A nice little piece by Michael Pascoe in today's Crikey (subscriber edition) asks why is it that some Australians who go overseas and join other people's wars for reasons of religious fanaticism attract sadness from our Government, while others attract hatred?
Meanwhile, Israel's beyond hiding it's intention to breach humanitarian law by targetting civilians:
..a cabinet minister warned that all those who remained in the region would be treated as the enemy.Exhibit number #1 in the trial of Olmert v Humanity (2015). But hey, who cares less, they could use a nuclear weapon at this point and the Right would wring its collective hands and point out that, well, Hizbollah also fires rockets.
Hence I've given the trial a few years to materialise. Wait until he's lounging on a beach somewhere then snatch him away on a speedboat. Israel could hardly complain, there's a precedent for this sort of thing.
UPDATE: More conservatives edge away from the madman in the room:
Richard Armitage, the deputy secretary of state in Mr Bush's first term and assistant secretary of defence in 1982 in the Reagan administration when Israel invaded Lebanon, said Israel's military campaign would embolden Hezbollah and was working against the US's wish for democracy in the Middle East.Al Quaeda make hay while the sun shines, predictably:
We may as well fund their recruitment adverts. Actually, we already do.Al-Qaida's deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, made a dramatic intervention in the Lebanese crisis yesterday with a videotape calling on Muslims everywhere to rise up against Zionists and "crusaders".
"How can we remain silent while watching bombs raining on our people?" he asked. "O Muslims everywhere, I call on you to fight and become martyrs in the war against the Zionists and the crusaders," he said in the eight-minute tape, entitled The Zionist-Crusader War on Lebanon and the Palestinians, parts of which were broadcast by al-Jazeera television yesterday.
Zawahiri also criticised "impotent, treacherous" Arab governments for their feeble response to the Israeli attacks. "My fellow Muslims, it is obvious that Arab and Islamic governments are not only impotent but also complicit ... and you are alone on the battlefield. Rely on Allah and fight your enemies ... make yourselves martyrs."
4 comments:
There are good killers and bad killers. The good killers have all the fancy weaponry, the high-tech gadgets that kill huge numbers of 'the enemy' with great precision (well, a few civilians do get vapourized but they shouldn't have been there anyway).
The bad killers have no army, navy or airforce and, in the main, possess rifles and, if they're lucky, grenade launchers and homemade rockets.
Glad I cleared that up!
Because trying to say something sensible about everything that's wrong with what's going on is too hard, let me just say that right-wingers would never wring their hands. That is the sole preserve of the left, along with making our hearts bleed.
Left and Right. It's simplistic, stupid, entirely false, and counterproductive to label people in this way.
People are complex and have bits and pieces of both in their psyche. Let's drop the silly labels and talk as humans!
Sure, as you well know I'd be happy to see such take place.
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