I'm no expert in foreign relations, but I think sometimes it takes an outsider to call attention to a salient point. The press has been reporting that in response to another nuclear test, the U.S. is considering putting North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism. This is seen as a simple tit for tat because, after all, Bush took them off this list in October 2008 after they promised to stop working on nuclear weapons. I think it will be important for Obama's supporters to make clear that the move by Bush was bad policy from the beginning. If a dictator who sponsors terrorism is a terrorist, then Bush sent the message that he is willing to deal with a terrorist, offer him immunity from even being called a terrorist, in exchange for an end to some of his actions. It can't have escaped Kim Jong Il's notice that if he had never begun a nuclear program, he would have had nothing to offer to get his country off the list.
North Korea's terrorist actions began shortly after Kim came to power, with a bombing in Rangoon in 1983 that killed South Korean Cabinet level officials and nearly assassinated their president. As explained in a report by Larry Niksch from February of this year, the bombing of a South Korean airliner in 1987 killing 115 passengers first earned them a listing, followed by the kidnapping of Japanese citizens, some of which are still held (unless you believe the story about 8 of 13 dying and all records of them being washed away in a flood), and deals in which arms were sent and possibly training given to the Tamil Tigers and Hezbollah as recently as 2007. Now just because a country is involved in terrorism doesn't mean it should be listed forever, but we should bear in mind that one Supreme Leader was in control from 1980 to the present day, and he has never taken any action to investigate or punish anyone involved in these actions, including of course himself.
Obama may have been in a difficult position before, because the Bush administration went through much trouble to make this deal and he didn't want to abruptly reverse course. But now that North Korea has done as it always does, it is time not merely to list it as a sponsor of terrorism again - but to make it clear that our policy of condemning terrorism is no longer for sale.
"Once upon a time, a very religious man, a Shiva devotee, approached the Shiva Temple in his hometown and entered it barefoot, as to show devotion to the God. Looking at the statue of Shiva, he prayed with a strong level of concentration and energy, placing his request like this: 'Lord Shiva, please provide me all the means I need to accomplish my personal, family and professional wishes on this Earth'. And, lying on his belly onto the floor, in token of respect, he thanked the God and revered the image with deep sincerity, as if he had already been granted all of his wishes.
A few seconds later, he heard a firm yet paternal voice coming from the heights of the temple: "My son, please distract yourself a bit by forgetting all about your wishes for a awhile... think and do something to benefit other people for some time... as your mind is so busy thinking only about yourself, I cannot even find space to penetrate it and grant even your most meritable ones!"
Lubashivaya.-
OM NAMAH SHIVAYA!
Tel.: 00225 08 28 80 46
e-mail: basseyjp@hotmail.com
N/B:
If you wish to partner with us in this quest to affect lives positively as an individual or organization with some common goals, contac:
Jean pierres bassey
President, Ngo Change International
postal box: 27 BP 1044 Abidjan 27
phone: 00225 08 28 80 46
Abidjan, Ivory Coast/ West Africa
If you haven't already, please add your name to this online petition for a Truth Commission. What you are signing on to:
I hereby join Senator Patrick Leahy's call for the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission, to investigate the Bush-Cheney Administration's constitutional abuses so we make sure they never happen again. These abuses may include the use of torture, warrantless wiretapping, extraordinary rendition, and executive override of laws.A truth and reconciliation commission should be tasked with seeking answers so that we can develop a shared understanding of the failures of the recent past. Rather than vengeance, we need a fair-minded pursuit of what actually happened. The best way to move forward is getting to the truth and finding out what happened -- so we can make sure it does not happen again. Signed by:[Your name]
I hereby join Senator Patrick Leahy's call for the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission, to investigate the Bush-Cheney Administration's constitutional abuses so we make sure they never happen again. These abuses may include the use of torture, warrantless wiretapping, extraordinary rendition, and executive override of laws.A truth and reconciliation commission should be tasked with seeking answers so that we can develop a shared understanding of the failures of the recent past. Rather than vengeance, we need a fair-minded pursuit of what actually happened. The best way to move forward is getting to the truth and finding out what happened -- so we can make sure it does not happen again.
