The Myths & Facts According To Juan Cole

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Juan Cole has written a embarrassing post which just goest to prove that liberals are so invested in the defeat of our country that they will ignore reality and instead pawn off myths as some kind of facts, and facts as myths. 

This time he lists the “top 10 myths” about Iraq.  Some of his doozies are that there really is no reconciliation going on in Iraq between the rival factions.  Of course this ignores recent studies that show a majority of Sunni’s and Shia describing themselves as Iraqi’s above all else and almost no one inside Iraq believe separating Iraq would be a good thing:

Sixty-two per cent of Iraqis still say Iraq should have
a unified central government, and 98% say it would be a bad thing for
the country to separate along sectarian lines.

Cole argues that attacks against civilians still continue, which should shock no one since attacks against civilians inside our own country still continue, and will continue to the end of our days.  Unfortunately a utopia has yet to be found.  Hell, in New York state (population 20 million) there were close to 1,000 murders in 2006 and 84,000 violent attacks. 

Fact: in the past 6 weeks, there have been an average of 600 attacks a
month, or 20 a day, which has held steady since the beginning of
November. About 600 civilians are being killed in direct political
violence per month, but that number excludes deaths of soldiers and
police. Across the board, Iraqis believe that their conflicts are mainly caused by the US military presence and they are eager for it to end.

Of course they are eager for us to leave.  We are eager to leave.  But they also recognize that we must stay until they can deal with the security situation themselves  Pointing out that Iraqi’s want us to finish the job and leave proves nothing whatsoever.  It’s common sense. 

One of his more idiotic “facts”:

6. Myth: The US overthrow of the Baath regime and military occupation of Iraq has helped liberate Iraqi women. Fact: Iraqi women have suffered significant reversals of status, ability to circulate freely, and economic situation under the Bush administration.

According to the article he links to women have it worse off because of their men are being killed off and because the ability to move about freely is hindered due to the violence that is raging. 

Nevermind that the violence described had dissipated immensely.

Nevermind that Juan ignores other studies that show it was much worse for Iraqi women before we got there including the fact that by 2000 less then 25% of Iraqi women were literate:

Women and girls have also suffered from increasing restrictions on their freedom of mobility and protections under the law.  In collusion with conservative religious groups and tribal leaders, the government issued numerous decrees and introduced legislation negatively impacting women’s legal status in the labor code, criminal justice system, and personal status laws. In 2001, the U.N. Special Rapporteur for Violence against Women reported that since the passage of the reforms in 1991, an estimated 4,000 women and girls had been victims of “honor killings.”

~~~

In 1998, the government reportedly dismissed all females working as secretaries in governmental agencies.30 In June 2000, it also reportedly enacted a law requiring all state ministries to put restrictions on women working outside the home. Women’s freedom to travel abroad was also legally restricted and formerly co-educational high schools were required by law to provide single-sex education only, further reflecting the reversion to religious and tribal traditions.  As a result of these combined forces, by the last years of Saddam Hussein’s government the majority of women and girls had been relegated to traditional roles within the home.

Dr. Sanity notes a fact overlooked by Juan:

Under the pretext of fighting prostitution, units of “Fedayeen Saddam,”
the paramilitary organization led by Uday Hussein, Saddam’s eldest son,
have beheaded in public more than 200 women throughout the country,
dumping their severed heads at their families’ doorsteps. Many families
have been required to display the victim’s head on their outside fences
for several days. These barbaric acts were carried out in the total
absence of any proper judicial procedures and many of the victims were
not engaged in prostitution, but were targeted for political reasons.
For example, Najat Mohammad Haydar, an obstetrician in Baghdad, was
beheaded after criticizing the corruption within health services.
(Amnesty International Report, Iraq: Systematic Torture of Political
Prisoners, August 2001; Iraqi Women’s League in Damascus, Syria)

In fact I would suggest an excellent book for Juan to peruse called Mayada, Daughter of Iraq: One Woman’s Survival Under Saddam Hussein, which would disabuse him of any belief that somehow, someway, women were all flying kites during Saddam’s reign. 

Another of Juan’s facts:

10. Myth: The US public no longer sees Iraq as a central issue in the 2008 presidential campaign

Hey, I agree with that one.  Problem is that the Democrat political leaders are now the ones who no longer want to see Iraq as a central issue because they know its a loser.  Success inside Iraq has hurt Democrats who have only cried “disaster” “cut and run” and “quagmire” for 3 years now.

Karl at Protein Wisdom did his own post on debunking Juan’s list:

quotes Cole: “Among the primary effects of the ‘surge’ has been to
turn Baghdad into an overwhelmingly Shiite city and to displace
hundreds of thousands of Iraqis from the capital.”
 

The facts and data backing that assertion?  Cole claims that between
January, 2007, and July, 2007, Baghdad went from 65% Shiite to 75%
Shiite.  Yes, a whopping 10% shift in the population.  Neither Cole nor
Sullivan can be bothered to note the Iraqi Christians who fled a
district of Baghdad that declared itself an al-Qaeda caliphate have returned home to celebrate their first Christmas in two years.  Or the thousands of Iraqi Christians who made their way to church
through checkpoints and streets lined with blast walls, to celebrate
Christmas Mass in numbers unthinkable a year ago.  Plus, nothing says
“deepening sectarian divide” like a peace march and and talks to relink Sunni and Shia neighborhoods in Baghdad.

Incredibly Juan also doesn’t believe the reports that Iran sent IED’s into Iraq but does note that if they did, then hell, it was only because they sent the stuff to their allies inside Iraq who then unbeknownst to them sold it off to those who killed Americans.  I mean come on, Iran would never want to harm Americans.

Sigh…..

Lastly, this”fact” of Juan’s:

5. Myth: Some progress has been made by the Iraqi government in meeting
the “benchmarks” worked out with the Bush administration. Fact:
in the words of Democratic Senator Carl Levin, “Those legislative
benchmarks include approving a hydrocarbon law, approving a
debaathification law, completing the work of a constitutional review
committee, and holding provincial elections
. Those commitments,
made 1 1/2 years ago, which were to have been completed by January of
2007, have not yet been kept by the Iraqi political leaders despite the
breathing space the surge has provided.”

One answer:

benchmark.jpg

Ed Morrissey has the info on some bills passed by the Iraqi’s today including providing pensions for those Sunni’s who lost it after the fall of Saddam (one more step towards reconciliation that Juan says is not, nor will it ever, happen).

All in all another of a humdinger from Juan.  Don Surber said he:

…knocks down all 10 strawmen he sets up.

I respect Professor Juan Cole’s knowledge of the Middle
East but his post today on “Top Ten Myths about Iraq 2007” was
propaganda disguised as scholarship.

His myths were myths.

And I would have to agree.  It basically comes down to the same ole’ liberal mantra that Iraq was a beautiful, happy, peaceful place before the big bad United States came in and ruined it all.  It’s a wonder that people like Juan Cole do not give themselves a stroke from their BDS frustration.

Poor fella.  Give that man a martini or something.

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Juan Cole is so educated he thinks he’s smart. There is a wide canyon between education and smart. Just look at the left winger’s, 99% are actually totally stupid when it comes to reality. No way is Cole qualified to teach anything including pre-school.

Juan Cole is another liberal fool who thinks education makes you better — it doesn’t, it makes you more foolish and unwise.

His ‘myths’ page was so angering to me that I almost tore off my laptop screen — it is maddening to think that people can’t even bring themselves to admit that good things do come with military force.

The left is morally sick.

Well said Scrapiron. Thinking about how some professors act that way and think that way makes me want to quit school sometimes. I always wake up wondering if I should have signed up for the service right after high school instead of trying to earn a college degree before serving in the military.

