Subzero Blue

Cut and Run, the Only Brave Thing to Do

Some highlights from a new letter titled “Cut and Run, the Only Brave Thing to Do” from Michael Moore…

Tomorrow marks the day that we will have been in Iraq longer than we were in all of World War II.

That’s right. We were able to defeat all of Nazi Germany, Mussolini, and the entire Japanese empire in LESS time than it’s taken the world’s only superpower to secure the road from the airport to downtown Baghdad.

And we haven’t even done THAT. After 1,347 days, in the same time it took us to took us to sweep across North Africa, storm the beaches of Italy, conquer the South Pacific, and liberate all of Western Europe, we cannot, after over 3 and 1/2 years, even take over a single highway and protect ourselves from a homemade device of two tin cans placed in a pothole.

[…]

Let’s listen to what the Iraqi people are saying, according to a recent poll conducted by the University of Maryland:
– 71% of all Iraqis now want the U.S. out of Iraq.
– 61% of all Iraqis SUPPORT insurgent attacks on U.S. troops.

[…]

There are many ways to liberate a country. Usually the residents of that country rise up and liberate themselves. That’s how we did it. You can also do it through nonviolent, mass civil disobedience. That’s how India did it. You can get the world to boycott a regime until they are so ostracized they capitulate. That’s how South Africa did it. Or you can just wait them out and, sooner or later, the king’s legions simply leave (sometimes just because they’re too cold). That’s how Canada did it.

The one way that DOESN’T work is to invade a country and tell the people, “We are here to liberate you!”

[…]

A country can HELP another people overthrow a tyrant (that’s what the French did for us in our revolution), but after you help them, you leave. Immediately. The French didn’t stay and tell us how to set up our government. They didn’t say, “we’re not leaving because we want your natural resources.” They left us to our own devices and it took us six years before we had an election. And then we had a bloody civil war. That’s what happens, and history is full of these examples. The French didn’t say, “Oh, we better stay in America, otherwise they’re going to kill each other over that slavery issue!”

Read the full letter here: “Cut and Run, the Only Brave Thing to Do“.

[Via: Jimbo]

Al Jazeera English Goes Live

Al Jazeera English, the new 24-hour English-language news and current affairs channel from the Qatar-based television network, has begun broadcasting from its main studios in Doha in high-definition format.

Al Jazeera English also has broadcast centres Kuala Lumpur, London and Washington.
In addition to the four broadcast centres, Al Jazeera English will have 20 supporting bureaux which will gather and produce news. It will share the resources of the Arabic language channel’s 42 bureaux and is planning to add further bureaux in the future.

The opening broadcast, which was expected to be available in 80 million households around the world, took place at 3pm Doha time (12:00 GMT) and featured a clip introducing the channel.

The channel has attracted some of the best known faces in international news from BBC, CNN, ABC and others.

In addition to cable and satellite, it will be available on broadband, IPTV, ADSL, terrestrial and mobile phone platforms.

Along with the launch of the new international channel, Al Jazeera’s English website got a much needed overhaul. The current design is much better and puts more focus on the content.

I caught the news on Al Jazeera English today on my lunch break, and first impression speaking, it’s looking pretty good up to now.

For more info on Al Jazeera English, it’s programme, presenters …etc; check the Press Office.

[Site: Al Jazeera English]

US Midterm Election Highlights

The following are the highlights of the US midterm elections:

– Democrats win House of Representatives.
– Democrats are more likely to win the Senate too.
– Nancy Pelosi is to become the first woman speaker of the house, she’ll also be the first Italian-American speaker.
– Keith Ellison, first Muslim elected to house of representatives.
– For the first time, 16 women are present in the senate.
– Majority of US governors are now Democrats.
– Deval Patrick, first Black governor, elected in Massachusetts.
– Donald Rumsfeld steps down.

Personally, I think these are very good results.
Results of political elections in the US generally affect the rest of the world too, so it’s good to see that Bush and his administration won’t be able to freely do as they please from now on.

[Via: Houssein]

Fish And Seafood Population On The Brink Of Extinction

A new study funded by the National Science Foundation and the University of California predicts we have only forty-two more years until the bulk of the world’s fish and seafood populations are largely wiped out. That’s from here to the year 2048.

The researchers, who called their findings uniformly disturbing, based their fish population study on data from nearly 50 marine locations under protection, as well as U.N. data.

The cause? Overfishing, for one, as well as climate change. But the study notes that oceans already have lost so many species that it’s hard for other species to thrive. Species loss disrupts food chains, which, in turn, disrupts the fragile balance of complex systems, both on land and in the water.

There is still time to reverse the trend, the researchers say, but only if quick action protects depleted fisheries more effectively and saves ocean habitats by creating new marine reserves.

[Sources: Sci-Tech, SFGate]

Saddam Hussein Sentenced To Death By Hanging

Saddam Hussein, the former president of Iraq, was pronounced guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by hanging earlier today by the Iraqi High Tribunal.

