Make War No More in the Middle East (satire)

This article is not an anti-religion rant; it is an anti-war message. For my purpose for hurting the feelings of religionists, especially the post-Christians, is to spill my figurative guts about the forever war started by Christendom against the Muslims with the First Crusades.

All the Western powers that be are doing are perpetuating this war, rather than peace because they are forcing Western democracy on the Muslim nations and the Jihadis are also complicit in all of this too.

When the West admits that the War on Terrorism is a religious war against secularist globalism by the jihadis such as ISIS, that will mark their willingness to confront the truth.

Indeed, the Catholic Church has to make amends to the Muslim nations, and put their support behind the West and their UN and NATO forces.

As seen through jihadi eyes, the UN and NATO peace-keeping forces are viewed as a secular Crusade that threatens the integrity of world's only believers of God Almighty, ISIS and their al Qaeda and Taliban allies.

I condemn the Catholic Church for the trouble in the Middle East since the First Crusades, which was a mad grab for land, fame and power as well as removing unwanted lesser nobility so that the regal elite of Europe could vie for the honor of being offered kingdoms for forcibly converting the Teutonic, Gothic, and savage barbarians such as the Huns and Mongols.

As well, the Church failed to stop its petty wars in the Holy Land where it implemented proxy wars which still play out today. Indeed, the Crusades is the reason of why the Muslims are divided between jihadis and its Salafi origins within Saudi Arabia and the rest of Islam, both Shi'ite and Sunni.

Why do you think Christians are being persecuted today? Because of the delusion called "a healthy ego" and the rise of narcissism that gives rise to the arrogance of individualism. Even the public education system in the West promotes the ideals that is seen by the jihadis as "decadent hedonism" e.g. abandoning overdressed tradition for nearly-naked modernism.

Back over a thousand years ago, the First Crusade was when the current war against jihadis began &madash; back when the Saracens were growing more civilized in their conquered lands, two hundred years after Mohammed's death circa mid -7th century and continuing until the modern era.

It is indeed the epitome of a forever war; not in 1947, though.

For the rise of the state of Israel is actually a continuation of the rivalry between the French and the English, which was started when the Normans conquered England so long ago that only legends of that time remain.

Thus the proxy war that Bashir Al-Assad of Syria mentioned in an interview recently originally began with the Frankish and the English nobles founding a handful of kingdoms in the Holy Land.

Today, both France and England continue their rivalry in the Middle East to this day through their dealings with the US, Russia and China.

As well, the jihadism, the Salafism and the Islamism are also not new: they began right after Mohammed's death and continue on to this day.

It is time for the Church to continue to make amends with the Muslim nations, and to admit its part in this abuse of power starting with Charlemagne circa 768 CE.

For it is the backing of the State by Religion that is truly an evil: for example, the current case of the Orthodox Church in Russia. In their arrogance, the Russian Orthodox Church shows signs of corruption. Putin's pogrom against homosexuality is no different from the anti-gay rhetoric from the pulpits of Christendom in the Byzantine Empire. By scapegoating the LGBT community, the world's religions are distracting us from the fact that nobody really cares if a person is gay except to exercise control over their private affairs.

Likewise, the Muslim nations exercise control over the lives of its community with a big obsession with cleanliness, as though washing the hands and feet is enough to truly be clean.

No religion's hands are truly clean when it comes to war if they cannot turn their swords into ploughshares.

---

Originally posted August 31, 2014 at 4:52 PM PDT

References:

Background for First Crusade: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Crusade

Background for Charlemagne: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne

Background for Jihadism, Islamism, Salafism, and Wahhabism:

Jihadism started circa early 19th century in the Fula Jihads: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fula_jihads

Islamism begin in early 18th century: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamism

Salafism developed in the latter part of the 10th century: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salafi_movement

Wahhabism arose in the 18th Century:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_ibn_Abd_al-Wahhab

Waging Peace (prayer)

O God Almighty!

I shall take your doctrine of peace
And love my fellow man, and if struck, turn the other cheek.
Yet if infidels come for me with swords,
then I shall be as a Templar Knight and defend my honor justly.
Thus shall I act in the name of the Lord.

Amen.

Everyday is Armistice (satire)

It is a big coincidence I was born on Armistice Day (Nov.11). While I'm thankful for the Allieds winning the Great War, the causes of World War 1 were imperialism, militarism and nationalism going back to the 1870s.

In the uneasy peace that followed Armistice in 1918, peace prevailed only to have militarism arise again, leading to World War 2 with Germany and later Japan entering the war.

In Japan's case, the peace-loving government was replaced through assassinations by young military officers with militarists between World War 1 and World War 2. This led to Japan's role as aggressor in Asia, which to this day is propagandized by China and South Korea, despite the fact that most Asians are peace-loving.

Today, it is unlikely there will be another world war.

While there may be minor wars such as the crises in Africa since 1947, Israel -Palestinian conflict, Afghanistan, Iraq, the Ukraine, and the like, most nations know that total war is a costly prospect.

Even though I have stated that the Islamic State should be bombed into submission, it is an impossible act of war that would offend the Arab League. Therefore I am retracting that statement because it was an off-the-cuff response based on a distaste for violent Islamist and especially Jihadist conflict, which violates the message of peace and submission in Islam.

For I believe in peace and nonviolence, and loathe Jihadi warfare because its sharia makes a mockery of Islam.

However, Islam is not the cause of 911. Rather, it was due to the inaction of supposedly great men who failed to act when they were warned. Even Afghan and Iraq conflicts happen because these same men fail to act in the name of peace and non-violence.

True, the West claims to act in the name of democracy, but when forced on a people, only anarchy will result. This is true for the Middle East, the Ukraine, Sudan, and Nigeria as it is for the West.

While I know that my love of peace and nonviolence cannot effect world peace, I know that it affects my life greatly, much more than the same old story since Armistice Day in 1918. Instead, I vow to make every day my armistice day from this day forward, while I briefly and silently mourn for lives lost in conflicts around the world...

When my birthday comes, hopefully the karma of my statement of peace and nonviolence will bear fruit.

Love, peace, respect, and solidarity to all likeminded people.

קרב מגע לפני מגנום 45

תן לנו להיות שומרי גוי
של רוב לא יהודי בשלום,
ירי באוויר לפני הצורך
להרוג כדי להציל את חייהם ---
קרב מגע לפני מגנום 45.

Imagine What Would Happen... (satire)

• Imagine what would happen if the nations of the world spent as much on development as on building the machines of war.
  
• Imagine a world where every human being would live in freedom and dignity.
  
• Imagine a world in which we would shed the same tears when a child dies in Darfur or Vancouver.
  
• Imagine a world where we would settle our differences through diplomacy and dialogue and not through bombs or bullets.
  
• Imagine if the only nuclear weapons remaining were the relics in our museums. Imagine the legacy we could leave to our children.
  
• Imagine that such a world is within our grasp.

— IAEA Director General and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2005 Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei Today we seem to lack imagination, considering that nuclear power is a dirty way of boiling water to make electricity, and potentially more dirty than a thousand oil burning power plants. All it takes is al Qaeda together with the Taleban in Pakistan to attack Pakistan's nuclear reactor to extort from the nation its very freedom. All the better to bury a molten-salt nuclear power plant underground. With enough security measures in place, the worst that would happen is nobody will get to the reactor. It cannot be built with remote control of the shutdown sequence due to risk of hacking. Imagine what would happen is we turned to the underground molten-salt nuclear power plant. If it is destroyed, then there is less risk of nuclear cataclysm. Also, such a reactor can burn spent nuclear waste from other nuclear reactors Think about that.

---

Originally posted October 28, 2007 1832H PDT
First repost: March 11, 2014 1537 PM PDT

Reference:

Molten salt reactor:
http://transatomicpower.com/products.php

Liquid fluoride thorium reaction is the best Molten sailt reactor:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_fluoride_thorium_reactor

Global Fear and Loathing: the Hypocrisy of Global Peace Keeping (satire)

Introduction: The Evil Empire of America

This article was written to show that the members of the UN Security Council who participated in the Kosova crisis for 78 days between March 24, 1999 and June 10, 1999 were controlled by America under the direction of its corporate masters, the same big businesses that profited from the rise of Nazism in Europe.

War improves the pocketbooks of various sectors of the American economy. The Desert Storm fiasco
helped Ford, GM and other manufacturers of vehicles used in the conflict. The Balkan conflict also helped their stocks. Also arms manufacturers both in American and abroad profited from the orgy of violence. The bottom line here is profits not lives. Perhaps two hundred rich people are very happy because their business portfolios were successful, and the blood is on their hands, despite their denials. All their philanthropy is pocket change compared to the blood money that constitutes all appreciation of stock value occurring after March 24, 1999.

Indeed, the rich are profiting at the expense of the poor, in violation of useless UN conventions which most corporations escape through such bizarre loopholes such as legally granting them the same rights from prosecution as private individuals. For the rich are the most aware and sensitive of class warfare, most of which has been instituted under such guises as narco-terrorism, trade sanctions against nations unwilling to allow foreign investment by American corporations, American military training of foreign armies and militias, and other forms of brutal repression.

Ultimately 200 people are the reason why the International Decade of Peace (2000-2010) is off to a rocky start.

