A glimmer of hope for Israel and Palestine
Something good happened this weekend for the Palestinians hoping for a peaceful conclusion to the increasingly violent conflict with Israel. Hidden in articles with titles like "Israel may demolish Palestinian homes," and "Israel gives go ahead for Gaza demolitions," is a short mention about 100,000 Israelis marching in Tel Aviv for Peace, the pull-out of Israel from the west bank under Sharon's plan, and resumed peace talks with the Palestinians. 100,000 People may not sound like a lot, but for a city with a population of only
360,000 and country with a population of only
6 million , that's a rather large showing.
Of course the
articles primarily focus on Israel’s vow to expand the ridiculous practice of tearing down Palestinian homes; it's always a good sign when the people speak out for peace. After all, the Civil Rights movement started with one woman refusing to give up her seat on a bus.
Outraged at the Media??
Ok, this is one of the most ridiculous stories I've seen in the news recently,
Sen. Inhofe (R - OK) is more outraged at the "humanitarian do-gooders" that are causing the "outrage" than at the abuse itself. Even while reports are streaming out of places like the
Red Cross stating 70% to 90% of Iraqis being held were wrongfully imprisoned. Inhofe goes on to say, "Many of them probably have American blood on their hands and here we're so concerned about the treatment of those individuals."
It's a sad day in America when our Senators don't even realise we are bound by International laws like the Geneva Convention that we signed....and furthermore, one would hope there would be some moral considerations given to our actions. At least there seems to be one republican in the senate that hasn't lost his head:
But Sen. John McCain, himself a former prisoner of war, said such humanitarian involvement distinguished the United States from its enemies.
Bravo for McCain.
"An eye for an eye will leave the whole world blind," - Gandhi
War Crimes
Let’s call it what it really is, what happened at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq is not in accordance with the Geneva Convention, which the US signed, and should be brought to justice under those rules. I think it’s apparent to anyone who’s been following the news on this or who has seen the pictures of the abuse, that the soldier’s involved should have known what they were doing was wrong but I hardly think they acted on their own. The bigger question is how far up the ranks does the abuse spread?
There are well-documented war crimes committed by US soldiers in the Vietnam War, but did the military make any changes to counter that type of behavior? If you’ve read prisoner accounts of the abuses at the
Guantanamo Bay prison, what happened in Iraq is not very surprising.
Not only are there reported war crimes of US soldiers against the Iraqis, but against our own soldiers. The recent attacks and rapes of over 129 female soldiers (129 are
reported in Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan and Bahrain) could also could be considered war crimes and not, as one “advocate” called it,
friendly fire.
The most appalling aspect of these war crimes is that they might just be a reflection of the systemic violence that has pervaded the American society. In America every two minutes
someone is sexually assaulted , and while overall violent crime is in decline, murder rates have remained somewhat constant and even increased in the south and in many
urban areas. The more daunting question is what is it that is making our society so violent?
Everything's Wild Now
How do you ease protections on wild animals so that big businesses can make more money? It appears the Bush administration found an answer....just rename them. Under Bush's new plan they will just call farm fed salmon that are released into the wild,
wild. Forget about protecting
endangered species, natural selection, right? We naturally, selected to poison them out of existence.
