Views on the Iraq Confict and War on Terror

Another forum question that inspired me to make a detailed response:

Facebook: Why/Why not do you support the war?
(Ok, the question doesn't make much sense - but I'm sure you get what it means!)

To keep it short and sweet, I opposed the 'war on terror' from the start.

You cannot declare war on an emotion.

Afghanistan is much harder than Iraq really. With Iraq it was obviously about oil and establishing bases and friendly regimes in the Middle East (since Saddam was no longer one of the friendly dictators). I'm sure many of you are aware that The Project for a New American Century (Dick Cheney et al) advocated invading Iraq before 9/11.

I was against the Afghanistan invasion mainly because I don't think any country has a right to invade and occupy another sovereign nation. Again, oil played a part though - pipelines that were delayed while the Taliban ruled have now been completed. It's much harder to oppose than Iraq though because it *seems* to have generally benefited the majority of the population. The Taliban was a very oppressive regime from a western viewpoint and slowly the quality of life for the average person is improving there. The ends still don't justify the means - how would you feel if your country was invaded because another nation disagreed with the way it was being run or because a terrorist group was based there?

Imagine if Britain had dealt with the Northern Ireland situation in the same way.... The terrorists train in Eire so lets bomb them, most of the money comes from America so let's bomb them too - or at least impose sanctions.

The sad thing about the situation in the World at the moment is that had any other country unilaterally decided to invade a couple of other nations (and pressurised other countries to join them) then they almost certainly would have faced at least economic sanctions. Unfortunately our governments care too much about money (and re-election) to strongly oppose America.

It's not going to stop though - it's like the cold war - it's not about winning or preserving freedom or anything like that. It's about control. Keep the people under permanent threat and you can do what you like.

Clinton, Obama or whoever will certainly distance themselves from the gun-ho attitude of the current US regime, but nothing will really change.

Israel will still get billions from the American taxpayers to build walls and destroy houses, some dictators and autocracies will still be seen as friendly - regardless of how they treat there citizens, they'll carry on finding more ways to keep an eye on you - to keep you under control - and profit will still come before human life.

It'll be the same here in the UK. Brown will try to distance himself from Blair's policies and certainly from the Bush regime, but he'll still put business interests above what is best for the world and, more than likely still follow America's unscrupulous lead.

Britain really isn't much better, but it's a joke that a America - with it's very undemocratic system of elections and government - is supposedly fighting to spread western-style democracy to countries that really don't want it.

Sorry, not very short and sweet really!

Short answer: Because it is morally wrong.

Hippies, The Armed Forces and Religion...

Someone on a forum I'm a member of posted about how he hates hippies.... of course I couldn't let it go and wrote quite a lengthy reply! Rather than just leave it there to go ignored I thought I'd post it here, so it looks like I'm at least half-attempting to keep this blog up to date!


I've got a feeling I might be in the minority here but I'm actually envious of proper hardcore hippies - ya know the guys living in self-sufficient communes etc, or permanently travelling. I'd quite like to drop out of this bullshit capitalist society - and maybe I will someday, who knows.

If I had kids I'd prefer them to be hippies and think for themselves than corporate high-flier wannabes - thinking the best life is a 'good career' working your arse off to make someone else rich. I think happiness has more value than money.

As a pseudo-hippy (or something) I have nothing but love for everyone! :D

Nah - some groups of people really piss me off - generally people who have fixed opinions/beliefs and aren't prepared to listen to another point of view. Religious nuts, people that think any criticism of Israel is excusing the holocaust, people that say 'support the troops' no matter who they are killing or for what reason.... and yeah, the self-righteous hippies too.

Sure have opinions - I fuckin love people with opinions - but be prepared to listen to other people's as well and change your views as you learn more and experience new things. Don't have beliefs have ideas.

The armed forces generally piss me off too - it seems they take young kids and brainwash them into not thinking for themselves. I'm not blaming the kids, it's not their fault - or is it? It's the system. Some Vietnam-era song said "I never knew until I got into the army that thinking for yourself was a crime". That seems to sum it up.

For fuck's sake people think for yourself - don't just blindly follow ya parents when they say the bible is the word of God or blindly follow orders and shoot some kid who's probably also brainwashed and blindly following orders too...

...and don't get me started on Bu$h n B'liar!

One Life is worth the same as another? Right?

There's been loads of attention given to the British sailors and Marines held by Iran, and the whole incident worries me on a personal level as my sister is in the Navy, but what concerns me a lot more is the guys being held for up to 5 years (!!) without trial in Guantanamo Bay. Just read this:

Adel Hamad grew up in a small village in Sudan. Through hard work, he became a schoolteacher and hospital assistant. To support his family he took a better job at a community hospital in Afghanistan. Then late one night he was torn from his bed and sent to hell, as Guantanamo Bay Detainee #940.

Adel Hamad has had no trial. He has seen no family members for four years. Even US military officers reviewing his situation have called his detention "unconscionable." But he and nearly 400 other prisoners are still trapped at Guantanamo. Last week US Defense Secretary Robert Gates finally said Guantanamo should be closed. President Bush's advisors are split down the middle on this issue -- a massive global outcry could tip the balance, and push Bush to close Guantanamo forever. Click below to sign the Close Guantanamo petition, and we'll run ads next week in major US papers announcing the number of signatures:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/close_guantanamo

It's now clear that many of the detainees are simply innocent people caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Guantanamo's former commander General Jay Hood has admitted, "Sometimes we just didn't get the right folks." This is what happens when people are held without charge or trial.

After being held for five years, last week Australian David Hicks was finally charged -- and sentenced to just 9 months in an Australian prison. This hardly looks like the "worst of the worst" - words the Bush Administration used to justify ignoring basic standards of justice. Meanwhile, as regimes around the world use Guantanamo to excuse their own human rights abuses, international law keeps taking a beating.

Sign the petition calling on the US government to close Guantanamo , and for its inmates to be tried in a legitimate court or set free. Let's run ads in Washington DC and show that citizens from every country on earth want this injustice to end:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/close_guantanamo

In hope,

Ricken, Milena, Tom, Graziela and the Avaaz Team

More MurdochSpace Nastiness?

Just read this Article from Bill Thompson:

The race to preserve the third space

It seems Myspace are cracking down on artists including links to buy their music from other sites, they want you to use their own digital music provider, Snocap - which is US only...

I’ve been concerned about Myspace since Murdoch bought it, but - like so many other people - use it because everyone else does. (It’s the same with eBay.) I don’t really think regulation is the answer, but if any offline business had the sort of market share that Myspace has then our governments would certainly be interested.

The “unauthorised commercial transactions…” clause is interesting as they don’t seem to define it. Many bands promote gigs and sell tickets through Myspace, I’m sure if News Corp wanted they could easily become an “unauthorised commercial transactions”.

~Si

PS Cheers Ralph, not sure if you came up with the term, but I’ll be calling it Murdochspace from now on…. just off to see if I can grab the domain name!

(Murdochspace.com was taken... but I now own murdochspace.net, .org and .info ..... might do something with them sometime!)