Global Fear and Loathing

From the evidence I have discovered, NATO's recent involvement in the Balkans and the UN's continued involvement in the breakup of the Yugoslav republic, was initially precipitated by the failure of the Communists in their attempt to re-establish the Soviet dictatorship in Moscow prior to the pro-democracy, anti-government rally in Beograd (Belgrad) on March 9, 1991.

Yet, those people who claim this is merely a peace-keeping exercise by NATO against Serbia over Kosova with Albanian Muslims as the oppressed minority are too short-sighted to see the larger picture: the two major superpowers, Russia and America, are carving out a post-Cold War empire made out of broken promises by multinational corporations and risky economic recovery plans based on fast-food franchises.

We should not lose sight of the fact that the Serbs are victims too — of the cold-hearted spin-doctor war by an American PR firm, who shall remain nameless, since people who help to manufacture consent for an unnecessary decade of war in the Former Republic of Yugloslavia should not be mentioned lest their propaganda gain greater credibility: this new world order mythology of Serbia guilty of Nazi-like ethnic cleansing against the helpless Albanian Kosovars.

We were supposed to be credulous of the claims of Albanian Muslims as victims of Serb-led ethnic cleansing, when the truth is that the rebel UCK guerillas are as bloody in their raids against Serbs as the Serb militias were against innocent Albanian Muslims in Kosova. The original grievance of the Albanians is the loss of autonomy orchestrated by Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic in a futile bid to assimilate them into the Serbian mainstream.

Meanwhile, the 1994-1996 Chechen problem in Russia has similar echoes of ethnic cleansing with whole Chechen villages being wiped off the map, along with vital communications centres that could counteract the propaganda from Moscow now being broadcast as truth. The Chechen, who call themselves Nochkha, "the People", have grievances that originate with the beginning of the Soviet empire and later, the end of World War II. Russia has never treated the Chechens well, coveting their raw materials while trying to move them out of their tiny homeland. In response, these gentle Muslim people, who once knew no borders and lacked political awareness, developed a growing sense of their political situation, sometimes turning to violence out of frustration.

When objectively analyzed, both the Balkan situation and the Chechen situation are the same: Slavs are working against the weather to ensure cultural genocide to rid themselves of the independence-minded elements amongst the Muslims.

It does not matter if they are Albanian or Chechen. What matters is that Yugoslav Serbs are the enemy, and that Chechen rebels are the bad guys. After all, both Russia and the Kosova Muslims are our friends and allies, and we are supposed to be loyal to them, not to "the dogs of war" as the other side has been painted by the media. Yet it matters not that both the Serbs of the former Yugoslav republic and the Chechens of the Caucasus mountains have been branded the bad guys, especially when both the Serbs and the Chechen not part of the army or police are innocent civilians who are equally tarred with the same journalistic brush.

Likewise, it matters not to NATO or the Russian military might. This is why in Kosova, NATO allowed planes to kill indiscriminately. They could always regret the mistake later. In Chechen, Russia must exterminate the Chechen rebels so that it can keep this mineral-rich Caucasus province within its rapidly crumbling empire. In Kosova, NATO has claimed the land in the name of peace, but with truth and justice unfairly divided, it seems more prudent to consider this just desserts.

Perhaps the US is using this military exercise as punishment against Milosevic for the death of an obscure American statesman and a handful of businessmen during the first phase of the break-up of Yugoslavia.

Still we must consider the bigger picture: the vying of two superpowers for control of the lucrative economic potential of the Balkans. This consists of both legitimate industry and illegitimate industry:

1. Drugs
   
2. Prostitution
   
3. Minerals
   
4. Petroleum refineries
   
5. Manufactured goods
   

However, the situation in the Balkans now is a matter of time, of cleaning the battlefields of bombs, mines and spent uranium casings as the political arena is slowly cleared of Milosevic and the vestiges of communism, an anarchronism and useful front for state capitalism that should have died eight years ago had the Americans actually been more willing to trust the peace movement that has gradually gained strength in the Balkans since the late 1980s. It was only a matter of time for Milosevic back in 1991. Indeed, the media circus pulled in the UN and later NATO. Most Pulitzer Prizes won due to reporting on the Yugloslav scene is based on public relations spin-doctoring and a less-than-objective analysis of the Balkan crisis. As for the Chechens, our fear of a possible nuclear confrontation prevents us from vocally condemning Russia for its continued pogrom against the rebels. The best we can do is politely request Russia to end a fruitless war, so that peace may prevail in the Caucasus. Although it is regretful that ethnic cleansing must crush the seeds of independence within the territory of a friendly nation, I find myself ashamed of the West's hypocrisy in its response to the Eurasia conflicts. It is bad enough that the Balkan conflict was contained by the means of strategic manipulation of the news media subverting the truth in the name of war. Likewise am I enraged that no one from the media has ever suggested that perhaps Slavs are the oppressors and Muslims the fall guys in the Caucasus. Therefore it has to be said: The new Holocaust of the 21st Century continues, except this time against the Muslims, having begun in the 1920s, never to stop. Today, the Serbians are aiding those Western interests that broke up the Turkish Kalifa. Today, Russians are wiping out the Caucasus Turks. Perhaps tomorrow, it is hoped the Persian Muslim fundamentalists are successfully controlled. I beg to differ. We should leave the Turks alone, and allow the Muslims to remain at peace. This cannot be achieved by bombs, but by food. This is not the time and place for the global sales and distribution of arms by greedy men having nothing better to do with their time and money than to profit from violence and war. War is an exceedingly wasteful economy with no socially redeeming value. Indeed, we have done the Muslims and the world a disfavor by continuing the tradition of warfare. It is not right and proper to resort to bombs and guns against the enemy when that supposed enemy was a minority voice in its sovereign territory. This is the case for Serbian Yugoslavia, throughout its former territory. The media aided in the war effort, and its part in the tragedies that resulted should not be overlooked. A few journalists even won Pulitzer Prizers for promoting hatred against the Serbs. Thus the media glorified war, and this heinous act makes them equally guilty of war crimes along with Milosevic and other responsible Serbs, various UCK gunsmen, and the motley handful of NATO participants in this travesty of justice. At the same time, Russia is culpable for its part by supplying Serbia with biological and chemical weapons. This was why Russian troops held one airport - to protect itself from potential embarassment. Meanwhile, it is allowed to continue its cultural genocide against the Chechens with only weak and tepid objections from the UN and equally spineless responses from its trade allies. For there is little hostility against the Americans who dragged in the aligned nations into this mess. Indeed, American politicians remain incredulous of America playing any role in war crimes during the Yugoslavian conflicts. Perhaps some nations fear possible political embarrassment and trade embargoes for dragging our heels, or for wanting out of this waste of resources and time. Yes, the Balkan conflict is a decade of war, of waste, and of whining. For the biggest whiners are the Americans who to this day are slow to pay their bill to the UN. Maybe we should stop looking to Washington DC for the money. Maybe the Gates will be more amenable or even the doves among the multinational corporations; that is, if we can sell them the idea that peace and non-violence is more lucrative than bombs and guns. Yet this is laughable when we have global arms manufacturers getting proud as a peacock when someone tells them how bloody effective their weapons are in the hands of criminals, be it a gangster in LA or a paramilitary leader in the Balkans. I condemn everyone in Ottawa, America, and the UK aligned with the present war hawk attitude championed by America. Along with the NATO-aligned nations that participated in the Yugoslavian conflicts, they are as equally guilty of war crimes as the Serb military and other adherents to the Milosevic coalition. They have betrayed the democracy movement in Serbia which controlled the majority of Serbian cities outside of the Beograd area. Yet they hypocritically claim to protect democracy by violent means while democracy continues to crumble throughout Serbia. So it is no wonder the International Decade of Peace (2000-2010) is off to a rocky start given that U.S. foreign policy exposes the poverty of democracy in wake of the decade-long conflict in Yugoslavia. The Poverty of Democracy According to the media, Serbia was supposedly the bad guy with Slobodan Milosevic the culprit for all the bloodshed and violence in the former Republic of Yugoslavia. This is only partially true. Before 1990, Albanians,Bosnians, Croats, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Romas, and Serbs used to work together in harmony under the Communists because they had to, or else face death. Since then, fear of economic reality without Communism led to resistance to the abject poverty of democratization that spread throughout Eastern Europe like a plague. As McDonald's Restaurants invade Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Romania, and Slovakia, the guaranteed employment and wages under the Communist regime in these countries, albeit paltry, are no more. Even in Romania, the highest wages a professional network administrator makes is $500 CDN a month. The lowest wages are made in the service sector with McDonald's workers making under $100 a month. As well, the private owners and managers of most small companies have none of the respect their Western counterparts have for highly skilled high-tech employees. So in essence, Eastern Europe is the welfare state of Europe, with each country restricted by IMF and World Bank rules that really do not do much to promote a reasonable economic gain in the region. In Yugoslavia, the Serbians had been portrayed as the bad-boys of the Balkans with Muslims cast in the role that the Jews played during World War II. Meanwhile, just as local democratic activism brought down the Berlin Wall, so too did local activism in Serbia lead to the situation where Milosevic controlled Beograd (Belgrade) and the surrounding suburbs under a socialist coalition while in outlying cities, the grass-roots activists of democracy managed to win control. Kosova experienced a dislocation of Albanian autonomy, where suddenly anyone of Albanian descent was forced out of the army and the good jobs in Pristina, and the Albanian schools were forcibly closed. True, it used to be only the Albanians who maintained good relations who kept their jobs, but most jobs went to Serbs who did not suffer the loss of autonomy. As the Albanians rallied for their rights, the Serbian police crushed them again and again. In response, the Muslims called upon their imam to help them. It is unknown what role the religious leaders played in the formation of the militant groups, but the Serbs report that a lot of Muslims from the Arab world lead the bulk of the militant UCK resistance. It was in February 1999, outside the village of Srbinica where we saw a supposed massacre that led to the call by Mrs. Clinton to President Clinton to 'do something about the situation'. Months later we would discover that the bodies of Albanian men and women were moved from the town to the ravine where they were discovered, but not by Serbians but by their Albanian comrades to make it look like the aftermath of Serbian ethnic cleansing. Since the Kosova conflict began in March 1999, American Albanians joined ranks with their Muslim brethren to fight against the Serbs. No fewer than 2000 Albanians were killed, most of them militants. This is far lesser than the inflated figure of 10000 that NATO used to justify its war against Milosevic. By the time the war ended in June 1999, NATO had bombed the Chinese Embassy in Beograd, a few trains carrying Albanian refugees, and many Serbs. As well, many failed assassination attempts were made against Serbian high officials. Even CNN was involved in a plot against one of the Serb ministers. The bombing of the Chinese Embassy was no mistake, for the Chinese were aiding the Serbs in maintaining logistics for its military counterattacks. The trains carrying Albanian refugees were not clearly marked. Yet clearly the Serbs deserved everything they got, if you believed the media reports. Meanwhile, NATO was also bombing Serbian cities that were not under Milosevic's influence. It is ironic that supposed defenders of democracy were dropping bombs on the doorsteps of the democratic activists. This lead to a radicalism in Serbia that caused many of the peace activists to question their fight for democracy. What good is fighting for freedom and democracy when the self-appointed fighters for democracy ruin your lives? It is quite possible that in the Balkans, US-led NATO is going to ensure the kind of democracy that created the republic of the United States, rather than a grass-roots kind of peace activism. This is democracy achieved through terrorism to protect capitalism from socialism. It ensures that Eastern Europe will continue to suffer poverty and social decay well into the 21st Century. Recent happenings in Eastern Europe only prove that money talks, and is the guiding force of democracy. This cheapens democracy, and disrespects the grass-roots activists who lay most of the groundwork for change. Just as democracy cannot be enforced at the end of a gun, so too cannot democracy be bought and sold like a commodity. A wise man once said that in the true economy, the two precious commodities are love and sincerity. Well, the media has help to manufacture the loss of these two commodities for the Serbs. Kosovar Albanians are the poster boys of 1999, and Serbs are dog shit on your shoe. Yet I must point out that in Eastern Europe, ethnocentrism is still alive. In Kosova, Muslim militants are murdering Serb-loving Albanians, innocent Roma and Serbs. Quite possibly, a few Serbs are killing Albanians and Roma. In the Czech Republic, Roma are unwanted while in Russia, the army is bombing the shit out of Chechnya rebels. Thus all these conflicts are similar to the race war in America, spawned in the wake of the civil liberties movement. The Aryans forced the Dravidians south in ancient India, just as the Arabs forced the Bantus south in Africa. For it is because of ethnic conflicts that Yugoslavia fell apart. This is why the Czechs put a wall up between themselves and the dark-skinned Roma. Indeed, this is what fuels the Russian pogrom against the people who once knew no borders, the Chechnyas. Ethnocentrism and racism are both the symptom and the cause of wars not religion. The human need to survive is corrupted by the natural fear of dark strangers into the evil of killing and violence. All that good talk about all people being brothers and sisters, regardless of race, is forgotten when a few people consider themselves superior to everyone else. It is evident that NATO was used to ensure a market hold in the Balkans by force. Expect McJobs and the demise of local economy experienced today in Albania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Romania to occur in Kosova and especially in Serbia, once Milosevic is deposed. We should be wary of democracy that is enforced by threat of war, because it is a greater tyranny than socialism. For an even greater tyranny than the dictatorship of Communism shall befall Serbia: poverty as sanctioned American foreign policy. Militancy as American Foreign Policy Recently the American propaganda machine has rewritten history via its motion picture arm, Hollywood, by basing the heroes of one of its movies on a participant of the Revolutionary War, a man who raped one of his slaves and was not exactly the heroic figure portrayed on film. As well, in another movie one was led to believe that the American military helped steal a code machine called Enigma from the Germans prior to their involvement in World War 2. Anyone who has read the true record about Enigma can connect the man named Intrepid (Canadian business man Sir William Stephenson) with the British effort to obtain one of the code machines from the Nazis. However, Hollywood is a mere tool of propaganda for the American government, and is used to do a lot of unnecessary flag-waving to stoke the fires of patriotism. Even science fiction is not hallowed ground, as is evidenced by such films as Starship Trooper. The original story by Robert Heinlein lacks the stark militarism and echoes of Nazism in the cut of military uniforms seen in the movie version. This movie also came after the first Yugoslavian conflict (1992-1994), and foreshadowed the second Yugoslavian conflict (March 23, 1999 to June 10, 1999). It was designed quite possibly to whip up American patriotism, which was obviously effective since various American non-government organizations quickly rallied around the flag to pledge their support for a military cause with a most dubious beginning. Few people in 1998 were aware that nearly 10 years earlier America had put a bill into effect that outlined the breakup of the formerly Communist country of Yugoslavia. Even fewer people were aware that not all Serbians were aligned with Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic. Indeed, other than the area surrounding Belgrade, many outlying towns and cities were dominated by pro-democracy politicians. Therefore the true reason for NATO's involvement in Yugoslavia was to impose American foreign policy upon the Balkans due to a fear that Milosevic would exploit his Communist leanings by forging a military alliance with Russia and China. Furthermore, according to such a foreign policy, the only democracy America can accept is one that it can control. We have already seen the kind of democracy that Russia and its federation of formerly Soviet states practices. America is quite afraid that pro-democracy Serbians would be powerless to stop Serbian criminals from terrorizing its own citizens. Accordingly, acting in its own best interests and no-one else's, NATO went to the Balkans in support not of democracy, but of American imperialism. Indeed, its covert training wing, the CIA, had trained right-wing Muslim militants and placed them in Kosovo to aid the more militant Albanians in their struggle for autonomy. One should not forget that many years earlier Milosevic had forbidden Albanians from taking their education in Albanian. This lead to Albanians protesting peacefully in response, only to be beaten by Serbian police. In 1989, Milosevic had hinted at possibly action against the Muslims by deliberately appealing to Serbian nationalist pride regarding a historic battle in which the Serbs were defeated by Albanians troops, Albanians who were earlier subjugated by the Ottoman Turks. In Eastern Europe, Albania, parts of Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria have economic sanctions in place on them for reasons that have more to do with American foreign policy than for any official reason the American news media tells us. One should not forget that American news outlets are also part of the propaganda apparatus, especially in wake of news that CNN had interns from the U.S. military filter the news during the Yugoslavian conflict. America is making use of economic sanctions to destabilize the economies of countries which will not allow American corporations to dominate them. It is hoped that by this divide and conquer method, America will prevail in the end. It pretends that such methods are just yet beggars the UN by being tardy in paying its share to help the humanitarian effort. This is seen in how America has impoverished Iraq. It is also seen in how badly the UN fumbled the Rwanda situation, whose military leaders avoided responsiblity by unfairly blaming the Canadian commander for their errors in judgment. Today that commander had cracked under the pressure, becoming a derelict alcoholic as reward for only doing his duty. In India, America has interfered in the Sikh situation which culminated in the Golden Temple incident in the mid-1980s. Right-wing militants have gathered money under false pretences to funnel back to India as arms to stir up trouble against the Hindus, the Communists and any moderate who stands up against them. If we wish to find the true culprit of the airplane bombings both at Narita and off the coast of Ireland, then we need look no further than the CIA. More than likely the Kalistanis are being used to