A long day with a late start and a sad ending...
A mate behind a chatline and my apathy do not allow me to share all my today's adventures...
The only frustrating part of my day-time work: couldn't get Siddiq Barmak for a question and answer session we had agreed about a couple of days ago. He's left his house in Kabul in terrible headache for a hospital... Hope he feels better by now and will be available tomorrow.
The sad part was related with tonight's Evening Standard with Margaret Hassan's hurting picture on the first page: a face of pain, sorrow and fear under command of Iraqi captors. A British-born woman who's dedicated 30 years of her life to that country, who had critisized Western powers for their sanctions against Saddam Hossain's Iraq, who had ignored her friends' warnings about possible threats against her life and their advice to leave the country... Now she is pleading the British people to save her life, begging Tony Blair to withdraw troops from Iraq, to prevent her from facing Ken Bigley's fate, who was beheaded by similar animals just few days ago...
Why should our lives depend on donkeys who carry big carriages called Super Powers, who has ruined thousands of fates and has blackened thousands of futures?
Why does Margaret has to beg and accept humiliation in order to get her own deserved right to live a proper life? How come some human-shaped animals can deprive her from divine right of living? How can they usurp the right of God to take away somebody's breath? Can they achieve any liberty by a murder or by threatening to kill a human being, a Woman? Will these atrocities open the wide shut eyes of the Donkeys to realities?
I doubt it very much. Ken Bigley's story circulating in the press for quite a few days disappeared from mass and mouth media as soon as he lost his precious life for nothing by nothings. Blair got away with a slight heart problem fixed up immediately in a high-ranked hospital and left his Hammersmith heart-op hospital with a wide smile on his untrust-worthy lips. G.W. Bush even didn't bother himself to learn how to pronounce the vistim's name. But apparently the killers haven't learnt a lesson from it and are demonstrating the evil, dark and savage side of an animal called human-being again...
But meanwhile, the third page of ES proves again that life is a weird gizmo. Madonna is still busy with her Kabbalahism, throwing extravagant parties with more than 1000 police officers drafted in to protect the Kaballahist singer and her dear guests, probably the potential followers of the ancient form of Jewish mysticism. 1000 police officers for our dear singer, who I like indeed... while Margaret Hassan needs just one protector and there is none... Pathetic paradox, innit?
And there was a funny part of my day today as well. My colleagues were trying to contact an expert on international affairs. There was an automatic answering message with the American National Antheme at background: "Hello. This is President George W. Bush. You have reached my number: 0, 7, 5, hmmm 8, 0, umm don't remember, 6,9. If you wanna negotiate just leave a message. Otherwise, it is war!"
And I left a message saying: "Hhallo Prresident Bush! Dis is Osama Ben Laden, calling from Torra Borra. You know hhow to get back to me! So, give me a call! Dank you!"
People are trying to dig up a fun out of their calamities, nah?
So, my day was funny, happy, bleak, sad, annoying and cheering at the same time, as the Life itself is.
7 comments:
nice. i will visit and read your blog with interest when i can.
keep writing!
Hey, nice blog.
Unfortunately for the woman who was kidnapped, I would doubt that her captors are from Iraq. Most likely they are from Syria or Iran, or possibly Jordan. The people fighting against the American Coalition are NOT an Iraqi majority. You do know that don't you?
The "insurgents" don't care about Iraq. They are there to kill the infidels (all non-muslims, and even a few muslims). These are not nice people who want the Americans out for the sake of Iraq. They would prefer Americans stay, as corpses.
Unfortunately for them, we will not appease, negotiate, or give in to terrorists. This only emboldens them and proves to them that we are weak.
Hey moi,
Thanks for popping in with your valuable comments.
However, your allegations sound rather like accusations against Iranians, Jordanian and by and large, against non-Iraqi Muslims. I would have been very grateful, if you could have given any proper example or quote a trust-worthy source that, say, Iranians are kidnapping people in Iraq. Have you watched any video footage of the captors? Have you noticed that all of them speak Arabic? Do you know that almost none of Iranians can speak Arabic without accent, and do you know at all that Arabic does not belong to Iranians? Do you know that Iranians speak a different language called Persian, an Indo-European language?
I mean even a single incident of Iranian involvement in Iraqi atrocities has not been recorded up to date, presumably because it does not exist at all.
You sound as an American, who tries to defend his national government. I do respect your patriotistic feelings and appreciate it. However, you have to admit that you are not able to rule over the world by means of terror and bombardments. Your tongue could serve you better than your WMD, for sure.
Who has given the US the right to attack on other antions based on their wrong assumptions and assessments? The UN has declared to all the world, including Mr. GW Bush that whatever he did in Iraq was based on wrong information... I'd better say the GWB was just looking for any excuse to capture the country. In his vocabulary Airaq (Iraq) means vast oil resources and a country which had to be punished in retaliation for his Daddy's failure.
