Bremer: Iraqis Should Relish Freedoms

[Rose Siding]

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqis should measure their progress by the freedoms they enjoy, not the services they don't have, the top U.S. civilian administrator for Iraq said Tuesday.

L. Paul Bremer told a news conference that while Iraqis complain of unsafe streets and shortages of power, they must also realize that the fall of Saddam Hussein has made their lives better.

"Freedom matters," Bremer said. "I think it's important to ... look beyond the shootouts and blackouts and remind ourselves of a range of rights that Iraqis enjoy today because of the coalition's military victory."

Iraqi frustration over power outages and fuel shortages has boiled over in recent days. Summer temperatures creeping above 120 have exacerbated the problems.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-bremer,0,6506899.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[htuttle]

1. Ungrateful natives!

So often lately, I find myself hoping that a government official doesn't actually believe the bullshit that oozes out of their mouth.

'Freedom matters' indeed. Is that what being occupied by a foreign army is called? Freedom?

[ThorsteinVeblen]

2. Keep telling the Iraqis what they should and shouldn't relish

you idiot.

This guy Bremer is a clown.

[StandWatie]

3. what a complete idiot

I know Americans have a hard time with this but every year the third world tries very hard to explain to a bunch of wanna be do-gooders that people who lack food, water and health care really don't give a damn about existential political rights.

on edit: In Iraq's case apparently freedom also involves curfews and tanks on the street :shrug:

[rfranklin]

4. You have the right to remain silent...

you have the right to live in poverty. You have the right to live without potable water. You have the right to watch Halliburton and Exxon take your oil. You have the right to have your children killed and maimed for the greater glory of the Republican party. So shut the eff up!

[Cocoa]

5. sounds like the CEO he is

Telling the Iraqis the glass is half-full. :puke:

[bowens43]

6. Yes, they should be thankful

for having the right to be shot down like a dog if they protest and the right to be murdered if they don't behave themselves at check points and the right to have the government the US tells them to have........


Bremer's a f*cking idiot.

[ameriphile]

7. It's the White Man's Burden!

n/t

[gratuitous]

8. "Look beyond the shootouts and blackouts"

Just because you're cowering in the dark while God knows who is firing off live rounds over your head and through the windows and walls, that's no reason not to just whistle a happy tune!

{Best Shirley Temple voice} C'mon you 'raqis! Turn those frowns upside down!

[ninkasi]

9. Like the freedom...

the family enjoyed the other day, when soldiers killed a father and two of their children? Remember that? They were yelling at the soldiers to stop, but they slaughtered those people anyway. The pregnant widow, and her remaining family members, must sure enjoy their freedom now, right?

This whole administration is made up of nothing but ignorant, greedy, arrogant assholes. I remember the wording of the charges brought at Nuremburg..."Crimes against the Jewish people, crimes against the human race." Substitute Iraqui for Jewish, and it's becoming the same thing.

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. And they should put horseradish

on their wounds. I hear it feels really good.

Assholes like this, make me say lots of dirty words in a row. You &*)#@$U($*%)@#MLFEDHF_W$Y**$#%

[Palacsinta]

11. And I am inspired to add....

(*&%*^%$&^)(&*%r(*_+)()&^*^!!!

I can't think of anything rotten enough to call this man!!!!

[PROGRESSIVE1]

12. If you could bring them PEACE and stop blowing up houses then....

MAYBE THEY WOULD HAVE SOMETHING TO RELISH!!!!!

[GreenArrow]

13. This American LIfe

had a pretty good show a couple of months back. According to the on-site reporter in Baghdad, the Iraqis refer to Mr. Paul Bremmer as Bremmer Hussein, which I thought was pretty amusing.

[U2Shark]

14. Poor Iraqis

They probably can't even get relish.

L. Paul Bremer can fuck off. You can't eat or drink freedom. Freedom doesn't grow back limbs or make the dead come back to life.

[Pert_UK]

15. Don't moan about the legs we blew off - be thankful for our bandages!

Telling people what they should and shouldn't be grateful for is a fucking joke.

Of course the majority (?) are happy not to live under the terror of Hussein, but at the end of the day if life after him is equally intolerable, albeit for other reasons, then it's not progress.

P.

[Cocoa]

23. the legless should relish their arms

and vice versa.

[sendero]

16. he should....

.... be putting relish on the hot dogs he should be serving from a cart.

[teryang]

17. What if?

Our country had been blockaded for ten years, bombed for ten years, bombed again with tens of thousands of dead and maimed, with foreign invaders occupying the White House, Camp David and Crawford? Would they have the nerve to tell us to enjoy our freedoms?

[Rose Siding]

20. That won't work, teryang

The Bush gangsters, et al have not been endowed with the gift of empathy. We get it. They never will.

[maxsolomon]

43. and that makes us weaker than them

much as i hate to say it. they have no concience to slow them down. just greed & god as motivators.