During the Cold War, it was common for the Soviet Union to promote its Collectivist ideology by recruiting people, using both money and any personal dissatisfaction with Capitalism, who would write articles, produce films, talk with friends, family, and neighbors, and otherwise spread news and talk that had a pro-Soviet slant. This is something that all nations do, to varying extents; it's a way of promoting their own national interests. What was remarkable about the Soviet efforts was not only the extent in terms of the number of recruits, but also the vast sums of money expended to both pay individuals and support various activities such as publishing, protests, and so on.
At this point in time, the world of communications has exploded - within seconds, we can text someone in Germany, email someone in India, have a live 'net meeting' with colleagues in NY, AK, and Singapore. One part of this immense, and increasing, world of communications includes what are called "social media", including personalized websites on hosts like MySpace and FaceBook, to "instant message"-type services such as Twitter. The benefit of this communication is that it makes full censorship almost impossible, such that oppressive governments can no longer murder hundreds to thousands of people while keeping such actions out of the sight of the world.
Another benefit is that information flows freely, giving people even in remote areas access to vast stores of news and knowledge. One of the disadvantages of this instant communication is that, as has been noted by many, there is also an increase of "noise", of mere opinion that is passed off as fact, of massaged information, and of plain everyday errors. One thing that has received very little attention, however, is something that harkens back to the days of the Soviet "agents provocateur", the people who were tasked with not only spreading deliberately-inaccurate nformation ("disinformation"), but also, with fomenting dissent. The connection between massive oil revenues flowing into previously-undeveloped areas, and the export of terrorists by some of these areas, is well-documents, and easily found (with references) in Thomas Friedman's "Hot, Flat, and Crowded". What has not been documented, at least as far as this writer has seen, is whether a connection exists between terrorist groups, and the use of fake IDs on social media to spread dissent and chaos in Western nations.
This probably sounds bizarre and paranoid to the average citizen, who still has trouble comprehending how someone can blow himself up in a schoolyard for the sake of an ideology of hatred; bit would be useful to note, however, that devotees of such a radical ideology would have no moral compunctions about assuming a false Western-sounding ID and function as an 'agent provocateur', posing as either a "left-winger" or a "right-winger", and use the completely-unregulated social media to spread dissent. One of the strengths, in fact, of committed ideologues is that they often will look upon attempted cash payment as an insult; this characteristic was noted, and used, by Soviet spymasters during the Cold War, and it would be a mistake to assume that other anti-Western groups learned nothing from that history.
So, the next time you receive a message from someone proposing the overthrow of a duly-elected and law-abiding Western government, instead of first assuming that you need to reject, hate, discriminate against, or otherwise be "enemies" of whatever group to which the writer/speaker claims to belong, stop for a moment and ask yourself, Is this really showing me that my fellow citizens are my enemies, or is this someone using a false ID and typing inflammatory rubbish from the bowels of a hidden cave in some desolate hinterland? ALthough Western nations have their fair share of dissatisfied citizens, it just might be possible that some people are using the destructive lessons of the past to fan a few sparks into a fire.
That confusion reign at the heart of the GOP is now indisputable. One only has to look at this weekend’s CPAC. The party of Lincoln and Roosevelt and not so long ago the party of government is fast descending into fringe condescension and has as it's standard bearers two narcissistic opportunists. In Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, the sole rationale for being conservative, it would seem, is to cream whatever financial rewards they can through the authorship of badly written compilations passed off as books or badly mouthed and bigoted pronouncements touted as radio broadcasting; both Rush and Ann are doing very well financially on the backs of a people who do not seem capable of distinguishing fact from fiction. Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter are the clearest manifestation that the lunatics are now in charge of the asylum.
The GOP already beaten once by President Obama during the election, seem to want to commit hara-kiri by taking that fabled and entrenched dogma of “we still know best, we have absolutely no need to change and we lost because we gave up on our extreme right wing ideology”. The message coming from them is so confused that you have their new Chairman Michael Steele, apologized that the American people had every right not to believe anything they said. But in the same breath he touted and echoed their penchant for tax cuts ubber alles in debating a very transformational President whose popularity still appear stratospheric.
