By William Markiewicz
(As other short items may follow, I've decided to group them together.)
"Quadrature du cercle" (2/07)All this hassle with meetings, conferences, projects in the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations ... One more formula to win time and go nowhere? "They" want the impossible, asking Abbas to accept de facto Israeli settlements on Palestinian territories, and as a bribe, offering the release of some Palestinian prisoners. How can Abbas accept the presence of Israeli settlements created precisely to make a Palestinian state impossible? If he accepted he would be killed. Unless something unexpected happens, one more broken negotiation process is in view, with everybody blaming everybody.
Capricious History (1/29)Does their motivation depend only on success? In the case of the economy -- perhaps, but in other aspects of life, motivation and success are not necessarily bedfellows. People do what they believe they have to do even if success and hope fail. In this frame of mind the weaker may fight forever. If the stronger doesn't have the means to definitely destroy the weaker, and if the cause for war is not vital for him, arrogant priorities may burst like a pinched balloon. Then he may finally accept the reasonable solution and negotiate with the stubborn weaker.
China as a New Superpower
(1/22)
Why did the West so nonchalantly watch as the Communists easily defeated Chiang Kai-Shek? A friend told me that when he was a young man in Europe the general opinion there was that Communism would plunge China into total disaster and the Soviet Union would ruin itself trying to feed the millions of Chinese. Undoubtedly this idea was shared by America and this stupid prejudice saved China from Western intervention.
Wolverine Will Spread Freedom and Security
(1/22)
In his inauguration speech Bush declared that in the interest of US security he would spread freedom all over the world. It's an excuse for arbitrary assault wherever and whenever.
It reminds me of two short stories: The first described a village bully who roamed around, armed with a stick, looking for unfriendly faces. The other story, on TV, fictional within an authentic historical framework, described a 19th century African kingdom. When the ruler died, poisoning was suspected so his guardsmen who didn't show enough sorrow were impaled. Such arbitrary judgement and punishment was a forerunner of today's New World Order.
Search for WMD in Iraq ended
(1/12)
Such a heavy price to pay for dismissing a lesson learned long ago: It's much cheaper to buy oil than to conquer it.
Death Squads for Iraq? (1/10)
The French killing squads In North Africa, the Israeli killing squads, the Latin American killing squads, the German revenge on civilians in occupied countries -- none of it influenced the final outcome of the struggles. Why do the new killers always think that they'll be more efficient than the former killers?
What is the difference between the killing squads of the powerful and terrorism by the weak ones? Terrorism comes from the grassroots; the killing squads come from the military elite. Goebbels expressed the opinion that the Russians were winning because their officers were from the people, while the Germans were from the elite. One doesn't have to be a National Socialist nor a populist in order to think that ordinary folks die more and are more ready to die for their cause than is the elite.
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William Markiewicz