Political Frenzy

Some celebrate Memorial Day with a barbecue or a sale. Others celebrate it by visiting veterans. I take time to reflect on the history of the armed forces.

Today we must realize that the fallen heroes did not all salute Old Glory. The amazing men and women of the American Armed Forces were in good company. In World War II the British were fending off Fascism and suffering the bombs of Hitler for years before Americans stood up. Alongside them were the commonwealth nations - Canada, Australia, India, New Zealand, South Africa, and Nepal. Non-Vichy France held a successful resistance, many Frenchmen losing their lives to keep their nation free. Those that remained would usher in Allied forces during the liberation of Paris. And losing more men to combat than all other nations combined, Russia suffered massive losses, only to continue forward and bring down the Third Reich brick by brick.

In Asia the Chinese were in a civil war when Japan attacked, and despite their hatred for each other, both the Communist and Republican Chinese lay down their lives to protect their homeland. The Siamese (or later Thai), Cambondians, Laotians, and others all resisted the Japanese invasion force, later aiding Australian and American troops in overthrowing the Japanese.

And not to forget the Germans and Japanese who resisted their leaders’ tyranny, seeking to restore to their countries the honor and dignity of history, collaborating with allied forces and spies, sometimes taking on completely independant movements.

Today we remember that in the history of the world only one race has lived as heroes: the human race. We can all today bow our heads in thanks for those across the world who have engaged tyranny and oppression in any form and stopped it from entering our homes, whether they be American, Canadian, Thai, Chinese, or South African. Because the country we must pledge our highest allegiance to is greater than our nation, it is Earth. And despite all our troubles, we all call it home.

Memorial Day, World War II, Pan-Terranism

Like a character from a fantastic epic back when the English were heroes and tyrants wrapped up into one unstoppable force, Tony Blair has been an unstoppable maelstrom of power for over a decade in the world political scene.

Effectively hijacking the entire Labour Party in 1994, Tony Blair has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 1997. But he has also simultaneously held the titles of Member of Parliament for Sedgefield (giving him legislative powers), Leader of the British Labour Party, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister of Civil Service, and a Privy Counsellor. He was, for ten years, the most powerful man in the UK without a doubt.

He has finally given up his post as Leader of the Labour Party, allowing his senior Labour Party official James Gordon Brown, to pull ahead for leadership of the party. In 1997 both were forerunners for leader of the Labour Party, and subsequently the Premiership. Realizing Blair had more public support than he did, Brown pulled back, expecting Blair to only run for two elections at most. He never expected the third.

Now after having shaped one of the most powerful nations in the Western World, opposition within his own party has forced Blair to step down. This is in absence of a Nixon-esque scandal, and a little surprising as everyone expected him to at least carry on leadership of the party until his term as Prime Minister ended. Perhaps he’s avoiding a possible scandal by getting out now. Who knows? Not I.

So what is this gonna mean in the long term? It mans a brand new England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Love him or hate him, Tony Blair was the United Kingdom’s government for ten long years, and now that he’s pulling back, new elements are going to sweep in to fill the void…

Tony Blair, Labour Party, Gordon Brown, United Kingdom, Prime Minister, Britain, England, Scotland, Wales

For the first time in many long years, there is finally a chance for peace in Northern Ireland. “Dr. No” Presbyterian leader Reverend Ian Paisley, famous for his refusal to co-operate in any manner with the Catholic minority of the British domain, has become the new First Minister of Northern Ireland, with former Irish Republican Army commander/terrorist organizer (depending on who you ask) and Sein Finn leader Martin McGuinness taking the position of Deputy First Minister.

Paisley and McGuinness, traditionally bitter enemies, were surprisingly warm with each other. The photo for this article shows the young McGuiness aiding the now elderly Paisley through the door like a young man aiding his grandfather, not like two men who threw bitter words at each other and threatened violence against each other in the past. As Paisley said, “Yesterday was yesterday, today is today, and tomorrow will be tomorrow.”

In a world ripped apart by violence and hate, where people dehumanize their enemies and commit unconscionable attacks on each other, the religious and political divide in Northern Ireland is quite amazing to see healing. It brings tears to my eyes to view the beautiful photo, and realize that only two decades ago these men would have taken the opportunity to slit each other’s throats, and now they can touch each other like old friends and speak like family.

I hope the world can follow this heartwarming example, and that both sides of Northern Ireland’s political and spiritual divide can maintain the paths for set by these two brave leaders for generations to come.