One would have thought that, after losing to President Obama despite the play on “Conservatives holding on to religion and guns ....” statement by the then candidate Obama and the much looped Reverend Wright’s “God damn America” controversies, the GOP would have formulated a different strategy of response and tactic of execution. Instead they have resorted to confused, misdirected and rudderless rabble rousing.
Take for instance the new line of attack by that most hypocritical of the so-called conservatives, Newt Gingrich’s attempt to link and lump President Obama in with President Bush for the current economic crises. Unless Mr. Gingrich believes that the American is the most stupid person on God’s Earth, how could he possibly make that association in the expectation that less than two months into his Presidency, the American people would have forgotten who brought onto them the current wrath of a very displeased economic GOD. And herein lies the absolutely impossible task that the GOP has to deal with; talk about the government’s lack of fiscal responsibility when they presided over the biggest deficit in the nations recent history is not convincing; talk of over burdening future generations when they spent their way through the nations treasures without so much as a monument built in commemoration, except for corruption and the numbers of new graves for the Brave young men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice to uphold the honor of their beloved nation on a distant shore sounds hollow and hypocritical; talk of bad economics when they created the conditions for the festering of the depression malaise that a very new and young administration has to grapple with even before it had taken office sounds disingenuous; talk of diminishing America prestige and influence when they have the dubious honor of their great leader being the only American President to have been ‘shoed’ by a foreign journalist when he was the guest of those journalists sounds farcical.
So the GOP is looking forward to when President Obama’s policies fail so that they can blame him and his party for the failure. Now let us look at how serious a challenge that may prove for the GOP to exploit more than for President Obama to explain. How does ending the war in Iraq render the President to criticism if that country descended into anarchy after the drawdown on US troops when he has already directed with ample notice period that the troops be brought home and only a non combatant compliment is retained and which would leave by a fixed deadline? It will only ‘fail’ if the Iraqis cannot look after themselves. But how does the failure of a democratically elected Iraqi government become the responsibility of a US Administration? Besides, the GOP likes his plan. It is just about the only thing they agree with him on.
Afghanistan as a coalition effort mandated by the UN and NATO is not the direct responsibility of President Obama although he has sought to highlight the dangers of ignoring that campaign for far too long. In fact, any failure there will be a vindication of his long standing complaint that too much focus went unnecessarily onto Iraq. And coalition partners in Afghanistan were not imposed upon to pull their weight.
The case of the US economy presents the worst case scenario for the GOP even more so than the rest of the litmus issues already described. Tax cuts for the middle classes, unemployment benefits and insurance for those who have lost their jobs, a foreclosure stay of execution for those struggling with their mortgages, health insurance for over eleven million children, the biggest reconstruction agenda for a generation, improvements for education, investments in alternative energy, assistance to States struggling as a result of the deep recession... etc.
Now let’s assume that no jobs are created at all (and that is quite some assumption) and the unemployment rate remains as is in 3 years hence. People would still see improvements in bridges and the road infrastructure, they will notice better classrooms and paid teachers, improvements in environmental awareness and steps to address them, a dramatic fall in the numbers of US Soldiers stationed abroad, a reduction in their tours of duty and their involvement in "dumb wars". The people still struggling for employment will be able to stay in their own homes and thereby have roofs over their heads and will be able to get sick without being bankrupt. Those still in employment, especially the middle classes, will still enjoy a reasonable standard of living and not see hikes in their levels of taxation. Since a lot of the jobs currently being lost are in GOP afflicted areas, a lot of ‘former’ GOP voters will come to appreciate the assistance they will be receiving from this so called and much maligned ‘Socialist’ government and may even decide that that type of ‘Socialism' may not be all that bad. Why? Because they would remember that this current President inherited all the issues from a GOP President. Most importantly, they will also remember that those aspects of policy that helps to ease their pain were passed without a single GOP support in the House and only three GOP Senators were brave enough to cross party lines despite a sterling effort by President Obama to be bi-partisan.
If there is a GOP GOD in existence it must know that 2012 will not be a GOP year. That will be when the real fruits of all this stimuli starts to really kick-in. And witnessing the disarray in which the GOP finds itself, it will take them more than three terms to get another look in; look at what happened to the British Conservative Party after Maggie Thatcher. The GOP’s redemption would be on the basis that it remodeled itself on a successful and winning formula; that of the Democrats and the GOP agenda then will be to portray themselves as the best placed to carry out the legacy of Obama. Now will that not be a turn for the books?
