Sunday, December 31, 2006
Quotations
Herewith a selection of inspirational quotes, some of which can be ascribed to an individual...
The end ALWAYS justifies the means.
- Saul Alinsky
- Saul Alinsky
Those who constantly worry about the ethics of ends and means wind up sitting on their ends without any means.
- S Alinsky
- S Alinsky
The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end.
- Lev Davidovich Bronstein (Trotsky)
The philosophers have only interpreted the world in different ways; the point, however, is to change it.
- Karl Marx
The core resentment that energizes the swing toward right-wing “Christian” totalitarianism is the confusing, painful panic at seeing The Way and The Truth become one of many ways and many truths.
- Donna Gleeman
Bin Laden & Co. hate us for what we DO in the Middle East, not for who we are or what we believe
- Neal Wilkinson
There are two levers for moving men - self-interest and fear.
-Napoleon Bonaparte
But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.
- Carl Sagan
If you shut up the truth and bury it under the ground, it will but grow, and gather to itself such explosive power that the day it bursts through it will blow up everything in its way.
- Emile Zola
There is only one good - knowledge; and only one evil - ignorance.
There is only one good - knowledge; and only one evil - ignorance.
- Socrates
In politics stupididty is not a handicap.
- Napoleon
- Napoleon
The moral paradigm of Austrlian society in 2005 dictates that the rich are, in fact, more deserving than the rest of us. This worldview, of US origin like much in our society, is based on the attempts of the Franco-Swiss theologian John Calvin to provide a respectably Christian justification for aggressive capitalism. Dismissing the “Camel and the Eye of the Needle,” Calvin asserted that being wealthy is not merely NOT a barrier to salvation, but a sign of Divine Favour, an indication that the well-heeled have evinced great virtue by being energetic in accumulating the necessities of life and restrained in defraying the resources thus gathered. Moreover, since virtue is its own reward, affluence derived from the virtues of industry and thrift attracts more affluence, and so the wealthier people are, the “better” they are in moral terms. Of course the converse is also true - the poor "deserve" to be poor because they have not worked hard enough or saved enough. So, don't blame "the system," girls and boys - it's YOUR fault if you can't find a job, or afford adequate health-care.
- N Wilkinson
[In this plutocracy that we know as the "Free World," it has become de rigeur to pamper the wealthy with tax-cuts while punishing the poor by withdrawing welfare support] The way to get the rich to work harder is to give them more money; the way to get the poor to work is to give them less.
- Ross Gittins
[T]here remains a core of bottom-line voters to whom the promise of tax cuts is as seductive as gin to a toper.
- David Nyhan
- David Nyhan
Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, even if I have said it ... unless it agrees with your own reason and your own sensibility.
- Buddha
There is no "I" in "team," but there's one in "arselicker."
- N Wilkinson
Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it a few minutes.
- Edgard Varese
In order to rally people, governments need enemies. They want us to be afraid, to hate, so we will rally behind them. And if they do not have a real enemy, they will invent one in order to mobilize us.
- Thich Nhat Hanh
Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd.
Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd.
- Bertrand Russell
When we are about to hang the last capitalist, another will appear offering to sell us a rope.
- Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin)
The great nations have always acted like gangsters, and the small nations like prostitutes.
- Stanley Kubrick
For those that believe, no explanation is necessary. For those who do not, none will suffice.
For those that believe, no explanation is necessary. For those who do not, none will suffice.
- Joseph Dunninger
War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses … There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism … I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism … Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.
- Major General Smedley Butler
Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.
- Henry James
Cautious, careful people always casting about to preserve their reputation or social standards never can bring about reform. Those who are really in earnest are willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathies with despised ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences.
Cautious, careful people always casting about to preserve their reputation or social standards never can bring about reform. Those who are really in earnest are willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathies with despised ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences.
- Susan B. Anthony
The despotism of custom is everywhere the standing hindrance to human advancement.
The despotism of custom is everywhere the standing hindrance to human advancement.
- John Stuart Mill
The beauty of war is that each leader of a band of assassins has his flag blessed and invokes God before setting off to exterminate his neighbours.
The beauty of war is that each leader of a band of assassins has his flag blessed and invokes God before setting off to exterminate his neighbours.
- François-Marie Arouet Voltaire
There is nothing to fear except the persistent refusal to find out the truth, the persistent refusal to analyze the causes of happenings.
- Dorothy Thompson
I may not be better than other people, but at least I'm different.
I may not be better than other people, but at least I'm different.
- John-Jacques Rousseau
There are men - now in power in this country - who do not respect dissent, who cannot cope with turmoil, and who believe that the people of America are ready to support repression as long as it is done with a quiet voice and a business suit.
There are men - now in power in this country - who do not respect dissent, who cannot cope with turmoil, and who believe that the people of America are ready to support repression as long as it is done with a quiet voice and a business suit.
- John Lindsay
The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself.
The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself.
- Archibald MacLeish
In general, men believe easily in that which they desire.
In general, men believe easily in that which they desire.
- Caius Julius Caesar
To have doubts about oneself is the first sign of intelligence.
To have doubts about oneself is the first sign of intelligence.
- Ugo Ojetti
A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious.
- Aristotle
Traditionally, Australians were not anti-religious — they simply regarded religion as a private affair, and anyone who had to mention god fifty times in a sentence of sixty words as a "god-botherer," a sanctimonious milksop or a fanatical bully, and, if one were to dig deeply enough, probably a hypocrite as well. Sadly the Christian Right is changing our society — this is the really frightening challenge to Australian civilization.
- N Wilkinson
George W Bush would have us believe that we've suffered so much from terrorism the world owes us undying compassion.
- Bernard Chazelle
Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws.
Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws.
- John Adams
The reason the world today is becoming increasingly besmirched is that the evil that resides in all of us is winning. Our inherent goodness is losing the race. Wickedness has tied its shoelaces together. Let us vow today, right now, to scrape off these hateful scales and try to be as good as we can be. Let's not harbor any ill will for anyone. Let us be the first of a new order to be charitable and caring. Let's break away from the flock of black sheep and graze the clean grass, show them how good it tastes. Not the bitter thistle that most are content to chew through.
The reason the world today is becoming increasingly besmirched is that the evil that resides in all of us is winning. Our inherent goodness is losing the race. Wickedness has tied its shoelaces together. Let us vow today, right now, to scrape off these hateful scales and try to be as good as we can be. Let's not harbor any ill will for anyone. Let us be the first of a new order to be charitable and caring. Let's break away from the flock of black sheep and graze the clean grass, show them how good it tastes. Not the bitter thistle that most are content to chew through.
- Andrew Holt
[The 2004] presidential race [was] so devoid of joy that the high point was when the president claimed God speaks through him — leaving us to contemplate the news that God doesn't know how to pronounce nuclear and has yet to master subject-verb agreement.
- Molly Ivins
I think that one of the most frightening sights I’ll ever see is Condoleezza Rice smiling. Talk about Dracula at the Blood Bank!
- N Wilkinson
Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure. If today, he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada, to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, 'I see no probability of the British invading us' but he will say to you, 'Be silent; I see it, if you don't.'
- Abraham Lincoln
Doubt is one of the names of intelligence
- Jose Luis Borges
The only index by which to judge a government or a way of life is by the quality of the people it acts upon. No matter how noble the objectives of a government, if it blurs decency and kindness, cheapens human life, and breeds ill will and suspicion - it is an evil government.
The only index by which to judge a government or a way of life is by the quality of the people it acts upon. No matter how noble the objectives of a government, if it blurs decency and kindness, cheapens human life, and breeds ill will and suspicion - it is an evil government.
- Eric Hoffer
There is no great genius without some touch of madness.
- Seneca
Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
- John Fitzgeral Kennedy
It is well that war is so terrible, or we should get too fond of it.
- Robert Edward Lee
The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.
- Oscar Wilde
The pioneers of a warless world are the youth that refuse military service.
- Albert Einstein
Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.
Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.
- Isaac Newton
A wonderful realization will be the day you realize that you are unique in all the world. There is nothing that is an accident. You are a special combination for a purpose and don't let them tell you otherwise, even if they tell you that purpose is an illusion. You are that combination so that you can do what is essential for you to do. Don't ever believe that you have nothing to contribute. The world is an incredible unfulfilled tapestry. And only you can fulfill that tiny space that is yours.
A wonderful realization will be the day you realize that you are unique in all the world. There is nothing that is an accident. You are a special combination for a purpose and don't let them tell you otherwise, even if they tell you that purpose is an illusion. You are that combination so that you can do what is essential for you to do. Don't ever believe that you have nothing to contribute. The world is an incredible unfulfilled tapestry. And only you can fulfill that tiny space that is yours.
- Leo Buscaglia
Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder... And that is war in a nutshell. The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
- Eugene Debs
What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.
- Crowfoot
Without seeking, truth cannot be known at all. It can neither be declared from pulpits, nor set down in articles, nor in any wise prepared and sold in packages ready for use. Truth must be ground for every man by itself out of it such, with such help as he can get, indeed, but not without stern labor of his own.
- John Ruskin
Be content with what you have, rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.
- Laozi
Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves.
Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves.
- Edwin Way Teale
Never go out to meet trouble. If you will just sit still, nine cases out of ten someone will intercept it before it reaches you.
- Calvin Coolidge
The cry has been that when war is declared, all opposition should therefore be hushed. A sentiment more unworthy of a free country could hardly be propagated.
- William Ellery Channing
Murder is a crime. Describing murder is not. Sex is not a crime. Describing sex is.
- Gershon Legman
[There is in this country] a powerful religious constituency that claims the right to tell us what's on God's mind and to decide the laws of the land according to their interpretation of biblical revelation and to enforce those laws on the nation as a whole. For the Bible is not just the foundational text of their faith; it has become the foundational text for a political movement.
- Bill Moyers
- Bill Moyers
Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society. If those who live a life beyond comfort must lose a little more money to make sure somebody else's child can read and write when they grow up, so be it.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr
Do not consider it proof just because it is written in books, for a liar who will deceive with his tongue will not hesitate to do the same with his pen. They are utter fools who accept a thing as convincing proof simply because it is in writing.
Do not consider it proof just because it is written in books, for a liar who will deceive with his tongue will not hesitate to do the same with his pen. They are utter fools who accept a thing as convincing proof simply because it is in writing.
- Moshe ben Maimon (Maimonides)
If you can't have faith in what is held up to you for faith, you must find things to believe in yourself, for a life without faith in something is too narrow a space to live.
-George Woodberry
The law, in its majestic equality, prohibits the rich as well as the poor from sleeping under bridges.
- Anatole France
It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings.
- Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi
[R]emember: whether you know it yet or not, you have doomed yourselves by learning how to read, learning how to question, learning how to doubt. And this is a most difficult time - the most difficult I remember - to have those skills. Once you have them, however, they are not easy to discard. Finding yourself forced to see the gulf between what you are told about the world, whether it's your government doing the telling, or your boss, or even your family or friends, and what you yourself can't help but understand about that world - this is not always a welcome kind of vision to have. It can be burdensome and awkward and it won't always make you happy.
[R]emember: whether you know it yet or not, you have doomed yourselves by learning how to read, learning how to question, learning how to doubt. And this is a most difficult time - the most difficult I remember - to have those skills. Once you have them, however, they are not easy to discard. Finding yourself forced to see the gulf between what you are told about the world, whether it's your government doing the telling, or your boss, or even your family or friends, and what you yourself can't help but understand about that world - this is not always a welcome kind of vision to have. It can be burdensome and awkward and it won't always make you happy.
