Consider
I'll admit I'm not very educated in this matter but one thing strikes me about fundamentalist religions (in general). Was the Roman Catholic church and the Pope not fundamentalist at the time of the Spanish Inquisition? Monty Python sketches aside that went on for over 350 years and why? Again, I'll admit I'm not fully educated but my take on it was that it was undertaken because there were multiple religions at the time (Catholicism, Islam, Protestantism and Judaism) and that a unification was needed to "purify the people of Spain".
Religious and political persecution.
It's still going on today. I can't remember the number of times I was beaten up and had crips-bags full of sick throw over me because I was a Protestant going to school in the inner (Dubblin) city. I used to live in fear waiting for the bus to take me home. Even now, my thirteen year old son is the black-sheep of the class because he was the only one not making his confirmation last weekend. Just because the Islam vs Jewish faith is getting a lot of press recently doesn't mean that the same crap is going on on our own doorstep. I'm only too glad of the ethnic diversity that's been recently experienced here in Ireland. At least our kids will grow up knowing that there's more to the world than white catholics. I read recently in the Sindo of someone who was out on Mauritius recently talking to a taxi driver. He said that there were 4 or 5 different religions on the island and everyone got on great - the problem would be if there was only 2 religions. In our case, that's denomoninations - Protestant and Roman Catholic.
I guess my overall point is that maybe the Middle East was left well enough alone (in their eyes). GWB has gone in trying to enforce democracy on a tradition that was not brought up on democracy. Democracy doesn't suit some countries. It might go right against our grain to see people beheaded or whipped. It goes against mine.
But some people want to see a New World Order where there is one rule of one thumb and that's it. That rule of thumb might advertise itself as being the way of freedom but only if you are willing to subscribe fully to it. Give up all your privileges so that you can be part of one global mode of control. GWB has alluded to it on several occasions. If there are any BitTorrent people out there you can look at the Misc/Documentaries section on
www.suprnova.org to read more about police states and how the US government are bringing about an ethos that you should relinquish everything in the name of a safer country and a safer world. The irony is that you sacrifice your true freedom in the name of a freedom portrayed by the governemt. National ID cards etc.
Entire towns are being taken over in the US for the purposes of 'training' troops to deal with containing and controlling peoples' movements. Curfews are enforced. Schools are being used for these exercises too.
So I don't believe that the War on Terror is a war on terror. I believe its more of a war on entities that threaten the norm as defined by the people that have grander delusions. And, in fairness, the majority probably subscribe to those sentiments - fair society, sharing wealth et al.
The news is a filtered medium. Don't believe everything you see on Sky. If you do that, then you're no more than the people who think that Ireland is a bomb ridden place occupied by the IRA and other warring factions.
Don't let some commentator make your mind up about a country and how it's run. Let the people of that country make their own mind up. And if that 'mind' is that democracy is not the right way, good. Let them live with it. There seems to be this notion going around that democracy is the only way forward and that we should make use of our vote. But I'll start another thread about that. This is about the war on 'terrorism'.
Just like 'up the north' - it's not all IRA. I don't know how many three-letter abbreviation associations there are but there's more to it than you hear in the news. Too many times the blame is laid at the feet of Sinn Fein and IRA but there's oodles of them up there at it.
We've all seen recently that the US are bang out of order WRT treating prisoners. That's just in front of camera. I'm sure there's plenty more. And I'm sure the other side is probably as bad if not worse.
We only hear the news-worthy stuff coming out of the Iraq efforts and precious little about what's really going on. I'm not saying there aren't any positives but, if there are, we don't here about them.
So it's been a bit of rant more than anything else but I guess I'm saying that maybe there's a bigger agenda afoot. Maybe this whole oil/petrol price increase thing is hitting everyone in there pockets when it's just a makey-uppy issue just before the US elections and GWB will bring them down dramatically just before election time.
Watch Wag the Dog and you'll get an idea of how powerful the media is.