Obama is now preparing a fight that will decide the future of USA. He just said in a speech: "The system we have now might work for the powerful and well-connected interests that have run Washington for far too long... But I don't. I work for the American people."
Obviously he is referring to the powerful network of great corporations. If Obama is attacking the system of the Military-Industrial Complex, lobbyists, banks and others it will be a terrific fight. No president has done this since Kennedy. He wants to limit the power and increase the taxes of a few rich and powerful people. He is determined to create health care, green economy and fighting poverty. And they will surely do all they can to stop Obama by false news in media, as well as threats, lies and bribes to politicians.
“I know these steps won't sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business, and I know they're gearing up for a fight," Obama said, "My message to them is this: So am I."
We have to do all we can to support Obama in this fight. It will be a terrific fight. Obama knows exactly who are behind the disaster and the unfair society. And they know how dangerous Obama is for them.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/02/28/Keeping-Promises/
I’m all for hope and change, anything is better than were we’ve been for the past eight years. But there is a frightening truth in the old saying; “the higher you climb the harder you fall”. When Bush Jr failed in something we all just took it as a matter of course. With President Obama there’s such great and dire need to believe, to keep faith and hold on to hope. So when he promises the moon I get worried.
I don’t need him to cure cancer. I don’t need to hear that Americans can achieve anything and everything. And America doesn’t need him to fix healthcare, education and every other problem under the sun, in four years. We just need him to help us survive. We need him to make us believe we can survive.
Hope is ethereal, beyond that which allows us to touch and analyze. It makes us breath again, when despair has choked us for so long. But no one should ever place the heavy burden of impossible expectations on it. Hope will never endure under such pressure. It is only there to let us pick ourselves up from the pit of hopelessness, not to solve problems or cure disease.
I fear President Obama may have let himself be lifted too high on the power rush of his current job. It happens to the best of us and he is only human after all. But I have faith that, when life hands him his first massive defeat, when he makes that first unavoidable life and death mistake, he will pull his head out of the clouds and regain the posture that propelled him through the election. I have faith. I just don’t particularly look forward to the process.
Obama is now on his first visit abroad as a president to Canada – are there any differences in these visits compared to the trips made by Bush?“
Canadians greeted a presidential visit from George W. Bush with 8,000 protesters. For President Barack Obama? They're selling T-shirts, and the conservative government is happy to see him.”…(Obama) “will meet with Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper… He will also meet briefly with Liberal opposition leader Michael Ignatieff at the airport before he leaves.” "They want to bask in the same glory," said Nelson Wiseman, an associate professor at the University of Toronto. "Nobody would have gone to Ottawa to try to get a glimpse of Bush except to demonstrate against him." “Harper will be want to be seen as close to Obama, unlike with Bush, said David Biette.”
For eight years Bush has offended people in other nations, he has started wars and kidnapped foreigners all over the world. People abroad were protesting, USA lost the respect all over the world, terrorists groups have had a relative easy task to recruit members. Obama is listening to and respecting leaders and people in other nations. People are now cheering, they respect and want cooperation with USA, and terrorist groups are in big trouble recruiting members.
Is there any stronger proof than this that a politic of compassion and cooperation is far more efficient than a politic of attempting to dominate the world by force?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/19/obama-canada-trip-will-ad_n_168125.html
i was watching chris matthews and he asked wrt gitmo/rendition et al, what do we do with people we know are dangerous but can't prove? what do we do with people who haven't done anything but we know will?
what about a ticket out of gitmo and into witness protection? it's certainly more humane and just than indefinte detention. it's likely less costly than full-out incarceration, whether it's taxpayer expense or foreign relations. and it's a heck of a lot safer than sending them back into circulation--at least with witness protection we'd know where they are and what they're doing.
thoughts? please be kind.
i'll dig into this more tomorrow and perhaps log back in and rip my own arse to shreds after acquiring more information. right now i have GOT to get my brain shut down and try to sleep.