- Mark Danner
We are divided between those of us willing to listen, and believe, and those of us determined to read, and think, and find out.
- N Wilkinson
We are divided between those of us willing to listen, and believe, and those of us determined to read, and think, and find out.
- N Wilkinson
Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
- Harold Whitman
To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.
-Theodore Roosevelt
Almost everything in our debauched culture invites us to simplify reality, to despise wisdom.
- Susan Sontag
Let's face it - Bush is a reformed alcoholic, a failed and discredited businessman, a Bible-thumping god-botherer and a moron ... Howard is a failed lawyer, failed Treasurer and failed human being, who sidles up to the power brokers for the appearance of "success" which he is prepared to achieve "at any cost."
- N Wilkinson
- N Wilkinson
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
- Samuel Johnson
There is no road to peace, Peace IS the road.
- MK Gandhi
- Samuel Johnson
There is no road to peace, Peace IS the road.
- MK Gandhi
It is dangerous to be right when the established authorities are wrong.
- Voltaire
What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?
- MK Gandhi
Only the winners decide what were war crimes.
- Gary Wills
Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow. Delay may give clearer light as to what is best to be done.
- Aaron Burr
The country will swarm with informers, spies, delators and all the odious reptile tribe that breed in the sunshine of despotic power ... The hours of the most unsuspected confidence, the intimacies of friendship, or the recesses of domestic retirement, afford no security. The companion whom you must trust, the friend in whom you must confide, the domestic who waits in your chamber, are all tempted to betray your imprudent or unguarded follies, to misrepresent your words; to convey them, distorted by calumny, to the secret tribunal where jealously presides, where fear officiates as accuser, and suspicion is the only evidence heard.
- Edward Livingston
The country will swarm with informers, spies, delators and all the odious reptile tribe that breed in the sunshine of despotic power ... The hours of the most unsuspected confidence, the intimacies of friendship, or the recesses of domestic retirement, afford no security. The companion whom you must trust, the friend in whom you must confide, the domestic who waits in your chamber, are all tempted to betray your imprudent or unguarded follies, to misrepresent your words; to convey them, distorted by calumny, to the secret tribunal where jealously presides, where fear officiates as accuser, and suspicion is the only evidence heard.
- Edward Livingston
Be not intimidated ... nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberties by any pretence of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery and cowardice.
- John Adams
- John Adams
The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.
- George Orwell
The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity.
- George Bernard Shaw
- George Orwell
The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity.
- George Bernard Shaw
There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people for a purpose which is unattainable.
- Howard Zinn
- Howard Zinn
One of the world's greatest problems is the impossibility of any person searching for the truth on any subject when they believe they already have it.
- Dave Wilbur
Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.
- Friedrich Nietzsche
True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubts often, and changes his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubts not; he knows all things but his own ignorance.
- Akhenaten
Never does the human soul appear so strong as when it forgoes revenge, and dares to forgive an injury.
- EH Chapin
What we see depends mainly on what we look for.
- Sir John Lubbock
There are no facts, but only interpretations.
- F Nietzsche
Were the Soviet Union to sink tomorrow under the waters of the ocean, the American military-industrial establishment would have to go on, substantially unchanged, until some other adversary could be invented. Anything else would be an unacceptable shock to the American economy.
- George Kennan
Simplicity is the form of real greatness.
- Francesco de Sanctis
Mental toughness is many things. It is humility because it behooves all of us to remember that simplicity is the sign of greatness and meekness is the sign of true strength. Mental toughness is spartanism with qualities of sacrifice, self-denial, dedication. It is fearlessness, and it is love.
- Vince Lombardi
Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism.
Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism.
- Martin Luther King, Jr
Humanity also needs dreamers, for whom the disinterested development of an enterprise is so captivating that it becomes impossible for them to devote their care to their own material profit. Without doubt, these dreamers do not deserve wealth, because they do not desire it. Even so,
a well-organized society should assure to such workers the efficient means of accomplishing their task, in a life freed from material care and freely consecrated to research.
Humanity also needs dreamers, for whom the disinterested development of an enterprise is so captivating that it becomes impossible for them to devote their care to their own material profit. Without doubt, these dreamers do not deserve wealth, because they do not desire it. Even so,
a well-organized society should assure to such workers the efficient means of accomplishing their task, in a life freed from material care and freely consecrated to research.
- Marie Curie
We live in oppressive times. We have, as a nation, become our own thought police; but instead of calling the process by which we limit our expression of dissent and wonder "censorship," we call it concern for commercial viability.
We live in oppressive times. We have, as a nation, become our own thought police; but instead of calling the process by which we limit our expression of dissent and wonder "censorship," we call it concern for commercial viability.
- David Mamet
Only a fool would choose war over peace - for in peace sons bury their fathers and in war fathers their sons.
Only a fool would choose war over peace - for in peace sons bury their fathers and in war fathers their sons.
- Herodotos
As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.
As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.
- O Wilde
When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall, always.
- MK Gandhi
The function of genius is not to give new answers, but to pose new questions which time and mediocrity can resolve.
- Hugh Trevor-Roper
If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.
If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.
- Rene Descartes
Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it.
Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it.
- GB Shaw
Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience... Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty ... Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running and robbing the country. That's our problem.
Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience... Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty ... Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running and robbing the country. That's our problem.
- H Zinn
Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider.
Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider.
- Francis Bacon
The history of our race, and each individual's experience, are sown thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal.
- Mark Twain
Ambition drove many men to become false; to have one thought locked in the breast, another ready on the tongue.
Ambition drove many men to become false; to have one thought locked in the breast, another ready on the tongue.
- Sallust
The denial of cultural rights to minorities is as disruptive of the moral fabric of mainstream society as is the denial of civil rights.
The denial of cultural rights to minorities is as disruptive of the moral fabric of mainstream society as is the denial of civil rights.
- JA Fishman
Truth never damages a cause that is just.
Truth never damages a cause that is just.
- MK Gandhi
No one has ever succeeded in keeping nations at war except by lies.
No one has ever succeeded in keeping nations at war except by lies.
- Salvador de Madariaga
The advantage of a classical education is that it enables you to despise the wealth which it prevents you from achieving.
- Russell Green
Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.
- Lin Yudang
Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.
- Kongfuzi (Confucius)
Trying to create democracy at the point of a foreign bayonet was a fool's errand from the beginning. It can't be done.
- Charley Reese
Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.
Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.
- Charles De Gaulle
I wonder why it is that we are not all kinder to each other than we are. How much the world needs it! How easily it is done!
- Henry Drummond
Little things affect little minds.
Little things affect little minds.
- Benjamin d'Israeli
The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause. A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business.
- E Hoffer
Those who voluntarily put power into the hands of a tyrant or an enemy, must not wonder if it be at last turned against themselves.
Those who voluntarily put power into the hands of a tyrant or an enemy, must not wonder if it be at last turned against themselves.
- Aesop
The cult of perfection always leads to preferring myth to authenticity.
- Paul Aries
In seeking wisdom, the first step is silence; the second, listening; the third, remembering; the fourth, practicing; the fifth, teaching others
In seeking wisdom, the first step is silence; the second, listening; the third, remembering; the fourth, practicing; the fifth, teaching others
- Solomon Ibn Gabirol
The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.
The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.
- A Lincoln
The press does not want to inform the reader but to persuade him he's being informed.
- Nicolas Davila
The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.
The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.
- Milan Kundera
There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself.
There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself.
- Henry David Thoreau
The only statistics you can trust are those you falsified yourself.
The only statistics you can trust are those you falsified yourself.
- Winston Churchill
The thing that impresses me the most about America is the way parents obey their children.
- King Edward VIII
Human beings are the only creatures on earth that allow their children to come back home.
- Bill Cosby
People are divided into two groups - the righteous and the unrighteous - and the righteous do the dividing.
- O Wilde
Long ago, there was a noble word, LIBERAL, which derived from the word FREE [liber]. Now a strange thing happened to that word. A man named Hitler made it a term of abuse, a matter of suspicion, because those who were not with him were against him, and liberals had no use for Hitler. And then another man named McCarthy cast the same opprobrium on the word. Indeed, there was a time - a short but dismaying time - when many Americans began to distrust the word which derived from FREE. One thing we must all do. We must cherish and honor the word FREE or it will cease to apply to us.
- Eleanor Roosevelt
- Eleanor Roosevelt
The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to the point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself.
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Governments exist for only one purpose: to make life better for all people. But you can never depend on politicians to do anything about that.
- E Roosevelt
- E Roosevelt
Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again ... There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are HL Hunt ... a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.
- Dwight David Eisenhower
- Dwight David Eisenhower
I will make a bargain with the Republicans. If they stop telling lies about Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.
- Adlai Stevenson
- Adlai Stevenson
Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.
- O Wilde
There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.
- Oscar Levant
Use your enemy's hand to catch a snake.
Use your enemy's hand to catch a snake.
- Persian Proverb
He who slings mud generally loses ground.
- A Stevenson
If you can't convince them, confuse them.
If you can't convince them, confuse them.
- Harry Truman
Sacred cows make the tastiest hamburgers
- Abbie Hoffman
So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.
- FD Roosevelt
- FD Roosevelt
Blind faith in your leaders, or in anything, will get you killed.
- Bruce Springsteen
You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
- E Hoffer
When your conscience says law is immoral, don't follow it
- Jack Kevorkian
Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fibre of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.
- FD Roosevelt
Evil (ignorance) is like a shadow - it has no real substance of its own, it is simply a lack of light. You cannot cause a shadow to disappear by trying to fight it, stamp on it, by railing against it, or any other form of emotional or physical resistance. In order to cause a shadow to disappear, you must shine light on it.
- Shakti Gawain
Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.
- Napoleon
From smokers we can learn tolerance. I've never met anybody who protested against non-smokers.
- Sandro Pertini
Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.
- Isaac Asimov
The hope of becoming rich is one of the most widespread causes of poverty.
- Publius Cornelius Tacitus
Capitalism is a nineteenth-century Economic System operating under a seventeenth-century Political System and propped up by fifteenth-century Rhetoric.
Capitalism is a nineteenth-century Economic System operating under a seventeenth-century Political System and propped up by fifteenth-century Rhetoric.
- N Wilkinson
Words make men free. Whoever cannot express himself is a slave.
Words make men free. Whoever cannot express himself is a slave.
- Ludwig Feuerbach
The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centres has owned the government of the United States since the days of Andrew Jackson.
The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centres has owned the government of the United States since the days of Andrew Jackson.
- FD Roosevelt
Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.
- Elbert Hubbard
I live in my own little world, but it's ok, they know me here.
I live in my own little world, but it's ok, they know me here.
- N Wilkinson
Look and you will find it. What is unsought will go undetected.
- Socrates
It is the duty of every cultured man or woman to read sympathetically the scriptures of the world. If we are to respect others' religions as we would have them respect our own, a friendly study of the world's religions is a sacred duty.
- MK Gandhi
What is tolerance? - it is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly - that is the first law of nature.
What is tolerance? - it is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly - that is the first law of nature.
- Voltaire
There are honest journalists like there are honest politicians. When bought they stay bought.
- Bill Moyers
A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation.
- Saki (HH Munro)
Have no fear of perfection ... you'll never reach it.
Have no fear of perfection ... you'll never reach it.
