Posts Tagged ‘iraq’

Interviews With Immigrants: Hanna From Iraq Seven Years Later

Posted: May 24, 2026 by datechguy in American Success Stories, culture, education, short films/interviews
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One of the proudest things I did as a reporter was a series of Youtube videos called: Interviews with Immigrants.

During these interviews I sat down with a person born in another country and talked to them about their life, their coming to America etc.

One of those interviews was with Hanna From Iraq: At the time she agreed to an audio only interview: You can listen to it here:

It’s been seven years since I conducted this interview Hanna was 23 and we worked together at my former company. She moved on a while ago although we became friendly and she picked up a love of things American including pinball:

Yup that’s Pintastic 2019 back in Sturbridge on the last day as they are taking the last machines out.

Well every year I take some friends out for a Woosox game as a Christmas present so that we can enjoy not only baseball but some time together which is the real gift and Hanna was invited. It was also her graduation day from college so she attended in her cap and gown. After the game she wanted to take some pictures from center field and it hit me that it would be a pretty good sequel to our initial interview to talk to her about her journey to this point. So I pulled out my camera and here we are: Hanna from Iraq seven years later:

When Marco Rubio talked about what America is, this is what he was talking about.

The full interviews with immigrants playlist is here:

It’s only blood for oil if Bush does it

Posted: March 18, 2011 by datechguy in middle east, war
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Let’s see, removing a tyrant dictator with bloodthirsty sons who controls a lot of oil and has been killing his people for years.

Yup that sounds like Iraq to me.

Can someone explain to me how Morning Joe is going on about that “we might be too late” while advocating an Afghan pullout?

I hope it works, but I think Gaddafi takes Benghazi before a single plane makes it in the air unless Egypt invades first.

Update: Boy I think I’ve never been proven wrong so fast:

Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa says Libya is declaring an immediate cease-fire and stopping all military operations.

Friday’s decision comes after the U.N. voted to authorized a no-fly zone and “all necessary measures” to protect the Libyan people, including airstrikes.

Koussa says the cease-fire “will take the country back to safety” and ensure security for all Libyans.

I actually didn’t think that Gaddafi was this smart. By calling a ceasefire he gets the chance to consolidate the gains he has made. He takes away the ability of NATO and the west to strike. As long as they are not attacking they will have a hard time justifying bombing.

This will also force the rebels in Benghazi to actually form a government and act like one. How they act and what they do will also be instructive.

Additionally Gaddafi is an old man, if this goes into a long diplomatic negotiation he will be able to string things along for at the very least months, and perhaps years. The end result? Either a partition or a face saving resignation and transfer of power to his sons.

This may or may not work out, but the solution will not be a quick one.

Update 2: Ed Morrissey comments

Imagine if the UN had been pressed into action two or three weeks ago. Rebels would still hold a large portion of Libya, and Gaddafi’s military would be forced to make a choice between an aging tyrant rapidly losing leverage and a populace clearly ready to seize its own destiny. Even a week ago, rebels still held key positions and Gaddafi was having trouble mounting any large-scale offensives.

Now Gaddafi can afford to offer a cease-fire. It protects his air force while changing very little on the ground. He has the main rebellion cut off in Benghazi and has secured his control over the other rebellious areas. He can afford to wait out the rebels and lay siege to Libya’s second-largest city, secure in the knowledge that the West won’t further intervene. It took them this long to arrange the no-fly zone, and Gaddafi knows that the West has no interest in another ground war in the region (and for good reasons).

La La La La we didn’t see that in Wikileaks Donald.

Posted: February 8, 2011 by datechguy in opinion/news, politics
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Up very early today and was doing paperwork and I noticed Willie Geist playing a clip from Donald Rumsfeld’s interview on ABC about the lack of WMD in Iraq.

This confuses me. Back in Oct and Dec. we posted on the Wikileaks memos (you remember the wikileaks memos? You know the leaks that the left is so supportive of. The leaks that got Mr. Assange a nomination for a Nobel peace prize?) the left was all over the leaks and have even defended the leaker from the military.