The GOP and the Beltway still underestimate President Obama. Some establishment types have great difficulty adapting to the new political order in Washington. These same types misread the writings on the wall during both the primaries and the election where they were out maneuvered by the then candidate Senator Obama, as he not only won the Democratic nomination but also totally defeated Senator John McCain , the GOP nominee.
The last week saw the GOP wade into pious self congratulation for their obstinate opposition to the signed stimulus legislation believing, as did the Beltway, that they had scored a major victory by denying the President his much vaunted bi-partisanship. The fact that the President still got what he sought; a stimulus legislation passed within 30 days of his taking office and that major GOP Governors including that of California seeking governmental assistance stood full-square with the President were totally oblivious to them. To the chagrin of the GOP, Beltway and in particular FOX News, the latest opinion polls seem to suggest that the American people are also full-square behind their President and had not read the script pushed haughtily by the Beltway and cable networks about a GOP victory in the tussle for bi-partisanship. The President’s approval ratings remain stratospheric, the Democratic Congress scores highly; in fact the highest they have scored to date and Representative Pelosi is more popular than the nearest GOP in either Houses of Congress.
Will the GOP grasp the new reality and muster opposition or just whine away in oblivion and irrelevance? That would be a shame because inasmuch as I support the President, I still believe in a strong but pragmatic opposition. That is not just good for American democracy but good for the President and a resurgent Democratic controlled Capitol. It would also signify once and for all that the GOP is now reformed and subscribe to proper and accountable government. That will not only be a testament sought by Americans but the wider World that we would never revert to what we just witnessed these past eight years.
The question though is simply will the GOP survive as a coherent political force in an Obama Presidency?
We finally have a US President who can speak in full sentences, who can take responsibility for mistakes made and have a stated interest in hearing dissenting opinions. The past few weeks have been filled with joyous relief for those few facts alone! But the challenges the US and the world face are enormous and with the recent debates on the economic crisis I can’t help but feel President Obama may be a little too limited in his perception of potential solutions.
The problem for our new President is that he has to do the impossible, and he has to do it fast. Unfortunately, even for the truly great, it’s easy to get caught up in the eye of the storm and not see what goes on beyond the immediate wall of despair and destruction. From my perspective this stimulus bill, although certainly much needed and done with the best of intentions, is a dangerous gamble. Consuming your way out of debt is only effective if there is a prospect of new funds on the horizon. As far as I can tell, this bill will only increase the national debt with very little influx of pure capital. In my humble opinion the US economy is in far too deep a recession to come out of it just by adding billions of borrowed dollars on some domestic touch ups.
I fully understand the thought process behind the stimulus bill and the need to get Americans back to work. And personally I can’t wait for the United States to join us in the 21st century when it comes to internet access, environmental developments, education and healthcare. But I can’t imagine anyone believing this is going to be enough. This stimulus bill is like adding oil in a car to make the engine run more smoothly when it is in fact all out of gas!
The effort that goes into the sheer political practicality of passing a bill as massive as this stimulus package is mindboggling. What is commonly referred to as pork is the price you pay to get politicians with very different agendas to come together to achieve a mutual goal. This is what politics is at its core; bargaining, squabbling and endless compromises until all agree but no one is happy. It’s the price we pay for democracy. A sovereign King can decide on any action he pleases, a democracy has to find ways to make hundreds of vastly different individuals with, in many cases opposing agendas, agree on one course of action, in theory as much of a challenge as in reality.
But to survive this recession, depression, slump or whatever you want to call it, the US desperately needs to pump gas into its engine, and fast. America’s debt is today so high it defies human comprehension. This debt is only going to get higher during the next few years, with all the bailouts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan still needing funds. This debt can never be fully paid by American taxes or consumer spending.
What the US needs is external funds flooding into the country, money not attached to business deals or political deals, but pure profit. The only way this is going to happen is if America can come up with something to sell to the world that’s worth buying.