- Salvador Dali
Impropriety is the soul of wit.
Impropriety is the soul of wit.
- W Somerset Maugham
I always advise people never to give advice.
I always advise people never to give advice.
- PG Wodehouse
It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.
It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.
- GB Shaw
If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.
If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.
- GK Chesterton
If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing slowly ... very slowly.
If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing slowly ... very slowly.
- Gypsy Rose Lee
Everyone is still talking about Hurricane Katrina. Experts say it could take 80 days to drain all of the flood water out of New Orleans. When President Bush heard this he said, '80 days, that’s half a vacation.'
- Conan O'Brien
Bigamy is having one spouse too many. Monogamy is the same.
- O Wilde
There is no such thing as "fun for the whole family."
- Jerry Seinfeld
- Jerry Seinfeld
An investigation has been launched over pre-war Iraq ...we're going to find out why they had our oil under their sand.
- Craig Kilborn
In a speech today about Hurricane Rita, President Bush declared, quote, 'This is a big storm.' In related news, the White House announced earlier today that the president is writing his own speeches.
In a speech today about Hurricane Rita, President Bush declared, quote, 'This is a big storm.' In related news, the White House announced earlier today that the president is writing his own speeches.
- C O'Brien
President Bush is trying to put a positive spin on the latest bad economic numbers. Today he declared victory in the 'War on Jobs.'
- C Kilborn
Today is 'Take our Daughters to Work Day.' This is when girls ages nine to fifteen go to work. Or, as it's called at the Nike factory - Thursday.
Today is 'Take our Daughters to Work Day.' This is when girls ages nine to fifteen go to work. Or, as it's called at the Nike factory - Thursday.
- Bill Maher
If women dressed for men, the stores wouldn't sell much - just an occasional sun visor.
If women dressed for men, the stores wouldn't sell much - just an occasional sun visor.
- Julius ("Groucho") Marx
A good rule of thumb is if you've made it to thirty-five and your job still requires you to wear a name tag, you've made a serious vocational error.
- Dennis Miller
Have you noticed how the Republicans and Democrats try to copy each other at their conventions? Like at the Democratic Convention, Kerry's daughter told a story about how her dad once gave CPR to her hamster. At the Republican Convention, the Bush girls are going to tell the story of how, when their hamster was bad, their dad built them a little electric chair.
- C O'Brien
- C O'Brien
Never raise your hands to your kids. It leaves your groin unprotected.
- Red Buttons
The trouble with children is that they are not returnable.
The trouble with children is that they are not returnable.
- Quentin Crisp
The lion and the calf shall lie down together, but the calf won't get much sleep.
- Woody Allen
- Woody Allen
President Bush was in Canada today. He went to work on relations with the United States and to pick up some discount Lipitor for Cheney.
-David Letterman
The pen is mightier than the sword, and considerably easier to write with.
- Marty Feldman
If at first you don't succeed, try again. Then quit. There's no use being a damn fool about it.
If at first you don't succeed, try again. Then quit. There's no use being a damn fool about it.
- WC Fields
Always get married early in the morning. That way, if it doesn't work out, you haven't wasted a whole day.
- Mickey Rooney
An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools.
An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools.
- Ernest Hemingway
When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading.
When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading.
- Paul Hornung
Globalization means brown kids working 23 hours per day making clothes for white kids who want to look like black kids
Globalization means brown kids working 23 hours per day making clothes for white kids who want to look like black kids
- Craig Kilgore
The Bible contains 6 admonishments to homosexuals and 362 admonishments to heterosexuals. That doesn't mean that God doesn't love heterosexuals. It's just that they need more supervision.
-Lynn Lavner
In a speech this week, Hillary Clinton compared President Bush to Mad Magazine's Alfred E. Neuman ... After hearing this the president said, 'Finally a literary reference I can understand.
- C O'Brien
The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made.
- "Groucho" Marx
The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made.
- "Groucho" Marx
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
- Dr. Seuss
I’m not afraid to die. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.
-W Allen
-W Allen
Be nice to people on your way up because you'll meet them on your way down.
-Wilson Mizner
Be nice to your children, for they will choose your rest home.
Be nice to your children, for they will choose your rest home.
- Phyllis Diller
There's very little advice in men's magazines, because men think, "I know what I'm doing. Just show me somebody naked.
- Jerry Seinfeld
Buy land. They ain't making any more of the stuff.
Buy land. They ain't making any more of the stuff.
-Will Rogers
President Bush, before he went on vacation, signed a bill that will extend daylight savings another month. He said it proves we're winning the war on darkness.
- D Letterman
By the time you're eighty years old you've learned everything. You only have to remember it.
By the time you're eighty years old you've learned everything. You only have to remember it.
- George Burns
Honesty is the best policy, but insanity is a better defence.
Honesty is the best policy, but insanity is a better defence.
- Steve Landesberg
Housework can't kill you, but why take a chance?
Housework can't kill you, but why take a chance?
- P Diller
Humility is no substitute for a good personality.
Humility is no substitute for a good personality.
- Jon Winokur
I think capital punishment works great. Every killer you kill never kills again.
I think capital punishment works great. Every killer you kill never kills again.
- B Maher
I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception.
- "Groucho" Marx
Brevity is the soul of lingerie.
I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception.
- "Groucho" Marx
Brevity is the soul of lingerie.
- Dorothy Parker
If a pit bull humps your leg, fake an orgasm.
If a pit bull humps your leg, fake an orgasm.
- Hut Landon
If you can't be kind, at least be vague.
If you can't be kind, at least be vague.
- Judith Manners
If you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten.
If you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten.
- George Carlin
If you can't laugh at yourself, make fun of other people.
If you can't laugh at yourself, make fun of other people.
- Bobby Slayton
No problem is so large it cannot be run away from.
No problem is so large it cannot be run away from.
- Charles Schultz (Peanuts)
Since everything is in our heads, we had better not lose them.
Since everything is in our heads, we had better not lose them.
- Coco Chanel
Success is a great deodorant.
- Elizabeth Taylor
The fastest way to a man's heart is through his chest.
The fastest way to a man's heart is through his chest.
- Roseanne Arnold
...Actually it's up through the stomach and under his sternum.
- N Wilkinson
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity.
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity.
- Nick Diamos
Start every day off with a smile and get it over with.
-WC Fields
Everything is funny as long as it’s happening to someone else.
- W Rogers
Start every day off with a smile and get it over with.
-WC Fields
Everything is funny as long as it’s happening to someone else.
- W Rogers
Drug Addiction, n. A popular method of dealing with day-to-day living in the United States.
- Ambrose Bierce
Peace, n. In international affairs, a period of cheating between two periods of fighting.
- A Bierce
If man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.
- M Twain
If you want a woman to give you the Cold Shoulder, try crying on it.
- Playboy
A bore is someone who persists in holding his own views after we have enlightened him with ours.
- O Wilde
Europeans have such great commercials because they have absolutely no qualms about showing explicitly sexually suggestive material to general audiences. Most 12-year-old European girls know more about and are more comfortable with sex than many 30-year-old American women.
- Unknown
I would like to see priests getting married, hetero-and homo-sexuals alike.
- Unknown
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
- Unknown
Human rights are not respected in Cuba, except in Guantánamo.
- Unknown
Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once.
-Unknown
If a man speaks in the forest, and there's no woman there to hear him - is he still wrong?
-Unknown
-Unknown
If a man speaks in the forest, and there's no woman there to hear him - is he still wrong?
-Unknown
We are born naked, wet, and hungry. Then things get worse.
- Unknown
Japan recently sent the American people 50,000,000 cases of Viagra ... They heard that an entire country can't get an election straight.
- Unknown
Of course a platonic relationship is possible ... but only between husband and wife.
Of course a platonic relationship is possible ... but only between husband and wife.
- Unknown
Stop giving me that pop-up ad for Classmates.com! There's a reason you don't talk to people for 25 years ... because you didn't particularly like them in the first place! Besides, I already know what the captain of the football team is doing these days: mowing my lawn.
- Unknown
Don't try to tell me that teenage boys who have sex with their female teachers are permanently damaged. I have a better description for these kids: lucky bastards.
- Unknown
Foreign aid: The transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.
- Unknown
Life is spent between episodes of women being mad at you.
- Unknown
The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us.
- Unknown
Did you hear that doctors have now discovered a food that kills all sexual desire in women? Wedding cake!
- Unknown (and insisting on staying that way!)
Did you hear that doctors have now discovered a food that kills all sexual desire in women? Wedding cake!
- Unknown (and insisting on staying that way!)
Friday, March 24, 2006
...and Israeli Arseholes
The Power of Saying No
by Jeff Halper
23 March 2006
As the new Hamas government is sworn into power in the Palestinian Authority, we might ask: What would bring a people, the most secular of Arab populations with little history of religious fundamentalism, to vote Hamas? Mere protest at Fatah ineffectualness in negotiations and internal corruption doesn't go far enough. While warning Hamas that their vote did not constitute a mandate for imposing an Iran-like theocracy on Palestine, the Palestinians took the only option left to a powerless people when all other avenues of redress have been closed to them: non-cooperation.
Gandhi put it best: "How can one be compelled to accept slavery? I simply refuse to do the master's bidding. He may torture me, break my bones to atoms and even kill me. He will then have my dead body, not my obedience. Ultimately, therefore, it is I who am the victor and not he, for he has failed in getting me to do what he wanted done. Non-cooperation is directed not against ... the Governors, but against the system they administer. The roots of non-cooperation lie not in hatred but in justice."
Non-cooperation, perhaps the most powerful means of non-violent resistance, arises in situations when the oppressed have no other avenues to achieve their freedom and their rights. Since it is the international community, the US, Israel and, yes, Fatah, who have closed all avenues of redress to the Palestinians, they carry the "blame" for the rise of Hamas. It is to them that the message of the Palestinian electorate is aimed: "To hell with all of you!"
To hell with the international community that closed off Palestinians' appeal to international law and human rights conventions. Had only the Fourth Geneva Convention been applied, Israel could never have constructed its Occupation in the first place. International law defines an occupation as a temporary military situation that can only be resolved through negotiations. Therefore an Occupying Power such as Israel is prohibited from taking any unilateral action that makes its control permanent. Besides its military bases, every single element of Israel's Occupation is patently illegal: settlements and the construction of a massive system of Israel-only highways that link the West Bank settlements to Israel proper; the extension of Israel's legal and planning system into occupied Palestinian areas; the plunder of Palestinian water and other resources for Israeli use; house demolitions and the expropriation of Palestinian lands; the intentional impoverishment of the local population; military attacks on civilian populations — to name but a few. Even when Israel's construction of the "Separation Barrier" was ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice in the Hague and its ruling ratified by the General Assembly, nothing was done to stop it.
To hell with the United States that closed off negotiations as an avenue for redressing Palestinian rights and for enabling Israel to make its Occupation permanent. At the very start of the Oslo "peace process," at Israel's urging, the US reclassified the Palestinian areas from "occupied" to "disputed," thus removing international law as the basis of negotiations and pulling the rug out from under the Palestinians. Had international law been respected, the Occupation would have ended under the weight of its own illegality. But once power became the only basis of negotiations, Israel easily overwhelmed the Palestinians. Until today Palestinians have nothing to look for in negotiations. With the Americans supporting Israeli unilateralism, with the US veto neutralizing the UN as an effective avenue of redress, and with European passivity, they have been cut adrift.
