The question remains, Traderfut, what can the international community do to prevent further international crimes from the USA? In the face of a beligerant military power, there is not much that the International Community can do to prevent the USA murdering hundreds of thousands of innocent people... perhaps the UN has a role to play, but the USA has hinted that it will ignore the UN in any illegal action that the USA decides to take... so its difficult to know how the Rational World can punish the USA for breaking international law in the face of Global Opposition to illegal US activities...
The rational world cannot do anything... The USA are undoubtedly the strongets power in planet earth... and they deserve it... they are hard working people and I learned a lot from the americans... Now the thing is that the biggest danger are the politicians and the only way to prevent them from doing so is the people... The people have the power.. Unfortunately the way news are dissipated is certainly not the way it should be... As I said it before I remember 1990 when in many walls in France you had written death to the arabs.. kill the arabs fuck the arabs .... People were really scared and at the supermarket you had no pasta no rice because people were really convinced that Irak would strike (the 4th military power) France and Europe... you had even so french learning arabic because they were so afraid of being invaded by Irak... Let's just say it was a terrible year for me and I felt really bad... You could feel that people were scared of you and that they did not like you... Of course, Irak was defeated in one single day.. the 4th power was nothing more than a small military power... But what is scarrying is that it was the biggest attack on a single country in the whole story of the 20th century.. Never before a country knew that... and WHY... because a small country of 600,000 inhabitants that was created by the british colon to protect its oil interests in that region was attacked... Saddam is certainly a bad man and before 1990 he proved it several times... But he was certainly not attacked by the US for human rights issues and after the attack the US did not go further and finish their job ... eliminate Saddam .. They wanted him in not out.. Because with Saddam in power Irak was under control with a real democrat things would have been much different..
Candle, Traderfut, I do not dispute that the US has encouraged and supported corrupt regimes. It has. I do not dispute that there seems no legitimate reason to go to war with Iraq. I agree that a war with Iraq would be an act of villainy and we would be responsible for the deaths of many innocent civilians.....and innocent conscripts as well. What I do believe is that the US needs to set an example by showing restraint and imparting as much information to the world as possible. I think the US can "grow up" and be better. However, at it's worst, the US can't hold a candle to the evils of leaders like Saddam. Something needs to be done. We need to clarify our objectives. We need to root out any subterfuge on behalf of our government and it's collusion with big oil. We need to know all the facts. But, we also must protect ourselves. I don't think these objectives are exclusive of each other. We need honest leaders. We need men of the people in government. Not men of influence and blue blood. It is disgraceful that GW Bush is president with no qualifications other than his family lineage. Where are the Harry Trumans and the Abe Lincolns of today? Men of honor and men who serve their countries for the countries' good. Not egotistical power hungry incompetents. The business of government should not be business! But is has been here for too long! Make me president....I will set things right in about 2 weeks, and resign. Peace, rs7
Yes there is hope... as I told you in Europe people were really brainwashed and really thought that Irak was an evil country... Today the vast majority of europeans are against this war.. Even in the Uk where blair is pro bush, many british even in the current government are protesting against those attacks that are unfair and criminal... The thing is in US people are still under the shock of sep 11 and with an invisible bin laden they are searching for a culprit... But they do not understand that by backing Bush they are not doing the right thing and those politicians know how to manipulate their people and oriente them the wrong way fo their own interests not the interests of the american or of the humanity... Bush did not even participate to the Johannesburg forum and god knows how important it is to all of the inhabitant of pla,et earth Peace to all
tradefut2000, your claim of "how do we know that the US will go to Iraq to help people" rings chillingly close to an excerpt from an interview with Osama bin Ladin. In that interview he was asked why his men attacked the US forces in Somalia when they were there to help the people by stopping the war lords and oversee the distribution of food/supplies. His reply was basically "how do we know that the US is there to help those people". So basically he had already made up his mind. The US is evil and everything it does must therefore be evil. Sadly Osama is not alone in his dogma as your comments prove. It is fascinating that believe anyone who doesn't agree with you is 'brainwashed'. I'll say it again. I respect everyone's opinion, especially those that don't agree with me. That is what makes the world a place worth living. Please take a moment and savour the fact that you can have your own opinion without deadly consequences. Because right now people in Iraq can not do that. You might also want to savour the irony that while you are living in the US and enjoying the freedoms that the US provides for you, one of those freedoms is the ability to attack and criticise its policy, government, etc. It truly is a great country. Try and do that in the Arab world and see how far you get.