destabilize India as punishment for doing business with China. Components for its nuclear warheads are imported from Beijing via the shipping arm of its Peoples Liberation Army, COSCO. Interestingly, Vancouver, Canada, home to many Sikhs, has recently become an official port of call for COSCO. In the past 15 years the port of Vancouver has also been overrun by the notorious biker gang, the Hells Angels, so there may be close ties between various Canadian crime gangs amongst the First Nations, bikers, Canadian affiliates of La Cosa Nostra (Mafia), Asians and Russians. As a rule, crime gangs tend to favor right-wing politics over communism since their individualistic form of capitalism is at odds with the state-run capitalist system that communism favors. Likewise, militancy in Indonesia is probably funded by various rich Indonesians, with militants being trained by CIA operatives within the Indonesian military. Suharto's coup over the communist sympathizer, Sukharno, many decades ago was aided and abetted by President Nixon and his colleague, Henry Kissinger, in exchange for allowing American corporations to set up alliances with the Indonesians. Prior to Suharto's downfall recently, much of his regime consisted of corruption and cronyism. Bribery had become such a part of daily life that if one wanted to do business there, then it was necessary to pay someone off. A similar situation happens in Russia with the crime gangs when a foreign national wants to start a business. Even the Bre-X scandal could have possibly been the foreshadowing of the demise of the Suharto regime. Everyone involved in that tragedy may have considered themselves an innocent bystander, but given that George Bush and Brian Mulroney were involved with a rival mining company, American foreign policy could have resulted in a scam against the Indonesian government to destabilize the region. This came true when the Indonesian militants terrorized the Chinese in their country rather than turning their anger on the government. It also occurred in East Timor when it seceded. As well, it happens today when Muslim militants war with Christians. America's hands are not clean of any blood that is spilled anywhere in the world. Their operatives in the American police system trained Canadian RCMP members as well as various city police members. We tend to blame Jean Chretien for the unjustified use of force against anti-APEC protesters in 1997, and homeless people marching in Ottawa in recent years, but the methods of crowd control have been devised by the police under the supervision of the CIA. America's response to being accused of war crimes in Yugoslavia is to act incredulous, as though their high office makes them incapable of making mistakes. Politicians there act as if though it did the world a favor by fighting a war that did much to ruin the democracy movement in Serbia and very little to prevent the ethnic cleansing it claimed was going on. Indeed, America is powerful enough to resist the truth and corrupt enough to use the media to hide it. By doing so, it rewrites history and lies to its own people. It uses computer piracy as a red herring to demonize hackers using both the news media and other media organizations. In doing so, America has proven again and again that it is no longer the home of the free, except for maybe the rich who are free to practi e extravaganzas like breaking glass guitars and holding private orgies. America used to be free once. Now it shows its true fascist colors. And they are certainly not the colors of Benetton. Indeed, America's foreign policy only perpetuates as propaganda the myth of communism. PROPAGANDA AND THE MYTH OF COMMUNISM One of the greatest lie of the 20th century was communism. When the free-market capitalists claimed that communism was rampant, they were actually referring to state capitalism. Indeed, there has never been a communist state in the world since The Communist Manifesto was written by Marx and Engels in the mid-1800s. This is neither denial, perversion nor revision of history. Rather, it is an affirmation of supposedly communist states as state capitalist states, cutting through years of propaganda by the U.S. through their anti-communist arm, the CIA. To contrast state capitalism with free-market capitalism, the U.S. presented an untrue picture to the world. They did so by producing Animal Farm after obtaining George Orwell's novel from his estate after his death. In the animated movie version, there was no confusion over differences between the pigs (state capitalists) and the human farmers (free-market capitalists) as was depicted in the novel. Instead, the pigs were easily identified as communists. The humans, representing capitalists, were nowhere to be found. Then there is the embarassing McCarthy era, which lingers on today in various guises, the most recent being the present political pressure on Serbia as well as on-going embargoes on Iran and Iraq. These countries have suspected ties with China, which is, in official American foreign affairs doubletalk, a communist nation. However, all the evidence points to another state capitalist nation hiding behind Maoism, a Chinese form of austere Marxist-Leninist policies with a rather dysfunctional rationalization. Government spokespersons of China sometimes display behavior that borders on insanity as they try to hide their ignorance of the truth through carefully orchestrated denials and convoluted lies. However, most popular lies about communism originate at the Pentagon and is disseminated as misinformation through the CIA and the U.S. foreign affairs office. Using trade sanctions the U.S. distributes such propaganda to other nations not through democratic means but through bullying tactics masquerading as foreign policy. While it is true that state capitalist nations are subject to corruption, it is also true that free-market capitalism does not prevent corruption within governments that build their foreign policy around anti-communist ideology and propaganda. For ideology is not embraced by any sort of capitalist to face truth but to hide from it. Indeed, in their narrow world view there is profit not in truth but in war. Therefore it makes good sense to make war no more. MAKE WAR NO MORE To most people, schooled too long in secular humanism, it is preposterous that global leaders, both corporate and political, should spend more time refining their ethics and morals before taking that great leap into the public arena. Those people who believe it to be impossible also include the leaders themselves, whose ethics and morals are inadequate to meet the rising challenge of the 21st Century. It seems that our world's greatest leaders are likewise challenged. They may lay claim to leadership, yet it appears our leaders are actually followers. For they follow that secular humanist cult they misname capitalism while using fascist and terrorist means to protect what they believe is democracy from the imagined threats of communism. The true threat today is the all-too-human arrogance of knowing what is best for the majority of people especially when determined by a minority of people - usually the elites - who are deluded into thinking they know better than most of us. Today, we stand an even greater threat than war. It is the policy of economic sanctions devised to inflict upon an imagined enemy by other nations suffering and sorrow. This, in addition to the ethical and moral desert in the hearts of national leaders, is more devastating than war. Its results are horrible and more long-lasting. Nixon went to China to prevent it from destabilizing that nation. Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Burma suffer from its effects daily. The Former Republic of Yugoslavia was broken up by its use in American foreign policy. The Kosova conflict between March 24 and June 10, 1999 was only a mop-up operation to ensure dominance by the US-led coalition of a few NATO members. However, do not be misled into thinking the Kosova conflict was fought over ethnic cleansing by Serbs or Muslims, for both sides were equally guilty, aided and abetted by UN troops. This war was fought in the interests of big business, in the name of the businessmen who lost their lives in the waning days of the Bosnian crisis during the first Yugoslavian conflict between 1992 and 1994. As well, the antipathy against Serbs is the result of a public-relations coup not a truth supported by evidence and facts. The reason why we should have no more war is quite obvious. It is the result of people who stumble into the public arena before demonstrating their true ethical and moral fibre. This is why it is usually recommended that people younger than 40 years of age not become political leaders. They just do not have the necessary life experience and training, and consequently they may become blind to their short-comings. We should also only support leaders who are unwilling to use human dominance in their dealings with other people. Might no longer makes right. For all-out war would make us extinct overnight. Therefore it is in our best interests to support leaders who have demonstrated their respect for ethics and morals, and who have championed non-violence and peace. We must also actively discourage the lack of respect by leaders for ethics and morals, and prevent people who condone violence and war from holding office. No longer should we glorify violence and war. Instead we should glorify nonviolence and peace. It is the most noble of social causes for the result is no more war. No More War Violence and war appears to be a natural consequence of human life, but it does not have to be that way. We human beings do enjoy some freedom of choice, so to insist that violence is part of human nature and that war is inevitable is to lose respect for all that is truly human. Indeed, both violence and war dehumanizes life, turning it into the hell it truly is. No glorication of war, no excuse for violence can change the fact that within the context of such violence, we are not treated like human beings but as statistics. Very rare is it for countries at war to heed the very conventions of wartime conduct that treat both sides humanely. Of course, most of the violations of modern war conventions are hidden from public view, to prevent public outcry. Instead, we get a very sanitized version of world events filtered through the corporate news media. If people really knew about what really went on in Jakarta and Dili, then there would be more of an outcry over the East Timor situation. If people knew that NATO probably ruined the growing democratic movement in Yugoslavia, in addition to the environment there, then they would have not been in support of Clinton. But the truth got twisted to support a global agenda that holds onto two primitive ways of dealing with other people: war and violence. It's high time we chose more effective ways of doing so, if we love this planet. Otherwise, we're not fit to call ourselves civilized. For civilization begins in resisting the new tyranny of the 21st Century called America. Resisting the New Tyranny That Is America If we are to begin the International Decade of Peace (2000-2010) as declared by the UN, then we must expose the myths about enemy nations as defined by the United States. For the rich and the powerful are not the defenders of democracy, but are the ones most aware of class and most willing to abuse civil and human rights for the sake of profit. It is only for public relations that they become philanthropists, using a fraction of their vast wealth to become champions of causes for which they feel no true passion. One wonders how many of the 200 richest men and women in the world have profited from war over the past fifty years. Furthermore, one wonders what the ten richest multinational corporations have really done for the promotion of non-violence and peace. Regarding the conspiracy by rich men to manipulate the global economy, this has accelerated to the point that by the time China cracked down in Tienanmen Square, America was ready to engineer the breakup of Yugoslavia and punish Slobodan Milosevic for resisting the global consumerism that led to the Asian recession a few years ago. For the breakup of Yugoslavia is based on a document signed by Americans in 1990 and endorsed by American big business, and possibly ordered by the Bilderbergers. The Kosova crisis itself was retaliation for murdering an obscure Clinton flunky and a group of businessmen who were flown into a Croatian hillside back in 1994. The poverty of both Albania and Serbia is tied to economic sanctions America has made against them. Also innocent children are the victims of similar policies against Iraq and Iran, as well as other nations undergoing poverty around the world. At the same time, the Big Three superpowers - the U.S., Russia and China - are selling arms and training militias in nations it befriends. The American military trained the Indonesian military using US-supplied arms, and indirectly aided the militias in the rape and murder of East Timorese women and men. Russia is committing genocide against Chechnyans in a similar vein while China continues to occupy Tibet and oppress its people. Yet they call it peace keeping. The true peace keepers are the peaceniks, who helped Yeltsin gain power, who won elections throughout parts of Serbia but were bombed by NATO in a bid to further radicalize them, and who were the only voices to cry out against America. Thus do I side with Russia and China, up to a point, and condemn President Clinton who started the crisis to distract people from his embarrassment with Monica and other women he actively chased during his political career. What the Kosova crisis proves is America could have ended WW I sooner, and could have brought Nazi Germany to its knees by a simple order in council to control the sympathizers among America's corporate leaders. However, both times it tried to remain pacifist due to corporate interests operating in Europe, exploiting cheap labour while war ravaged the countryside. For America was only called into World War I when the Axis stalemated the Allieds. The reason why America delayed when war broke out in 1914 was because of the strength of the pacifist movement. As well, the American corporate interests with factories in war-torn Europe gave bad advice, mainly to ensure that they would continue to profit from the war. In World War II, it was forced to participate in the war due to the surprise attack on Pearl Harbour, with America first declaring war on Japan within days of the attack and then on Dec. 11, 1941 on the Axis in Europe. Today, a look at any world stock exchange like the TSE3000, shows a rise in the index immediately following bombing on March 24, 1999. Both IBM and Microsoft also show war-related gains, which only proves that bad news is profitable. Through the World Trade Organization (WTO) national governments can standardize trade accords, and with the strength of corporation-backed NGOs (non-government organizations), ensure that labour is cheap and plentiful, but easy to import and export to other countries. Once the WTO gets its way, it will be possible during a country's national strike by its national union to import cheap workers to replace them, by an order in council. However, this may be only possible in Third-World nations which do not have a standardized labour code that prevents such an occurrence from becoming common-place. Guess which countries multinational corporations headquartered in America have established factories? Countries where such labour codes are substandard. American unions establishing themselves in Canada appear to be on the side of the Canadian working class, but their militancy and arrogance resulted in the embarassment at Squamish regarding teenagers who had no idea what the union really stood for. This is not to excuse the manager there, who used the union labour codes to stage his coup successfully. Then there is the coup by America of Bulgaria. On this point, Blagovesta Doncheva writes: Any kind of resistance against the US government and its truly poisonous aspirations for the world means HOPE. That is what the present Yugoslav government has been doing for months on a run. They don't do it well enough? Then fight for them to do it better. They need support from inside and out. It is the U.S. government which plots to get Serbs to fight each other under the guise of "democratic" opposition and external interference. — Blagovesta Doncheva, "Slavery is Freedom" - a second letter to the Serbian democratic opposition, http://www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/doncheva/donch4.htm It is hoped that any kind of resistance is non-violent, so that when the American-trained police come to arrest protesters they are less inclined to violate human rights by using batons, pepper spray and tear gas. In Canada, civil rights violations are condoned as long as no one dares to voice their human rights as guaranteed by the UN Universal Declaration. In the APEC '97 incident and its follow-up incident in December 1998, civil rights violations almost became human rights violations. What we forget is that both the RCMP and the Vancouver police have been trained by American police trainers for some time now. So resistance would be futile if it leads to aggression by the American-trained police. This applies globally, as well. We have for example, economic sanctions against Iran and Iraq, the bullying of Serbia over Kosova when much of the hooliganism was by Muslims, rewriting of national constitutions with a distinctive American flavour to them (including the Japanese constitution which provokes a schizoid reaction whenever they consult it, mainly because the document is deliberately flawed) and sometimes the rewriting of history through the entertainment arm of the American propaganda machine. Thus, today, all countries that have capitulated to their American overlord have become carbon copies of the American dream, be it the privileged rich of Chinese-descent in Singapore or the poor intelligentsia of Bulgaria. The first clue that this is so are the suits the men wear. However, in some cultures the women wear the national costume, usually to show their lesser status which is totally endorsed by America. In other cultures not under the yoke of America, they wear their national costume to demonstrate their independence of America, though not their dreams. Yet I do not endorse the use of national costumes to thumb one's nose at the Americans, mainly because one may be on another country where the climate is different and it may be inappropriate to dress in say, a kimono in the middle of the Arctic in Nunavut, Canada. One wonders if the Americans have plotted to get Canadians to fight over the Quebec issue of sovereignty, which is a backlash against Trudeau's federalism and bilingualism policies. If Quebec had seceded, then it would have been no problem for America to defend its friend, La Belle Province du Quebec. In regard to the WTO, it is no different. I have read the spin at WTO's website, which basically says "Big Business is good for you, but they have to talk to financial ministers of their country before we sign papers and look good for the press." However, there is a strong showing of American business interests among the non-government organizations attending the Seattle conference at the end of November 1999. Quite possibly, some member nations couldn't attend, due to a lack of financing. The whole purpose of the WTO is to establish free-market globalism through a set of standards that the organizations claims will be ratified democratically by all nations. They do not tell us that the consequences of not ratifying WTO standards will be not unlike what they did to Yugoslavia. No one seems to care that free-market capitalism leads to the same social ills that are endemic in Bulgaria as well as Canada and the U.S. So, Ms. Docheva's quote concluding her report is apt: If everything was a market, people would not look after children, but only cattle. — from an Interview with Koljo Georgiev, the Bulgarian poet. Well, the use of mass media to make us into cattle (consumers) worshiping the consumer god by working as wage slaves, and spending our hard-earned money on empty calories and other consumer goods, celebrating our consumerist mindlessness watching sports events. Any view opposing this is deemed to be propaganda; but then again, so is the current popular view! If this is so, then we of the opposing view demand equal time. It is, after all, our democratic right as guaranteed by our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. As consumers we are but zombies, demonstrating no political will but willing to expend time getting a job and acquiring the tools of consumerism such as money, a television, a car, and best of all, that dream home. Television is the tool to transform action into passion. Indeed it is the tool to create consumers, apathetic to action yet passionate about consumption. We distract ourselves from facing reality using TV or computers or whatever else we might obsess about, including that consumerist activity, shopping. We fear losing a job, and if we cannot find a new one, we might give up and succumb to the wastelands of welfare, believing ourselves broken, lost to our passions. If being a consumer is the human realm, then being on welfare is the gateway to hell. Zombies who go here never awaken, except when they are called and actually listen. I for one do not wish to be cattle or zombie, for I am a child of the universe, stardust and golden. I want to sow and reap the harvest of the Garden to which I wish to return. If I have to do it with the droppings of cattle, so be it. However, violent confrontation between political protesters in peaceful assembly and the police is unnecessary and unwarranted. Nothing works against sending the message the protesters want to get out than a few rotten apples vying for a brief 15-second spot on local and national news trying to pretend their hooliganism is a valid method of public protest. Thus it is necessary that I give two solutions to making our mutual global loathing of the ongoing hypocrisy in global peace keeping. The first solution concerns the waste in taxpayers' money by the State in the maintenance of a riot squad within the ranks of police on both the municipal and federal level. This sign of rising militancy within the police reflects a growing trend in the demilitarization of Canada and the subsequent rise in private security firms to complement a siege mentality overtaking the powers that be who govern our presumably peaceful nation. The second solution, hopefully, tries to suggest a better use for globalism than to promote consumerism on a global scale. Rather than allowing G8 meetings to be another platform to sing the benefits of turning third world people into acceptable members of consumerism, we should endeavor to promote non-violence and peace globally to reflect the progress that we have made locally. Having said that, let me get to the solutions that may help to redeploy globalism as a worthy poster child of public protest. SOLUTIONS An Alternative to The Police's Role in Political Protest Non-violent protest is suspect by the police. Radical elements dedicated to confrontation and the inevitable violence that results may be a part of the crowd. The role of the police is not to confront and threaten the whole crowd but rather, to quietly remove the people most likely to precipitate violence. In a peaceful protest, the police may be called upon to provoke violent reaction in order to seek out these radical elements. Essentially, the police artificially create the conditions necessary to polarize the opposition. This may be contrary to human rights conventions, and therefore lead to the genesis of a human rights tribunal to limit the powers of the police. In recent cases of alleged police brutality during peaceful political protests, the police have usually been absolved of blame. The reasoning of the police commissions handling these allegations is that the police must be allowed some latitude in intimidating the protestors as part of crowd control and management. Yet the documented evidence clearly shows that, in a few cases, the police has gone far beyond mere intimidation. In some cases, unprovoked violence by the police has become standard practice. Batons have cracked skulls and the use of pepper spray has become more common. Now with the approval of non-lethal devices that use high-voltage electricity to incapacitate violent people, it is possible that they may be introduced in crowd control in future potential riots. As a direct result of their use, human rights conventions may be contravened. Therefore, the role of police in public protest should be carefully examined from the initial deployment for traffic control to the need for the riot squad to control and prevent a riot. The 1994 Vancouver Riot has demonstrated both the role of alcohol, police and transit staff in precipitating the violence that occurred (and the 2011 Vancouver Riot shows that recommendations were not implemented). Indeed, the use of tear gas and the confrontational attitude of the police towards the bystanders wishing to escape the scene did much to worsen the situation. People who politely requested the police to allow them to pass through the cordon unharmed were rebuffed rather than accommodated, under the understanding that no one within the riot zone was to escape. The role of alcohol was never seriously examined by the media or the police, but it fueled the beginnings of the riot. There were reports of bootleggers selling alcoholic beverages at Skytrain terminals leading from Surrey into Vancouver. In response to reports of inebriated riders on the Skytrain, transit staff shut down the Burrard, Granville and Stadium stations. Without a safe escape route out of the downtown core, the crowd headed down Robson Street to the centre of the riot zone east of Burrard Street. After thorough examination of the evidence, it appears that the riot began when drunken youths began to break windows of businesses on Robson Street. This occurred after a person was accidentally pushed through a business's window. One young man managed to climb up a lamp post, and proceeded to walk the maze of trolley bus wires only to come crashing down to the street below. Emergency crews were summoned to deal with the injuries that resulted, but when they found their ability to deal with victims hampered by the crowd, the police reacted by making the area a riot zone. No riot act was read. Instead, the police just reacted. As the riot squad formed, the more radical elements in the crowd became increasingly belligerent and progressively more aggressive. At this point, tear gas was lobbed into the crowd and the Arwen gun used to incapacitate one particularly aggressive person. This person was hit not once but twice by rubber projectiles. The second time he was hit on the head. Evidence shows that he attempted to head butt the projectile, which resulted in nearly life-threatening injuries. His skull was crushed, and part of his brain removed to save his life. Other people were subject to tear gas, but not allowed prompt relief for their suffering. Indeed, the police repeatedly ignored the pleadings of relatively peaceful citizens not displaying any aggression, just a panicky desperation to retire from the scene. Overall, the role of the police appeared to be a confrontational one, with a few members perhaps forgetting that their primary role should always be to serve and protect the people. The use of violence by the police protected the business community of downtown Vancouver from loss of property. However, the use of tear gas protected only the police from having to use less aggressive means of protection. Thus it served their needs quite well, but worsened the situation. The crowd itself had several members whose behavior worsened as a result of aggressive confrontation with the police. Therefore, it is necessary for the police to develop and implement non-confrontational procedures to prevent potential riots and to lessen the probability of such riots from occurring. Several methods to increase communication between the police and the people they serve are available. They require pro-active changes on the part of the police to adequately integrate into police policy. Regarding the illegal sale and distribution of alcohol and drugs, the transit security should be allowed to have the same means to deal with bootleggers and drug dealers. In the case of the 1994 riot, a stronger presence by transit security could have prevented liquor offsales on transit property. Also, public transit staff could have taken steps to prevent the high influx of riders from the suburbs into the downtown core. Their reaction to the increased density at stations along the Skytrain route, to close stations, may have been for security reasons, but resulted in increased density of people streaming out of the Stadium, Granville, Burrard and Waterfront Stations. Combined with inebriated people scattered among the crowd, this was a riot waiting to happen. The police could have herded the crowd to a safe area and gained the co-operation of transit staff to reduce the potential for riot. It also appears that little was mentioned about the Vancouver Canucks losing that hockey game which precipitated the massive movement of people into the city. Had the Mayor even appeared downtown to reassure the crowd and address their concerns about the loss of the Stanley Cup, the situation could have returned to normal within minutes. Therefore, it is recommended that a city official trained in public speaking, preferably the city mayor, be volunteered as official spokesperson. Thus the first person of authority the crowd should hear should not be the chief of police but the mayor of the city (or someone in a similar official capacity for unorganized regions, counties and municipalities). Since the police's job is to serve and protect the people, it is not incumbent upon them to address the crowd initially. Rather, this is the job of the mayor or someone in his office. Thus the role of the police in public protest is crowd control not addressing the crowd. It helps too that the official spokesperson has a thorough grasp of the situation before addressing the crowd. In Vancouver, the police made no attempt to address the crowd's concerns. They were more concerned with the general public safety of citizens and the property damage of businesses along Robson Street. In conclusion, it must be stressed vigorously that the police's role in public protest should remain public safety. An official spokesperson to address crowds should be from the mayor's office not from the police department. It is this person's job to know the reason for the public protest or the reason for the crowd's presence if no political motive is evident. This should be determined at the first sign of the crowd forming. Otherwise in the case of public protest, the political motive should have been determined when the protest organizers applied for the permit to hold their rally. The police would be in dereliction of their duty in not employing non-confrontational means of communication as part of crowd control. Furthermore, the use of violence cannot be justified in crowd management when the majority of the crowd remains non-aggressive and calm. Therefore the use of tear gas cannot be justified as a form of crowd control when its deployment is evidently a form of assault. Consequently, efforts should be made to limit the use of physical force by the police upon confronting a peaceful protest. In a just society, a just police can only serve the people and protect them from harm, be it loss of liberty and loss of property. Non-confrontational methods should be employed by police to facilitate such service and to accommodate such protection of and for the people. Aggressive confrontation should not be tolerated. Only in this way is a just society promoted. As well, a just society is promoted when class hierarchy and dominance of any form is abandoned for a non-confrontational approach that promotes peace and non-violence. This brings us to the second solution, an alternative to the corporate hegemony. Class Essays: An Alternative to the Corporate Hegemony The law in its majestic equality forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets , and to steal bread. — Anatole France, from the Eriksen mural at Bruce Eriksen Place In response to corporate corruption and petty theft of money and time by the would-be laissez-faire capitalists hyped on the words of Ayn Rand's objectivism and blind to the damage caused by their disregard for the health and environment of their fellow humans, we simply should maintain at all costs human dignity amidst squalor and suffering, so that "the meek shall inherit the earth." For the growing trend to make commodities of all material things shows that this is, above all else, a class struggle. Now is the time to market environmentalism in a way as prepackaged and platable as is conscientiously possible for the brave new consumers of the 21st Century. With Greenpeace's protests over the intended rape of first-growth forests at Elaho in Interfor's endless quest for the almighty dollar making the headlines in recent weeks, it takes no class to mess up the world and then overlook the need to clean it up again. Such setting-sun mentality also may absolve Hitler of Nazi Germany of war crimes that were aided by the few American corporations who made their money in wartime Germany and contributed to there being less rich Jews in the world today. Contrary to right wing conspiracy theorists, no Jewish cabal controls the global economy. The majority of so-called capitalists are at heart benign fascists who had funded apartheid and has secretly endorsed terrorism for profit. Arms manufacturers are representative of this corporate mentality gone insane. Today, Slobodan Milosevic of the Former Republic of Yugoslavia and like-minded military leaders of various African nations can be consider to be equally guilty of war crimes against humanity yet they continued to oppress their people as the wheels of justice slowly turned, dragging them into the 21st Century. So read Sandy Cameron's essays to either build your class self-image or balance your current tendency to believe what the corporate world tells you. Sheep, it's time to look up! URL: http://www.policyalternatives.ca/index.cfm?act=news&call=245&do=article&pA=BB736455

