By William Markiewicz
(As other short items may follow, I've decided to group them together.)
Poland -- Controversial Issue (4/18)
There has been much debate in Poland as to whether President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, Maria, should be buried in Cracow's Wawel, historical resting place of Polish kings. My personal opinion is that Wawel should remain the Olympus for Poland's heroes and great creators. But the final decision belongs to the nation. Yes, the scope of drama is too big for words but, in the final account, we shouldn't cross the delicate line between accident and martyrdom.
Why Do the Russians Need a Headache in Chechnya? (3/31)
Hitler entered Czechoslovakia as a protector. Protector against whom if Czechoslovakia’s enemy was Hitler himself? Abkhazia, Ossetia need Russian friendship. Byelorussians, russified as they are, are friendly with Russia as are the East Ukrainians. But concerning Chechnya -- against whom would it need a Russian protectorate? Chechnya was conquered by Czarist imperialism. It was a mistake Russia continues to pay for up to now. Russia has bad experience with Georgia, which, for no apparent reason, turned ferociously anti-Russian. But as time passes, those things may be resolved without an occupational 'protectorate.' Independent Chechnya may become anti-Russian as it has been since conquest, but Russia will have to live with it -- at least temporarily. This is the only way to end the Chechen terror; it's easier to fight the invisible enemy when he is a neighbor than as an enemy from inside. It's more efficient to declare a foreign government responsible and act accordingly than to target interior rebels who attack and hide.
"You Can't Kill Me, I am Already Dead" (3/30)
--from a horror film I once saw. Putin promised that terror would be destroyed. How can he defeat people who have total lack of fear of death? How can they be fought unless the concept of national war is replaced with the notion of religious war? Then you can hunt for those people where they gather and pray. But a lot of innocent will die. and those who fight those kinds of wars will create countless new enemies. There is no visible sign of an end to such religious wars until the earth becomes a dead planet filled with the remaining religious emblems.
We previously discussed the fact that enemies cannot live under one roof. Avoid all contact with people who fight for their own purposes. You can only win fighting enemies abroad. Recipe for peace: total separation with all the consequences that go along with it.
Iraq? (3/04)
The so-called elections in Iraq gave a pretext for another blood bath between Shiites and Sunnis. There will be no end of it, neither under the Western ‘liberators’ nor the local authorities. The only solution for Iraq would be dictatorship or separation; enemies cannot exist under a common roof. Saddam Hussein, with iron discipline, stopped any religious clashes and created a religion-free, gender-equal society. Political power, of course, he kept for himself. It was not the ideal solution – that is still democracy – but there is no doubt that the Iraq of Saddam Hussein was better than the Iraq of today. Everybody knows it but nobody cares. Kurdistan in Iraq is proof that separation is the best solution. But who would initiate separation between Sunnis and Shiites?
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William Markiewicz