To hell with Israel that has closed off even the possibility of a viable Palestinian state by expanding into Palestinian areas. The world ignored the Palestinians' "generous offer" to Israel: recognition within the 1967 borders in return for a Palestinian state in the Occupied Territories. Or in other words, an Israel on 78% of historic Palestine with the Palestinians — today a majority in the country — accepting a state only on 22%. Israel is now posed, with American support and international complicity, to make its Occupation permanent and reduce the Palestinians to a prison-state truncated into five "cantons" all controlled by Israel. No borders, no freedom of movement, no water, no viable economy, no Jerusalem, no possibility of offering a hopeful future to the traumatized, brutalized, undereducated, unskilled, impoverished Palestinian youth.
And to hell with Fatah that, in addition to enabling corruption, did not effectively pursue the Palestinians' national agenda of self-determination. The Palestinian Authority ran its affairs removed from the people, failing to provide material and moral support to victims of Israeli attacks and policies of house demolitions. Most Palestinians did not vote Hamas (only 44% did), so the door was not closed on Fatah which, most Palestinians seem to hope, will learn its lesson from this setback.
Indeed, the vote for Hamas was not a closing of the door at all, but a rational, intentional and powerful statement of non-cooperation in a political process that is only leading to Palestinian imprisonment. Hamas, if anything, stands for steadfastness, sumud, the refusal to submit. This conflict is too destabilizing to the entire global system to let fester, the Palestinians are saying. You can all impose upon us an apartheid system, blame us for the violence while ignoring Israeli State Terror, pursue your programs of American Empire or your notions of a "clash of civilizations," we the Palestinians will not submit. We will not cooperate. We will not play your rigged game. In the end, for all your power, you will come to us to sue for peace. And then we will be ready for a just peace that respects the rights of all the peoples of the region, including the Israelis. But you will not beat us.
As an Israeli Jew who sees how the Occupation has eroded the moral foundations of my society and, indeed, my entire people, and as a resident of Israel-Palestine who knows that my fate is intricately intertwined with that of the Palestinians, I pray that such an end will come sooner rather than later.
Jeff Halper is the coordinator of The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
by Jeff Halper
23 March 2006
As the new Hamas government is sworn into power in the Palestinian Authority, we might ask: What would bring a people, the most secular of Arab populations with little history of religious fundamentalism, to vote Hamas? Mere protest at Fatah ineffectualness in negotiations and internal corruption doesn't go far enough. While warning Hamas that their vote did not constitute a mandate for imposing an Iran-like theocracy on Palestine, the Palestinians took the only option left to a powerless people when all other avenues of redress have been closed to them: non-cooperation.
Gandhi put it best: "How can one be compelled to accept slavery? I simply refuse to do the master's bidding. He may torture me, break my bones to atoms and even kill me. He will then have my dead body, not my obedience. Ultimately, therefore, it is I who am the victor and not he, for he has failed in getting me to do what he wanted done. Non-cooperation is directed not against ... the Governors, but against the system they administer. The roots of non-cooperation lie not in hatred but in justice."
Non-cooperation, perhaps the most powerful means of non-violent resistance, arises in situations when the oppressed have no other avenues to achieve their freedom and their rights. Since it is the international community, the US, Israel and, yes, Fatah, who have closed all avenues of redress to the Palestinians, they carry the "blame" for the rise of Hamas. It is to them that the message of the Palestinian electorate is aimed: "To hell with all of you!"
To hell with the international community that closed off Palestinians' appeal to international law and human rights conventions. Had only the Fourth Geneva Convention been applied, Israel could never have constructed its Occupation in the first place. International law defines an occupation as a temporary military situation that can only be resolved through negotiations. Therefore an Occupying Power such as Israel is prohibited from taking any unilateral action that makes its control permanent. Besides its military bases, every single element of Israel's Occupation is patently illegal: settlements and the construction of a massive system of Israel-only highways that link the West Bank settlements to Israel proper; the extension of Israel's legal and planning system into occupied Palestinian areas; the plunder of Palestinian water and other resources for Israeli use; house demolitions and the expropriation of Palestinian lands; the intentional impoverishment of the local population; military attacks on civilian populations — to name but a few. Even when Israel's construction of the "Separation Barrier" was ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice in the Hague and its ruling ratified by the General Assembly, nothing was done to stop it.
To hell with the United States that closed off negotiations as an avenue for redressing Palestinian rights and for enabling Israel to make its Occupation permanent. At the very start of the Oslo "peace process," at Israel's urging, the US reclassified the Palestinian areas from "occupied" to "disputed," thus removing international law as the basis of negotiations and pulling the rug out from under the Palestinians. Had international law been respected, the Occupation would have ended under the weight of its own illegality. But once power became the only basis of negotiations, Israel easily overwhelmed the Palestinians. Until today Palestinians have nothing to look for in negotiations. With the Americans supporting Israeli unilateralism, with the US veto neutralizing the UN as an effective avenue of redress, and with European passivity, they have been cut adrift.
To hell with Israel that has closed off even the possibility of a viable Palestinian state by expanding into Palestinian areas. The world ignored the Palestinians' "generous offer" to Israel: recognition within the 1967 borders in return for a Palestinian state in the Occupied Territories. Or in other words, an Israel on 78% of historic Palestine with the Palestinians — today a majority in the country — accepting a state only on 22%. Israel is now posed, with American support and international complicity, to make its Occupation permanent and reduce the Palestinians to a prison-state truncated into five "cantons" all controlled by Israel. No borders, no freedom of movement, no water, no viable economy, no Jerusalem, no possibility of offering a hopeful future to the traumatized, brutalized, undereducated, unskilled, impoverished Palestinian youth.
And to hell with Fatah that, in addition to enabling corruption, did not effectively pursue the Palestinians' national agenda of self-determination. The Palestinian Authority ran its affairs removed from the people, failing to provide material and moral support to victims of Israeli attacks and policies of house demolitions. Most Palestinians did not vote Hamas (only 44% did), so the door was not closed on Fatah which, most Palestinians seem to hope, will learn its lesson from this setback.
Indeed, the vote for Hamas was not a closing of the door at all, but a rational, intentional and powerful statement of non-cooperation in a political process that is only leading to Palestinian imprisonment. Hamas, if anything, stands for steadfastness, sumud, the refusal to submit. This conflict is too destabilizing to the entire global system to let fester, the Palestinians are saying. You can all impose upon us an apartheid system, blame us for the violence while ignoring Israeli State Terror, pursue your programs of American Empire or your notions of a "clash of civilizations," we the Palestinians will not submit. We will not cooperate. We will not play your rigged game. In the end, for all your power, you will come to us to sue for peace. And then we will be ready for a just peace that respects the rights of all the peoples of the region, including the Israelis. But you will not beat us.
As an Israeli Jew who sees how the Occupation has eroded the moral foundations of my society and, indeed, my entire people, and as a resident of Israel-Palestine who knows that my fate is intricately intertwined with that of the Palestinians, I pray that such an end will come sooner rather than later.
Jeff Halper is the coordinator of The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
US Arseholes
US Troops Investigated Over Iraqi Massacres
by Patrick Cockburn
The Independent UK
23 March 2006
The US military is investigating two incidents in which American soldiers killed at least 26 Iraqi civilians and then claimed that they were either guerrillas or had died in cross fire.
The growing evidence of retaliatory killings of unarmed Iraqi families, often including children, by US soldiers seemingly bent on punishing Iraqis after an attack, will spark comparisons with the massacre of Vietnamese villagers at My Lai in 1968.
US troops have been notorious among Iraqis for their willingness to shoot any Iraqi they see in the aftermath of an insurgent attack. But it is only now that convincing and detailed information is becoming available about the killings.
In the most recent incident, in the town of Ishaqi north of Baghdad last week, Iraqi police said that US troops had shot 11 people, including five children, in their home. The local police chief, Colonel Farouq Hussein, said that all the dead had been shot in the head, according to autopsies. "It's a clear and perfect crime," he said. In an incident in the town of Haditha in western Iraq on 19 November last year, US soldiers went on a rampage in a village after a bomb attack and killed at least 15 civilians, according to witnesses and local officials cited by Time magazine in an investigation.
The US military first claimed a roadside bomb had killed a US Marine, Miguel Tarrazas, along with 15 Iraqi civilians caught in the blast. Later, a military statement said "gunmen attacked the convoy with small-arms fire" and in returning fire the Marines killed eight insurgents.
But after Time presented the US military with what Iraqis said had happened, an official investigation found that 15 of the civilians had been deliberately killed by US soldiers.
The bomb attack on the US Humvee took place at 7.15am. Eman Waleed, a nine-year-old child, lived in a house 150 yards from the explosion. "We heard a big noise that woke us all up," she recalled later. "Then we did what we always do when there's an explosion: my father goes in to his room with the Koran and prays the family will be spared harm."
The Marines claim they heard shots coming from the direction of Waleed's house. They burst in to the house and Eman heard shots from her father's room. They then entered the living room, where the rest of the family was gathered. She said, "I couldn't see their faces very well — only their guns sticking in to the doorway. I watched them shoot my grandfather, first in the chest and then in the head. Then they killed my granny."
The US soldiers started shooting into the corner of the room where Eman and her eight-year-old brother, Abdul Rahman, were cowering. The other adults in the room tried to protect the two children with their bodies and were all shot dead. Eman and her brother were both wounded.
"We were lying there, bleeding and it hurt so much. Afterwards some Iraqi soldiers came. They carried us in their arms. I was crying, shouting, 'why did you do this to our family?' And one Iraqi soldier tells me, 'we didn't do it. The Americans did it'."
The Marines' explanation is that they heard the sound of a Kalashnikov being readied to shoot and had then fired their weapons. The Marines say they were fired at from a second house, where they broke down a door, threw in a grenade and opened fire. The eight who died in the second house included the owner, his wife, the owner's sister, a two-year-old son and three young daughters.
In a third house the Marines searched four young men were shot dead. A military investigation decided these were insurgent fighters, along with four others killed in the street.
The Marines later delivered 24 bodies to a hospital in Haditha, claiming they had been killed by shrapnel from a bomb. Dr. Wahid, the director of the hospital, said, "It was obvious to us there were no organs slashed by shrapnel. The bullet wounds were very apparent. Most of the victims were shot in the head and chest — from close range."
A US military investigation decided the deaths were "collateral damage". Relatives were paid $2,500 for each of the dead.
by Patrick Cockburn
The Independent UK
23 March 2006
The US military is investigating two incidents in which American soldiers killed at least 26 Iraqi civilians and then claimed that they were either guerrillas or had died in cross fire.
The growing evidence of retaliatory killings of unarmed Iraqi families, often including children, by US soldiers seemingly bent on punishing Iraqis after an attack, will spark comparisons with the massacre of Vietnamese villagers at My Lai in 1968.
US troops have been notorious among Iraqis for their willingness to shoot any Iraqi they see in the aftermath of an insurgent attack. But it is only now that convincing and detailed information is becoming available about the killings.
In the most recent incident, in the town of Ishaqi north of Baghdad last week, Iraqi police said that US troops had shot 11 people, including five children, in their home. The local police chief, Colonel Farouq Hussein, said that all the dead had been shot in the head, according to autopsies. "It's a clear and perfect crime," he said. In an incident in the town of Haditha in western Iraq on 19 November last year, US soldiers went on a rampage in a village after a bomb attack and killed at least 15 civilians, according to witnesses and local officials cited by Time magazine in an investigation.
