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War Against Terror ..., Reflections on the War in Iraq ..., "Mise au point" ..., Thaïlande -- lettre d'après le désastre ..., How Many Jews ..., Give the Spaniards the Justice You Gave the Serbs ..., Family Poem ..., Poland in the Defeat of Nazi Germany ...
I'm not sure how old this article is...but I had to write to just comment on how naive you are.
Your idea of dialogue and your "can't we all just get along" mentality would only work if all nations were ruled by SANE leaders...Saddam Hussien, Kim Jong Il, the mullahs in Iran....do not qualify as people that will just let us be if we let them be.
Only when people live in freedom...like we do here and in Western Europe...can there be true diplomacy and peace.
You need to understand there is real evil in the world...that evil isn't attached to our capitalism, or our national security...it's attached to the power-hungry ambitions of two-bit dictators that support terrorist groups to wage a war by proxy against the free world.
I suppose the joy experienced in Iraq and Afghanistan after free elections did nothing to convince you that it is part of the human spirit to long for freedom of self-determination and that oppressive dictators represent the true evil in this world, and the real threat to peace and stability.
Tom Karvonen
patriot_tom64@yahoo.com
I'm not sure to which war against terror article you refer -- there are many of them.
The free election in Iraq that makes you so happy brings freedom indeed to the Kurds. For the rest of the population the election gives dominance to Shiites and oppression to all others: Sunni, Christians, secularists, women... Saddam was secularist, and his oppression was mild compared to what is coming (see: "How to Bury Democracy Democratically" -- recent issue)
The election joy in Afghanistan is the joy of those who welcomed the American invasion, the descendants of Genghis Khan's invaders. Pashtuns, the original Afghans, are being sacrificed, and it's only the beginning. So, I think you are the naive one.
Terror is the weapon of the grassroots, of the weak ones, usually directed against powerful invaders or interior dictators. Power hungry dictators don't particularly support terrorism. They rely more on their weapons and their killing squads. There is nothing more hateful than the Big Brother who brings so-called freedom to the world. This is the worst paternalism in history. The ambitious dictators are less dangerous than the sword brandishing Big Brothers. The 19th century poetess Lesya Ukrainka said (quoting from memory): "Whoever expects freedom from others' hands, falls into slavery." WM
Humankind has a capacity for peace. But, there are far more compelling factors encoded in human affairs that propel us ( yes - "us" homo sapiens ) to the killing of our own species and war.
Non-human animals kill, in large part, for reasons of the obtaining of food for survival, or in self-defence. Killing as practised by non-human animals is itself not cannibalistic, nor aggressively directed at the destruction of members of the same group ( read - "species" ). Ritualistic combat of some species has as its object, territorial safety, or spousal protection, but not lethal destruction of a member of one's own species. In our own form of ritualistic protestations, our kind - homo sapiens - took to the streets of capitals around the world in our millions and protested the impending war against Iraq. The bull - America - was asked by other members of our human tribe not to go charging into Iraq and not to apply force against the already sanctioned and savaged weaker member in that "nation tribe". Bellicose tendencies triumphed with "shock and awe", and war was unleashed against members of one's own species.
The American establishment had convinced itself that America's need to consume and gorge oil (see: www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/RRiraqWar.html -- "The real reasons for the upcoming war with Iraq: a macroeconomic and geostrategic analysis of the unspoken truth" by W.C. Clark), was a more compelling causative reason for attack, than was the need for peaceful resolution. A collective portrait of America's actions towards Iraq, would show a President totally committed to war; actors within the military and intelligence communities ranging from doubtful to fully committed; contractors greedily awaiting the economic spoils of war; and, ultimately foot soldiers loyal to country and cause, motivated by reasons of their devotion to cause as may not immediately have permitted them to raise probing questions.
continued(Courtenay Francis Raymond Barnett )
I often receive questions concerning Vagabond's opinion on matters discussed by contributors to the Communication Page. I believe I have previously mentioned that I take responsibility exclusively for opinions expressed by myself. Many topics discussed on this forum are outside my personal interests and my expertise. The Communication Page is a free platform where everybody may express their opinion whether I agree or not. If I disagree very strongly, I usually reply, giving my own opinion on the matter. WM
(Personnes très sensibles, attention: texte macabre. Mais je vais bien. Vous n'êtes pas obligés de lire cette description d'une morgue improvisée après le cataclysme du 26 décembre dernier).
