Re: Looting of museums, banks, shops, factories--South Central LA writ large
What is up with looting hospitals? I can see grabbing the fun meds, but the rest of it? Who do they think they're screwing with this? Looting govt offices is just payback, like bombing an IRS office. Looting merchants is just lowlife theivery, like Los Angeles, unless the merchants were state-licensed or pro-state, in which case payback may also be involved. (E.g., Bombing Fox News vs. Starbucks or Walmart) (There was also a racial motivation in LA, as some smaller merchants were Korean and the rioters were Negroes, and the riots themselves were racially instigated. I haven't heard of similar Sunni/Shiite differences motivating Iraqi rioters; I don't know if they can tell each other apart by sight, or by language.) At least the Marines actually have ammo in their weapons. The LA Nat'l Guardsmen didn't.
On Friday, April 11, 2003, at 09:02 PM, Major Variola (ret) wrote:
What is up with looting hospitals? I can see grabbing the fun meds, but the rest of it? Who do they think they're screwing with this? Looting govt offices is just payback, like bombing an IRS office.
Looting merchants is just lowlife theivery, like Los Angeles, unless the merchants were state-licensed or pro-state, in which case payback may also be involved. (E.g., Bombing Fox News vs. Starbucks or Walmart)
(There was also a racial motivation in LA, as some smaller merchants were Korean and the rioters were Negroes, and the riots themselves were racially instigated. I haven't heard of similar Sunni/Shiite differences motivating Iraqi rioters; I don't know if they can tell each other apart by sight, or by language.)
At least the Marines actually have ammo in their weapons. The LA Nat'l Guardsmen didn't.
Whoever you are in reality, your naivete is breathtaking. Why are they looting? To get free stuff. (More intelligent teams were apparently moved in once the looting started. I just got a communication that professional thieves from Cairo and Damascus were quick to realize the opportunities of plundering the national museums and private homes. The silver Harp of Ur alone is worth $4 million.) This looting and collapse is a consequence of the sacking of Baghdad. Perhaps it's part of the plan. Burn off several million useless eaters and maybe there's a chance for a more compliant U.S. client state. As Anne Coulter and her fellow republidykes have suggested, invade their country, take their oil, give their children blue eyes, convert them all to Christianity, and kill those who don't convert. --Tim May
At 11:19 PM 04/11/2003 -0700, Tim May wrote:
As Anne Coulter and her fellow republidykes have suggested, invade their country, take their oil, give their children blue eyes, convert them all to Christianity, and kill those who don't convert.
The Brits did a nice PR spin on some of this - BBC reports that in some town in Southern Iraq, where the secular Baath Party hasn't let the Shiitte muezzin do the public call to prayer for 15 years, the British army has set up a PA system, and made sure they have the religious freedom for the call to prayer again. In Basra, it's a similar story, though in that case the mosque building was destroyed in the 1991 bombing, but Shiite prayers have been banned for more like 30 years, according to the IHT.
-- On 11 Apr 2003 at 23:19, Tim May wrote:
This looting and collapse is a consequence of the sacking of Baghdad. Perhaps it's part of the plan. Burn off several million useless eaters and maybe there's a chance for a more compliant U.S. client state.
As Anne Coulter and her fellow republidykes have suggested, invade their country, take their oil, give their children blue eyes, convert them all to Christianity, and kill those who don't convert.
If that was the plan, the US would do Sudan, not Iraq. What happened was that when the conscript armies collapsed, Saddam threw his highly privileged non conscript police forces into battle, so naturally the US army smashed them. Poof. No police. No police in a nation of twenty million welfare bums. Result, loot and burn. The US army was not expecting this. Remember Narisaya. US army defeated the regular Iraqi army, thought Narisaya done. Proceeds on its merry way, advancing far past Narisaya. Police attack, seriously impairing US ability to supply troops at the front -- people at the front run alarmingly short of food, fuel, and water. Disaster looms. Result. US army wipes out all police everywhere in a nation of welfare bums. That was not the plan, that was an extremely violent reaction to a close brush with disaster. --digsig James A. Donald 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG da5or2d54+B0YDDe+XcGf9u1Q6Ci33/LFTfqvsPL 4f3E7kWr1ciIuU7/AuIEAxqt3sNcy9/5WE+dIOkBV
On Fri, 11 Apr 2003, Major Variola (ret) wrote:
What is up with looting hospitals? I can see grabbing the fun meds, but the rest of it?
Obviously, you are not thinking this through: these folks are not looking for recreationals, they are looking for materials that could save their lives. The deacade long sanctions, followed up by our Deserter-In-Chief's 80 billion dollar temper tantrum leaves little doubt in my mind that a couple of pounds of a 3rd generation cephalosporin is likely to be worth more than a tank full of "fun meds". In their position, I'd be looting the hospitals too: ultrawide spectrum antibiotics, atropine, a small stash of potent narcotics (a mix of a long acting prep, such as methadone for use over days or weeks, and some short actings like straight morphine for the early moments), a couple of bottles of saline, and some basic kit items (suture, sponges, etc.)... To hell with recreation: these are people worried about *survival*.
Who do they think they're screwing with this?
What makes you think that "they" are doing this to "screw with" someone?
Looting govt offices is just payback, like bombing an IRS office.
Agreed.
Looting merchants is just lowlife theivery, like Los Angeles, unless the merchants were state-licensed or pro-state, in which case payback may also be involved.
Agreed twice. <drivel elided> -- Yours, J.A. Terranson sysadmin@mfn.org
participants (5)
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Bill Stewart -
J.A. Terranson -
James A. Donald -
Major Variola (ret) -
Tim May