The US military first claimed a roadside bomb had killed a US Marine, Miguel Tarrazas, along with 15 Iraqi civilians caught in the blast. Later, a military statement said "gunmen attacked the convoy with small-arms fire" and in returning fire the Marines killed eight insurgents.
But after Time presented the US military with what Iraqis said had happened, an official investigation found that 15 of the civilians had been deliberately killed by US soldiers.
The bomb attack on the US Humvee took place at 7.15am. Eman Waleed, a nine-year-old child, lived in a house 150 yards from the explosion. "We heard a big noise that woke us all up," she recalled later. "Then we did what we always do when there's an explosion: my father goes in to his room with the Koran and prays the family will be spared harm."
The Marines claim they heard shots coming from the direction of Waleed's house. They burst in to the house and Eman heard shots from her father's room. They then entered the living room, where the rest of the family was gathered. She said, "I couldn't see their faces very well — only their guns sticking in to the doorway. I watched them shoot my grandfather, first in the chest and then in the head. Then they killed my granny."
The US soldiers started shooting into the corner of the room where Eman and her eight-year-old brother, Abdul Rahman, were cowering. The other adults in the room tried to protect the two children with their bodies and were all shot dead. Eman and her brother were both wounded.
"We were lying there, bleeding and it hurt so much. Afterwards some Iraqi soldiers came. They carried us in their arms. I was crying, shouting, 'why did you do this to our family?' And one Iraqi soldier tells me, 'we didn't do it. The Americans did it'."
The Marines' explanation is that they heard the sound of a Kalashnikov being readied to shoot and had then fired their weapons. The Marines say they were fired at from a second house, where they broke down a door, threw in a grenade and opened fire. The eight who died in the second house included the owner, his wife, the owner's sister, a two-year-old son and three young daughters.
In a third house the Marines searched four young men were shot dead. A military investigation decided these were insurgent fighters, along with four others killed in the street.
The Marines later delivered 24 bodies to a hospital in Haditha, claiming they had been killed by shrapnel from a bomb. Dr. Wahid, the director of the hospital, said, "It was obvious to us there were no organs slashed by shrapnel. The bullet wounds were very apparent. Most of the victims were shot in the head and chest — from close range."
A US military investigation decided the deaths were "collateral damage". Relatives were paid $2,500 for each of the dead.
Democracy vs Terrorism
When Terrorism Outlaws Democracy
by Wanda Fish
On September 27, 2005, Australian democracy surrendered to terrorism. On that day, a coalition of willing federal and state leaders agreed to anti-terrorism legislation that will enable police persecution of the Muslim community and threaten dissidents with imprisonment. In a country without a Bill of Rights, the prospect of more draconian Terror Laws delivers ultimate control through fear. Australia, with its history of penal colonies, racism and detention centres, is now set to become a police state.
When Prime Minister Howard announced that he would meet with the State premiers about the need for harsher counter-terrorism measures, Labor state leaders were critical of the proposal and called the proposed laws ‘totalitarian’. The secret briefing, given by ASIO, the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation, had the desired impact. Within two hours, the Premiers had agreed to surrender our democratic rights to fight a subjective noun, terrorism. Assuming the state leaders were bribed with the promise of increased funding for their police forces, all Premiers agreed enthusiastically to use their own police to search, control, and detain ‘terror suspects’. The agreement gave John Howard the ability to circumvent the Australian constitution and enable detention of citizens for up two weeks without charge. ASIO’s reach into the community multiplies by 30 when state police began to operate as secret police. Australians, who have lost basic rights in the closed-door meeting, are expected to ‘trust’ that the Howard Government is protecting them from an invisible enemy in the American war on terror. The one concession gained by state leaders was a ten-year sunset clause on the new Terror Laws. This means citizens will only have a decade of surveillance, control orders, preventative detention, and thought police.
The new ‘regime’ of tougher laws that John Howard presented has alarmed Australian Muslims, journalists, peace activists, and dissidents who fear they will be victimized by ASIO raids and ‘fishing expeditions’. Protestors may be subjected to more police harassment, surveillance, and detention without charge. It will become a crime to ‘incite’ violence against the community, or against Australia’s forces overseas who fight in an unpopular war. It will also be a crime to communicate messages that ‘support’ Australia’s enemies’. The new crimes carry seven-year prison terms. Moreover the laws shift from a presumption of innocence to presumption of guilt. Writers and activists will have to prove that their articles or speeches did not ‘incite violence. Understandably, civil libertarians, constitutional lawyers, Muslims, journalists, and anti-war campaigners are worried.
With the devil in the detail, it is important to be both alert and alarmed about John Howard’s and the State Premiers’ twelve-step plan to totalitarianism:
1. Control orders: ‘People who pose a terrorist risk’ will have year-long control orders placed on them. Tracking devices, travel restrictions, and ‘association restrictions’ are included. While the Government has argued that similar control orders already exist with Apprehended Violence Orders (AVO), legal critics have pointed out that the new terror control orders are significantly more restrictive and can be imposed with no public accountability because of secrecy restrictions that hide ASIO’s activities from public scrutiny.
2. Preventative detention: ‘Suspects’ can be detained for up to two weeks without charge. This step by-passes the judicial system and would have been unconstitutional if enforced by the Australian Federal Police. State police will be able to detain ‘suspects’ who might have information or might be intending to commit a terrorist act. Less than 2,000 Federal Police will no longer limit ASIO’s invasiveness. The intelligence organisation will be able to use 45,000 police from the states and territories to detain suspects for up to two weeks without charge. This extraordinary power runs the risk of being used in criminal cases and the harassment of activists and protest leaders.
3. Notice to produce: The AFP may request and obtain virtually any information on any citizen under the banner of ‘national security’.
4. Access to passenger information: Provide access to airline passenger information for ASIO and the AFP. If John Howard follows the American example, Australians can expect ‘no-fly’ lists that will be used to disrupt the activities and restrict travel options for known activists and dissidents.
5. Extensive stop, search and question powers: Federal police will have the power to stop, search and question any citizen whom they believe ‘might have just committed, might be committing, or might be about to commit a terrorism offence’. The subjective judgment of police will determine what someone might be thinking of doing. The loose definition of terrorism makes this particular power easy to abuse.
6. Extending search and interrogation powers to state police at transport hubs: People at bus stops, taxi ranks, railway stations, and airports can and will be subjected to random searches and the subjective judgment of police.
7. ASIO warrants regime: ASIO search warrants will be extended from 28 days to three months, while mail and delivery service warrants extend from 90 days to six months. Moreover, ASIO will be able to remove and keep anything they take from premises that have been searched ‘for as long as needed’ for purposes of security. Organisations opposing the Government on issues such as industrial relations or student rights are aware of the potential for this power to be used to spy on them, disrupt activity and remove records. Lawyers have argued that the extended warrants enable ASIO to go on ‘fishing expeditions’ that will see innocent Australians being watched.
8. Create new offences: The existing sedition offence will be scrapped, and replaced with the broader, new crime of ‘inciting violence against the community’. Journalists and internet writers who ‘communicate inciting messages directed against Australia’s forces overseas and groups who ‘support Australia’s enemies’ could face up to seven years in prison. The new warrants regime combined with ASIO’s unfettered access to private emails, computer searches, on-line forums, may impact on cyber-journalism’s resolve to report the truth.
9. Strengthen offences for financing terrorism or providing false or misleading information under an ASIO questioning warrant. The right to remain silent is removed, and anyone refusing to answer questions can be imprisoned. Former Liberal Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, publicly opposed this regime when he spoke at a symposium addressing global leaderships and ethics, ‘The legislation is contrary to the Rule of Law. It is contrary to Due Process, to Habeas Corpus, to the basic rights which we have come to understand are central to a free and open society.’ Lawyers have also asked what ‘strengthens’ means in relation to financing terrorism, given that under the Criminal Code this offence already incurs life imprisonment.
10. Criteria for listing terrorist organizations will be extended. Organisations that ‘advocate terrorism’ can be banned. Community lawyers, policy workers, advocates and legal academics have argued that ‘the extension of the unprecedented powers to ban terrorist organisations …poses the danger that many organisations that publicly support independence movements like Fretilin and the ANC will be vulnerable to proscription.’ The potential for this list to grow to include organizations that oppose the Government is self-evident.
11. Citizenship: The Government will extend the waiting period for citizenship from two to three years and will refuse citizenship on ‘security grounds’. As a critical electorate and organizations such as Amnesty International draw unwanted attention to the Government’s inhumane treatment of refugees, the Immigration Department will be able to make secret decisions based on ‘national security’. The recent case of Scott Parkin demonstrated how joint exercises between ASIO and the Department of Immigration can quickly and legally expel dissidents or unwanted refugees. The only explanation that needs to be given is ‘for reasons of national security’.
12. Terrorist financing: More invasive processes to ensure that charities are not used to fund ‘terrorist organisations’ will be extended to institutions and couriers involved in the process. What ASIO will deem to be a terrorist organisation is as open-ended as the definition of terrorism itself. Similar legislation in the UK has already resulted in legitimate Iraqi orphanage charities being banned and having their funds seized.
by Wanda Fish
On September 27, 2005, Australian democracy surrendered to terrorism. On that day, a coalition of willing federal and state leaders agreed to anti-terrorism legislation that will enable police persecution of the Muslim community and threaten dissidents with imprisonment. In a country without a Bill of Rights, the prospect of more draconian Terror Laws delivers ultimate control through fear. Australia, with its history of penal colonies, racism and detention centres, is now set to become a police state.
When Prime Minister Howard announced that he would meet with the State premiers about the need for harsher counter-terrorism measures, Labor state leaders were critical of the proposal and called the proposed laws ‘totalitarian’. The secret briefing, given by ASIO, the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation, had the desired impact. Within two hours, the Premiers had agreed to surrender our democratic rights to fight a subjective noun, terrorism. Assuming the state leaders were bribed with the promise of increased funding for their police forces, all Premiers agreed enthusiastically to use their own police to search, control, and detain ‘terror suspects’. The agreement gave John Howard the ability to circumvent the Australian constitution and enable detention of citizens for up two weeks without charge. ASIO’s reach into the community multiplies by 30 when state police began to operate as secret police. Australians, who have lost basic rights in the closed-door meeting, are expected to ‘trust’ that the Howard Government is protecting them from an invisible enemy in the American war on terror. The one concession gained by state leaders was a ten-year sunset clause on the new Terror Laws. This means citizens will only have a decade of surveillance, control orders, preventative detention, and thought police.
The new ‘regime’ of tougher laws that John Howard presented has alarmed Australian Muslims, journalists, peace activists, and dissidents who fear they will be victimized by ASIO raids and ‘fishing expeditions’. Protestors may be subjected to more police harassment, surveillance, and detention without charge. It will become a crime to ‘incite’ violence against the community, or against Australia’s forces overseas who fight in an unpopular war. It will also be a crime to communicate messages that ‘support’ Australia’s enemies’. The new crimes carry seven-year prison terms. Moreover the laws shift from a presumption of innocence to presumption of guilt. Writers and activists will have to prove that their articles or speeches did not ‘incite violence. Understandably, civil libertarians, constitutional lawyers, Muslims, journalists, and anti-war campaigners are worried.
