It's been a Month now - haven't you made it out of the bedrom yet? ; )

 

Go - onnn take a peek outside and tell us what London's like!

 

Oh Yes - Sorry, but i don't wow.

 

Hope you're enjoying the new life?

Wow! Someone on spaces who can actually think deep! Congratulations you're the first i've met : ) ( Ok so i haven't been looking all that long yet but it is still a welcome and big surprise lol)

 

I'm sure you are way to busy to get heavily into a discussion on the foibles of the human race and defence politics right now... but maybe if you have some time spare in London? ; ) Of course i mean time when you and the g/f are not catching up on lost time!

 

Point taken about a country's army with such a history destroying not one, but two, refugee camps! - not so much iron-ic as 'steely' - several factors harder?

 

Israel is kind of a unique situation in human history - there has never been anything quite like it (as it is now) in my understanding, anywhere or at any time in the world. While it is relatively easy for us to sit on the sidelines thousands of miles away and be repulsed by what we see and learn we have to keep in mind it is not so easy when people are actually trying to kill you and want to wipe all you have built off the map. (Even if what you have built is on top of twenty generations of your enemy's land).

 

We also need to remember that there are some, perhaps bordering on the majority, Israeli's who want for nothing more than Peace with their neighbours even if they may not trust them or be willing to give up what they have basically stolen. (Stolen 'back' only what was once 'theirs' - according to them)

 

I find it interesting that while the US is the strongest backer of the illegal State of Israel (thus ensuring John Howard will always take the Israeli side in any issue with Palestinian Arabs) and currently donates around US$2 billion dollars worth of arms alone to Israel each year (totalling $50 billion to date since 1948) it also donates approximately US$1.5 billion dollars a year of it's own (US) defence budget to...... EGYPT! (some $30 billion to date since the 1967 war with Israel?)

 

The US happily pays off both sides, Jew and Arab, with taxpayer funds to allow a Jewish prescence in the region in order to destabilise the area and take any 'heat' off themselves by giving arab terrorism a target in their own (the Arab's) back yard instead of the US's (a ploy that worked for the best part of 50 years but blew up big time in 2001) Still, while we have Iraq and Afghanistan and Israel most of the terrorists are busy destroying arab targets and populations while the US and others are happy making billions from arms profits while keeping 'the Muslim Hordes' back in the stone age and ensuring the US has access to significant reserves of oil for their future needs. Iran better be Verrry careful in the next couple o' years if you ask me ; ) Making a powerful friend with someone opposed to US interests would be a good starting point as they will never survive a war on their own. (as a quick tour of Lebannon right now will readily prove).

 

As for why it always seems like people are so willing to believe the spin of our pollies and to let their 'defence' forces perfom atrocious acts of aggression? Partly it is a matter of media pressure - powerful business decides what gets shown and what doesn't on our mass media and people do these days seem to becoming ever more dependent upon the 1 minute sound bite for their understanding of a situation instead of reading up on history. Our 'Current Affairs' shows on Australian commercial TV are a complete joke - chewing gum for the brain and not real investigative journalism - pure 'pop' crap  imHo ; ) 'Insight' on SBS sometimes gives a fair shake but inevitably ends up never resolving an issue, just showing as many opinions as possible without being able to come up with any real debate or solutions. The ABC does it's best but if it goes too far Uncle Johhny has the power to pull the funding plug and they know it.

 

There are more people like me and yourself out there - people with intelligence and a social conscience who want a better world for our kids than the narrow-minded 'visionaries' of Bush's Republican's and Howards 'little l' liberals can come up with at the moment. That is one of the reasons i opened up Thebraindrain to try and find a few more and put some alternative viewpoints to those i see and hear daily on TV news and radio. We should not be disillusioned that the media views represent an unalterable majority of opinion but we should do what we can to try to ensure that the silent majority does not become a sielnt and badly informed one who must ultimately become brainwashed by all the spin and half-truths they get fed daily.

 

Are ya with me people? : )

(waits for roar of rapturous applause)

 

Any differring view/opinion gladly received.

Your right all armies are capable...and in the end there to kill...should the act of deterence fail, which it so often does.  What truly upset me about the actions or lack of actions of the Isreali army was that as a body that represents a nation who's citizens were either there or in most cases (not all) lost a family member to the holocaust, yet were still able to stand by and watch/allow the massacre of two refuge camps.  Surely the moral outrage of what was occuring should have touched the individuals there on a level beyond our understanding or the orders of their officers.  It was for just this reason that following the hague trials of WWII that the precedent and international law was set that every soldier/officer has the right to refuse an order that is either unlawful or immoral.

Your right though (again lol) it is concerning that the our Political representatives are able to slant/spin/decieve so easily.  Why is this though?. Are we as a people niave or is our media just so attuned to throwing out a quick soundbite and 1 to 2 min segment that investigative journalism is dying? ...or is it both!

 

thx again for the input and comment :)

To deal with the stresses better I find writng and prioritising a list of things to do works quite well!  (just don't stress about forgetting anything and getting the priorities right the first time ; ) )

 

Thanks for the Tip - I think the book might be 'To The Ends of the Earth - The Hunt for the Jackal". I'll search for a copy (at the library probably) I find a bigger concern for me is not what the Israeli Army is capable of (all armies exist to kill as many people opposed to them as possible) but what 'my' government and the supposed 'good guys' do about it (ie put their positive 'spin' on our understanding of the true issues and give money and support to an unjust cause)

 

Have Fun In London,

 

Thinker ( Bob)