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Matthew Reed
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Peter Little
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Gabriel Byng
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It was a heroic death in the truest sense: Marie Colvin, war correspondent of the London Sunday Times, defied all dangers in order to report about the scandalous deeds of the Assad regime in Syria.
She fell victim to a rocket attack on the specially designated press compound for foreign journalists. Every once in a while I had interesting talks with this experienced journalist. During our last meeting we compared the mindset of a fanatic jihadist of al-Qaeda or Hamas calibre with SS henchmen or German Army 'volunteers' in occupied Europe and found that with regard to individual cruelty and delight, even lust in torture and killing, there was no difference.
The harrowing pictures of murdered children and victims of torture in Homs and other Syrian cities label the executioners of the Assad regime as true scum of the earth.
Even so there are still voices in the 'free West' that plead for mitigation when judging these enemies and for understanding of, even politeness towards these extremists.
In the latest edition of the leading socialist intellectual British weekly paper New Statesman, Hans Blix, former Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, advocates in his article a more polite tone and more accommodating approach in negotiations with Teheran.
In a week in which yet again mutilated corpses and unconscious wounded lie on Syrian soil; in which in Egypt's elections the Muslim Brotherhood gained an absolute majority and the even more radical Salafists 29% of the vote, John Pilger writes: "Israel, America's hitman, is now widely recognised as the world's most lawless state." A British court refuses the extradition to Jordan of a notorious al-Qaeda ringleader because it might be possible that he cannot expect a fair trial. The mere monitoring of this individual is costing the British taxpayer 100,000 pounds a week.
The stance of the democracies towards the Syrian crisis - and also the undoubtedly difficult dilemma of the Iran question - reminds me as a contemporary of the 1930s of the false hopes, but also the cynical manoeuvring of those who propagated a bigger understanding and far-reaching concessions in the dealings with 'Herr Hitler', in order to transform him into a reliable partner.
Opposition: 35 killed in Syria as regime attacks escape route to Lebanon
Syria's Assad May Lose Key Backers, Provoke U.S.-Led Airstrikes
When the current dictators father was in charge of Syria, he was tolerated and encouraged by the game of the clod war with the Soviet Union backing him. So the current mess has many outside powers with fingerprints all over the scene of the crimes.
None of that has changed. Outside powers still maintain this and many other horrid regimes. My grandparents came from the City of Homs to America in the 1890s. Outside powers were ruining Syria back then, France and England and the Ottoman Empire were fixing to set fire to the Middle East again then.
I will be impolite here and suggest that outside powers enjoy playing with children's lives. What about Palestine and Afghanistan also? England and the USA and China and Iran and Israel and Russia are all morally worthless when it comes to the Middle East. Syria is just one sick example of the politics of spheres of influence. No?
"The opposition is a fractious minority whose support base lies outside Syria’s borders rather than at the heart of the population."
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/03/06/the-syrian-mirage/
of Iran in the ME, so Israel and those who are paid
to do its bidding (no names mentioned, my "Lord")
are salivating at the prospect of using this opportunity
to force a "regime change" in Syria in order to kill
two birds with one stone: install a puppet regime
in Syria that will do as told by its masters (no
names mentioned again), and in doing so destabilize
Iran by undercutting its regional influence.
Now, more sophisticated war mongers who are
trying to whip up public frenzy for regime change
in Syria are at least intelligent enough to hold
the Hitler comparisons, realizing how ludicrous
they are. But less subtle tools (no names mentioned)
are not hesitant to play the Hitler card for
all its worth, the glorious results being
manifested in laughable pieces such as this.
The judgement referred to is not about refusing extradition, but granting bail for Abu Quatada whilst Britain attempts to negotiate assurances from Jordan that satisfy the conditions contained in a judgement by the European Court of Human Rights so that he can be deported to stand trial in Jordan (as is the fervent intention of the British Government).
For details: http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/Resources/JCO/Documents/Judgments/othman-bail-judgment.pdf.
The Home Office has disagreed with the decision, pronouncing the cleric a threat to national security.
[Note Quatada has already been detained for a period of over 6 years, so his continued detention (pending deportation) under British Law is close to being considered unlawful anyway. However, it considered the ECHR objection to deportation was the major factor to consider.]
The ECHR judgement cannot be ignored by Britain, as Britain is a signatory of the ECHR. The ECHR judges - not a British Court - ruled Quatada could not be deported without assurances from Jordan that evidence gained through torture would not be used against him.
Regarding the cost of the strict bail conditions - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17019222 - and surveillance, the Daily Mail puts this at £10,000 per week. The figure of £100.000 is a gross exaggeration.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2100447/Abu-Qatada-case-Terror-suspect-released-itll-cost-10k-week-HIM-safe.html
Anybody remember the Beastie Boy's line "I'm so high, they call me your highness?"
Both the World Wars other countries suffered very large multiples of the US casualties, (WW1 US suffered 117,000 casualties out of a total of 16.5 million. WW2 US suffered 419000 casualtles out of between 62 to 79 million depending on how the total is defined. Vietnam approx 58000 US deaths with approximately 1.5 million Vietnamese. Iraq US casualties are a little over 4,400 compared to at least 100,000 Iraqies.)
The US has never suffered significantly on any international war. Your method of fighting is to use technology to reduce the need for casualties, which leads to a large imbalance in the number of people killed when you are engaging enemies whom are technologically inferior.
I believe England was arming up as it was appeasing but it seems coincidental that fascist countries may have been encouraged to take on communism particularly in Russia but then were becoming overly successful until Russia threatened to liberate all of Europe...
Second, you imply that the left is in favor of appeasement with ruthless rightwing dictators, which would appear to be an incredibly miscalculated assumption, if not an outright lie.
I know of no one, of any political side, who is not appalled by what is happening in Syria. What, if anything, are you proposing should be done? You seem to have no solution to the present situation any more than a suggestion about what should have been done sooner in regard to Germany in 1939, when Chamberlain, misguided though he may have been, did his best to avoid plunging the world into another war.
Fanned and faved.