With the devil in the detail, it is important to be both alert and alarmed about John Howard’s and the State Premiers’ twelve-step plan to totalitarianism:
1. Control orders: ‘People who pose a terrorist risk’ will have year-long control orders placed on them. Tracking devices, travel restrictions, and ‘association restrictions’ are included. While the Government has argued that similar control orders already exist with Apprehended Violence Orders (AVO), legal critics have pointed out that the new terror control orders are significantly more restrictive and can be imposed with no public accountability because of secrecy restrictions that hide ASIO’s activities from public scrutiny.
2. Preventative detention: ‘Suspects’ can be detained for up to two weeks without charge. This step by-passes the judicial system and would have been unconstitutional if enforced by the Australian Federal Police. State police will be able to detain ‘suspects’ who might have information or might be intending to commit a terrorist act. Less than 2,000 Federal Police will no longer limit ASIO’s invasiveness. The intelligence organisation will be able to use 45,000 police from the states and territories to detain suspects for up to two weeks without charge. This extraordinary power runs the risk of being used in criminal cases and the harassment of activists and protest leaders.
3. Notice to produce: The AFP may request and obtain virtually any information on any citizen under the banner of ‘national security’.
4. Access to passenger information: Provide access to airline passenger information for ASIO and the AFP. If John Howard follows the American example, Australians can expect ‘no-fly’ lists that will be used to disrupt the activities and restrict travel options for known activists and dissidents.
5. Extensive stop, search and question powers: Federal police will have the power to stop, search and question any citizen whom they believe ‘might have just committed, might be committing, or might be about to commit a terrorism offence’. The subjective judgment of police will determine what someone might be thinking of doing. The loose definition of terrorism makes this particular power easy to abuse.
6. Extending search and interrogation powers to state police at transport hubs: People at bus stops, taxi ranks, railway stations, and airports can and will be subjected to random searches and the subjective judgment of police.
7. ASIO warrants regime: ASIO search warrants will be extended from 28 days to three months, while mail and delivery service warrants extend from 90 days to six months. Moreover, ASIO will be able to remove and keep anything they take from premises that have been searched ‘for as long as needed’ for purposes of security. Organisations opposing the Government on issues such as industrial relations or student rights are aware of the potential for this power to be used to spy on them, disrupt activity and remove records. Lawyers have argued that the extended warrants enable ASIO to go on ‘fishing expeditions’ that will see innocent Australians being watched.
8. Create new offences: The existing sedition offence will be scrapped, and replaced with the broader, new crime of ‘inciting violence against the community’. Journalists and internet writers who ‘communicate inciting messages directed against Australia’s forces overseas and groups who ‘support Australia’s enemies’ could face up to seven years in prison. The new warrants regime combined with ASIO’s unfettered access to private emails, computer searches, on-line forums, may impact on cyber-journalism’s resolve to report the truth.
9. Strengthen offences for financing terrorism or providing false or misleading information under an ASIO questioning warrant. The right to remain silent is removed, and anyone refusing to answer questions can be imprisoned. Former Liberal Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, publicly opposed this regime when he spoke at a symposium addressing global leaderships and ethics, ‘The legislation is contrary to the Rule of Law. It is contrary to Due Process, to Habeas Corpus, to the basic rights which we have come to understand are central to a free and open society.’ Lawyers have also asked what ‘strengthens’ means in relation to financing terrorism, given that under the Criminal Code this offence already incurs life imprisonment.
10. Criteria for listing terrorist organizations will be extended. Organisations that ‘advocate terrorism’ can be banned. Community lawyers, policy workers, advocates and legal academics have argued that ‘the extension of the unprecedented powers to ban terrorist organisations …poses the danger that many organisations that publicly support independence movements like Fretilin and the ANC will be vulnerable to proscription.’ The potential for this list to grow to include organizations that oppose the Government is self-evident.
11. Citizenship: The Government will extend the waiting period for citizenship from two to three years and will refuse citizenship on ‘security grounds’. As a critical electorate and organizations such as Amnesty International draw unwanted attention to the Government’s inhumane treatment of refugees, the Immigration Department will be able to make secret decisions based on ‘national security’. The recent case of Scott Parkin demonstrated how joint exercises between ASIO and the Department of Immigration can quickly and legally expel dissidents or unwanted refugees. The only explanation that needs to be given is ‘for reasons of national security’.
12. Terrorist financing: More invasive processes to ensure that charities are not used to fund ‘terrorist organisations’ will be extended to institutions and couriers involved in the process. What ASIO will deem to be a terrorist organisation is as open-ended as the definition of terrorism itself. Similar legislation in the UK has already resulted in legitimate Iraqi orphanage charities being banned and having their funds seized.
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Trust Me
[Our beloved Prime Minister doesn't have a Constitution to worry about, AND he has both the media and the laziness of most Australians on his side. "Trust me," he says. "I'll make you feel relaxed and comfortable!" And we do - as long as rain doen't delay play in the cricket, as long as there is a snag (sausage) on the barbie and a cold beer in the fridge, most Aussies don't give a tinker's cuss about "elitist rubbish" like freedom]
American intellegence was proving itself inadequate to the challenge. The president appointed a special commission to make recommendations. The year was 1954. The commission chairman was James Doolittle, the retired bomber general who had led the first air raid against Tokyo.
''It is now clear," he stated in his report to President Eisenhower, ''that we are facing an implacable enemy whose avowed objective is world domination by whatever means and whatever cost. There are no rules in such a game. Hitherto acceptable norms of human conduct do not apply. If the United States is to survive, longstanding concepts of 'fair play' must be reconsidered. We must develop effective espionage and counter-espionage services, and must learn to subvert, sabotage, and destroy our enemies by more clever, more sophisticated, and more effective methods than those used against us. It may be necessary that the American people be made acquainted with, understand, and support this fundamentally repugnant philosophy."
Sound familiar? Again and again, in the year now ending, the American people have been told by their leaders that strategies based on a new ''repugnant philosophy" are required if the nation is to survive the challenge facing it. Forbidden incendiary weapons must be used in urban settings. Prisoners of war must be deprived of Geneva protections. Aggressive interrogations of enemies must approach torture. Commitments to provide US combat forces with adequate protective gear must be forsworn. Extrajudicial kidnapping of bad people must be justified. Allies must be pressured into joining secret networks of detention camps.
Human rights standards must be jettisoned. Traditional obligations to the United Nations must be ignored. Treaties that limit action can be cast aside. Distinctions between foreign and domestic espionage must be left behind, with US citizens subject to unmonitored surveillance by military agencies. Public libraries must be regarded as government peepholes. The lawyer-client privilege must no longer be regarded as sacrosanct. The press must be recruited into the project of information management. Dissent must be labeled as treason.
A great American erosion has occurred this year, and only now are the contours of what is lost becoming apparent. Much more is at stake than the abandonment of ''longstanding concepts of 'fair-play' " of which Doolittle wrote. To ''subvert, sabotage, and destroy" what threatens us, we have begun to subvert, sabotage, and destroy what protects us: the mutuality of solemn compacts abroad, fundamental safeguards of the Constitution at home. Because the justifying ''state of emergency" is an open-ended war, the trashing of ''hitherto acceptable norms of human conduct" will be permanent. Get used to it...
Every time the Bush administration is caught in one of its repugnant purposes ... the White House declares its intention to stay the course. Torture? Wiretapping? Kidnapping? Deceit? The president's eyes widen: Trust me, he says with a twisted smile. Then he leans closer to display a snarling defiance. The combination reduces his critics to sputters.
Perhaps Bush's savviest achievement has been to make the public think that Rumsfeld and Cheney are the dark geniuses behind the administration's malevolence. If Bush is taken as too shallow to have a fascist ideology; as too weak to stick with hard policies that undermine democracy; as a religious nutcase whose apocalyptic fantasies don't matter; as a man, in sum, the average citizen can regard as slightly less than average -- then what he is pulling off will not be called by its proper name until it is too late. 2005? Oh yes, that was the year of the coup.
© 2005 Boston Globe
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
The Boss
WHO’S THE BOSS?
Soon after humans first appeared on Earth, the parts of the Body began to argue over who should be the Boss.
The Brain argued that, of course, it should be Boss, because it exercised control over all aspects of the human’s behaviour.
The Eyes claimed that they should be Boss, because they showed the human being what was happening in the world around.
The Mouth asserted that it should be Boss, because it took in the fuel which allowed the human to function.
And so on … and so on – each organ had its arguments as to why IT should be Boss.
Now the Arsehole just sat there quietly and listened to how the other parts of the Body argued.
For days the argument raged, and every time the poor Arsehole tried to speak, the others ignored it, or shouted it down.
So the Arsehole closed up!
After a few days the Brain began to feel dizzy, the Eyes to get foggy, and the mouth to go dry. Soon every part of the Body began to shut down, and the human began to die.
So all the parts of the Body relented and agreed that the Arsehole should be Boss!
The Moral of this Story?
You don’t have to be anything special to be a boss … just an arsehole!
Soon after humans first appeared on Earth, the parts of the Body began to argue over who should be the Boss.
The Brain argued that, of course, it should be Boss, because it exercised control over all aspects of the human’s behaviour.
The Eyes claimed that they should be Boss, because they showed the human being what was happening in the world around.
The Mouth asserted that it should be Boss, because it took in the fuel which allowed the human to function.
And so on … and so on – each organ had its arguments as to why IT should be Boss.
Now the Arsehole just sat there quietly and listened to how the other parts of the Body argued.
For days the argument raged, and every time the poor Arsehole tried to speak, the others ignored it, or shouted it down.
So the Arsehole closed up!
After a few days the Brain began to feel dizzy, the Eyes to get foggy, and the mouth to go dry. Soon every part of the Body began to shut down, and the human began to die.
So all the parts of the Body relented and agreed that the Arsehole should be Boss!
The Moral of this Story?
You don’t have to be anything special to be a boss … just an arsehole!
Charity
[I was prompted to write this by a phone asking me to donate to what I consider a worthy cause - the Epilepsy Foundation - wherein I was told that my donation would be tax-deductible. Are there really people so mean that they will only donate if they can somehow claw the money back? Apparently - this is the Aussie way, mate!]
I cannot help a wry smile when I hear how people are inveigled into donating to charities by the promise of yet another tax deduction. Surely the purpose of charity is to give ungrudgingly and without the expectation of reward.
Mind you, I imagine the Business Council of Australia and the ACT Chamber of Commerce heartily approve of tax-deductibility for donations. After all it teaches the kiddies two important principles of capitalism — firstly, that no-one ever invests without the hope of a return, and secondly, that there’s no such thing as a free lunch, even for “crips” and “loonies,” much less for “drinking, smoking, gambling and dole-bludging single mums!”
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Rose-coloured Glasses Over Iraq
Bullet Points over Baghdad
By Paul Krugman
The New York Times
The National Security Council document released this week under the grandiose title "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq" is neither an analytical report nor a policy statement. It's simply the same old talking points - "victory in Iraq is a vital U.S. interest"; "failure is not an option" - repackaged in the style of a slide presentation for a business meeting.
It's an embarrassing piece of work. Yet it's also an important test for the news media. The Bush administration has lost none of its confidence that it can getaway with fuzzy math and fuzzy facts - that it won't be called to account for obvious efforts to mislead the public. It's up to journalists to prove that confidence wrong.
Here's an example of how the White House attempts to mislead: the new document assures us that Iraq's economy is doing really well. "Oil production increased from an average of 1.58 million barrels per day in 2003, to an average of 2.25 million barrels per day in 2004." The document goes on to concede a "slight decrease" in production since then.