Justice minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin told a small group of German union members that Mr Bush was going after Iraq to divert attention from domestic problems. "That's a popular method. Even Hitler did that," the newspaper, Schwaebisches Tagblatt, quoted her as saying. Ms Daeubler-Gmelin called the report misleading but did not deny the remarks. She said: "I would regret it very much if this matter were to cast the slightest shadow on my respect for the President of the United States." Another woman talking... and a woman that is a minister in germany and that is risking her job.... But she had the courage of her opinions... and yes Babak you are still brainwashed my friend... and no I don't live in the US and I have never been there and maybe never....
You are too funny If you compare me to bin laden then 80% of the planet are bin ladens All the european media are saying the same things... No european media believes that??? You know what even on Bloomberg television (french version) they said : "nobody is dupe the US goes to that part of the world because of oil resources"... I swear to god... these are extracts from Bloomberg TV in france and I was really astonished to hear that on bloomberg... Scarry isnt'it!!! all the media in Europe would be manipulated by Bin laden even Bloomberg???? Come on Babak stop your silly accusations and comparisons.. and if you are still BLIND to believe that the US will go there to help Irakis after all the evidences historical and current given.. then you are not that smart... Bush is implied in dark affairs Cheney is a white collar criminal and he should be in prison.... Instead they are playing on people credulity to make a new unfait war and kill more and more innocents.. And no I think that with or without democracy an iraki would prefer the perido post 1990.. You have to know that Irak was a laic state that the Prime minister Tarik Aziz is christian and that before the 1990 attacks Irak was certainly one of the most advanced country in the middle east.. Today it is a miserable country.. So stop your silly allusions on human rights democracy...
http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=298681 Robert Fisk: There is a firestorm coming, and it is being provoked by Mr Bush More and more, President Bush's rhetoric sounds like the crazed videotapes of Osama bin Laden So now Osama bin Laden is Hitler. And Saddam Hussein is Hitler. And George Bush is fighting the Nazis. Not since Menachem Begin fantasised to President Reagan that he felt he was attacking Hitler in Berlin â his Israeli army was actually besieging Beirut, killing thousands of civilians, "Hitler" being the pathetic Arafat â have we had to listen to claptrap like this. But the fact that we Europeans had to do so in the Bundestag on Thursday â and, for the most part, in respectful silence â was extraordinary. I'm reminded of the Israeli columnist who, tired of the wearying invocation of the Second World War to justify yet more Israeli brutality, began an article with the words: "Mr Prime Minister, Hitler is dead." Must we, forever, live under the shadow of a war that was fought and won before most of us were born? Do we have to live forever with living, diminutive politicians playing Churchill (Thatcher and, of course, Blair) or Roosevelt? "He's a dictator who gassed his own people," Mr Bush reminded us for the two thousandth time, omitting as always to mention that the Kurds whom Saddam viciously gassed were fighting for Iran and that the United States, at the time, was on Saddam's side. But there is a much more serious side to this. Mr Bush is hoping to corner the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, into a new policy of threatening Iran. He wants the Russians to lean on the northern bit of the "axis of evil", the infantile phrase which he still trots out to the masses. More and more, indeed, Mr Bush's rhetoric sounds like the crazed videotapes of Mr bin Laden. And still he tries to lie about the motives for the crimes against humanity of 11 September. Yet again, in the Bundestag, he insisted that the West's enemies hated "justice and democracy", even though most of America's Muslim enemies wouldn't know what democracy was. In the United States, the Bush administration is busy terrorising Americans. There will be nuclear attacks, bombs in high-rise apartment blocks, on the Brooklyn bridge, men with exploding belts â note how carefully the ruthless Palestinian war against Israeli colonisation of the West Bank is being strapped to America's ever weirder "war on terror" â and yet more aircraft suiciders. If you read the words of President Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney and the ridiculous national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, over the past three days, you'll find they've issued more threats against Americans than Mr bin Laden. But let's get back to the point. The growing evidence that Israel's policies are America's policies in the Middle East â or, more accurately, vice versa â is now being played out for real in statements from Congress and on American television. First, we have the chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee announcing that Hizbollah â the Lebanese guerrilla force that drove Israel's demoralised army out of Lebanon in the year 2000 â is