I have come to the conclusion that our prime minister is an idiot.
Recently a member of parliament compared Hesballah to the Nazis in WW2 in their desire to wipe out Isreal. Did Prime Minister Harper ask him to retract or rephrase the statement? Nope. He said it was a valid and fair comparison. Perhaps he’d had sunstroke? I hope so…
Because after all, having a resentment about the Jewish nation and wanting the nation gone from your traditional homeland is just like wanting to exterminate every single living Jewish person in the world.
Oh yeah. Sure…no differences there at all.
In fact, I don’t like the neighbors that bought out the land I used to own all of and moved in next door. They have weird customs and beliefs and are trying to push them on me – hey I know - I want them exterminated…yeah…that’s it. It’s not that I want them to move out and get my land back -I want to kill them all.
*sigh*
See what I mean?
Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t support terrorism as a way of getting what you want. It is deplorable and many helpless people suffer. I don’t think things have ANY easy solution, but if they have a political wing and the world was willing to meet and debate with the IRA, how is this much different? To me, it’s like the Catholic/Protestant thing in Ireland. You can’t take something fundamentally different, change it and force it on people without making some people unhappy and you can’t use brute force to crush terrorism. These people firmly believe what they do – enough to die and kill innocent people for it. They’re not going to just give up and go home for tea.
And after the way that Isreal has been acting lately? Are they any better? It is deplorable in my eyes…they are using the rescue of a soldier as a ruse to wreak all sorts of havoc and noone seems to have the balls to say “Erm…pardon me, but that is just too far.”.
So...wow, I’m really off topic now. Rambling in my old age.
So let me sup up:
-Terrorism is bad
-Our prime minister is a bafoon…I hope he’ll be gone soon.
- Hesballah are NOT like Nazis is enough ways that I shouldn’t even need to describe it
-Isreal needs to step back and stop pillaging - they're turning into a mini US
-I need to stop watching the news. It just angers me.
Well...off my soapbox. I got labwork to do.
17 comments:
Der-by.
djnnmadf
(hey, look, even your word verification is mad. In fact, it's mad-f.
Speaking of which, I think they should allow dads into Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Fathers and Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Their new slogan could be
"We used to be MADD, now we're F'n MADD.
that's cute.
And after the way that Isreal has been acting lately? Are they any better?
Actually, yes.
Well, you did say "any". If you had said "much", then I'm not sure how I would answer. But "any"? No question there. Israel routinely risks the lives of its own soldiers to minimize civilian casualties, whereas Hezbollah deliberately targets civilians as a matter of course. That settles that.
Also, which "traditional homeland" are you referring to? Hezbollah is a Lebanese group that was created in the early 1980s partly with the aim of spreading the Iranian revolution to the rest of the Middle East.
"Well, you did say "any". If you had said "much", then I'm not sure how I would answer. But "any"? No question there. Israel routinely risks the lives of its own soldiers to minimize civilian casualties, whereas Hezbollah deliberately targets civilians as a matter of course. That settles that."
True enough. Semantics, but true. I would argue that some acts of war KNOW that civilians will be directly targeted. I find that offensive. It's the easiest way to make more terrorists. Mind you I find the concept of war offensive, unless you are literally fighting to survive and for your basic freedoms. I got off on a bit of a rant there and never read over what I wrote so I suppose it's a bit quick off the top and biased.
Like when I spoke of traditional homeland, I suppose it isn't the main part of my argument, as much as the idea that Nazism is just NOT the same as what Hezbollah is doing.
This whole thing has inspired me to bumble off and do a lot of research about this whole are of history and that part of the world.
heh-this is why I was never allwoed on the debate team!! :)
Pete, Israel has been behaving despicably. There are Jewish-American groups and Rabbis who have condemned Israel's actions of late, including there recent incursions into the Gaza strip. Israel has broken the cease-fire by planting mines after the fact. As long as the civilians aren't Israeli, Israel has no quams about firing on them - in the past this has included women, children the elderly, ambulances and aid stations. Want sources? Should have done your own reading back in the early 90's - I can't pull tham out for you. Then there are the actions of the West Bank Settlers out with their Uzis...
Israel does a better job at creating terrorism and terrorists than it does at eliminating them.
Geo, there was an article printed in the National Post recently about how the Iranian government had passed a law that was going to force Jews and Christians to wear strips of cloth to identify themselves. (yellow for Jews and red for Christians) The article was false, it was written by an Iranian ex-patriot who is against the Mullahs. It was apropaganda piece and completely irresponsible. The law was aimed at protecting national/cultural dress against Western assimilation.
Pete, I am also surprised that you have not jumped on the casual use of the term Nazi - as you have done so often in the past. The term has been used casually by both the left and the right - especially these days in reference to the Middle East, where the term hardly applies with the same force that it can be applied to the current administration of United States.
Let's look at this strictly in terms of outcomes.
Lebanese civilians killed:900+
Israeli civilians killed:20+
Hezbollah members confirmed killed:less than 100
Israeli soldiers killed:approx. 100
Source: Wikipedia
Judged strictly in terms of outcomes it is clear which side commits the bulk of the atrocities. (But I have also emphasized elsewhere that people of conscience should not pick a side.)
Gavin: Wikipedia is not exactly the most reliable source -- especially if its figures are in any way reliant on Hezbollah propagandists (recall how 50-plus women and children were supposedly killed in a single airstrike in Qana, until the Red Cross came along and did its own tally and slashed the number in half) -- and even if it was reliable, there is more to the "outcome" of this conflict than mere numbers of bodies.
Magnus: The word "Nazi" has been so drained of meaning in recent years that I can't even remember how I have reacted to its casual use in the past -- it's not a particularly "live" issue to me at the moment.