Up to now all contractors in Iraq have to deal with US and UK bosses. They are "protecting" the nation very well, we can see that.
Meanwhile Iraq has transformed from a comparatively peaceful country with a tyrant in power into a most turbulent and dangerous spot on Earth. US & UK governments have given birth to another West Bank.
I will be very glad to discuss the matter more thoroughly with you, if you wish, amigo.
Bedrud, for now
You are absolutely right. Out of all the beheading videos, I didn't catch the accent. Unbelievable.
I guess I got Iran mixed up because they were harboring terrorists and allowing them freedom of movement with regards to Afghanistan. Pakistan was doing it to; however, that government has no real control over a portion of their borders.
I will defend my country, my president and his decisions. The retaliation for the father story I just don't buy, sorry. It's not logical. There were many more reasons to oust the dictator. The right to attack Saddam were given in the 17 Un resolutions. Saddam failed to fulfill the agreement he made after he was tossed out of Kuwait. That was a long time ago. I agree, everyone received bad information, but if you read the Duelfer report, you will see that he could reinstitute his weapons program within months.
Yes, the "war for oil", another liberal myth. As you can clearly see, we are swimming in oil. I guess we could have been involved in the oil for food scandal, but you can't do everything. Do you actually think the Iraqi people would be better off with Saddam in power? Have you seen some of his torture videos yet?-very nice man, don't you think?
The US and the UK are in charge of the reconstruction right now because frankly, you can't trust France, Russia, or China, or the UN for that matter.
Yes I agree the Iraqi people were peaceful-the peaceful were the only ones left. Saddam rid the country of anyone willing to offer a differing opinion. Have you read about the mass graves? Best way to keep people quiet is to threaten them with death-it's always worked for me.
Yes, Iraq is dagerous now, just as America was 230 years ago, just as Germany was in the '30's and 40's, just as ... but now they're all relatively peaceful as Iraq will be.
As an American, I would much rather fight the terrorist, islamofascist radicals, over on their turf then over here. I want all the radicals that hate us go on over to Iraq. We can take them all out in a reasonable amount of time. In fact, if we weren't so afraid of upsetting people and taking the higher ground, we should have blown that mosque up to Allah. The terrorists have no problem hitting churches, we should have no problem hitting mosques-but that's just me, a right-wing zealot.
As an American, I would also like to see the US eliminate all foreign aid, for now. Let's see what other countries think of us when the money train stops.
As an American, I would like the US to pull out of the UN. A corrupt wannabe. God help us all if Bill Clinton becomes Secretary General. Want to pay a global tax?
As an American, I really don't care what the rest of the world thinks of us. Yes, it's that American snobbery. I much prefer our capitalistic nature over that of the socialistic views of Europe. Socialism is mediocrity at best. Sorry, I like to have control over my own life, working as much or as little as I like.
As for sources, I read the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, New York Times, World Net Daily, Drudge Report, Townhall.com, Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, and Media Research Center, and a few other financials.
Have you been to my blog yet?
Hey Cracker,
Yes, I've been to you blog already.
Thanks for a long challenging message. I got it just now, at 03:34am, while wanted to crawl to my bed.
But don't worry. I have got 24 hours at my disposal on Sunday to please you with a long answer.
Cheers & bye for now,
D
Hello again, Moi (Cracker). I am back for a sweet talk on bitter things, including bitter truths. One of those is Afghanistan. By touching that question you opened a wound cause by American governments.
Again you accuse Iranians of something. Your attempt to accuse them of terrorising people in Iraq has failed, just because, as you put it, you’d mixed up Iran with other countries. I can understand that, because I am dealing with an American. I am sorry to hurt your nationalistic feelings, but my American encounters have proved that in most of the cases you guys know little about your outer world, because according to your assumption it is not profitable. Unfortunately most of American mistakes are based on the very wrong perception. And now you are blaming Iranians (whom you could not distinguish from Arabs) in harbouring Afghan terrorists.
Again, what’s your proof? Who will buy your words in such a baseless form? Do you really pretend or don’t you know indeed that it was the very US government who provided the Afghan terrorists with a safe haven in Pakistan? Do you know the history of Taleban’s appearance and their short path to the power in Afghanistan? The best reference in this issue probably is Ahmad Rashid’s book “Taleban”.
Taleban had been thoroughly educated and equipped by the US via Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to resist the Soviet expansion. And again, by GW Bush’s Dad. Their mission was outdated before they got ready. However, America found a way to put them in use for securing its vested interests, primarily economic ones. A contract was signed between American Unical, Turkmen despot Saparmurat Niyazov and American puppet regime of B. Bhutto in Pakistan on a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan via Afghan soil. US needed a harsh regime to secure the pipeline. Furthermore, Taleban was a Pashtun movement hostile to Persian-speaking population of Afghanistan, capable to undermine Iranian interests in the country & loyal to the American satellite government in Islamabad (Pakistan).
