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Saturday, October 26, 2002
Protests against the war on Iraq From an Associated Press article: "Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters circled the White House on Saturday after Jesse Jackson and other speakers denounced the Bush administration’s Iraq policies and demanded a revolt at the ballot box to promote peace, while thousands gathered in cities across Europe and elsewhere around the world to demand an end to threats of an 'unjustified' war against Iraq." Today's demonstrations in Washington D.C., San Fransisco, and other cities in the U.S. and around the globe, showed that there are a lot of people in the world willing to march for peace. Unfortunately, according to some people the message is getting lost as some of the groups who oppose the war take advantage of the demonstrations to push their particular agendas as well. There was an interesting article in today's Hartford Courant about how many more mainstream groups who oppose the war, such as the Quakers, are uneasy about some of their allies in the struggle. There's even debate among some of the newer groups about those who have been behind organizing the bigger anti-war demonstrations this fall. Hopefully the broad range of groups that want to participate in stopping the war against Iraq will end up being an advantage in the long run, rather than a disadvantage.
Revolution "According to a recent (Sept. 21) article by David Blair in the London Telegraph, 'The Maoist movement now wields de facto control over most of Nepal. By following the Mao Tse-tung model of guerrilla warfare---- becoming 'fish swimming in the ocean of the people'---- the insurgents have won dominance of the Himalayas and of the foothills. King Gyanendra's rule is now limited to Kathmandu, Nepal's few towns and the southern lowlands of the Terai.' But even in the capital, the rebels flex their muscles; on September 16 they closed down Kathmandu with a highly successful general strike. (The Maoists' actions caused Prime Minister Bahadur Deuba to request that the monarch postpone parliamentary elections planned for November by a year; the enormously unpopular King Gyanendar responded by dismissing the cabinet and assuming personal administrative control. This has only exacerbated the political crisis.) A British military source told Blair that the Maoists 'will continue to gain ground. Unless something dramatic happens, it's only a matter of time before they win.' So, for anybody paying attention, the situation has become quite interesting." A really interesting article about the Maoist insurgency that is taking place in Nepal, and the effect that a victory by Communists there might have beyond Nepal's borders. Read the whole piece here.
Silencing critics of Israel "Thank God, I often say, for the Israeli press. For where else will you find the sort of courageous condemnation of Israel's cruel and brutal treatment of the Palestinians? Where else can we read that Moshe Ya'alon, Ariel Sharon's new chief of staff, described the 'Palestinian threat' as 'like a cancer--there are all sorts of solutions to cancerous manifestations. For the time being, I am applying chemotherapy.' Where else can we read that the Israeli Herut Party chairman, Michael Kleiner, said that 'for every victim of ours there must be 1,000 dead Palestinians'. Where else can we read that Eitan Ben Eliahu, the former Israeli Air Force commander, said that 'eventually we will have to thin out the number of Palestinians living in the territories'. Where else can we read that the new head of Mossad, General Meir Dagan--a close personal friend of Mr Sharon--believes in 'liquidation units', that other Mossad men regard him as a threat because 'if Dagan brings his morality to the Mossad, Israel could become a country in which no normal Jew would want to live'. You will have to read all this in Ma'ariv, Ha'aretz or Yediot Ahronot because in much of the Western world, a vicious campaign of slander is being waged against any journalist or activist who dares to criticise Israeli policies or those that shape them. The all-purpose slander of 'anti-Semitism' is now used with ever-increasing promiscuity against anyone--people who condemn the wickedness of Palestinian suicide bombings every bit as much as they do the cruelty of Israel's repeated killing of children--in an attempt to shut them up." An excellent piece slamming the way the label of anti-semitism is now being used against anyone who dares to criticize Israel or express their support for the Palestinian people. Read the article here, and you can read the english version of Ha'aretz here (neither Ma'ariv nor Yediot Ahronot have sites in english).
Paul Wellstone, 1944-2002 "U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone, the populist Democrat who was known for his impassioned work on behalf of the underdog, died Friday morning when his plane crashed in frosty woods on Minnesota's Iron Range." Read the sad details here, and commentary here, here, here (just the Mickey Kaus post at the beginning), here, here, and... well, you get the idea. Senator Wellstone's death was a great loss for American politics and the American people.
The Maryland Sniper and terrorism "The response of some to the capture of the Maryland sniper, John Allen Williams, a.k.a .John Allen Muhammad, illustrates an idea that has been preoccupying me of late: the relationship (if any) between ideology and truth. Ideology of any sort inevitably distorts the mental processes, and a writer – that is, a serious writer, and especially one who has certain vivid opinions – must be constantly on guard against this insidious deterioration. Since 9/11, and our forced march to war in the Middle East, what has struck me most has been a rapid degeneration of the public dialogue, including news coverage as well as published commentary." In case you've been living under a rock this past week (or have just given up trying to watch the news these days because you're sick of the word "sniper") they finally caught the gunman who had gone on a killing spree in Maryland and northern Virginia the past few weeks. Various news reporters and commentators have decided to focus on the suspect's conversion to Islam a decade ago, using it as evidence that he's a terrorist. In his latest column, Justin Raimondo of antiwar.com has a lot to say about those who have decided to go this route. Oh, and as an aside, though I've linked to Raimondo's columns a couple of times now, I don't necessarily agree with what he has to say on a lot of issues (and I think he tends to go off on long rants unrelated to his main point). I am hardly a liberatarian, even if I do share their opinions on some topics. However, just because our ideological beliefs may be different, that doesn't mean I don't agree with what he has to say some of the time.
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