planning attacks in the US. After that, we had an American television network "revealing" that Hizbollah, Hamas and al- Qa'ida â Mr bin Laden's organisation â have held a secret meeting in Lebanon to plot attacks on the US. American journalists insist on quoting "sources" but there was, of course, no sourcing for this balderdash, which is now repeated ad nauseam in the American media. Then take the "Syrian Accountability Act" that was introduced into the US Senate by Israel's friends on18 April. This includes the falsity uttered earlier by Israel's Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres, that Iranian Revolutionary Guards "operate freely" on the southern Lebanese border. Now there haven't been Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon â let alone the south of the country â for 18 years. So why is this lie repeated yet again? Iran is under threat. Lebanon is under threat. Syria is under threat â its "terrorism" status has been heightened by the State Department â and so is Iraq. But Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister held personally responsible by Israel's own enquiry for the Sabra and Shatila massacre of 1,700 Palestinians in Beirut in 1982, is â according to Mr Bush â "a man of peace". How much further can this go? A long way, I fear. The anti-American feeling throughout the Middle East is palpable. Arab newspaper editorials don't come near to expressing public opinion. In Damascus, Majida Tabbaa has become famous as the lady who threw the US Consul Roberto Powers out of her husband's downtown restaurant on 7 April . "I went over to him," she said, "and told him, 'Mr Roberto, tell your George Bush that all of you are not welcome â please get out'." Across the Arab world, boycotts of American goods have begun in earnest. How much longer can this go on? America praises Pakistani President Musharraf for his support in the "war on terror", but remains silent when he arranges a dictatorial "referendum" to keep him in power. America's enemies, remember, hate the US for its "democracy". So is General Musharraf going to feel the heat? Forget it. My guess is that Pakistan's importance in the famous "war on terror" â or "war for civilisation" as, we should remember, it was originally called â is far more important. If Pakistan and India go to war, I'll wager a lot that Washington will come down for undemocratic Pakistan against democratic India. Across the former Soviet southern Muslim republics, America is building air bases, helping to pursue the "war on terror" against any violent Muslim Islamist groups that dare to challenge the local dictators. Please do not believe that this is about oil. Do not for a moment think that these oil and gas-rich lands have any economic importance for the oil-fuelled Bush administration. Nor the pipelines that could run from northern Afghanistan to the Pakistani coast if only that pesky Afghan loya jirga could elect a government that would give concessions to Unocal, the oddly named concession whose former boss just happens to be a chief Bush "adviser" to Afghanistan. Now here's pause for thought. Abdelrahman al-Rashed writes in the international Arabic daily Asharq al-Awsat that if anyone had said prior to 11 September that Arabs were plotting a vast scheme to murder thousands of Americans in the US, no one would have believed them. "We would have charged that this was an attempt to incite the American people against Arabs and Muslims," he wrote. And rightly so. But Arabs did commit the crimes against humanity of 11 September. And many Arabs greatly fear that we have yet to see the encore from the same organisation. In the meantime, Mr Bush goes on to do exactly what his enemies want; to provoke Muslims and Arabs, to praise their enemies and demonise their countries, to bomb and starve Iraq and give uncritical support to Israel and maintain his support for the dictators of the Middle East. Each morning now, I awake beside the Mediterranean in Beirut with a feeling of great foreboding. There is a firestorm coming. And we are blissfully ignoring its arrival; indeed, we are provoking it. Fergal Keene is away
traderfut2000, All European media? Italy, Spain and UK are with the US. Germany would also be with its long time ally if not for one thing. Germany's (Schroder's) stance was due to the elections. Schroder pandered to the Green Party who he desperately needed to win the election. Now that it is over we can see how close it was and why he did that. It was the only way he could win. The Green Party is a very small, marginal political force but because they give him the sliver of majority he needed them. Gerhard Schroder won his second term as German chancellor with the smallest margin of victory of any government since World War II. http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentS...y&c=StoryFT&cid=1031119538620&p=1012571727092 Now Schroder must deal with the consequence of his decision. By wooing the Green Party to win the elections he has poisoned relations with the US. A country that did no less than defend the German people from Hitler. Was it worth it? I guess we'll see. My apologies, I thought you were in the US. Now I understand you are in Europe. But for someone who is living in Europe you could stand to be better informed about the goings on in your own continent. Cheers!