[arcane1]

18. um, "a range of rights that Iraqis enjoy today "

besides this one:

"Iraqis are free to stand up and denounce Saddam Hussein," he said. "I might add they are also free to stand up and denounce Jerry Bremer, as I judge from your reports they do quite often." Jerry is Bremer's nickname.

-snip-



what OTHER rights and freedoms are they "enjoying"? This wasn't the Taliban, fer crissakes! Women had rights and careers, there's no beard law for the men, so don't try to get me all confused about "Arab" countries all being the same, Bremer you jackoff...

your spinning is causing sandstorms

[Jack Rabbit]

19. What freedom? The freedom from their minieral rights?

[Julien Sorel]

21. Someone should teach proconsul Bremer about the

theories of Abraham Maslow:

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs:

1. Biological and Physiological needs - air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc.

2. Safety needs - protection from elements, security, order, law, limits, stability, etc.

3. Belongingness and Love needs - work group, family, affection, relationships, etc.

4. Esteem needs - self-esteem, achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, managerial responsibility, etc.

5. Self-Actualisation needs - realising personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.


Before people can 'enjoy freedom,' they need to have their basic and security needs met, and that isn't happening. Enjoying 'freedom,' or whatever 'freedoms' the proconsul is allowing the Iraqis, comes after the basic needs are met, not before.

[kayell]

37. This was my immediate thought

you would think Maslow's Hierarchy would be basic learning required of anyone in a supervisory, much less commanding role.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

22. Imagine complaining about being shot or blown up! Ingrates.

[NickB79]

24. Hard to enjoy those freedoms when

You are starving, drinking cholera-contaminated water, have no job, and are sweating to death in 120F heat daily because you can't even get enough electricity to run a friggin fan. I know a LOT of people would glady give up freedom and rights when it comes to life or death.

[htuttle]

25. Now that you mention it...

Aren't the Bushes trying to convince people in the US that we have to give up freedoms to be safe (life or death)?

So, they saying that 'freedom' is more important than being safe to the Iraqis, and to us, they say that being safe is more important than freedom? Not that I expect philosophical consistency out of them...

[gulliver]

26. How much more freedom do they really have?

OK. They can run outside and shout insults at Saddam Hussein. Wait, bad example, one of Saddam's former employees might not like it.

OK. They can talk about who to support in the coming election. Wait, bad example. There's no election coming, and now no one knows who to support anyway.

OK. They are free to practice their religion. Wait, bad example. They already had that.

OK. They are free to start a newspaper. Yeah, if they wanted to and had the money, they could start up some kind of newspaper. And it could publish anything they wanted to publish except for Al Jazeera type stuff and political stuff and...

Actually, I think Bremer is trying to take credit for giving the Iraqis something they already enjoyed 90% of anyway. And the 10% of freedom we've given them, freedom from Saddam, is dangerous as hell. Saddam being out of the picture (um, sort of) doesn't necessarily reduce the threat of political violence. So how much freedom should we take credit for giving them.

All of it? It's just like the U.S. there, I guess.

[renegade000]

27. freedom means nothing when you don't have food, water, or security

eom

[Minstrel Boy]

28. "Relish freedom"?

Hadn't the Congress renamed it Freedom Relish?

[underpants]

35. Oh that's funny

Welcome to DU :hi:

[underpants]

36. You have the right to be poor, you have the right to heat stroke,..

You have the right to starve
You have the right to be bombed
You have the right to not have any money....

[diamond14]

29. "freedom's just another word, for nothing left to loose....nothing

nothing if it ain't free....

oh lord, won't you send me a Mercedes Benz.....

from the famous Janis Joplin....

and now, we need another song from younger musicians in America....

[maxsolomon]

44. "when you ain't got nothin'

you got nothin' to lose"

-bob i think

[BiggJawn]

30. Freedom from water, electricity, toilets that flush, limbs...

...Eyes, homes, posessions, automobiles, jobs, schools, virgin daughters, family heirlooms...
Freedom from Home Rule, UN peacekeepers,

The list goes on and on...

Is Bremer striking for Ari's old rating? He dishes out the bullshit just the same way...

[Rex]

31. Arrogant pig!

Ah yes, let us look at some of those freedoms:

The freedom to be shot by spooked US soldiers.

The freedom to draw contaminated water from the local creek.

The freedom to have your house broken into by US troops, because they think you might know somebody who knows somebody...

The freedom to pee out the window onto the street below, just like in the 13th century.

The freedom to come home to an empty house and find a note that says, "we have your wife and kids..."

The freedom to watch US corporate pigs walk out of air-conditioned buildings in suits and ties...off for 9 rounds of golf on the newly created (American only) golf course.

The freedom to realize that after many months of your friends being blown up and losing loved ones...that their lives were worth about $150 dollars.

FUCK BREMER, MAY HE ROT IN HELL ONE DAY SOON.