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References

First Hearing of the Independent Commission of Inquiry to Investigate U.S./NATO War Crimes Against the People of Yugoslavia, July 31, 1999 New York City http://www.iacenter.org/warcrime/progtrib.htm

Opening of International Commission of Inquiry http://www.iacenter.org/sflwc.htm This document condemns the UN Security Council members who participated in the reason their defense budgets were increased: the breakup of Yugoslavia.

NATO in the Balkans http://www.iacenter.org/bosnia/nbtoc.htm

The Bosnian Tragedy http://www.iacenter.org/bosnia/tragedy.htm

Origins of the breakup -- a US Law http://www.iacenter.org/bosnia/origins.htm This document shows that American corporations were behind the Balkan conflicts since 1990. Note also that official government sites in most of the member nations that participated in the recent blood bath in Yugoslavia conveniently ignore the non-violence and peace movements in Serbia which won elections is most of the cities of Serbia, and also fail to include reference to origins of the break up in a US law.

Blagovesta Doncehva, "Slavery is Freedom" - a second letter to the Serbian democratic opposition http://www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/doncheva/donch4.htm

Global Fear and Loathing originally written Sunday, October 03, 1999 10:48
The Evil Empire of America written Wednesday, November 03, 1999 22:56
The Poverty of Democracy written 12-24-1999 15:03 and 07-25-2000 09:28
Militancy As American Foreign Policy written Tuesday, July 11, 2000 18:29 and Monday, July 25, 2000 10:49
Propaganda and the Myth of Communism written Friday, June 16, 2000 06:57 and 2000-07-19 12:31
MAKE WAR NO MORE written Tuesday November 9, 1999 14:47 and Monday July 17, 2000 16:35
No More War written Sunday, July 02, 2000 12:56
Resisting the New Tyranny That Is America written Friday, July 21, 2000 21:35
Paragraphs 1 and 2 of An Alternative to the Police's Role in Political Protest originally written October 28, 1999, amplified Tuesday, July 25, 2000 20:09 and edited Tuesday, July 25, 2000 20:25
Class Essays: An Alternative to the Corporate Hegemony originally posted to bc.politics Thu, 26 Aug 1999 17:06:13 -0700
Various parts of this article compiled and amplified into a cohesive whole on Monday, August 21, 2000 17:33 PDT with additions on Tuesday August 22, 2000 15:21 PDT
Edited for Gandhara post Thursay March 20, 2008 19:51 PDT
Formatted Monday March 10, 2014 06:34 AM

The Richness of Existence (satire)

My Photos

If seeking riches were truly normal to everyone, then no one would be poor and there would be no wars. Yet such a utopia hides the dark dystopia where the riches sought are obtained through the hard work of the middle class who are compliant to orderly production.

Anyone who is non-compliant in such a world is subject to social control, be it through laws that favour the rich and oppress the poor, and by means such as the widespread use of psychopharmaceuticals.

Yet the seeking of riches is not normal to everyone. Some people are poor and others are rich, but most people are middle class.

There is no dark dystopia in reality, for that is the side effect of our suppressed fears about today's world where the West is peaceful while elsewhere, there is conflict and war.

Instead, we live in a world that may be a wonderful place to almost everyone, whether rich or poor. Seeking riches is not a norm but a choice that determines who would be poor and who would be rich.

Of those few people who do not experience the world as a wonderful place are people who live in nations which are embroiled in conflict, a war brought upon them by forces beyond their control. There, survival is a daily struggle.

Still, war is beyond the imagination of people in the West, most of whom live in peace.

Almost seventy years have passed since the last world war was fought. In that time, nearly three generations have seen changes in technology that captivate them today.

Once there were computers of immense size that took up the space of a small warehouse, cooled by gallons of water. Today, we have computers in our smartphones many times more powerful in the palm of our hands.

If we choose to buy such devices, then it is out of necessity. Such devices do not make us rich, yet enrich our lives. Still, there is much enrichment in reading a book or a newspaper rather than using a device to do the same.

Even though I have taken thousands of pictures with my smartphone, the joy of drawing is many times more than that experienced on viewing the scene in a photograph. For me, it is a luxury to draw. I wish that I could spend more time drawing but photography occupies more of my time.

Photography gives me exposure to my immediate world. No matter how many hours I might spend drawing, each hour is spent away from the immediate world. That is why I prefer photography to drawing.

Because I live in a nation in the West, my immediate world is free of war. My photographs reflect the relative calm of the moment.

Yet I am aware that outside of my world, people live in abject poverty, be it a child in the West or a child in the Middle East. Their poverty is often due to politics, whether it is due to sanctions by Western nations or due to rule by despots.

Even though I am aware of the world outside my immediate environment, my purpose in taking photographs was to show the beauty of the moment, be it a sunset or the sparkle of lights at night, and to document what might be lost to future generations, be it a mural on a wall or the hundreds of animal and plant species.

Indeed, by taking pictures I am trying to capture the richness of existence, living in the West in a developed nation.

Of course, photography on a super phone is not the same as with a high quality camera. There are limitations due to battery size and quality of the camera firmware in the phone. Despite such limits of technology, most of my photographs might be considered beautiful to other people.

Although my pictures are wholly mine, I share them freely with the world through GooglePlus.

Why Militants of Religion Attack Women

Celebration of the female body was also partially supported in Constatinople, though radical Christians back then were known to desecrate any art that depicted nudity.

Some of the battles that the Byzantine Empire fought were with Christians who subscribed to a more militant form of Christianity led by religious leaders sympathetic to Gnostic teachings which claimed that worldliness was evil and that godliness was good.

Due to militancy among the Christians, a pagan mathematician was assassinated by radical Christians in Alexandria for preferring the pagan sciences over the conservatism of Christianity.

IMO militant elements of Islam cater to this same kind of conservatism. Even though the Roman Empire was corrupt before Constantine the Great made Christianity a state religion, its art was did not lead to the excesses of pornography in America.

Although the decadence of Caligula is well known, only writings by authors who were not fond of him are known as it was common to destroy any literature praising him after that emperor's death along with statues of him and his god-horse.

Today, the fans of celebrities sometimes tend to worship almost like gods. Even when they act like drug addicts and never-do-wells, their fans still support them when they go into rehab.

However, American mass media is keen to display the bodies of celebrities as though it is a social good i.e. the right to freedom of expression.

To Muslim conservatives, it is obscenity mainly due to hardliners who fear that such obscenity will corrupt the morals of their youths, especially the men.

What they do not admit is that such obscenity was condemned by Muhammad because he too feared being corrupted by the idols of Mecca.

When a good man who fears corruption lashes out by killing people, that is the root of militancy. It matters not if it was 1500 years ago or last year.

As long as a religion protects its core values with militancy and the threat of death of unbelievers, it is an intolerant religion. This is what American Christians are trying to say.

Yet in more primitive areas of Asia, Christians are not less militant and intolerant as their Muslim brothers and sisters e.g. Brazil after an amateur football game, clashes between Christians and Buddhists in rural areas of Burma, India and Thailand, the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, etc.

Religion promote conservative values, many of which are becoming increasingly outdated. This is why people apostate and leave religion.

As long as religion holds onto traditional values without tolerance of modern values, the violence will continue.

For any religion that allows for killing and other violent forms of repression has lost the core values of non-violence and peace that was integral to its founding.

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Hypatia murdered by Christian mob: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HypatiaTo conservatives such as the Muslims, it is obscenity.

Buddhism Arises When Peace Flourishes

Ultimate reality, being Nirvana, cannot happen in these desperate times, when few people realize the important of being calm yet vigilantly observant. In this world, it's a rush of birth, life and death, often repeated and filled with suffering.

Wars arise due to vast differences of culture fighting for resources, yet patient diplomacy might have achieved long-lasting compromises. Instead, evil karma dominates
in the form of terrorism, though now the people finally realize that peace requires vigilance in these uncertain times.

In the 21st century, the words of the Buddha fall on deaf ears:
"A warrior may have conquered
one thousand foes but he who
conquers himself is truly a warrior."

Likewise, the words of Mohammad's companion Jabir are forgotten: "You have arrived
with an excellent arrival, you have come from the Lesser Jihad — the striving
of a servant of Allah against his foes — to the Greater Jihad — the striving of a servant of Allah against his desires — the holy war that all Muslims must fight."

Instead, the only holy war is the lesser jihad, for a militant Millennialism is all that is left for the servants of Allah.

How can there be any peace then?

Forgotten is the peace of the Saracens, and the greatness of the Ummayad Caliphate
whose adminstration of al-Andalus brought peace to the Arabs, Berbers, Separdic Jews
of Eastern Europe, and the Musalimah until the taifa kingdoms arose.

Then the Inquisition forced out the Arabs and Jews, and resulted in the Conversos during the Reconquista, bringing suffering to pious Jews and Muslims alike.

Since then, the Hispanics suffered under the fascist regime of Franco but bloomed during the Carnation Revolution.

Today, Buddhism has enlightened Europe, with Tibetan and Zen being the most popular.
Humanistic Buddhism has replaced atheism both in Europe and in the Americas. Yet this has more to do with the peace found in the West, rather than war.

It appears that Buddhism arises in nations when peace prevails, which implies
that war-torn nations are not ready.

Even so, it is the duty of Buddhists everywhere to practice for the benefit of all sentient beings, rather than for attachment to the mind and the body. By doing to other sentient being that one does for the self, it is possible to await the time when all sentient beings come to know the Buddha willingly.

Relieving suffering (poem)

through carelessness anything is possible,
even the pain of a toothache,
or the heart inflamed with a myriad of feelings,
be it anger, fear or love.
yet through meditation it is possible
to eradicate the harm caused by anger and fear,
replacing them with calmness and fearlessness,
while cultivating loving-kindness to benefit all.

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Originally posted: November 18 2005 at 0137H
Updated: February 8, 2013 at 2316H

OMG What Have You Stepped Into?

Hello, welcome to my blog!

This entry is for the new readers who may have been directed here via Google or even by my hand.

My recent entries may appear to be more political and religious than previous years' entries. I encourage the gentle readers to scrutinize what I have written.

Please note that my blog is a work in progress, so a page or two might be upgraded, edited to, or deleted, depending what I consider needs being done.

Contrary to what others may believe about opinions i.e. that it's fixed forever, I feel that opinions are made based on how close to the truth each of us wishes to tread.

When we base our opinions on other people's opinions without even considering the facts, our opinions are this close to being gossip and rumors.

So I try to base any opinions I make in posts which are not related to Buddhism on facts, even the ones that are political.

For example, my comments on the Islamic terrorism suspects is that bullying and racism fuels such terrorism. This is not a naive position.

As a Buddhist I am more for non-violent confrontation than for violent confrontation.

For I am dedicated keep the peace, by letting peace be my guide, and inspiring future meditations of peace to inspire my future blog posts.

Top 10 Peaceful Nations for 2012

The Top Ten peaceful nations for 2012 are:

1. Iceland
   
2. Denmark
   
3. New Zealand
   
4. Canada
   
5. Japan
   
6. Austria
   
7. Ireland
   
8. Slovenia
   
9. Finland
   
10. Switzerland
    

Read more at Vision of Humanity Global Peace Index http://www.visionofhumanity.org/globalpeaceindex/2012-gpi-findings/ For 2012, Canada improved to fourth place from eighth last year. For Canadians, we are improving! Celebrate the moment by being excellent to each other!

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Reference: Background on Global Peace Index: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Peace_Index

Stereotypes in Buddhism: Karma, Reincarnation and Meditation

"Stereotyping" in Buddhism happens when one considers all the types of creatures to be reborn as, yet feels that being born human is the ideal rebirth.

Of course, that's for Buddhists who believe in reincarnation, mainly Tibetan Buddhists.

The stereotype in this case is the Western interpretation of reincarnation.

From the Christian view, reincarnation is explained as "the work of the devil". The reincarnated persona is considered to be a "daemon" out to fool people.

That's stereotyping in its dark form.

From the Eastern view, the reincarnated persona is "real", and it's best accept the person who claims to be a reincarnation of a deceased person.

For some, reincarnation may be considered as the result of a wish to live on beyond one's lifespan.

In traditional Buddhism it is the fruit of one's actions which get passed on to later generations.

Thus reincarnation is in conflict with the concept of "no-self" i.e. that the self is impermanent and does not exist after death.

One stereotype that comes to mind at this point regards meditation, which is stereotyped as "sitting while thinking about nothing, & doing nothing".