The charges against him were related to the ordering of the killing of 148 Shia civilians in the town of Dujail in 1982.

Saddam’s sentence will be automatically appealed and reviewed by a panel of nine appeal judges, who will decide whether or not to allow a retrial.

If the judgement stands, however, Saddam must be executed within 30 days of the appeals panel delivering its verdict, which has to be ratified by Jalal Talibani, the Iraqi president.

Saddam, 69, said that he wants to be executed by firing squad. However Iraqi law states that he will be executed by hanging.

Saddam’s reaction to the verdict was to shout: “Long live the Iraqi people, damnation for the damned. You are the servants of the colonizers, Long live the people, long live the Arab nation! Down with the agents. Down with the occupier.”

Reactions are mixed to this verdict in Iraq, the Arab countries and around the world; with some people expressing joy, others anger and some others disagreement.

US president George W. Bush calls the verdict “a major achievement for Iraq’s young democracy”.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said: “The Saddam Hussein era is in the past now, as was the era of Hitler and Mussolini,” calling Hussein the worst ruler ever in Iraq. He also said he hoped that the verdict would help bring about reconciliation.

There’s also some buzz going on about how this verdict was announced just a couple of days before the US mid-term elections, and that it maybe an attempt to tip the scale towards the republicans.

Anyway, personally, I think it was very clear from the beginning that a death sentence awaited Saddam at the end of the line, and that this eleven month trial was more or less an act.
Saddam is a criminal, and many innocent lives were lost at his orders, so he deserves whatever he gets, but let’s not forget that much more innocent Iraqi people died because of George W. Bush’s orders than his.

[Sources: CNN, Al Jazeera, Chicago Tribune]

Six Arab States Join Nuclear Race?

Just came across this piece of news that some people are portraying as such a big catastrophe…

The spectre of a nuclear race in the Middle East was raised yesterday when six Arab states announced that they were embarking on programmes to master atomic technology.

The move, which follows the failure by the West to curb Iran

Poll: America, A Threat To World Peace…

That’s what the results of an ICM poll say…

America is now seen as a threat to world peace by its closest neighbours and allies, according to an international survey of public opinion published today that reveals just how far the country’s reputation has fallen among former supporters since the invasion of Iraq.

Carried out as US voters prepare to go to the polls next week in an election dominated by the war, the research also shows that British voters see George Bush as a greater danger to world peace than either the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, or the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Both countries were once cited by the US president as part of an “axis of evil”, but it is Mr Bush who now alarms voters in countries with traditionally strong links to the US.

[Source: The Guardian]

[Via: Justice For All]

USA Only Country To Oppose UN Arms Trade Treaty

America is the only country to have voted against a proposed United Nations treaty aimed at controlling international arms sales.

The proposed treaty, which human rights groups have promoted as a significant move towards keeping small arms out of conflict zones, was endorsed on Tuesday by 15 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, including the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu, the South African archbishop.

The resolution was adopted with 139 countries voting in favour of the motion, 24 abstentions and only one

The Immorality Of Killing

“Each of us is unique; not one of us can be replaced. Each of us has a family, loved ones, friends and a life that is a web of caring, interdependence, and joy. When even one of us is killed or horribly injured for no justifiable reason, the damage affects countless people in addition to the primary victim. Sometimes, the survivors are irreparably damaged as well. Even the survivors’ wounds can last a lifetime.

This is of the greatest significance. There is nothing more important or meaningful in the world. No moral principle legitimizes our invasion and occupation of Iraq, just as it will not justify an attack on Iran. Therefore, when the first person was killed in Iraq as the result of our actions, the immorality was complete. The crime had been committed, and no amends could ever suffice or would even be possible. That many additional tens or hundreds of thousands of people have subsequently been killed or injured does not add to the original immorality with regard to first principles. It increases its scope, which is an additional and terrible horror — but the principle is not altered in the smallest degree”.

— Arthur Silber; Of Fundamental Moral Principles, and the Value of a Single Human Life.

[Via: Lawrence of Cyberia]

The US And The Eye of Mordor

In an interview with the editorial board of the Bucks County Courier Times, embattled Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum has equated the war in Iraq with J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings.”

According to the paper, Santorum said that the United States has avoided terrorist attacks at home over the past five years because the “Eye of Mordor” has been focused on Iraq instead.

“As the hobbits are going up Mount Doom, the Eye of Mordor is being drawn somewhere else,” Santorum said. “It’s being drawn to Iraq and it’s not being drawn to the U.S. You know what? I want to keep it on Iraq. I don’t want the Eye to come back here to the United States.”

Oh whatever…
I can’t think of a more stupid analogy…
Ok, George W. Bush does somehow look like a hobbit, but other than that this is complete nonsense…

[Source: Salon]