Professors like this make me mad, some of them don’t allow you to speak if you don’t agree with them. In my World Civilizations History class, my professor got into an argument with a student whom he had overheard speaking to another student regarding immigration. The student said to the second student that “We’ll just have to agree to disagree then, because I have nothing against immigrants but I think we need to close our borders”.

The professor then proceeded to announce the discussion to the class, and then he told the student that “He should be ashamed of himself”. Of which, the students who played the professors pets cheered to that statement. When the student rose up to defend himself, the professors pets booed loudly so that way the kid would be discouraged and the rest of the class wouldn’t hear his defense.

That day made me sad, and even though I want to make getting an American citizenship easier for all of the immigrants who are having a tough time trying to start a new life in this country. I still wanted to be friends with the student who disagreed with me. I thought the same way he did, that we may agree to disagree peacefully. That day, the professor roughshoded the integrity of academia with behavior that was nothing short of malapropos.

Anyway, it was days like that which make me want to vomit. The treatment this student got, made me want to leave school and never turn back. Those memories inspire me though. I do not want to lack ad hoc, but this is why I want to be in the service. I want to deliver freedom to oppressed peoples and cultures. I want to wear the boots that make me proud of my fathers and their fathers. Nothing short of that, to make sure that I do my part to fight the destructive, and obtrusive oppresion. Like the one that was wreaked upon my classmate and more importantly “My American and Human Brother”.

Overall, I don’t drop out for many reasons, and one was the need of a college education to become an Officer in the Navy. I learned about what Officers do in our military. After all those years of being brainwashed by the falsehood that plagued anti-military politics, the falsehood that Officers do none of the combat. I learned the truth through a Sea Story told to me by my friend Talon McCarthy who is a Navy Corpsman,and whose Marine Officer was a Captain (O-3 pay grade). This officer lead an assault that Talon was in, an assault into a building in Tarmiyah that local Iraqis were fearing to being a factory and black market place for VBIED’s.

Anyway, the Marine Captain breached the room with his Marines and Talon. They took down a total of 7 insurgents. The first room had four and they all surrendered through the surprise of their lives. The second had one who was sharpening a knife, he tried to pick up his AK-47 machine gun but Talon shot him in the head killing him instantly. They went to the second story up the stairs and two were shooting at the Marines. One of the insurgents threw a grenade at the Marines. Quickly, the captain pulled back his Point Man positioning the Marine behind him by grabbing the back of the Marines’ Mali Gear flak vest. The Captain used his body to cover the Point Man and the Marines down stairs.

The grenade went off and even though the Marines were out of the M67 grenades blast radius. The Captain got some shrapnel into his back. He sucked it up and continued to clear the room afterwards. The insurgents died.

This story inspires me everytime. It’s why I want to become an officer for the Navy Seal Teams. I know I need to attempt at acquiring a college degree to start at an O-1 rank and have at least completed 3 years. This is why I must stay. In addition to that, a college degree is what my parents ask of me. It is little compared to the hardship they endured starting life in America.

Plus, the fact that I want to be a Physical Trainer. I want to help injured troops recover after healing from an injury while working at a military hospital. So, I have to Earn my Kinesiology Bachelors degree in Excercise Science and Pre-Physical Therapy to do anything like that. These are the reasons why I stay, no other. Most definately not because I want to, but because I have to. I can’t really say that I haven’t learned anything. This pain staking memory of what happened in my World Civilizations class was a learning experience along with a good catalyst to self-realization and evaluation.

Oh, after completing Pre-Physical Therapy. Then comes Physical Therapy school if I want to become a Doctor at Physical Therapy.

“Surely you remember Bin Laden declaring war on America in 1994.”

Juan Cole is so completely discredited with even major LEFTISH thinking on foreign policy that he was recently rejected by YALE, a university whose social studies/history departments are hardly known for backing the Republican policy narratives.

The insanity of Cole is derived from the a clown for POTUS back in the nineties, who was on a permanent campaign to be liked and to get re-elected, and a permanent vacation from making difficult foreign policy determinations. Osama declared war on the US in the mid-nineties, but the clown imitated Jimmy Carter and became a feckless witless initiator of 9/11, to the extent that he did NOTHING to stop it except bomb an aspirin factory in Kharthoum! In ’98 Embassies were bombed after he refused to take ObL from Sudan because of his legal cowardice/qualms. He did NOTHING after the Cole [no relation to the Luftesgescheaeften perfesser!!!] was bombed in 2000.

This Clinton Inc. executive Billy Jeff ClyntOOn is now polluting the airwaves with nitwit remarks aimed at the hysterical blindness of his followers who are unaware they suffer from it!!!

Seal,

Never give up on your beliefs but realize that college only gets worse on those issues. Nothing has changed (except to get worse) since I graduated in 1996 and was commissioned. The hate and bile from the leftist on campus, along with the real oppression doled out by leftist faculty and professors is disgusting, but all you and this other student can do is stick to your beliefs and defend them rationally and calmly, or go into intellectual hiding for 4 years.

The sad part is that these leftists are the same useful idiots who come trolling blogs, spouting hate and falsehoods and then projecting it onto us.

Lastly, as for Officers in today’s US Armed Forces, yes, we do fight and yes, we do all we can to preserve the enlisted by leading from the front. This is the real reason our officers have the casualty rates they do, though I sure some troll will spout their hate and ignorance and say it is because we are less intelligent or some other lie. We are perhaps one of the only military forces which behaves this way and cares for its enlisted.

You lead from the front, you lead well and justly, you empower your subordinates, and those who follow you will always have your back.