Sein Finn, Ian Paisley, Martin McGuinness, Northern Ireland

On Monday, April 16th, at 7:15 AM EST, the police of the police of University Police received a report of a shooting West Ambler Johnston Hall, a Virginia Tech dormitory that 900 students call home. Then another shooting was reported at the science and engineering school, Norris Hall. In two hours, the police were alerted to the fact that the worst school shooting in all of American history had taken place in the halls of Virginia Tech. Thirty-two dead and fifteen wounded.

The police are still investigating if the shootings were related. If they weren’t, then I think we’re all in a CSI script, because that’s an unbelievable twist.

When you’ve had two shootings in two areas on campus, that should send up red flags. This tragedy could have been easily avoided if the police had had the competency to shut down the school and evacuate. When you have two crime scenes and no apprehension, that means you have a moving gunman, and that is a major problem. It took two hours for the gunman to get to the main hall, and that could have been two hours spent getting everyone out of the area.

“We knew that there was a shooting but we thought it was confined to a particular setting,” Charles Steger, the University’s President said. That is never a safe assumption.

Everyone say a prayer for the lives lost in Virginia.

White House Spokeswoman Dana Perino spoke critically of Iran lack of compliance with the UN’s nuclear resolution. In order to get her point across, Perino talked down to the Iranian people:

We hope the Iranian people would see that the hard-line policies and the rhetoric that is coming out of its leaders such as President (Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad is not helpful to the country

They elected him and they see him on television all the time. The breeze from the east is that Ahmadinejad is indeed an unpopular president because he is focusing on external affairs more than the domestic problems he promised to address in his election campaign. But it’s offensive that she would attempt to tell Iranians what’s good for them. “I know what’s best for you even though you don’t”.

The UN placed sanctions on Iran in response: financial and arms. Arms sanctions. Who was selling to Iran before? And why did they think that could possibly be a good idea? Oh wait, yea. That was us. And by us, I mean the US.

But the UK has been much more upset at Iran recently. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard captured several British sailors, and sent out a warning against attacking the Islamic Republic. Tony Blair and his cabinet have been working hard through diplomatic channels to have the sailors returned, but it has had little to yield as of yet.

Although this may inspire a conflict between Iran and the UK, the White House has made it very clear that it does not want to go to war with the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is painfully clear that if the US attempted an attack on Iran, it would lose. But Iran has an axe to grind with both the US and the UK after Operation Ajax. I urge all my readers to read the Wikipedia article here, and to go out to their local bookstore and pick up All the Shah’s Men : An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror by Stephen Kinzer to understand exactly why this is happening.

Dana Perino, Tony Blair, Operation Ajax, Iran, White House

News reached me today from Copenhagen resident Knud Erik Henriksen - who also happens to be my cousin and friend. In an email he described a current event in Denmark’s capital:

Since 1982 we have had a house for the youth in Copenhagen. It was owned by the city but the kids had the right to use it. In 1999 the [community] decided to sell it, and it was sold to a very religious and rightwing organisation. Since it has been brought to the court several times to throw out the youngsters. On [March] 1 the police cleared the house, and this morning they have started to tear down the place.

Continuing, he said that the now homeless youths responded with violence, going so far as to burn cars. Knud Erik said it best:

At the moment they express themselves in a way only few like, but what are they going to do else? They don’t have money. They don’t have polical influence.

The resulting riots can only be described as the desperate acts of the disenfranchised. Some I have discussed this with have said that it is odd for the young people to react in such a way, as Denmark is one of the most egalitarian states in the world. But it is precisely these kinds of things, Youth Houses and such, that help make the Danish socially so strong. It’s akin to removing bricks from a building just because there are so many. “No one’s going to miss this brick… or this brick… or this one…” Anyone who’s ever played Jenga knows this isn’t the case.

The most disturbing part, however, is not the actual event, but the Associated Press article regarding it. According to the AP’s article, published on English news site Guardian Unlimited (companion site to the Manchester Guardian), the kids were “squatters”, using the title Youth House exclusively in quotation marks. Shockingly enough, it makes no reference to the sale of the property, and concludes that the building was “used by young squatters since the 1980s”. Squatters? Until recently, they were legal residents. As Knud Erik filled me in, they had to take this to court several times to try and evict the young people.

My outrage builds as the Associated Press article attempts to pin the riots on specific sub cultures, citing anarchists and punks specifically. The influx of foreign Europeans to protest the removal of the house was the focus of the article, whose headline read “European Anarchists Join Denmark Rioters”. And as anyone can plainly see, anyone who believes in social welfare, high taxation in return for economic egalitarianism, and a social net is an anarchist. Yea right.

