Armchair Revolutionaries

Hi to everybody...thought I'd put this up for your viewing...it's the interview with the Dali Lama yesterday on Euronews...he had some interesting points but particularly the last one regarding Russia...hadn't thought of it before, but it does sound like a resolution to a very long term problem...

I've been listening to the events unfolding in Georgia and I find myself sympathetic towards the Russians. The West has been criticizing Russia harshly without saying barely a word about the Georgian attack on the South Ossettians...To listen to Condaleeza Rice talking, you would think that the USA hadn't done anything when its borders were threatened by left wing governments in Latin America and it sent mercenaries and undercover agents in to back the right wing elements in Nicaragua and El Salvador and has overthrown left wing governments in South America and has consistently blockaded Cuba...I heard an interesting discussion on the news this morning with a Major and an historian who both said that, when the wall fell in Berlin, the West humiliated Russia instead of wooing it, and now it has regained its confidence it's not surprising it is flexing its new found muscles in its old Soviet Union countries, which it hasn't fully recovered from losing yet...it must be worried by the advancing tide of Nato countries now bordering it, and the effort not to lose Georgia and the Ukraine must be important to it...if they both get absorbed into the EU, then NATO can put military bases on their soil and, while they are saying their missiles are not aimed at Russia, it doesn't take any stretch of the imagination to know that they can easily be turned towards Russia if the West thinks it's stepping out of line.
I watched with disbelief a demonstration in Tel Aviv with Jewish people demonstrating against Russia and shouting for them to get out of Georgia...what bloody hypocrisy!! They have invaded Palestinian territory and are still there now, they've cut off Gaza because they feel threatened by Hamas and they still have the audacity to demonstrate against Russia coming to the aid of its citizens in South Ossettia...the hypocrisy of the West in this situation is mind boggling...as the Russians said today...nobody is telling the Georgians to get out of the territory they have invaded only them, and accuse the West of bias...and they're damned right...our bias is ill thought through and dangerous to peace and stability in the whole region...I've no idea how this is going to end, but, at least, the two voices on the news this morning said something that had been going through my mind since this whole business exploded...
Don't know what anybody here thinks about this, so would be interested to hear any of your views....

So whats the difference between a Decomcracy and a Republic anyway?

I saw an interesting interview at the weekend with an expert from Chatham House, who said that the Georgians walked into a big trap set for them by the Russians. The interviewee also said that Russia is reminding its neighbours (principally Georgia and the Ukraine) that it guarantees security in the region, not NATO, not the EU.

Russia obviously fears losing influence if the Caspian pipeline runs through unfriendly territory, which might also explain Russia's motives at this time.

Another point that I heard (and had forgotten about) was Kosovo. You may recall that, at the time of Kosovo's declaration of independence, Putin was a tad piqued by the EU acknowledging it without question and he said, at that time, that if Kosovo had a right to be independent, so did South Osettia and so did Abkhazia. Perhaps the action against Georgia is Russia's revenge for Kosovo.

Aside from this being rather worrying, does anyone have any thoughts about this?

These 4 points were all made to me recently regarding the Free Tibet campaign. Your thoughts?

1. Tibet appears to be a stalking horse for US and Western imperialism. The parallels with Kosovo are striking, so why haven’t the US and EU done anything as they did there? Because China is far too valuable a trading partner to upset and that’s why this campaign is doomed to failure.

2. If, astonishingly. this campaign succeeded (highly unlikely though that is), the current external governance would be replaced by a dubious religious elite and it’s accompanying oppressive theocracy.

3. It’s hypocritical to complain about Chinese occupation of Tibet when Afghanistan and Iraq are occupied by the USA, UK and others.

4. This is a distraction from all the other areas of the world with perhaps more severe problems. This trendy middle-class protesting on behalf of Tibet probably makes the protesters feels as if they are doing something worthwhile when all they are actually doing is deflecting attention from elsewhere with very little chance of success.

Cheers, Tom.

“Tree let your arms fall
Raise them not sharply in supplication to the bright enhaloed cloud
Let your arms lack toughness and resilience
For this is no mere axe to blunt, nor fire to smother...
For this is no ordinary sun”

A poem by New Zealand serviceman Hone Tuwhare who witnessed the devastation in Hiroshima 63 years ago. Today is the anniversary of the 1st of the two nuclear weapons that America dropped on Japan. America remains the only country to have ever used Nukes, and they have done so twice. It is thus somewhat ironic and also two-faced and hypocritical that the Americans are desperate to avoid Iran getting these weapons when they themselves are the only ones to have used them.

And yet the CIA reports that Iran halted it’s nuclear ambitions in 2003 and is now only interested in nuclear power:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/03/america/cia.php

“A new assessment by American intelligence agencies made public Monday concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains on hold, contradicting an assessment two years ago that Tehran was working inexorably toward building a bomb”

So why the current aggressive stance against Iran by both Israel and America? Here’s an article from last year:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1563293/Bush-setting-America-up-for-war-with-Iran.html

“Pentagon planners have developed a list of up to 2,000 bombing targets in Iran, amid growing fears among serving officers that diplomatic efforts to slow Iran's nuclear weapons programme are doomed to fail”

But they haven’t been pursuing such a plan since 2003, according to the CIA. Are the CIA really that incompetent, or are they simply being ignored?

Some say that Bush intends to get Iran bombed massively before he leaves office in a joint attack with Israel.

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Some interesting similarities between Iran and USA

1. Execution
2. Presidents believe they have god on their side
3. Sponsorship of terrorism
4. Use propaganda to brainwash their own population
5. Lie to make their opponents look worse than they are
6. Presidents desire “regime change” in the Middle East
7. Majority of population have religion as the driver for their political views
8. Accusations of rigged elections

Tom.

Hi to everybody...thought you might like to read this...Solzhenitsyn's last interview...it's very interesting, especially his thoughts on what's happening in Russia today...

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/alexander-solzhenitsyn-his-final-interview-885152.html

Let me know if you have any thoughts of your own on it...