You Will Anyway: Iraqi airstrike protests

Wednesday, January 1, 2020

Iraqi airstrike protests - update

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Tuesday that 750 U.S. soldiers will deploy "immediately" to the Middle East after violent protests at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq.

In a series of tweets, Esper said that more U.S. forces stand ready to deploy to the region.

[...]

The deployment follows the arrival of 100 U.S. Marines at the embassy in Baghdad earlier Tuesday in response to the protests, which reportedly came in response to the U.S. airstrikes on Sunday that targeted Iranian-backed militants.

The retaliatory strikes came after a U.S. contractor was killed and American troops were wounded in an attack on Friday, which the U.S. blamed on the Iranian-backed Kata'ib Hezbollah militia.

The Hill

A case of true overkill. This article doesn't mention that there were five different airstrikes that killed at least 25 people.

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Life, as Explained in "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead"

GUILDENSTERN: What a fine persecution---to be kept intrigued without ever quite being enlightened.

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ROSENCRANTZ : The only thing that makes it bearable is the irrational belief that somebody interesting will come on in a minute.

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GUILDENSTERN: But for God's sake what are we supposed to do?!

PLAYER: Relax. Respond. That's what people do. You can't go through life questioning your situation at every turn.

GUILDENSTERN: But we don't know what's going on, or what to do with ourselves. We don't know how to act.

PLAYER: Act natural. You know why you're here at least.

GUILDENSTERN: We only know what we're told, and that's little enough. And for all we know it isn't even true.

PLAYER: For all anyone knows, nothing is. Everything has to be taken on trust; truth is only that which is taken to be true. It's the currency of living. There may be nothing behind it, but it doesn't make any difference so long as it is honoured. One acts on assumptions.

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GUILDENSTERN : We act on scraps of information... sifting half-remembered directions that we can hardly separate from instinct.

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PLAYER: Life is a gamble, at terrible odds-if it was a bet you wouldn't take it.