The first report on Gulf War 2.0 civilian casualties appears today on foxnews.com (AP), including a link to iraqbodycount.net and a reference to the Iraqi boy with half his head blown off.
Also, the LA Times has a surprising photo gallery of destroyed Baghdad homes and Iraqis mourning their dead.
Latest New York Times/CBS poll shows "... President Bush's campaign to remove Saddam Hussein from power is producing sharp fissures at home."
...
"While 82 percent of whites said the United States should take military action to oust Mr. Hussein, just 44 percent of blacks said they supported that approach. In addition, 71 percent of whites said they were proud of what the United States was doing in Iraq, compared with 33 percent of blacks."
Boycott of American Goods Over Iraq War Gains
posted by dackNo more Coca-Cola or Budweiser, no Marlboro, no American whiskey or even American Express cards -- a growing number of restaurants in Germany are taking everything American off their menus to protest the war in Iraq.
Although the protests are mainly symbolic, waiters in dozens of bars and restaurants in Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, Bonn and other German cities are telling patrons, "Sorry, Coca-Cola is not available any more due to the current political situation."
"Wiener Schnitzel" is Austrian, not German...
Posted by: Bert on March 26, 2003 04:22 AMI couldn't realize in Munich a Boycott as described by Reuters, and I hang out nearly every Day in the city. But remember i . e. Berlin has more than 5000 Bars and what does mean in this case a couple restaurants.
Posted by: Alexander on March 26, 2003 06:13 AMI find it kind of funny that, out of the few American products they list, Viagra is one of them.
Seriously, they didn't list that many.
Posted by: Lester Nelson on March 26, 2003 07:21 AMI think it is sad that commerce during hard economic times for everyone is punished. It just gives terrorists like Saddam more power. While it is thier perogative to vote with their "dollar", I object to this devisive behavior as much as Americans boycotting french goods.
Commerce is good. It fosters the exchange of ideas and draws us closer. It supplies the needy with goods and services. I think everyone should be a little slower to create mini- geo-political trade emabargos. Wait and see the outcome of all this and then act.
To boycott or not to boycott, that is the question?
I should declare my stance (i'm currently avoiding Pizza Hut- not because I wish to boycott it, but simply because I've given up eating pizza for Lent)Whilst I think the case for a boycott of the US is far from unassailable, so too is the case against it. The fact is: the US case is inconsistent and arguably hypocritical. Whilst decrying boycotts aimed at Israel, the US has not only refused to trade with objectionable regimes (such as the Soviet Union during the Cold War era-remember the ban on Siberian crabmeat on the grounds that it was produced by slave-labour ), but has pressured other countries to desist from trading with Castro's Cuba and supported sanctions against Iraq.
So to decry boycotts per se as immoral is absurd.Whatever you may chose to do is your right as a consumer, but to invoke "free enterprise" as a reason for opposing boycotts is ridiculous. "Free enterprise" cuts both ways, remember. Whether individual Americans should be boycotted is questionable (I have several relatives in the States whom I regularly fly over to spend Thanksgiving with- and no I'm NOT boycotting them!)