Strangely enough that same media and left decided that some of those leaks are more worthy of notice than others. And one of the most unworthy leaks for the MSM are the leaks concerning WMD.

At the time of my first post I quoted Rick Moran from the American Thinker:

Don’t expect any apologies from the rest of the world or even any acknowledgment that they were wrong. The narrative is set and nothing will change it.

ABC’s Diane Sawyer’s interview proves Rick right. Willie Geist’s lead in confirms it, Morning Joe is on Egypt right now but as there is a 2 hour delay today for my kid’s school and I’ll be getting ready for my flight to CPAC tomorrow I’ll be available to watch the rest of the show to see if they touch it too.

Cuba, Christians and Haiti the world keeps turning

Posted: January 17, 2011 by datechguy in opinion/news
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If you followed the blogs you likely didn’t think that anything else was going on except for blaming Sarah Palin for Arizona but there are a few things going on that you should know:

Item: Europe continues it’s post Christian Path:

If you think Pope Benedict XVI and other Christian denominations are lying about how Europe is secularizing, as well as shunning specifically Christianity, this should be proof.

The three million copies of the 2011-2012 school calendar published by the European Union has omitted Christian holidays, while continuing to note important Jewish and Muslim celebrations.

While Christian holidays such as Christmas and Easter are missing from the calendar’s pages, days commemorating “Sikh Baisakhi-Day, the Jewish Yom Kippur holiday, the Muslim holiday Aid-el-Kebir,” remain in place,”

Europe is still stung by Anti-Semitic slaughter and Muslims are the fastest growing population in the area so they can’t be offended. Christians, who cares.

Item: Iraq continues its own “post Christian era” that being more of a Post Christian being alive” era: (warning very graphic photos of slaughter)

This Assyrian Catholic church was taken over by jihadis, and during the course of the several hours during which they controlled the church, the insurgents killed many of the worshippers, until the Iraqi army forces finally stormed the building.

I have been viewing reports from survivors of the massacre, posted on YouTube (here, here and here). From these, and earlier published reports (e.g. here), a picture emerges of the jihadis as religiously motivated people who engaged their victims in theological conversations about Islam, and justified their actions based on the Islamic sharia.

And the fun for Christians continues in Pakistan too:

A day after the two got into an argument, the Muslim woman walked out onto the street and started shouting that her sister-in-law had abused the Holy Prophet (pbuh).

A short while later, a group of men forced their way into the house and started slapping the Christian woman, said another of her brothers.

“Other men and women from the neighbourhood started gathering at the house too and they beat up my sister and mother. They were the only people in the house,” he added.

A participant in the beating said that the women’s faces were blackened, and that they were made to wear necklaces of shoes and paraded around the locality on donkeys to humiliate them. The women denied blaspheming and repeatedly touched their feet, seeking mercy, he added.

I’m sure feminists in the west will make strong objections to this kind of thing someday before I die. Of course when they do the shock will likely kill me.
Item: Don’t call him a socialist but Obama is trying to bail out the Castro’s in Cuba.

A senior Obama official told The Miami Herald the much-expected move to expand cultural, religious and educational travel to Cuba is part of the administration’s continuing “effort to support the Cuban people’s desire to freely determine their own future.

President Barack Obama is also restoring the amount of money ($2,000) that can be sent to nonfamily members to the level they were at during part of the Clinton and Bush administrations.

As Val Prieto said Cuba’s #1 export is people generating money to send back. This is getting very little notice outside of Babalu Blog, but now you know about it.

Item: In the middle of a post whose real point is faith The Anchoress informs us the UN shows how it’s (not) done in Haiti:

The UN complied. As it turns out, the local aid organizations took the free food that came in from all over the world and were not selling it; they were hoarding it in order to sell it. But the people, for the most part, had no money to buy it with. The Haitian government is so corrupt and I’m sure they’re in cahoots with the local distribution organizations. Someone will get rich off the backs of the poor, and many will die for someone else’s greed.

The day that actual honest people are in charge in Haiti it will be a gift from God.

The world keeps turning no matter what we’re focusing on.

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