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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Insurgents killing Iraqi intellectuals |
| 2004-02-09 |
| Insurgents are killing at least one and as many as five Iraqi intellectuals every month, hoping to stop people from working with the U.S.-led coalition, American spokesmen said yesterday. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy operations chief, said the number of attacks against Iraq’s intelligentsia such as professors, doctors, lawyers, judges and managers has stayed in the range of 10 to 15 per month, resulting in roughly one to five deaths. However, the number "goes up dramatically" if the attacks against Iraqi police are taken into account, he said. "The focus by the insurgents ... is to break our will by isolating us with attacks against all these institutions," said coalition spokesman Dan Senor, adding that despite the attacks, more and more intellectuals and professionals are coming forward to help thwart the insurgents’ aims. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #10 Plus we still had a substaintial untamed frontier.That encouraged free thinking individulists. |
| Posted by: Raptor 2004-2-9 5:22:08 PM |
| #9 C'mon, LH. We've never taken the kind of casualties the French did, percentage-wise. And the the admitedly horrendous casualties that we suffered in the Civil War were almost immediately made up by adventuresome immigrants. |
| Posted by: 11A5S 2004-2-9 4:47:34 PM |
| #8 I wouldn't lose any sleep over this. Intellectuals in Iraq are not known for being pro-American. These guys are likely to have gone through more years of school (and thus, more years of propaganda) in Iraq. The ones who have returned from studying abroad are probably even more anti-American than the locals. The fewer pseudo-intellectuals exist in Iraq, the better off we'll be. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-2-9 3:14:13 PM |
| #7 11A5S - Er, i wouldnt push too hard on that. Are you at all familiar with the history to the US Civil War??? Bravery wasnt a good survival trait then, either. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2004-2-9 1:27:15 PM |
| #6 Nuguard, this Newsday article is sort of related: Iraq's Secular Parties Try to Gain Ground. It's hard to say who is doing the killing, but I would assume that the professor killing is being done by the Ba'athists or Iranian surrogates. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-2-9 12:02:27 PM |
| #5 B: I think it goes way beyond the French Revolution. * Napoleonic wars: 98% of a 400,000 man army lost in Russia, just for starters. * Panama canal: A whole generation of their best engineers wiped out by malaria and yellow fever. * WWI: Enough has been written about this. The survival traits that you needed to survive in France for the last two centuries are cowardice, being unadventuresome, and a certain amoral ability to adapt. I'm not saying that these traits have propagated through genes, but rather through memes and culture. The bold rebels, warriors and soldiers went out and died in society altering numbers for 200 years. The weasels, shirkers, and cowards stayed behind and propagated their values. |
| Posted by: 11A5S 2004-2-9 11:57:13 AM |
| #4 SH- What you said is what I meant. Its not just the thinking, it is the associated communication and leadership abilities that derive from a western education (rather than the rote memorization taught by the "holy" men). The Enemy has enough problems/frustrations from the continous bombardment of ideas from us infidels. To have a domestic source of chalenge to the social status quo... |
| Posted by: Nguard 2004-2-9 10:49:02 AM |
| #3 Nguard, I doubt its the thinking for/to oneself that is threatening. Anyone who can speak to others with credibility or protect others from bullies is in danger. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-2-9 9:55:01 AM |
| #2 I've always believed that one of the reasons that France is so messed up is because during the French Revolution, they eliminated a good majority the people who had the ability to achieve success within an existing power structure - as opposed to the type who obtain power by going around smashing stuff and killing people. I can't help but wonder if that dilution of the gene pool is the reason that France, today, remains a mess. |
| Posted by: B 2004-2-9 9:09:24 AM |
| #1 Guess the turbans/baathists (there is a difference?) don't want anyone who can think for themselves. |
| Posted by: Nguard 2004-2-9 8:40:44 AM |