Category: World News & Politics

10,000 Iraqis killed. 773 US soldiers dead.

[Via: L’Oeil de la Certitude]

“If the president is reelected, it will be seen as a mandate for war

“This may be the year when we finally come face to face with ourselves; finally just lay back and say it — that we are really just a nation of 220 million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns, and no qualms at all about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable.”

Hunter S. Thompson
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail
November 1972

[Via: Billmon]

United Arab Emirates Founder and President Sheikh Zayid bin Sultan Al Nahyan has passed away at the age of 86 after a long struggle with illness, Abu Dhabi state television announced last night.

Sheikh Zayid was behind the unity of the 7 emirates that make up the UAE in 1971, and has been one of the greatest arab leaders throughout the years.

May he rest in peace.
Inna Lillah wa Inna Ilayhi Raji’oon.

So today is the day of truth.
Today the whole world will know who they’ll be hating for the next 4 years 😛
Just kidding, although it does turn out that way most of the times.

The person who wins the US election today gets to lead the world’s only super power for the next 4 years, and the rest of the world comes as an accessory of course.

We have really come to a stage where the US elections matter more to people than their own elections in their own countries, simply because the US elections affect them and their lives more.

The president of the USA is basically the president of the world as we know it today, even though most of the world don’t get anything to say about who they would like to see heading the world.

From where I stand, there is no difference between Bush and Kerry when it comes to the issues I care about most, those being the issues of peace in the middle east and this whole anti-Islamic movement.
So, the way I see it, the next 4 years will be more of the same stuff again and again, if not even worse.

I’m not being pessimistic, I’m just being realistic. I’ve watched what the 2 candidates have to say for a long time and there’s nothing I see that makes either one better than the other or that makes the vision of the world in the 4 coming years more optimistic.
Unlike in 2000 when I really thought Al Gore would have been a better president for the US and a better leader for the world.

Anyway, I’m generally more inclined towards the Democrats than the Republicans, so maybe if Kerry wins, the people around him will be better than the people around Bush.

Can’t wait to see who actually wins this time around.
I’m expecting Bush to win a second term, but well let’s just wait and see…

Osama bin Laden, reading a statement to the American people in a new videotape aired Friday, directly admitted for the first time that he ordered the Sept. 11 attacks and said “the best way to avoid another Manhattan” was to stop threatening Muslims’ security…

He accused President Bush of “misleading” the American people since the 2001 suicide airline hijackings that hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

“Your security is not in the hands of (Democratic candidate John) Kerry or Bush or al-Qaida. Your security is in your own hands,” bin Laden said.

I expected something would popup a few days before the election to sway the US voters to one side or the other.

It would either be something from Al Qaeda threatening the US and swaying the votes towards Bush or lots of shit erupting in Iraq swaying them towards Kerry.

It seems Al Qaeda chose to endorse Bush, confirming the old post on Why Al-Qaeda wants President Bush to be re-elected.

Anyway, according to recent polls, it doesn’t seem to have made too big of an effect. But who believes polls.

We’ll only know when the votes are in tomorrow and the numbers start rolling out.

So, bin Laden supposedly admits to 9/11 (here).

I guess people are starting to ask too many questions about the events of that day – what better way to throw folks off the scent than a ‘confession from the accused’.

Okay, here’s a few questions I’d like ‘criminal mastermind’ bin Laden to answer:

• Did he inform the CIA of his plans since pre-9/11 insider trading on UA and AA options lead to the highest ranks of the CIA?
• Did he ask FEMA to be in New York on 9/11?
• Did he tell Larry Silverstein to prepare WTC 7 for demolition on 9/11?
• Did he inform the Israelis of his plans?
• Did he stand down the USAF?
• Did he phone New York’s authorities to inform them that the WTC was going to collapse?
• Did he plant explosives in the twin towers to ensure perfect collapses?
• Did he make provisions to ensure the investigation into the collapse of the twin towers was an underfunded farce
• Did he instruct President Bush to try and limit the scope of the 9/11 probe?
• Why didn’t he know the identities of his ‘hand-picked’ hijackers?

Answers on a postcard please.

[Via: Jalan-Jalan]

“I don’t believe there is anti-Semitism in Europe. There is a reaction against the policy of Sharon and Bush. I think it’s artificial to think there is a new anti-Semitism. It’s an excuse. It’s a way to avoid self-criticism. Rather than ask themselves what is wrong with the policy of Israel, Jews say the Europeans are against us because of the new anti-Semitism. Because they don’t love us. And even Theodorakis says we are at the root of evil. This is a sick reaction.”

Theodorakis
Greek poet and song-writer

[More: The Jewish problem, according to Theodorakis]

In an interview with Malaysia’s The Star newspaper published Tuesday, Malaysia’s former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad said neither Bush nor Kerry want to address the root problem of terrorism because that would “annoy the Jewish group (voters).”

“If you mention Palestine as the root cause (of terrorism), you will lose the election. So neither Kerry nor Bush will mention Palestine,” he said.

“But surprisingly, the electorate appears to be willing to accept a person who told a blatant lie and to elect a liar as their president,” he said, referring to Bush’s claims about Saddam Hussein stockpiling weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

“The American people are, by and large, very ignorant and know nothing about the rest of the world. … Yet they are the people who will decide who will be the most powerful man in the world,” he said, adding that he thinks Bush will win the November 2 election.

“They (accepted) Blair, and I am sure they will accept Bush. They have already accepted Howard who told a blatant lie,” he said without elaborating.

But Mahathir apparently sees Kerry as the lesser of two evils.

In an open letter dated October 15 to America’s Muslim community, Mahathir urged them to vote for Kerry, saying Bush has been “the cause of the tragedies” across the Muslim world.

“Vote Bush out of office,” Mahathir said.

[Via: CNN]

Just last week I visited a well-known high school in Jerusalem. A good many of the students I spoke to told me appalling things. They said: When we are soldiers, we will kill old people, women and children without giving it a thought. They said: We will expel them, we will put them on planes and fly them to Iraq. We will fly hundreds of thousands of them. Millions. And most of the students in the audience applauded those opinions. They supported them even when I pointed out that that is how people talked 60 years ago in Europe.

— Avrum Burg, former Speaker of the Knesset: On The Eve Of Destruction

[Via: Lawrence of Cyberia]

As long as the next generations are brought up to think that way and not taught to use reason to try and understand the problem and seriously take steps to solve it, this problem will exist forever.

We have to teach the next generations that the use of power doesn’t solve problems, it only makes them bigger.

We all need a change of hearts, a change of minds, a new beginning to reach a precious and lasting peace.