Today the whole world suffers from the economic crisis, every nation in its own way. The first instinct is of course to look to one’s own welfare with a deadly protectionism as a result. We are all dependent on the free flow of goods and funds to maintain our level of comfort and if the US were to close the door on fair trade and withdraw inward (effectively abandoning capitalism for planed economy) it would have disastrous effects on the entire balance of the global community. Where America goes, the world goes…
The only way to save the US economy, and in effect the worlds, is to make full use of the means available in the realm of the global community. But if Americans keep making up the rules as it suites them no one else is going to play along. President Obama will then be left standing alone, with his fancy new roads and shiny new houses and a national debt that will make the United States of America effectively bought and paid for by foreign nations and conglomerates.
Innovations and foreign relations should be President Obama’s main focus, in my opinion. This is where the money is and the solution to America’s many problems. One new invention is not going to be enough, nor will one solution ever be enough. But President Obama won the worlds approval through this recent election. He should capitalize on that now. The influx of money into his suffering nation depends on whether we believe America is once again worth investing in and if American products are worth paying for. If we are still ignored, as we have been for the past eight years, if the current President insists on pressing the idea that saving American jobs at all cost is the only solution then I fear, as great a man as I believe he is, President Obama will inevitably fail.
One of the most important rules of capitalism state that if a product can be produced at a smaller price with same quality in, let’s say India as opposed to Indiana, then that’s where it needs to be produced. The country that has a higher living cost and its workers therefore are unable to live on a the salaries the workers can, in for example India, will just have to find other things to do for profit, things that are too complex to be done in India, or other developing nations. Clinging to jobs that rightfully belong to people in poorer nations, simply because Americans lack the imagination or the education they should have considering the nations collective wealth, is inexcusable!
We shall soon see which road President Obama chooses for his country. What I hope for is that he will find the courage to let go of some type of jobs and businesses in order to allow the world to help fuel the American wonder once more. But if he ignores the needs of the other nations across the globe, which many of his fellow countrymen will insist on, I fear it will fasten the decent into despair for all nations, including the US. The American dream needs new material, new inventions and new ideas!!
President Obama won the election on the idea that anything is possible, that the American spirit can survive anything. This is a noble idea and in some ways it’s absolutely true. I just hope he doesn’t put too much faith in the premise that the only thing Americans need is more jobs and a house to live in. Investing in the future is a good thing. Giving people jobs is a good thing. But America has lost more than just jobs and houses. And it will take more than what Americans themselves can muster to get out of this recession.
I hope President Obama and his countrymen will realize in time that all humans are a part of this now, the world is one and the American engine needs to run smoothly, not just for its own sake but for all of us.
Violence is an industry. All industries employ people with a view to profit. Profit is not just monetary it can also be political. When people invest in violence it is because they hope to reap some benefit. US ordinary people (you and I) are just pawns manipulated by those who wish to use violence as a means of control and subjugation.
The issue of the Palestinians and Arabs/Muslims in general with Israel is something that has now generated its own life and path but I believe that the time has come for US the ordinary man and woman to stand up and proclaim that we ALL have a right to LIFE, LIBERTY & THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.
Let us also look at how we are being used by peoples and organisation to advance their own interests. That there is brutality in the Middle East and between Arabs and Jews is no secret but is anyone telling me that the violence is just one sided?
The Palestinians have become the subject matter used to express wider disenchantment about a lot of issues in the wider region. The Palestinian is a human being who craves life, peace and the pursuit of happiness and is also incredibly resourceful and hard working. But if I am employing you a Palestinian and your friends, neighbors, colleagues or relations come to my town to kill and maim people and sow terror for whatever reason, do I owe you an obligation to continue to employ you? Or why should I make it easy for you and others to be able to cross over into my town with the potential to pursue such hatred.
I see a lot of indignation about what Israel does and some of that indignation is deserved but I scarcely, if ever, hear Palestinians in the Gaza strip or in the West Bank openly criticise the perpetrators of violence especially Hamas. This tells me that those who live under Hama are NOT all free. They are not allowed the freedom of expression to protest against their 'so called' elected officials. And so long as the people are not free to express themselves I cannot believe that Hamas represents ALL the people.