"Cinq volontaires pour porter des corps, s'il vous plaît!"
La femme répète sa demande en anglais, puis repose sont mégaphone. Cinq heures de l'après-midi, six janvier 2005. Je viens d'arriver dans le "Wat" (un monastère bouddhiste comme il y en a 20.000 en Thaïlande) de la ville de Yaay-Yaaou (l'orthographe de cette transcription n'engage que ma responsabilité), dans le Sud du pays, où sont amenés les corps retrouvés par les secouristes qui explorent les zones sinistrées par le cataclysme qui s'est abattu sur l'Asie en ce matin du 26 décembre 2004, à l'heure où en Amérique du Nord, on réveillonnait.
continued(Ludwin Fischer)
If the Jews were so brave that Alexander the Great praised them and the Romans hesitated to fight them, then why, over the two thousand year diaspora, were they such easy prey for everybody?
When the defeat is too crushing then the bravest lose their bravery; look at what happened to the Serbs and Pashtuns. WM
Sometimes, reading the daily press, I shake my head to be sure I'm awake. I ask myself if I've entered some other dimension. Maybe UFO and BigFoot are just around the corner. That's how the news strikes me these days when journalists just swallow inane accounts, don't bother to analyse them and then pass them on to us -- to me. I heard an interview the other day where the broadcaster explained, to his credit, that the job of the journalist was to ask tough questions of government on behalf of the people. What got my goat was reading later in the NYTimes that "Basque Talk of Secession Creates Crisis for Madrid." The reporter, Renwick McLean, tells us that "The looming conflict ... reflects an age-old question posed by democracy: What are the rights and powers of the minority in a system based on majority rule?" Why does the reporter start with the Spaniards, neglecting past examples?
For centuries, the Serbs in the Krajina region of Croatia were a minority in Croatia a majority in their region and when they didn't want to leave Yugoslavia, the US and cronies helped the Croats THROW THEM OUT. Then there are the Serbs in Kosovo area which is not another country, but a part of Serbia and the cradle of Serbia. After years of abuse they became a minority in their own region. So naturally, the USA and cronies helped the ethnic Albanians to take over Kosovo by bombing Serbia -- a sovereign nation that never attacked them. Nobody had any ethical questions about minority and majority rule at that time. The world cheered as the Serbs were bombed "into the dark ages", as one of the American attackers said proudly.
The writer of the article asks if the Basque region can "unilaterally secede if a majority of its people want to." Of course it can! Yugoslavia showed the way. Slovenia seceded, Croatia seceded, Macedonia seceded, Bosnia seceded. Everybody can secede unless they happen to be Serbs. Let Florida and Southern California secede too. But that's OK, the precedent is set so let's carry on from there.
McLean presents the Spanish Basque conflict as a sort of a debate between two points of view and ends with a noble statement from El Mundo about the "great challenge" it presents. I have one suggestion. Let's be consistent. Don't bother to analyse what happened then, just carry on in your bold objective way. I want to hear a rip roaring speech calling for an attack on Spain and immediate occupation. They have a minority there that wants to be a majority in the territory they live in. Give Spain a little taste of that Depleted Uranium you gave to the Serbs. Or maybe the principle of two weights, two measures is so imprinted on the rotten mentality of the world powers that they will never be able to get rid of it.
Ages to come
Humanity of joy
Festival of season
Lightens the heart
Awakens the senses
Savoury of food
Fills the soul
Reg Kimura
For some time now the current "zeitgeist" has portrayed Poland in a rather
limited role as a hapless and quickly-defeated first victim of Germany's
WWII war machine. The commonly held view is not justified. The Polish Army
destroyed in combat one third of German tanks and one fourth of the
airplanes used against it. German records indicate that in order to defeat
in 1940 the French and British armies, the Germans used less than half as
much ammunition, artillery shells, and bombs than was used against the Poles
in September 1939. Polish forces stayed engaged against Germany after the
bloody battles of September 1939. continued
(Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski)
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William Markiewicz