As for Israel's treatment of civilians, what about all those warnings they issued before their attacks? I also have examples like the ones raised here in mind. There is lots of room to criticize Israel. There is no room whatsoever to equate Israel's behaviour with Hezbollah's.
Amnesty puts the figures at 1000 civilians killed by Israel and 40 by Hezbollah.
Israel routinely risks the lives of its own soldiers to minimize civilian casualties, whereas Hezbollah deliberately targets civilians as a matter of course. That settles that.
Israel has targeted civilian infrastructure such as power plants, water plants, and bridges. Entire neighbourhoods of homes have been destroyed. I'm sure the fact that this lead to hundreds of civilian deaths was a huge surprise to the Israeli military.
As for Israel's treatment of civilians, what about all those warnings they issued before their attacks?
Except fleeing civilians were sometimes killed anyway, meaning that many people who received a warning ended up feeling like it was more dangerous to make themselves a target by moving. Not to mention that destroying bridges and roads does make it difficult to leave an area. That's not important though, it's the thought that counts.
There is no room whatsoever to equate Israel's behaviour with Hezbollah's.
Quite right. Israel chose to initiate the hostilities and killed 25 times more civilians.
Peter, you are only only attacking Wikipedia because its facts are not convenient to your. ideology, and you can still find no evidence to disconfirm that Israel killied 900+ non-combatant civilians. Israel's spreading of leaflets is as unimpressive as the IRA phinging ahead with warnings of subway bombs.
Also, those are Orthodox X-ians who are getting killed by both Hezbollah and Israel, but the majority are being slaughtered by Israel. It is as outrageous for you to avoid all-out comdemnation of Israel as would have been to avoid all-out condemation of the Soviet Government for its murder of Orthodox. You must have a pretty insincere and superficial conversion to Orthodoxy if you feel a need to defend Israel, especially when the Orthodox tradition has nor room at all for Zionism. Check your Evangelical baggage at the door.
"Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of this hat."
"Again? Aww, that trick never works."
Israel has the military might and thus the responsibility. The U.S.A. gives them a blank cheque to commit atrocities.
Maybe I'll start sounding like a Doug Collins or something...hope not. But who the heck cares? I believe in honest reflection and honest opinions based on relatively honest assessment of the facts...But I'm really sick of the Holocaust or Israel's existence being used as a sacred cow. As if the British, Americans, etc. hadn't divided the land up and then the Zionists (I now avoid, at this moment, using the term Jewish) hadn't taken it over in a similar fashion that oppressors over the years have - most poignantly, of course, the Europeans over the New World, selling, repossessing, scuttling off, etc., the aboriginals. Heck! Double heck!
And another thing, why should the Nazsis as oppressors be made sacred cows, too? Israelis are being such and similar oppressors. Give me a break. Yes, Hezbollah has committed atrocites. I'm sure angry French resistance fighters did, too. Goodness knows, American liberators kicked and punched Nazi guards. Not to say theres any EXACT comparisons. But allow some free speech. True free speech. Yes I am a nutcase.
And you, Pete Chattaway, as much as I do admire you frequent clear thinking and decency, etc., I do think you are often just trying to advance your agenda, as Gavin says. I do more agree with the earlier Geosomin, Gavin, Magnus, etc.
Hezbollah? They are, along with many Arabs, Palestinians, etc., reacting to grossly unbalanced powers (read in psycho- terms, as well, including Israel, the U.S., and even oppressive regimes like Egypt and Jordan). Sure, warped minds and demagogues are at work...but haven't they been and aren't they everywhere? I believe de Gaulle was a a-hole. I believe that Churchill was overrated and a buffoon. Etc. And murderers and oppressors too, when you consider the role that de Gaulle had in the Algerian war and the torture of Algerians. Darn it!
My research is not rigorous, whole, all encompassing, but I believe I know enough. Yes, I am talking out of my butt. But it is a good, thin, healthy, strong, butt, and not pushing some agenda that is...I don't know. I'm tired of this. I believe my agenda is nonsense, I am essentially a selfish person, but I am allergic to stupdity, to smug moralizing (including Bush, Rice, Olmert, etc.). Palestinians are starving, living in a giant jail. Like Escape from Israel by John Carpenter. Get me out of this madhouse!
Why shouldn't people defend people like David Akah... whatever that Aboriginals name was. Yes, he was being a racist, maybe he was being a racist, and that is bad. But his anger and such and the rage at the one-sidedness, are so well-founded. Don't put a guy in jail or fine him more money than he can reasonably afford just because occassionally think straight or rationally. That goes for anybody, me or Mel Gibson.
Trent you made me spit coffee all over myself...
Thoth -true enough. If the premier of Alberta can get drunk and go to a homeless shelter and throw money at people and say "oh get a job!" and still be in office years after...well what can you do? I spout off regularly about things. I'm jsut not having my every word recorded for posterity. A friend of my Dad'd is an MP and he loves being away and up at the lake with us and other friends because he can just be himself and not worry about the threat of the 10 second sound bite out of context happening as he rambles after having a few beer.
I suppose we all have the rights to make asses of ourselves. I mean, I reserve the right to here and now.
And, really, everyone has a right to their opinion. I'm not knocking that. It's when they try and force opinions on others even if they don't want it that *I* get antsy.
Well, hopefully I didn't force my opinions. I sure did rant, that's a fact. We sure have been doing that on our blogs.
I love your rants.
I love the rants of all present, from geosomin to magnus, from trent to gavin, from peter to well, blast my egomanicynicism, myself.
Cheeese myself off while I'm at it, eh?
I always hate myself after I rant.
Some people binge eat, binge drink, etc and feel guilty afterward - Gavin binge rants.
Ditto for me, Magnus!
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