For both sides of the conflict, it is important to understand that you cannot talk peace while you pursue terror. Any progress will be under the guise and perception that terror pays. I have also heard about how Hamas helps ordinary Palestinians in the provision of health care, housing and basic support. I think the Palestinian people deserve more than that. Can Hamas provide more health care than the rest of the world or more education than the rest of the world? I will believe Hamas works for the displaced, impoverished and long suffering Palestinian people when I see doctors, engineers, teachers, academics being created as a result of Hamas policies than teaching boys and girls to kill themselves as political instruments. If killing one’s self to achieve autonomy worked why do Hamas officials go into hiding and do not ride the streets in defiance of the enemy and challenge them to be killed? It is because they want your brothers, sisters and parents to die in THEIR cause to pursue POWER! The rhetoric is just that rhetoric!
And when peoples’ lives are so cheapen by their own political representatives why should your enemy value that same life that you do not value? So Hamas will give money to Palestinians whose homes and property have been destroyed to rebuild them. What about those whose lives have been wrecked? Those whose childhoods have been stolen from them? Those whose minds and well being have been damaged beyond repair? And all this because Hamas believes in conflicts of posturing which it knows it can never win. Not in the short term anyway. I do not call this love. What sort of love is it that seeks to repair what is material and almost irrelevant but does not care about what is the most relevant and most important which is the sacred life?
The Palestinian people have a right to life, dignity, LIBERTY and the pursuit of happiness but I doubt very much that they will get it through the use of mindless violence and terror perpetrated in their name by so-called leaders. And for those who sing about how brave Hamas are but very conveniently live outside Hamas control and do not suffer the consequences of their policies, I say shame on you!
There are those who will interpret my comments as being pro Israeli; far from it. My criticism of Israel is even harsher than this. But I fail to see how Hamas can reach the end gold it seeks by sacrificing the Palestinian people or bring undue hardship upon them by seeking to not only fight but pledging to destroy an opponent it cannot conceivably stand toe to toe with.
The time for peace has come. There is change; GENUINE change in Washington. I urge all Arabs, Muslims and true lovers of peace to embrace what this new American President has to say. It is the best HOPE in a generation and let us all pray to our God, our Allah, that we embrace him without the internecine rhetoric and demagoguery so we can ALL sleep peacefully at night and OUR children can grow to be older than we are and pursue their dreams.
The world; our world is the poorer when Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhist and non believers cannot come together to share in each other's knowledge and understanding so that we may propel the world towards true human peace and endeavor to harness the true potential of the human being and enjoy the abundant fruits of creation.
Please let us look forward and not backwards. Let us extend our hands to each other in true friendship and respect and see the true extent of creations wonders that await us in that sea of tranquility and peace here on Earth.
Salem aleikum.
Israel is being condemned by all and sundry for its latest incursion or as some would define it, invasion of Gaza. The shelling of UN compounds sheltering innocent civilians, the bombing of a UN school, the destruction of UN facilities storing much needed and scarce supplies and the use of phosphorous shells proscribed for use in civilian and populated theatres make some of us wonder what happened to Israel, the land we used defend till blue in the face?
I am saddened especially by the latest debacle and I seem to have the most peace when Israel is not in the news, because it would appear that the last decade or so has only brought about negativity for that young state.
A sad testament to what happens when a nation abandon its ideals under the ubiquitous guise of security.
If there ever was a nation on God's Earth, which should be very sensitive to attacks on civilians, women and children that state ought to be Israel. A just cause must carry world opinion. And yes, world opinion does matter, especially to places like Israel!
But then again, when you can get away with impunity time and again it becomes habitual. "The Palestinians started it", I can hear the apologists say. But what makes a nation civilized, is that it maintains its human decency especially in the face of unwarranted provocation.
When we stoop to the same levels of barbarity as those we seem to chastise, we reduce ourselves to a level even lower than that of which we chastise others and with that comes the erosion of our moral authority. Being the most powerful state or nation does not necessarily engender respect. Ask George W Bush.
The World is changing and Israel will do very well to change with it! And if anything Israel ought to listen to its friends and note that as others are already tagging this latest adventure as genocide or extermination demonstrates one thing; This world, our world, would not sit idly by and witness the wiping out of the Palestinians as an entity or as a people, only for a car or an aircraft to be named after them, generations down the line. No mas!
(Your Tax Dollars at Work in the Middle East)
The state of Israel is facing charges of war crimes following the slaughter of innocent civilians including hundreds of children in its recent campaign against Palestinian militants on the Gaza Strip. Israel's powerful ally, the United States, also faces charges of complicity in the slaughter as Palestinians declare: "This Damage Made in USA."
UN human rights expert Richard Falk said on Thursday that the recent Israeli military operation on the Gaza Strip "raises the specter of systematic war crimes" and needs to be investigated. Falk told journalists in Geneva from his home in California that he had little doubt as to the "unavoidably inhuman character of a large-scale military operation of the sort that Israel has initiated... against an essentially defenseless population." Charging that "unlawful targets have been selected" by Israeli forces during the fighting, Falk insisted that Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip including children and the wounded were effectively trapped in a war zone and prevented from fleeing.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has issued demands for a full explanation of "outrageous" Israeli attacks on UN facilities on the Gaza Strip including a school used as a refuge for civilians, killing dozens. The UN chief noted that Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert had promised to provide results of an Israeli inquiry into the attacks "on an urgent basis" and said he would then decide on "appropriate follow-up action." On January 12, the 47-member UN Human Rights Council voted by a large majority to launch an investigation into "grave" human rights violations by Israeli forces against Palestinians. Israel is also facing questions from human rights groups regarding the use of illegal weapons, including white phosphorus munitions, against Palestinian civilians on the Gaza Strip.
These charges come amid renewed calls for a global boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel from groups such as the Global BDS Movement. Recently, Canadian journalist Naomi Klein wrote in support of such a boycott: "The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa." Some are also calling for a boycott of US exports for its continuing support of Israeli actions against Palestinians.
The Palestinian death toll from Israel's recent war on Gaza currently stands at around 1300, most of whom were innocent civilians, and around a third of whom were children. Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians were killed in Israel during the same period, an indicator of Israel's massively disproportionate response to Palestinian attacks on Israelis. A total of twenty-eight Israelis have been killed by Palestinian rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip since 2001, a tiny fraction of the number of Palestinians killed in Israel's recent Gaza actions alone. These numbers echo casualty figures from the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict which consistently show innocent Palestinian dead including children massively outnumbering Israelis.
Rocket attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip deserve both condemnation by the international community and a proportionate response by Israel. The killing of one Israeli in a rocket attack does not, however, entitle Israel to respond by slaughtering twenty, thirty, or forty innocent Palestinian civilians. Such slaughter, furthermore, will no more stop Hamas' rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip than it stopped Hezbollah's rocket attacks from Lebanon in 2006. Just as Hezbollah could declare victory in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war simply by surviving to fight another day, so Hamas can declare victory in Gaza this day. Meanwhile, Israel increasingly becomes a pariah state in the eyes of the world, as does the United States for its complicity in the slaughter. Ever-growing anger particularly in the Arab world serves America's national security interests no better than it serves Israel's.
Behold, America: Your tax dollars at work in the Middle East.
Out of the tragedy of Gaza, perhaps, will come renewed opportunity to hold Israel accountable for its actions, to press for a new US policy on the Middle East, for peace, and for an end to Israel's long and bloody occupation of the Palestinian Territories. Boycott, divestment, and sanctions efforts such as those promoted by the Global BDS Movement have a proven track record of success as in the case of South Africa, and deserve our support. UN efforts to hold Israel accountable for its actions also deserve our support, but are likely to require UN Security Council action of the type America with its power of veto most often and most notoriously obstructs. Pressure, therefore, needs to be applied to the White House and Congress for a new US approach to the conflict and a new US attitude in the UN Security Council. Whether our new ambassador to the UN offers active support with a "yes" vote or passive permission by abstaining on UN efforts to hold Israel accountable for its actions, our message to the new administration regarding these efforts can be stated clearly and briefly as follows: NO VETO!
Sources: Agence France Presse, Time, Los Angeles Times, Haaretz, New Straits Times, Bay Area Indymedia, B'Tselem, Human Rights Watch.
Slide show: Gaza Massacre by Sabbah.
Photo gallery: Child victims of Gaza violence.
Contacts:
The White House
US Mission to the UN
Contact your US Senators
Contact your US Representative