[FireHeart]

38. What??

A golf course?? I've not heard about this. Do you know how much water is required to keep a golf course (even only a 9 hole one) in decent condition??

This is madness. Do you have any links to this?

[Karenina]

45. Please VERIFY this tidbit

"The freedom to watch US corporate pigs walk out of air-conditioned buildings in suits and ties...off for 9 rounds of golf on the newly created (American only) golf course."

Is this true?

[Fleshdancer]

32. Fucking beautiful

This is coming from a man who probably complains when the restaurant under cooks his steak or his maid fails to clean off all the soap scum. I'm sure he gets irritated when his driver takes a wrong turn or the laundry service uses heavy starch instead of light.

He, like most priviledged Americans, probably complains about every little nit picky problem he can think of when it comes to the service he receives over here. Heaven forbid a poor, hungry, maimed, scared, tired Iraqi should complain about, oh, I don't know...being poor, hungry, maimed, scared, and tired!!!! :grr:

[tedzbear]

41. Our troops better not complain either...

...even though their basic needs are not being met as well! I read somewhere that many still have their water rationed and are still eating pre fab food packages while the soldiers of the coalition partners are having real meals prepared!
Meanwhile, Bremmer eats steak medium rare thank you.

[ze_dscherman]

33. Food is the first thing. Morals follow on

(Brecht/Weill)
--------------
You gentlemen who think you have a mission
To purge us of the seven deadly sins
Should first sort out the basic food position
Then start your preaching, that's where it begins

You lot, who preach restraint and watch your waist as well
Should learn for all time how the world is run
However much you twist, whatever lies you tell
Food is the first thing, morals follow on

So first make sure that those, who now are starving
Get proper helpings, when we all start carving

What keeps mankind alive, the fact that millions
Are daily tortured, stifled, punished, silenced, oppressed
Mankind can keep alive, thanks to its brilliance
At keeping its humanity repressed
For once, you must not try to shirk the facts:
Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts.

You say the girls may strip with your permission (whoa!)
You draw the line dividing art from sin
So first sort out the basic food position
Then start your preaching, that's where it begins

You lot, who bank on your desires and our disgust
Should learn for all time how the world is run
Whatever lies you tell, however much you twist
Food is the first thing, morals follow on

So first make sure that those, who now are starving
Get proper helpings, when we all start carving

What keeps mankind alive, the fact that millions
Are daily tortured, stifled, punished, silenced, oppressed
Mankind can keep alive, thanks to its brilliance
At keeping its humanity repressed
For once, you must not try to shirk the facts
Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts

Mankind can keep alive, thanks to its brilliance
At keeping its humanity repressed
For once, you must not try to shirk the facts:
Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts

[whyaduck]

34. The first thing

that occurred to me when I read this was "why is Paul Bremer's empty rhetoric the lead in this story?" when the *real* story is the serious problems Iraqis face on a daily basis. And yet Newsday emphasized the propoganda and played down the truth of the situation (not that it surprises me all that much).

Then I found this:

The temperature is rising. And Baghdad, Basra and Nasiriyah have all erupted on the same day

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1017329,00.html

"...Haifa, the nice lady who makes sure we have coffee in the morning, was ranting about having to watch "this Paul something" give us lies on TV everyday. She actually described Paul Bremer as another Saddam; we see him every day on TV, and the news is all about what he says and what he does. Next we'll have statues of him in the streets. Somehow you feel like he lives in a bubble and has absolutely no idea what the people are saying."

[qanda]

39. How do you respond to such stupidity?

You don't!

[denverbill]

40. Freedom to starve.

Some freedom.

[David__77]

42. more like anarchy...

there's no functional state. Little protection. How can that be "freedom"? That said, there is more independent press and many parties. Now the question is when Iraq will be free from the occupation.

[fizzana]

46. "There ought to be limits to Freedom" - Cmdr. Bunnypants

This obviously applies to Iraq as well. Flying a flag isn't a freedom the US is prepared to give to Iraqis. Note the concerned reaction from the US military. I guess no-one bothered to pass on the message that if they ever expect to succeed in Iraq it might be worth trying to win over the trust of the Iraqi people.

"The result of this fight was four seriously wounded, and one young boy killed," Sheikh Ali al-Mutairi told AFP in Sadr City, the overwhelmingly Shiite neighbourhood in Baghdad where the clashes occurred.

US military spokespersons, contacted in Baghdad, said they had no information on the incident.

Mutairi, who is deputy director of the Office of the Second Martyr attached to firebrand anti-occupation Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, and other witnesses said the violence flared in the morning after US efforts to remove a black Sadr flag from a communications tower.

A US military helicopter hovered over the tower to remove the flag, but a female crewmember was beaten back by stick-wielding Iraqi men who had climbed the structure to defend their symbol, Mutairi and several others said."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20030813/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_us_clash_shiite&cid=1514&ncid=1480