Reading Current Events

Corresponding to Frank's visionary predictions some months ago, war against the Iraq seems very likely meanwhile. If you listen closely to the statements coming from across the ocean and just across the Channel as well, its no longer a question of "will there be a war against Iraq" but just a matter of "how" and "when"! They're discussing in public (I doubt they really do!) whether or not to send in 250.000 troups, or just blow Bagdad away from the maps by massive bombings, or try the same tactics like in "Desert Storm" with No-Fly-Zones and Cruise Missiles.

One has to ask why they discuss this in public. And why is there no public resistance, no outcry, no indignation? Why are we all takin it for granted that there will die thousands of people? There is a worldwide discussion going on when and how to commit crimes against human rights. No mistakes: there is and never will be any UN resolution to justify any acts against Iraq at this stage.

Or is it just a smart new tactic of threatening old Saddam? This morning I heard in the news he grants permission to UN supervisors again to come into Iraq and continue their inspections after - what was it - 3 years. There definitly is an effect, no doubt.

But I guess this move rather will catch the alliance by surprise. One major arguement for starting the war is gone. But will there be war anyway?

Or is it just a big red herring to veil the failure with a guy called Osama Bin Laden (remember him?), world wide enemy No.1, wanted by earth's most powerful nation. How difficult can it be to find and catch a single man?

"If we cant catch and sacrifice him for the self confidence of our nation, lets move on and get the second entry on the list, what was his name, Saddam Who?"

After decades of construction my website is finally up an running: www.kkds.de

I think that United States shouldn't attack Iraq. That will mean having Occident against Orient, Christians against Muslims. No one in Europe wants another war. No one except from Britain. They would support United States even if this meant dooming thousands people to die.

I guess that all the Americans here won't agree with what I am saying (and I also hope this won't lead my boyfriend and I to fight). What I know for sure is that another war will lead millions of innocents to die. Just like when United States decided to attack Afghanistan, hoping to kill Bin Laden. At first, I thought it was the right thing to do. But then how many children, women and innocents died? And, Bin Laden is alive as well as mullah Omar. So all those bombs for what?? For nothing at all!

The same thing will happen in Iraq. Millions of innocents will die under Americans bombs. I don't know if Nato will support United States this time. I really hope not. I don't want Europeans soldiers to get killed because of American interests. And most of all, I don't want Italian soldiers or Europeans in general to commit such a crime. They'd just go there and kill millions of innocents. War is just a legalized crime, you know?

Italy no longer accepts illegal immigrants. Mr. B sink their boats!!!!!!!

This post was edited by andromacha on Aug 02, 2002.

What worries me the most are Uncle Sam's attempts to block (or withdraw from) any contracts concerning human rights. They refuse to acknowledge an international human rights court because they fear that some of their soldiers could be condemned by a non-US court, and they don't want any independent inspectors around their "Terrorist" "camp" in Guantanamo. (Check out http://www.guantanamo.com for more stuff.) No offense meant, but do we really need a country fighting for human rights outside their territory, while they themselves fail to comply with the ideals they fight (and kill) for?

No offense meant, just my opinion.

When life hands you a lemon, that's 40% of your RDA of vitamin C taken care of.

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...and given every human right afforded to him with respect to him being a prisoner of war.

...expect that the Afghans in Guantanamo aren't considered POWs and thus don't fall under the Geneva Convention. Great move, huh?

Do you really think it's okay to fight evil with evil? After all the war was (officially) supposed to overthrow a cruel government (and to kick Osama's ass, aww yeah). How can you say your people are any better when they don't even stick to the ideals they're supposedly fighting for?

So you really expect America to play by the rules? Hell no!

So it's like "they're playing unfair, let's nuke them and (as a side effect) break all the rules they've broken"? So, again, in fact you're doing exactly the same thing as you're punishing the Bad Guys for - would this thus justify somebody else nuking you?

When life hands you a lemon, that's 40% of your RDA of vitamin C taken care of.

Okay let me get this right. An American Navy Seal falls out of his helicopter in Afghanistan. This fall does not kill him. He falls into a crowd of Taliban soldiers. What do they do? They brutily beat him then kill him.

What's his business there anyway??

And dont come again with "War against Terror". Thats nonsense!
The different intelligence services knew about what would happen at 9/11 long before. they just didn't take it serious enough (or even accepted the inevitable to use for their own advantages and true targets, which we start to see now?).
Just the months before 9/11 Bush administration was negotiating with Taliban government about a desired pipeline running across Afghanistan from the Caspian Sea area to near India. When the Taliban balked, US negotiators told them they either could accept a "carpet of gold" or face a "carpet of bombs." The Taliban backed away from the deal. Shortly after the terror attacks of 9/11, the US. began bombing in Afghanistan. Now with a new Afghan government, whose new leader is a former consultant of the pipeline consortium, the pipeline project is back on track. (source: www.bushwatch.net)
Just a coincidence?
I call that neo-imperialism!

What do we do?

Yes, what are you (the US) doing?

If this situation happened to us he would become a P.O.W and then he would be detained, fed three times a day, treated under the terms of the Geneva convention and given every human right afforded to him with respect to him being a prisoner of war.

LOL, come on, wake up!
Guantanamo Bay in Cuba: prisoners from Afghanistan are held there under most cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions. Noone will ever know how many huams are dying there each day. The US refuses to give them the state of POWs under the Geneva Conventions. It has announced to bring them before military courts, which have the right to hand down death sentences without the possibility of appeal. They have no rights to call any US courts because Cuba is not US homeland. UN comissioners are refused and sent home.
So, what d'you call that?
I call that violating international human rights and humanitarian laws.

So why do you suspect that America wants to withdrawl from contracts on human rights?

Its not an assumption, its a fact!
- no declaration of a State of War by the Congress, neither against Afghanistan nor against Iraq
- how many innocent Afghans died with US airstrikes?
- Amnesty International claims there have been numerous extrajudicial executions on detained Afghan villagers.
- opposing the International Criminal Court and seeking immunity for US citizens
- see above, the situation in Guantanamo
- getting the military involved in domestic policing
- violated privacy in rifling through personal phone and email
- the Patriotism
- no real desire for peace in the Middle East by supporting Sharon to the unbearable limits
- and what kind of policy is it to strike before there is a threat, just because anyone assumes there *might* arise a threat within the next years. Thats a against all international orders based on laws!
- no ratification of the proposed enforcement protocols to the Chemical and Biological Weapons Conventions

Dont tell me anything about assumptions!

So you really expect America to play by the rules? Hell no!

Long live Pax Americana, beware if you speak up against it!
I start to wonder who is the true terrorist in this scenario!

Nothing personal, Frank, really, but I'm also - like NULL - really worried about whats going on. Where is the world gonna end up if only the strong makes the rules, and everybody else has to bend under it? What are all those long fought for international laws and organisations good for, if the strongest doesn't give a shit about it? Thats "back to the stoneage" policy garanteed to bring wars all over the world!

After decades of construction my website is finally up an running: www.kkds.de

This post was deleted by request of the author.

Nobody wants a WAR but America is doing the world a favor and nobody can really see that fact.

A favor? Are you serious? D'you seriously think its a favor to spread wars all over the world, to kill everthing that thinks, looks and acts different from the way you do?
We had one guy before who thought the same and killed literally Millions of people some 60 years back.

So what if your city is the next target on the agenda of terrorists? What then? Would you support it then? Put yourself in the shoes of the victims who died suddenly and violently before you. WAR is hell and innocent people die just ask the people in the WTC on Sept 11th, oh wait.... you can't...

Thats not the topic anymore! Nobody questions the cruelty and senselessnes of the WTC attacks. But using it as a veil to change the world order by stupid self-overrating has already cost and will even cost more lifes, maybe 10.000 times as much and more!

then some Nation, Power, Leader needs to stand up and fight for the freedom and lives of others who are weaker

I beg your pardon? What are you talking about? WHO are you talking about? All I can see is the US killing thousands of innocent people with most advanced weaponry, people who stand up against them with nothing but a MG in their hands. Do you consider yourself weak in comparison to Bin Ladan or Hussein? What a strange view of things, what a strange view....

Why do the european people think we are fighting solely based on our interests.

Because its just that!
Noone asked the Europeans what they think about it. And if they speak up, they are not listened to. So, if you dont ask for opinions and dont want to hear any, what would you call any actions you take then? Fighting for the one you dont listen to? How about if they dont wonna be defended? How about if they dont even feel threatened at all?
I asked that before I think: have you ever thought about where this hate in the Arab world against the US comes from? Its not a fight of religions, not Muslim against Christians, its Muslim against the US, against the american way of life! Why? Think about it!!!
Just a hint: Because the US tends to interfere with every nation that doesn't act how they want to. And second: The US made Israel possible and supports it at all costs, the cancer right in the heart of the Arab world!

This is not solely an American problem and America is not the bad guy. Saddam kills his own people, he uses biological agents on them and he has no care in the world for his peoples welfare. Just wait until Europe becomes the next ground zero. Then I bet people will change their opinions on this WAR ON TERROR.

Never! Noone (besides the British maybe) would react so stupid, blind and destructiv. "War against terror".. haha.. an anachronism in itself!
Tell me just one reason, why Bin Laden or Saddam didn't attack NY with "their" biological weapons instead of using planes? Dont you think both would have done if they could? And I tell you what: attacking them makes them even more angry and insane, also their followers who will take revenge sooner or later. You can bomb them to oblivion now, maybe for the next 100 years, but it will stay in the history of the Arab nation, and they will return, even more cruel than before. Why? Because you, the US, failed to search for peace and understanding with just the attitude you, Frank, are showing here again!

Anyway personally I don't advocate any war but if America does not get rid of the bad seeds of this world then who will?

Thats the basic misundersting! Every act agaist them is the seed for new even more cruel counterstrikes. You are sewing it yourself! You cannot kill the whole Arab world. Maybe you get Saddam, maybe even Bin Laden with a little luck, but you will not get their grandgrand-children who will be coming after your nation with deadly certainty.

After decades of construction my website is finally up an running: www.kkds.de

Unfortunately I can't give more than one + vote, but anyways, I wholeheartedly agree.

When life hands you a lemon, that's 40% of your RDA of vitamin C taken care of.

I totally agree. It just seems to me a propaganda to shift the world's focus from issues like Israel-Palestine, and the fact that they could not capture Bin Laden. War is only justified when you are defending your own territory, and any other kind of war is totally useless. Attacking Iraq will jeopardize the coalition of 'war against terror'. Many countries who were with US when it attacked Afghanistan will go against it.

If another war does take place in that region, and US is able to oust Saddam, it will only be after a huge blood-shed, and possibly it will result only in an escape of Saddam (just like Osama). US might be able to put a puppet government in Iraq, but will they be able to catch Saddam? Well, maybe that's what they want, not care where Osama and Saddam go, but at least they get a base there, and also get to run the puppet governments in that region.

Why noone is saying anything against them is because everyone in that region wants Saddam dead. I was reading an article on the making of Osama Bin Laden, and I learnt about an astonishing fact. When Iraq had raided Kuwait in 1990, Osama Bin Laden was raged, and immediately asked the Saudi government to grant him permission to take a military of 250,000 people to oust Saddam. Saudis not only kicked him out of the country but brought in Americans to the soil (which outraged him even more). So, even though people in that region hate Americans and their policies, they equally hate Saddam for what he is. So, maybe that is why they just want to keep quiet and enjoy the show.

Again, these were just my 2 cents. The only reason why I don't want another war between the two countries is because I don't see any reason for it, and it is simply going to cause millions of deaths.

Love is blind, but marriage is a real eye opener.