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<DIV><FONT face="MS Sans Serif">CB wrote:</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">If Ira<FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT lang=0
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2
FAMILY="SANSSERIF">qis are so much at each others' throats in disagreement, how
can what Christian Parenti said be some kind of consensus of what Iraqis want
? </FONT></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><FONT color=#000000>Answer: because most of
the mayhem is not over "disagreements" per se. It's about a
near-complete breakdown of public order. </FONT><FONT color=#000000>Gangs
of young men with guns are running all over the place shooting up the city,
</FONT><FONT color=#000000>each other, themselves, and any bystanders who are
unlucky...and there are not enough soldiers or any forces there to control
this. Theft is rampant, and getting blown away trying to stop
someone from driving off with your car is not uncommon. People can
get really crazy when their cities and towns have had the hell bombed out of
them and the infrastructure, which was falling apart to begin with is completely
destroyed and there is no power or water and it's 110 degrees and there is no
government and, literally, *no* authority that can effectively stop
lawlessness. We Americans are not any different: some big NE cities
were lucky a few weeks back, for some reason there was very little rioting and
looting during the blackout. But there has been before, under the
same conditions. </FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><FONT color=#000000>Maria</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><FONT color=#000000>Another thing, in every
human culture I know of, if someone's gonna tear the place down, loot, and be
violent and destructive in general, it's always the young men.
My psych professor said many years ago, "Anytime you bring young men
together in a group with no other members of society involved, eventually there
will be violence." By that he meant everything from the gangs roaming
Baghdad now to a typical American frat house.
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