We're not expected to realize that the daily average for 2003 includes the months just before, during and just after the invasion of Iraq, when its oil industry was basically shut down. As a result, we're not supposed to understand that the real story of Iraq's oil industry is one of unexpected failure: instead of achieving the surge predicted by some of the war's advocates, Iraqi production has rarely matched its prewar level, and has been on a downward trend for the past year.
What about the security situation? During much of 2004, the document tells us: "Fallujah, Najaf, and Samara were under enemy control. Today, these cities are under Iraqi government control."
Najaf was never controlled by the "enemy," if that means the people we're currently fighting. It was briefly controlled by Moktada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. The United States once vowed to destroy that militia, but these days it's as strong as ever. And according to The New York Times, Mr. Sadr has now become a "kingmaker in Iraqi politics." So what sort of victory did we win, exactly, in Najaf?
Moreover, in what sense is Najaf now under government control? According to The Christian Science Monitor, "Sadr supporters and many Najaf residents say an armed Badr Brigade" - the militia of a Shiite group that opposes Mr. Sadr and his supporters - "still exists as the Najaf police force."
Meanwhile, this is the third time that coalition forces have driven the insurgents out of Samara. On the two previous occasions, the insurgents came back after the Americans left. And there, too, it's stretching things to say that the city is under Iraqi government control: according to The Associated Press, only 100 of the city's 700 policemen show up for work on most days.
There's a lot more like that in the document. Refuting some of the upbeat assertions about Iraq requires specialized knowledge, but many of them can be quickly debunked by anyone with an Internet connection.
The point isn't just that the administration is trying, yet again, to deceive the public. It's the fact that this attempt at deception shows such contempt - contempt for the public, and especially contempt for the news media. And why not? The truth is that the level of misrepresentation in this new document is no worse than that in a typical speech by President Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney. Yet for much of the past five years, many major news organizations failed to provide the public with effective fact-checking.
So Mr. Bush's new public relations offensive on Iraq is a test. Are the news media still too cowed, too addicted to articles that contain little more than dueling quotes to tell the public when the administration is saying things that aren't true? Or has the worm finally turned?
There have been encouraging signs, notably a thorough front-page fact-checking article - which even included charts showing the stagnation of oil production and electricity generation! - in USA Today. But the next few days will tell.
By Paul Krugman
The New York Times
The National Security Council document released this week under the grandiose title "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq" is neither an analytical report nor a policy statement. It's simply the same old talking points - "victory in Iraq is a vital U.S. interest"; "failure is not an option" - repackaged in the style of a slide presentation for a business meeting.
It's an embarrassing piece of work. Yet it's also an important test for the news media. The Bush administration has lost none of its confidence that it can getaway with fuzzy math and fuzzy facts - that it won't be called to account for obvious efforts to mislead the public. It's up to journalists to prove that confidence wrong.
Here's an example of how the White House attempts to mislead: the new document assures us that Iraq's economy is doing really well. "Oil production increased from an average of 1.58 million barrels per day in 2003, to an average of 2.25 million barrels per day in 2004." The document goes on to concede a "slight decrease" in production since then.
We're not expected to realize that the daily average for 2003 includes the months just before, during and just after the invasion of Iraq, when its oil industry was basically shut down. As a result, we're not supposed to understand that the real story of Iraq's oil industry is one of unexpected failure: instead of achieving the surge predicted by some of the war's advocates, Iraqi production has rarely matched its prewar level, and has been on a downward trend for the past year.
What about the security situation? During much of 2004, the document tells us: "Fallujah, Najaf, and Samara were under enemy control. Today, these cities are under Iraqi government control."
Najaf was never controlled by the "enemy," if that means the people we're currently fighting. It was briefly controlled by Moktada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. The United States once vowed to destroy that militia, but these days it's as strong as ever. And according to The New York Times, Mr. Sadr has now become a "kingmaker in Iraqi politics." So what sort of victory did we win, exactly, in Najaf?
Moreover, in what sense is Najaf now under government control? According to The Christian Science Monitor, "Sadr supporters and many Najaf residents say an armed Badr Brigade" - the militia of a Shiite group that opposes Mr. Sadr and his supporters - "still exists as the Najaf police force."
Meanwhile, this is the third time that coalition forces have driven the insurgents out of Samara. On the two previous occasions, the insurgents came back after the Americans left. And there, too, it's stretching things to say that the city is under Iraqi government control: according to The Associated Press, only 100 of the city's 700 policemen show up for work on most days.
There's a lot more like that in the document. Refuting some of the upbeat assertions about Iraq requires specialized knowledge, but many of them can be quickly debunked by anyone with an Internet connection.
The point isn't just that the administration is trying, yet again, to deceive the public. It's the fact that this attempt at deception shows such contempt - contempt for the public, and especially contempt for the news media. And why not? The truth is that the level of misrepresentation in this new document is no worse than that in a typical speech by President Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney. Yet for much of the past five years, many major news organizations failed to provide the public with effective fact-checking.
So Mr. Bush's new public relations offensive on Iraq is a test. Are the news media still too cowed, too addicted to articles that contain little more than dueling quotes to tell the public when the administration is saying things that aren't true? Or has the worm finally turned?
There have been encouraging signs, notably a thorough front-page fact-checking article - which even included charts showing the stagnation of oil production and electricity generation! - in USA Today. But the next few days will tell.
Terminological Exactness
I am a linguist by training, but History runs a close second in my list of enthusiasms. Although no surprise to linguists, the New Left emphasis on the cultural hegemony that “the Establishment” exercises has, in recent years, made the average person aware that the words we use have power to shape the way we think. The trap into which liberal thinkers often fall is to let “the Establishment” control the discourse — by using their terms we are already at a disadvantage in presenting our views.
Let me bore you with a historical aside here. When the world went mad in 1914, and nation tore into nation, each one with “God on our side,” the Imperial Russian government decreed that the Russian name “Petrograd” replace the Germanic “St Petersburg.” Lenin and the Bolsheviks, in pursuit of their strategy of Revolutionary Defeatism (getting Russia out of the war and bringing down the Tsar) continued to use “St Petersburg.” Well, as we know, the winners from the War to End Wars were neither individual nations nor god, but the international arms manufacturers and supranational capitalism — and the world had to go through it all again twenty years later.
My point here is that, in relation to the current focus on “international terrorism,” we should refuse to be corralled by the mainstream media and its attack-dogs into using the terminology with which THEY are comfortable. For example:
· In relation to the attack on the World Trade Centre in 2001, liberals really ought to resist such formulae as “September 11,” “9/11,” or worse, “Nine-one-one” (coincidentally the Emergency Number in the USA). It doesn’t matter that the attack happened in the US, or that the US was the recipient of the attack — though Bush would have us believe that the US suffered so much that the world owes it undying compassion and unquestioning allegiance. We are Australians and we should insist on using our dating system which runs DD/MM/YY, ie 11 September.
· We should try to avoid “The War on Terrorism” or even less desirable, “The War on Terror.” How do you fight an abstract noun? How do you know when you’ve won? You can fight FOR an abstract concept, but fighting AGAINST one is like trying to prove the non-existence of a supreme being (it’s harder — some would say impossible — to prove a negative proposition!). This continual battle of “Good” against “Evil’, of course, not only fits in with their philosophy of life, but is the chief means by with our Glorious Leaders keep us in a state of fear which only they can resolve. We would do better referring to “The Attempt to Capture bin Laden,” “The War to Bring Down the Taliban,” “The Invasion of Afghanistan,” “The Invasion of Iraq,” “The War to Bring Down Saddam,” “The War to Reshape the Middle-East,” “The War to Secure Iraqi Oil,” etc etc.
· Rather than “Anti-Terrorist Legislation” [recently passed by the Australian Parliament] — after all who DOES want have a bomb go off next to them — how about we call it “The Curtailment of Liberties Legislation,” “The ‘Disappearance’ Legislation,” or, more prosaically, “Legislation to Increase the Powers of the Security Services (The LIPSServices Law).”
Let me bore you with a historical aside here. When the world went mad in 1914, and nation tore into nation, each one with “God on our side,” the Imperial Russian government decreed that the Russian name “Petrograd” replace the Germanic “St Petersburg.” Lenin and the Bolsheviks, in pursuit of their strategy of Revolutionary Defeatism (getting Russia out of the war and bringing down the Tsar) continued to use “St Petersburg.” Well, as we know, the winners from the War to End Wars were neither individual nations nor god, but the international arms manufacturers and supranational capitalism — and the world had to go through it all again twenty years later.
My point here is that, in relation to the current focus on “international terrorism,” we should refuse to be corralled by the mainstream media and its attack-dogs into using the terminology with which THEY are comfortable. For example:
· In relation to the attack on the World Trade Centre in 2001, liberals really ought to resist such formulae as “September 11,” “9/11,” or worse, “Nine-one-one” (coincidentally the Emergency Number in the USA). It doesn’t matter that the attack happened in the US, or that the US was the recipient of the attack — though Bush would have us believe that the US suffered so much that the world owes it undying compassion and unquestioning allegiance. We are Australians and we should insist on using our dating system which runs DD/MM/YY, ie 11 September.
· We should try to avoid “The War on Terrorism” or even less desirable, “The War on Terror.” How do you fight an abstract noun? How do you know when you’ve won? You can fight FOR an abstract concept, but fighting AGAINST one is like trying to prove the non-existence of a supreme being (it’s harder — some would say impossible — to prove a negative proposition!). This continual battle of “Good” against “Evil’, of course, not only fits in with their philosophy of life, but is the chief means by with our Glorious Leaders keep us in a state of fear which only they can resolve. We would do better referring to “The Attempt to Capture bin Laden,” “The War to Bring Down the Taliban,” “The Invasion of Afghanistan,” “The Invasion of Iraq,” “The War to Bring Down Saddam,” “The War to Reshape the Middle-East,” “The War to Secure Iraqi Oil,” etc etc.
· Rather than “Anti-Terrorist Legislation” [recently passed by the Australian Parliament] — after all who DOES want have a bomb go off next to them — how about we call it “The Curtailment of Liberties Legislation,” “The ‘Disappearance’ Legislation,” or, more prosaically, “Legislation to Increase the Powers of the Security Services (The LIPSServices Law).”
Saturday, December 03, 2005
Second Thoughts Iin UK
Official Secrets, Lies, and the Truth
by Raymond Whitaker and Marie Woolf
3 December
Nobody outside the Westminster village would recognize the names of David Keogh and Leo O'Connor. One is a former Cabinet Office official, the other a researcher for an MP who lost his seat at the last election. But the crime of which they are accused concerns two men who are firmly in the public eye: Tony Blair and George Bush.
On Tuesday, Mr. Keogh, 49, the civil servant, and Mr. O'Connor, 42, who worked for the former Labor MP Tony Clarke, will appear at Bow Street magistrates' court in London. Mr. Keogh is charged, under the Official Secrets Act, with sending the researcher a transcript of an April 2004 meeting at the White House between the Prime Minister and the President. When the document was shown to Mr. Clarke, then MP for Northampton South, he returned it to Downing Street.