Sometimes meditation is even discounted as a "non-productive way of spending one's quiet time".

Overall, meditation promotes clarity of thought which leads to deeper insights about life.

It can be done anywhere, and be useful to anyone, precisely because it promotes calm and peace, the essence of serenity.

After long and careful thought it may be possible to see that reincarnation is not about a permanent soul existing after death, but about the effects of a person's spiritual actions after her death.

These effects are known as karma.

And it is up to each of us to act in such a manner as to overcome our anxieties about karma and reincarnation through meditation.

A Worthy Struggle for Life as It is (poem)

Sometimes I make the mistake in
trying to live life as it should be,
only to realize the misery
that causes me and the people
who matter most in my life.
Sometimes it gets me down.

It's not others who get me down
as much as I get myself
stuck in the chains of my undoing.
Be it habit of mind or tendencies,
my behavior is in my hands,
though sometimes I regress.

Yet I can bounce right back
when the heartache has gone away -
all it takes is the willingness
to accept what cannot be changed
with a peaceful heart and clear mind,
and gracefully carry on.

Bravely do I carry on, accepting
what I am responsible for.
Living day by day helps me
to keep focused on the task:
to live my life as I see fit -
a worthy struggle for life as it is.

Love Helps Transform Anger and Fear into Strengths

In this article, I will be writing about anger and fear, from the point of view as a Buddhist. However, let me emphasize that my opinion is based on my experiences with anger and fear, along with what I know about emotions.

In context of this article, "one" refers to the self. "Others" refers to other people, such as family, friends and loved ones. Strangers are merely potential friends.


According to current social ideology, anger and fear are considered by most people to be weaknesses but mistakenly considered strengths by others.

Yet both negative emotions may be miraculously transformed into strengths by understanding two things about anger and fear.

Firstly, one has be compassionate and show mercy toward others by waiting until the heat of one's anger goes away.

Secondly, fear may be a motivator to do great things, provided that one is able to abandon it and come to terms with the anger at the core of anxiety.

Anxiety is when anger is hidden by layers of fear to protect the world from the heat of our wrath. Thus, the armor of fear becomes phobias and incessant worry that things are never right.

How could they be right when fear makes one afraid to confront the truth?

For weathful anger is not a source of strength.

Wrathful anger is not strength, for it is effective in controlling others when self-control fails.

At the root of anger is fear, which causes one to control others because he is secretly afraid of his own inability to control himself

Yet the harder one tries to control others, the less able he is to control himself.

Desperate to maintain control, he conveniently forgets that self control begins by yielding to the demand of others to be civil.

When one yields to others and becomes civil, apologies are made, anger is forgotten and forgiveness is implicit.

In the resulting calm, fear is replaced by fearlessness.

In this atmosphere of peace, the willingness to help others and be of service to them arises.

What truly motivates a person to help others and be of service to them?

Why, it is loving-kindness, the wholehearted compassion for others and especially, the willingness to let go of self-centred desires and establish ties with one's community.

For it is through love that anger and fear are transformed into their strengths, calmness and

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Originally posted: July 6, 2011 at 2223H
Updated: February 8, 2013 at 2219H

Top 10 Peaceful Nations

The Top Ten peaceful nations for 2011 are as follows:

1. Iceland
   
2. New Zealand
   
3. Japan
   
4. Denmark
   
5. the Czech Republic
   
6. Austria
   
7. Finland
   
8. Canada
   
9. Norway
   
10. Slovenia

Read more at Suite101: Peace, Man: Global Peace Index Ranks Most Peaceful Nations http://www.suite101.com/content/peace-man-global-peace-index-ranks-most-peaceful-nations-a372845#ixzz1NRavdZ88 Commentary: Canada improved from 14th place in 2010 to 8th place this year. For Canadians, this is a moment to reflect on it, and to celebrate relative peace in Canadian society today.

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Reference: Background on Global Peace Index: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Peace_Index

My Understanding of Jihad

Inner jihad is the greater jihad -- for the man who conquers his will has won a greater battle than a warrior who has conquered a hundred enemies.

Outer jihad then is the lesser jihad since at the root of Islam is peace. And thus he who has conquered himself conducts himself accordingly.

Indeed, jihad has nothing to do with conflict and war - its use with regard to violence in the Middle East is like ad hominem attacks on mostly harmless homeless people.

It is hyperbole.

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According to Fiqh Made Easy, the four types of jihad are:

1. Jihad against the soul: Struggling against the soul to yearn for the Religion, act upon those teachings, and call others to them. (Paraphrased)
   
2. Jihad against Shaytan: Struggling against Satan without doubts or desires.
   
3. Jihad against the disbelievers and hypocrites: this is done with the tongue, hand, heart and wealth.
   
4. Jihad against heretics, liars, and evilfolk: This is best done with the hand, if not the hand then the tongue, if that's not possible then the heart.

— http://www.scribd.com/doc/8488561/Fiqh-Made-Easy According to the Canadian Society of Muslims, fiqh has three components:

1. Fiqh Akbar / Fiqh Awwal - consists of Aqaid (faith and belief)
   
2. Fiqh Ausath / Fiqh Duwwam - consists of all mundane as well as spiritual acts.
   
3. Fiqh Asghar / al-Akhir - consists of worship (Ibadat) and other devotional practices

— http://muslim-canada.org/sitedex.htm

My Advice to War Vet Suffering PTSD from Battle Fatigue

Go to your local veterans administration office in your dress uniform.

Ask for help because you did your duty to protect the world from terrorists.

Do not rant or rave.

Tell them what you shared here, however, document everything you do. Take notes wherever convenient, and learn how to make press releases.

Your story needs to be told not just to other war vets, but also to the world.

If your fellow veterans cannot help you to recover from war, then please be courageous enough to tell your message to CNN, talk shows, etc.

We need to hear to your story, and of your fellow comrades at arms!

War may be hell, but sharing your experience will help not only you, but also make the world cry for peace!

Militancy Arises Out of Fear and Anger

Photo by AP/Hatem Moussa

Out of fear for their survival as minority people, terrorists use their high energy to sublimate their anger through the use of violence.

At the root of their militancy are years of oppression by the majority.

However, oppression does not need to result in terrorism to counteract State oppression.

In the following article, I will quote from the source which has inspired this blog entry, and follow with a commentary.

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http://www.countercurrents.org/boga071109.htm

Terrorist, Rebel Or Freedom Fighter?’

By Dilnaz Boga

07 November, 2009
Countercurrents.org

The ugly scar on his cheek gripped me. With a loaded weapon between his legs, his eyes searched the parched terrain from our jeep. We were hunting for the Reds – left wing extremists who boast of a Red Corridor in the heavily mined jungles of Gadchiroli, some 350 km from Nagpur, Maharashtra state in India. To break the ice, I asked him why he had chosen to be a commando in the dreaded C-60 anti-Naxal force. It was then that he revealed his story.

Suresh was a tribal from a hamlet in an impoverished district that copes with forest fires annually. He rarely visits home — that too only under the cover of darkness, always accompanied by the commandos to protect him from the Communist rebels.

In Gadchiroli scars run deep and a clash of ideologies is a bloody affair. A neglected tribal population is abandoned by the State. No electricity, water, hospitals or industry. Naxals win locals over with a bag of rice. People are trapped between the gun of the security forces and that of the Naxal – sides have to be taken.

Suresh’s only brother was a Naxal. So, I asked him what he would do if he came face to face with his brother.

"I will kill him," he replied calmly, fixing his gaze on me.

My bewildered expression prompted him to continue…

"Because if I don't kill him, he will kill me."

That day, my lines between ‘the good guys’ and ‘the bad guys’ blurred. I started to question beliefs on nationalism, civil liberties and history, and found that it was easy to be judgmental on a full stomach.

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Commentary: Today's terrorist is yesterday's freedom fighter. 9/11 has colored the world with shades of gray, and the color of freedom is now the color of terrorism.

At the root of such violent conflict is anger and fear, both of which are justifiable when you consider the socio-economic background of the people involved in such militancy.

To call them terrorists, one needs to align with neo-conservative groupthink. For what is political oppression but the rezsultant suppression of those feelings of anger and fear until they grow into the conditions for tomorrow's terrorists when once they were fighting for their freedom?

As a Buddhist, I cannot condone violence that goes beyond preventing others from harming oneself. So, to kill another for the ritual abuse that is the physical expression of oppression goes beyond the use of force to prevent violence against oneself. Thus, the use of guns do not stop others from oppressing your people; it is the means to notoriety and the making of a name for the terrorist.

IMHO it may be the ego which causes a terrorist to desire recognition so that his group's political agenda is served. Yet for all warriors, if one may call a terrorist a warrior, it is their own selves which is in need of conquest before they may truly conquer their enemies.

And the most expedient means of conquest is not through bloodshed but through peace.

Anyone in denial of this truth may believe that only through violence can one free oneself from oppression, yet the roots of oppression are belief in the permanence of the self.

Thus, as long as this belief is implemented through violent oppression and rebellion, no one is truly free of anger and fear.

As a result, it is up to world leaders to negotiate peacefully with terrorists for a peaceful solution to terrorism, both militant and State.

For the Decade of Peace came to a close in 2011, and peace is even further from coming to the Middle East.

Edited 20121124.1454