mr_roboto at 4:06 PM on December 5, 2006

I have recycled outrage fatigue.
posted by srboisvert at 4:11 PM on December 5, 2006

This has been posted more times than Astro Zombie says, even if comes back with a bigger number.

So ner.
posted by pompomtom at 4:12 PM on December 5, 2006

I did do a search for 'watter bottle' but found nothing.

Imagine that.
posted by George_Spiggott at 4:12 PM on December 5, 2006

Way to go, Effigy, you've finally convinced me that this war in Iraq has not been handled well.
posted by jonson at 4:12 PM on December 5, 2006

Outrage fatigue has given way to pure snark.
posted by Astro Zombie at 4:17 PM on December 5, 2006

I only just noticed that. I did do a search for 'watter bottle' but found nothing.

So you didn't get down to the 8th result?
posted by betaray at 4:18 PM on December 5, 2006

I prefer to think of it as a Killer Instinct/ Street Fighter-esque "COMBO POST".
posted by boo_radley at 4:20 PM on December 5, 2006

We all know that the plan over in Iraq was to win the people's hearts and minds

No, we know that we were told that the plan was to "win the peoples' hearts and minds." There has never been any evidence whatsoever that this was (or is) the case.
posted by Clay201 at 4:26 PM on December 5, 2006

Note the spelling, betaray. A search for "watter bottle" gets zilch.
posted by brundlefly at 4:30 PM on December 5, 2006

I’m normally pretty tolerant of this and I normally wouldn’t comment in a thread if I don’t like the post, but I think this has a lot to do with STAN and how the government uses microwave weapons to create Frankensteins to carry out the government's evil.
posted by Smedleyman at 4:35 PM on December 5, 2006

What's the biggest number?
posted by Meatbomb at 4:43 PM on December 5, 2006

Silly effigy, you should have searched for "walter bottle" or "waiter battle", spelling only counts if you care about the results.

Besides, I think Gates just said that to prove he's not Rumsfeld. But maybe he is, has anyone seen Rummy since he quit? Maybe Gates is just Rumsfeld with a Gates mask on?

I'm confused though, I thought Bush declared the mission had been accomplishated? Or was that accomplisheered?
posted by fenriq at 4:53 PM on December 5, 2006

[carl sagan voice] this has been posted billions and billions of times.
posted by quin at 5:01 PM on December 5, 2006 [1 favorite]

Nothing wrong with gettting the mini derka derkas fit IMO.
posted by fire&wings at 5:01 PM on December 5, 2006

Though not the taxi driver thing. I hadn't seen that before. (Was anyone else kinda hoping the tank would throw a track?)
posted by quin at 5:04 PM on December 5, 2006

I'm thirsty.
posted by NationalKato at 5:07 PM on December 5, 2006

All^{ThisPostneedsnowissuperscript.}
posted by Colloquial Collision at 5:10 PM on December 5, 2006

I hate that the sick behavior of these well-armed frat boys is what gets the most attention in this conflict. Within the madness that we've made of Iraq, there are true acts of heroism that go all but unnoticed. And since we're double-posting already, lets have another look at this decent fellow proving that not all interactions between our army and Iraq's civilians needs to be heartbreaking.

That said, the exemplary behavior of most soldiers does not excuse the crimes of others. If we're to hang on to our last shreds of international credibility, we need to demonstrate that we're willing to take these sick fucks to task for abusing their power. Solder Worship is the new Political Correctness. The pitiful backpedaling Bob Gates engaged in today speaks to that.

"We're losing the war -- uuhh, but the soldiers aren't losing it!"

Remember a couple years back when Time magazine named the American Soldier their Person of the Year? Did anyone else get a "Forward the Red Army" vibe off of that? Criticize the administration or the war all you want, but leave the soldiers out of it - it's a childish attitude for which Iraq is paying the price.
posted by EatTheWeek at 5:38 PM on December 5, 2006

Pretty sure that tank video is a double too, from a while back. The clip is pretty old.
posted by bob sarabia at 5:44 PM on December 5, 2006

Ah, from April 2004.
posted by bob sarabia at 5:46 PM on December 5, 2006

This comment that I'm making right now? Double.
posted by dirigibleman at 5:50 PM on December 5, 2006