Quotes of the Morning: The Last Five Years

“Let’s walk through this one more time… We went to war in Afghanistan because they were supporting Osama (who attacked us on 9-11), and we needed to stop terrorism. We liberated them from their oppressive Taliban government.”
-Skippy

“Taliban fighters killed at least a dozen Afghan police and abducted up to 40 in two separate attacks in southern Afghanistan, while US-led forces launched an offensive in a nearby province, officials said yesterday.
In the southern province of Zabul, a senior police official, Mohamed Rasoul, was killed and four other people, including two senior provincial officials, were wounded after the Taliban hit their car with a rocket on Tuesday night.”
-Gulf Times, June 1, 2006

“When the Pakistan army's front line in its war on terrorism moved elsewhere, and the Taliban took control of his hometown, Baidar decided it was time to leave.
‘The government is helpless. The Taliban is in full control there, not religious students, but militant Taliban,’ said the 30-year-old Wazir tribesman.
Baidar shut his medical store in the bazaar at Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, one of Pakistan's seven semi-autonomous tribal agencies, and moved to Tank, just across the boundary in North West Frontier Province.
‘The real worry is for businessmen and educated people because they fear being targeted or killed by the Taliban on suspicion of being informers for the government or America,’ said the shopkeeper, who, unlike many others, dared to give his name.”
-Reuters, May 30, 2006

“While a survey of hospitals on Monday found 14 people dead from the rioting, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday that 12 had been killed, including one policeman, and that 138 had been wounded. Afghan troops were deployed across the capital on Tuesday, sitting atop armored personnel carriers at main intersections. Gen. Jamil Junbish, the Kabul police chief, said a curfew would be enforced for a second night.
There was an unmistakably anti-government and anti-American tinge to Monday's protests. In the main square, rioters burned a huge banner of President Hamid Karzai, who is frequently caricatured by his opponents as a puppet of Washington. A similar banner of the late commander of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, Ahmed Shah Massoud, who was assassinated by Al Qaeda on Sept. 9, 2001, remained untouched.”
-New York Times, May 31, 2006

“After successfully stopping Osama (What? We didn’t?) we moved on to liberate Iraq from the oppressive rule of Saddam (unless this is the day of the week that we claim to have done it because of WMDs or some other reason… It is difficult to keep track). Our efforts were successful, and now the Iraqi people are free.”
-Skippy

“U.S. forces killed two Iraqi women — one of them about to give birth — when the troops shot at a car that failed to stop at an observation post in a city north of Baghdad, Iraqi officials and relatives said Wednesday.
Nabiha Nisaif Jassim, 35, was being raced to the maternity hospital in Samarra by her brother when the shooting occurred Tuesday.
Jassim, the mother of two children, and her 57-year-old cousin, Saliha Mohammed Hassan, were killed by the U.S. forces, according to police Capt. Laith Mohammed and witnesses.
The U.S. military said coalition troops fired at a car after it entered a clearly marked prohibited area near an observation post but failed to stop despite repeated visual and auditory warnings.
‘Shots were fired to disable the vehicle,’ the military said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press. ‘Coalition forces later received reports from Iraqi police that two women had died from gunshot wounds ... and one of the females may have been pregnant.’
Jassim's brother, who was wounded by broken glass, said he did not see any warnings as he sped his sister to the hospital. Her husband was waiting for her there.”
-Associated Press, May 31, 2006

“Oddly enough the Iraqi people have not appreciated our fine work in Iraq, and seem somewhat miffed with us.”
-Skippy

“The Shia-dominated southern sector of Iraq, where Britain has 7,200 soldiers, has experienced mounting unrest in recent months, with violence being blamed on sectarian rivalry, militias as well as rival tribal groups.
One group has openly threatened to halt the country's oil exports. More than 100 people were killed in May, including nine British soldiers in the deadliest month for British troops since the 2003 invasion. The Defence Secretary, Des Browne, has said the number of attacks against coalition forces in southern Iraq rose to 103 in April from 36 in January.
Yesterday's announcement of a state of emergency is the first in Iraq and a sign of how serious the unrest has become in the British-controlled southeastern region, which had previously been relatively calm compared with Sunni areas of the country. In other troubled areas, including Baghdad and Ramadi, a curfew is in force.”
-The Independent (UK), June 1, 2006

“And how exactly can we afford to wage wars in Afghanistan and Iraq while simultaneously cutting taxes to the wealthiest Americans? Hmm.. Let’s cut the budget for Homeland Security, which was put there after 9-11 to keep the American people sage from terrorism and massive disasters.”
-Skippy

“The two cities targeted in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks will receive far fewer counterterrorism dollars this year than in 2005 in what the Homeland Security Department described Thursday as a need to spread funding out to other communities facing threats.
Homeland Security officials also noted a $125 million cut in the funds available for the 2006 fiscal year from last year. In all, 46 cities will share $740 million in Homeland Security grants to prevent and respond to terror attacks and, to a lesser extent, other catastrophic disasters like hurricanes.
[…]
Hurricane-ravaged New Orleans will receive half of what it got last year — $4.6 million, down from $9.3 million — although Homeland Security said the money was to help cities grapple with catastrophic disasters from Mother Nature and terrorists alike.”
-Associated Press, May 31, 2006

“Don’t you feel safer now?”
-Skippy