All that occurred well over a year ago. Despite the eminence of those taking part in the discussion, the transcript did not carry the highest classification, and the case might have attracted relatively little attention were it not for subsequent events. On Tuesday, the Daily Mirror reported that Mr. Bush had told Mr. Blair in April last year that he wanted to bomb the studios of al-Jazeera, the Arabic-language satellite channel which has consistently challenged the White House line on Iraq.
With its Arab cameramen and reporters, al-Jazeera, based in the Gulf state of Qatar, has been able to go where embedded Western reporters dare not. At the time of the White House meeting, it was broadcasting bloody footage from within Fallujah, then under assault by US forces. Added to the channel's role as the outlet for statements by Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants, and its coverage of on-camera executions of Western hostages by al-Qa'ida followers, it was not surprising that Mr. Bush might have been angry with al-Jazeera.
According to the Mirror, Mr. Blair dissuaded the President from any attack on the TV station. It reported conflicting views on whether Mr. Bush might have been joking or not - even if he had been prepared to disregard the international outrage it would have caused, Qatar is a key Middle East base for the Americans - although it is possible that he was suggesting a clandestine bombing.
Even this trumpeted exclusive might
by Raymond Whitaker and Marie Woolf
3 December
Nobody outside the Westminster village would recognize the names of David Keogh and Leo O'Connor. One is a former Cabinet Office official, the other a researcher for an MP who lost his seat at the last election. But the crime of which they are accused concerns two men who are firmly in the public eye: Tony Blair and George Bush.
On Tuesday, Mr. Keogh, 49, the civil servant, and Mr. O'Connor, 42, who worked for the former Labor MP Tony Clarke, will appear at Bow Street magistrates' court in London. Mr. Keogh is charged, under the Official Secrets Act, with sending the researcher a transcript of an April 2004 meeting at the White House between the Prime Minister and the President. When the document was shown to Mr. Clarke, then MP for Northampton South, he returned it to Downing Street.
All that occurred well over a year ago. Despite the eminence of those taking part in the discussion, the transcript did not carry the highest classification, and the case might have attracted relatively little attention were it not for subsequent events. On Tuesday, the Daily Mirror reported that Mr. Bush had told Mr. Blair in April last year that he wanted to bomb the studios of al-Jazeera, the Arabic-language satellite channel which has consistently challenged the White House line on Iraq.
With its Arab cameramen and reporters, al-Jazeera, based in the Gulf state of Qatar, has been able to go where embedded Western reporters dare not. At the time of the White House meeting, it was broadcasting bloody footage from within Fallujah, then under assault by US forces. Added to the channel's role as the outlet for statements by Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants, and its coverage of on-camera executions of Western hostages by al-Qa'ida followers, it was not surprising that Mr. Bush might have been angry with al-Jazeera.
According to the Mirror, Mr. Blair dissuaded the President from any attack on the TV station. It reported conflicting views on whether Mr. Bush might have been joking or not - even if he had been prepared to disregard the international outrage it would have caused, Qatar is a key Middle East base for the Americans - although it is possible that he was suggesting a clandestine bombing.
Even this trumpeted exclusive might
Friday, November 11, 2005
Vietnam Revisited with "New, Improved" Napalm
VIEWPOINT
Visit the Viewpoint archives at http://archives.GopherCentral.com
Editor's Note:
On Monday, Nov. 7th, Italian television network RAI decided to air a documentary of a story that was reported by Bloggers and online sources almost a year ago: The US used chemical weapons during the assault on Fallujah (see stories at the end of today's articles to verify that this is not a new story.) Today's article comes from The Independent, but we have gone one step further.
We have video clips from the program that aired so that you can verify the reports with your own eyes. WARNING: The video clips are extremely disturbing and should not be viewed by those of delicate nature. War is not pretty, but in the interest of disseminating the truth, we felt that this week's video clip-of-the-week and today's article should go hand in hand.
Video Clip-Of-The-Week
Fallujah - Hidden Massacre
All of these clips come from the Fallujah RAI documentary.
http://www.evtv1.com/index.asp?itemnum=1067 "> Civilian Casualties (Warning, GRAPHIC FOOTAGE)
http://www.evtv1.com/index.asp?itemnum=1068 "> Fallujah - Illegal & Bloody War
http://www.evtv1.com/index.asp?itemnum=1069 "> GI Interview on Fallujah
http://www.evtv1.com/index.asp?itemnum=1066 "> Bush and Blair Exposed
US used Chemical Weapons on Fallujah Assault - Peter Popham
Powerful new evidence emerged yesterday that the US dropped massive quantities of white phosphorus on the Iraqi city of Fallujah during the attack on the city in November 2004, killing insurgents and civilians with the appalling burns that are the signature of this weapon.
Ever since the assault, which went unreported by any Western journalists, rumors have swirled that the Americans used chemical weapons on the city.
On 10 November last year, the Islam Online website wrote, “US troops are reportedly using chemical weapons and poisonous gas in its large-scale offensive on the Iraqi resistance bastion of Fallujah, a grim reminder of Saddam Hussein's alleged gassing of the Kurds in 1988.”
The website quoted insurgent sources as saying: "The US occupation troops are gassing resistance fighters and confronting them with internationally banned chemical weapons."
In December the US government formally denied the reports, describing them as "widespread myths". "Some news accounts have claimed that US forces have used 'outlawed' phosphorus shells in Fallujah," the USinfo website said. "Phosphorus shells are not outlawed. US forces have used them very sparingly in Fallujah, for illumination purposes. They were fired into the air to illuminate enemy positions at night, not at enemy fighters."
But now new information has surfaced, including hideous photographs and videos and interviews with American soldiers who took part in the Fallujah attack, which provides graphic proof that phosphorus shells were widely deployed in the city as a weapon.
In a documentary to be broadcast by RAI, the Italian state broadcaster, this morning, a former American soldier who fought at Fallujah says: "I heard the order to pay attention because they were going to use white phosphorus on Fallujah. In military jargon it's known as Willy Pete. Phosphorus burns bodies, in fact it melts the flesh all the way down to the bone ... I saw the burned bodies of women and children. Phosphorus explodes and forms a cloud. Anyone within a radius of 150 meters is done for."
Photographs on the website of RaiTG24, the broadcaster's 24-hours news channel, www.rainews24.it, show exactly what the former soldier means. Provided by the Studies Centre of Human Rights in Fallujah, dozens of high-quality, colour close-ups show bodies of Fallujah residents, some still in their beds, whose clothes remain largely intact but whose skin has been dissolved or caramelized or turned the consistency of leather by the shells.
A biologist in Fallujah, Muhammad Tareq, interviewed for the film, says: "A rain of fire fell on the city, the people struck by this multi-coloured substance started to burn, we found people dead with strange wounds, the bodies burned but the clothes intact."
The documentary, entitled Fallujah: the Hidden Massacre, also provides what it claims is clinching evidence that incendiary bombs known as Mark 77, a new, improved form of napalm, was used in the attack on Fallujah, in breach of the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons of 1980, which only allows its use against military targets.
The news came as a suicide car bomber killed four American soldiers at a checkpoint south of Baghdad yesterday.
More selected Readings
http://www.countercurrents.org/iraq-jamail190105.htm "> Flashback: US Reporter Says Chemical Weapons Used
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4417024.stm "> BBC: Americans Used Illegal Weapons
http://electroniciraq.net/news/1928.shtml "> Flashback: Firebombs in Iraq
Visit the Viewpoint archives at http://archives.GopherCentral.com
Editor's Note:
On Monday, Nov. 7th, Italian television network RAI decided to air a documentary of a story that was reported by Bloggers and online sources almost a year ago: The US used chemical weapons during the assault on Fallujah (see stories at the end of today's articles to verify that this is not a new story.) Today's article comes from The Independent, but we have gone one step further.
We have video clips from the program that aired so that you can verify the reports with your own eyes. WARNING: The video clips are extremely disturbing and should not be viewed by those of delicate nature. War is not pretty, but in the interest of disseminating the truth, we felt that this week's video clip-of-the-week and today's article should go hand in hand.
Video Clip-Of-The-Week
Fallujah - Hidden Massacre
All of these clips come from the Fallujah RAI documentary.
http://www.evtv1.com/index.asp?itemnum=1067 "> Civilian Casualties (Warning, GRAPHIC FOOTAGE)
http://www.evtv1.com/index.asp?itemnum=1068 "> Fallujah - Illegal & Bloody War
http://www.evtv1.com/index.asp?itemnum=1069 "> GI Interview on Fallujah
http://www.evtv1.com/index.asp?itemnum=1066 "> Bush and Blair Exposed
US used Chemical Weapons on Fallujah Assault - Peter Popham
Powerful new evidence emerged yesterday that the US dropped massive quantities of white phosphorus on the Iraqi city of Fallujah during the attack on the city in November 2004, killing insurgents and civilians with the appalling burns that are the signature of this weapon.
Ever since the assault, which went unreported by any Western journalists, rumors have swirled that the Americans used chemical weapons on the city.
On 10 November last year, the Islam Online website wrote, “US troops are reportedly using chemical weapons and poisonous gas in its large-scale offensive on the Iraqi resistance bastion of Fallujah, a grim reminder of Saddam Hussein's alleged gassing of the Kurds in 1988.”
The website quoted insurgent sources as saying: "The US occupation troops are gassing resistance fighters and confronting them with internationally banned chemical weapons."
In December the US government formally denied the reports, describing them as "widespread myths". "Some news accounts have claimed that US forces have used 'outlawed' phosphorus shells in Fallujah," the USinfo website said. "Phosphorus shells are not outlawed. US forces have used them very sparingly in Fallujah, for illumination purposes. They were fired into the air to illuminate enemy positions at night, not at enemy fighters."
But now new information has surfaced, including hideous photographs and videos and interviews with American soldiers who took part in the Fallujah attack, which provides graphic proof that phosphorus shells were widely deployed in the city as a weapon.
In a documentary to be broadcast by RAI, the Italian state broadcaster, this morning, a former American soldier who fought at Fallujah says: "I heard the order to pay attention because they were going to use white phosphorus on Fallujah. In military jargon it's known as Willy Pete. Phosphorus burns bodies, in fact it melts the flesh all the way down to the bone ... I saw the burned bodies of women and children. Phosphorus explodes and forms a cloud. Anyone within a radius of 150 meters is done for."
Photographs on the website of RaiTG24, the broadcaster's 24-hours news channel, www.rainews24.it, show exactly what the former soldier means. Provided by the Studies Centre of Human Rights in Fallujah, dozens of high-quality, colour close-ups show bodies of Fallujah residents, some still in their beds, whose clothes remain largely intact but whose skin has been dissolved or caramelized or turned the consistency of leather by the shells.
A biologist in Fallujah, Muhammad Tareq, interviewed for the film, says: "A rain of fire fell on the city, the people struck by this multi-coloured substance started to burn, we found people dead with strange wounds, the bodies burned but the clothes intact."
The documentary, entitled Fallujah: the Hidden Massacre, also provides what it claims is clinching evidence that incendiary bombs known as Mark 77, a new, improved form of napalm, was used in the attack on Fallujah, in breach of the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons of 1980, which only allows its use against military targets.
The news came as a suicide car bomber killed four American soldiers at a checkpoint south of Baghdad yesterday.
More selected Readings
http://www.countercurrents.org/iraq-jamail190105.htm "> Flashback: US Reporter Says Chemical Weapons Used
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4417024.stm "> BBC: Americans Used Illegal Weapons
http://electroniciraq.net/news/1928.shtml "> Flashback: Firebombs in Iraq