In a cheap shot by AP writer Jan M. Olsen, the former Communist leader Vladimir Lenin is somehow obscurely linked to the incident through having once visited the house when it was a conference center, predating its years as a youth house. The mention alone is enough to send red flags (pun intended) to any American reader - but Lenin having once visited the building long ago does not make the protesters all communists, despite the intentions. The very poor connection is meaningless to the topic at hand.

This is exactly the problem with media today. Anyone reading this article clearly knows my agenda - I support the protesters and condemn the violent rioters; I believe that houses like that should be built here in the United States and it is a travesty that they are being removed in Denmark - but the Associated Press has masked itself with the stench of false unbiased reporting. In presenting opinions as inherent truths (it can never be proven that these protesters are anarchists or communists, and is most likely not true) and omitting inconvenient facts (the sale of the property, the fact that they were up until recently legal residents) they make a case to the world that misrepresents reality.

Thank you, Knud Erik, for bringing this horrible injustice to Danish society and grievous injury to journalistic integrity to my attention.

Dear readers, please think critically before you read any news. Every journalist on Earth cares about what they write, one way or another. Don’t trust anyone claiming to be unbiased, because all that means is they are very good at making you hear what they want you to hear, and hiding their agenda in carefully worded sentences.

You show me an unbiased journalist, and I’ll show you a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Europe, United Kingdom, Denmark, Associated Press

Australian David Hicks, aka Abu Muslim al-Austraili, has just been slated for trial after five years in Guantanamo Bay. Most recently Mister Hicks has been accusing the United States of torturing and abusing him. He is currently seeking British citizenship, citing his mother’s British citizenry to help his case. His hope is that if he becomes a British national the UK will free him.

Hicks became a soldier of fortune in the Kosovo War after a sordid resume of kangaroo skinning, car stealing, shark fishing, and meat-packing. After returning to Australia from his short and unsuccessful stint in Serbia, he converted to Islam. In order to capitalize on his recent foray into combat and his conversion to Islam, he went to Pakistan-controlled Kashmir where he trained with Lashkar-e-Toiba, the eastern ally of al-Qaeda. There he was recruited by al-Qaida and, according to handwritten statements by his peers there, became a favorite student of the terrorist leaders. When his camp was visited by Osama Bin Laden, Hicks reportedly asked Bin Laden about the lack of English in training materials. In response, Hicks was prompted to translate the Arabic to English, which he did.

Later, Hicks would return to Kashmir and fight alongside Pakistani forces against India’s military in the ongoing conflict. However, once Lashkar-e-Toiba was denounced by the Pakistani government as a terrorist organization - in spite of popular opinion, which heavily supported them - Hicks and his compatriots broke down and began infighting.

Once news of the September 11th attacks reached Hicks, he armed himself with an AK-47 automatic rifle and grenades, and headed to Afghanistan. There he joined al-Qaeda forces against the Northern Alliance, the Afghani group supported by the United States. His involvement in the civil war would be short, however, as a warlord captured him and presented him to the Northern Alliance, who then offered him up to the United States.

Hicks’ story is a sordid and bizarre epic tragedy. Not a stupid man, Hicks has no sense of identity and shows little ability to keep himself grounded. Even his attempt at finding a foundation for himself in a religion led him to a life of violence, a sign of a seriously disturbed individual.

But it is not that his story is so outrageous nor that it is unique; this reporter believes that his story is not all too different from most at Guantanamo Bay. It is the color of his skin that has captured media attention. If this man had been another Middle Easterner, a “towel-head” in most bigoted racist eyes, no one would have printed a word of him.

Unpopular Australian Prime Minister John Howard has tried to jump ship from his former chumminess with the Bush White House, and demand the speedy trial of David Hicks. He reportedly pestered Vice President Dick Cheney during his Sydney visit, and has constantly brought up the issue in the media.

The surging popularity of the Labor Party in Australia has led the nation on an anti-war tangent, and Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd has been railing the Australian government to pull out of the middle east. The apprehension of David Hicks, and Australian national, by US Forces, has become a hot-button issue in both countries.

How should this go forward? How should this be handled?

No differently than if he were from any other nation. David Hicks is not special. He is just another Muslim. And the fact that he happens to be white is no reason to exempt him from any punishment, nor give him more than any other prisoner. Because no matter what faith you are, God should never care what color you are. And isn’t justice blind?

News, Middle East, Australia, Kevin Rudd, John Howard, Australian Labor Party, David Hicks, Dick Cheney, Islam, Serbia, Kosovo, al-Qaida, Lashkar-e-Toiba, United Kingdom, Pakistan, Kashmir, India, Osama Bin Laden, Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan