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international / arts and media Monday June 12, 2006 - 22:08 by David Manning
Peace hopes dim with Occupiers stance In an article that's headline reads "Peace hopes dim with al-Qaeda stance" Michael Georgy in the Irish Times reports that Al-Qaeda's promise to continue attacks means that although "Iraqi leaders and their closest ally US president George W Bush welcomed Zarqawi's death," "no one expects violence to ease." There are a few niggling problems with this sort of framing of the war. Firstly, I doubt Al-Qaeda's response to the killing of Zarqawi was ever going to be anything less than violent. In fact it would have been justified to predict attacks would increase significantly in the short term. Secondly, there is obviously something slightly 'suspicious' about Iraqi leaders having military occupiers as their closest allies. Thirdly, predicting violence will not subside suggests that Al-Qeada are the controlling factor of violence in Iraq. This is not the case, the majority of Iraq's resistance is home grown, and attacks are primarily directed against foreign troops and increasingly towards Iraqi police and military who are seen to be in collusion with the occupiers. ... read full story / add a comment
international / anti-war / imperialism Monday June 12, 2006 - 18:59 by Terence
And figures reveal up to 3,000 soldiers have deserted the British Army since March 2003 amid reports of growing numbers were “questioning the morality and legality of the occupation.” To counteract this, the British parliament -that bastion of democracy - have passed a Bill -Section 8 of the Armed Forces 2006 where those refusing to take part in the military occupation may now be sentenced to life imprisonment. According to the report: The bill directly contravenes principles outlined at the Nuremberg Trials in 1950, which enshrined in law the responsibility of individuals to refuse to obey illegal and immoral orders from any superiors. The Fourth Nuremberg Principle states, “The fact that a person acted pursuant to an order of his government or of a superior does not relieve him of responsibility under international law, providing a moral choice was in fact open to him.” ... read full story / add a comment
national / history and heritage Monday June 12, 2006 - 18:34 by RSF
 2 comments (last - tuesday july 18, 2006 - 17:11)
"To subvert the tyranny of our execrable government, to break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils and to assert the independence of my country- these were my objectives. To unite the whole people of Ireland, to abolish the memory of all past dissensions, and to substitute the common name of Irishman in place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter - these were my means." -Theobald Wolfe Tone Republicans' from he 32 Counties and abroad gather to honour Tone. ... read full story / add a comment
international / rights, freedoms and repression Monday June 12, 2006 - 17:54 by finn
It’s not difficult to arrive at an accurate assessment of the present Oz leadership, the government of John Howard. Love Howard or not, he has the local population eating his lies like it was manna from heaven. Howard’s treasurer recently announced that the Oz government was out of debt, in view of a national foreign debt of $493 billion, the highest ever recorded by an astronomical ‘mile’, the announcement of no government debt becomes meaningless double-talk. But which figure does the public prefer to embrace? The lie of course, it’s far more comforting – the media’s emphasis on the treasurer’s remarks at the expense of the horrendous crippling debt is not unintentional. ... read full story / add a comment
international / arts and media Sunday June 11, 2006 - 19:10 by David Manning
In the Shadow of 'Success' While in clinical terms the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is indeed a success for US and UK occupiers, in that it provides a excellent PR opportunity and at the same time puts an obviously sadistic killer ‘out of the picture’, it will also no doubt prove to be blow to war supporters confidence. Given that al-Zarqawi is neither a military or ideological leader to the large majority of the Iraqi resistance, the violence will no doubt continue unabated. This will obviously despair many of the coalition faithful who would have come to regard the killing of such a prominent terrorist figure as a key moment in ending the resistance. This could be more harm than good for messers Bush and Blair. The mainstream media often comments on the inhumanity of Islamic extremists when they extol the virtues of killing the enemy. Journalists reel in horror as the enemy rejoices in the killing of coalition forces, despite the common occurrence of innocent people dying in the process. This infrequent morality makes the near unanimous celebration by US and UK officials in the aftermath of the killing of al-Zarqawi, and seven others, all the more amazing. The media has made no comment on this reaction. The US Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, said al-Zarqawi's death marked a 'great success' and Mr Bush said special forces had 'delivered justice' in killing al-Zarqawi. ... read full story / add a comment
international / rights, freedoms and repression Saturday June 10, 2006 - 09:14 by budgie
Existence in a post-modern world, or living in a world where text/image (signs) have imploded and offer no inherent meaning outside a consciousness that animates/endows signs which in turn deliver meaning/endowment back to the same consciousness that so desperately needs to invest in meaning! In other words, ‘reality’ is up for grabs; creating your own reality in a world of competing ‘realities’ has become the principal pursuit of modern humanity. ... read full story / add a comment |
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