While the world with America at the lead turned its back to Taleban’s Afghanistan, just few countries, including Iran, Tajikistan and Russia kept criticizing Taleban atrocities and their attitude towards girls, women and non-Pashtuns. America was happy with the state of the things. It was Iran who dragged 100 000 of its troops to its borders with Afghanistan in preparation to a war. But still America was silent and happy until 9/11 rocked it.
Osama Ben Laden, whom you now consider your enemy No 1, was amongst Taleban’s senior terror coaches and America’s hope. He was supposed to fight against the SU as well, the threat which no longer existed. The only countries which recognized the barbaric regime of Taleban were American satellites – Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and UAE. US kept in touch with its new satellite – Taleban via these governments and supplied them with all their necessities.
As you can see now, actually it was America who harboured Afghan and Arab terrorists and neither you nor your beloved President are able to hide or reject this historic truth.
Osama Ben Laden and Taleban are American children angry with their parent.
As for Saddam Hossein, I’ve repeatedly condemned his fascistic regime in my previous postings. But once he was amongst American allies as well. Don’t you want to recall Iraqi-Iranian was in 1980s? During the same war an Iranian civilian plane with over 250 passengers on board was shot down by American air forces; one of the most terrible terrorist attacks of that period of the history. Have you seen old footages of the young D. Rumsfeld shaking the same bloody hands of Saddam Hossein in Baghdad in those years? Do you know that the US was backing Iraqi regime against Iran comprehensively? I think one does not need a MA level to find out these historic facts. Mine didn’t help me, I found them by myself.
So, how does America dare to look for a scape goat for its own blunders? Being powerful does not necessarily mean being inhumane, dishonest and despotic. Neither has it meant breaching the UN rules and undermining the world-wide organ. Anyway, you are not the whole of the world, just a little part of it. The UN is the same organ which you’ve used as a pretext for attacking on Iraq. You say Iraq had not implemented UN resolutions and then you add that you as an American prefer US to leave UN and accuse the world-wide body of whatever comes to your mind. It shows that you are just looking for an excuse to hide your real intentions regarding Iraq. No need. Everybody knows by now.
Anyway, America has brought up its own enemies thank to its own errors. US has got loads of money, but I’m afraid its governments’ brain weighs far less. And how can you talk about Liberal hypocrisy after all this?
You implicitly label me a European liberal and my ideas European liberalism or socialism. I want to tell you, amigo, it has nothing to do neither with liberalism nor with any other political “-ism”-s. It is rather humanism which is spreading all around the world and American brutality is adding the flavour of anti-Americanism to it.
Yes, Iraq and Persian Gulf are better off without Saddam. But it had nothing to do with a far away oil-thirsty ignorant America. Put it that way: many countries dislike your Bush. Do they have to mobilise their forces to overthrow his regime? No. It is up to American people if they want to tolerate his demagogy any longer. But if they do and the consequence would be chaotic, what we observe now in Iraq, do they have to feel ashamed and try to correct their fatal blunder? Yes, for they would be responsible for whatever would happen afterwards. As simple as that.
You have mentioned Saddam’s torture videos, forgetting about most recent Abu-Ghraib pictures and footages with American soldiers humiliating Iraqi prisoners, abusing them physically, psychologically and sexually. The shift of tyrants in Iraq.
Pitiful snobbism shown by you and other arrogant fellows of yours is one of the signs of decadence and degradation of any empire. Presumably in books of sociology and history of the next century it will be taught as an element of the fall of the American empire to our offspring. Beware, my friend.
I want to emphasize again that none of the academic degrees give us enough of overall knowledge, humanism, dignity, honesty, well-being and mutual understanding. America is a perfect example with its empty and laughable arrogance. It is losing whatever gained before. We have to obtain those virtues by balancing our materialism with morality.
Sorry, if I was too blunt, but I warned about the bitterness of the truth.
Bedrud for now.
dear Cracker or moi,
I fear this debate would be long and useless unless Mr. Cracker really wants to face the bitter reality.
Dear Cracker sorry to intrude, but I am afraid Darius is right and you are lucking a little too much in your view of your own dear country and the outer view as well. That is why I can not help but crying out “READ NOAM CHOMSKY!!!” (probably once again) to learn just a bit more about your government and your mere role in its politics, look into Edward Said to wider your view on who you refer to as “terrorists” and “islamofacist radicals” and if some cracks appear in your brainwashed way of looking at reality after that, then go through “Ordinary people’s guide to empire” by Arundathy Roy and you may help to make another world possible in your own way.
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