Terrorism
“We want to reclaim our nation. As you spoil our security, we will do so to you.” Osama Bin Laden. October 2004.

Events such as the London bombings will become increasingly frequent as the Coalition of the Willing and its Israeli ally flounder deeper into their “War on Terror.” The perpetrators, and an increasing number of other Moslems, see these bombings not as an act of wanton lunacy but as the only defence available against an assault that they believe the Western powers are making on their religion. Should Western leaders grasp the fact that these ghastly bombings are meant to be in defence of Islam rather than intended as an attack on Christendom, the problem might be in sight of a solution.

Not-So-Musical ChairsBy Ian Williams, AlterNetPosted on July 26, 2005, Printed on July 26, 2005http://www.alternet.org/story/23685/


For every U.N. diplomat, the only thing better than being a permanent representative to the Security Council is being a permanent representative for a permanent member. It does for the machismo of member states and their representatives what V*gra or C*alis (and all those other spam-filterable potions) do for individuals. This obsession with having a seat at the Big Table is now threatening to stymie desperately-needed UN reforms that are being debated now in New York, ready for adoption at the 60th Anniversary Summit of the UN this September.So far, in the lucky absence of the still-unconfirmed John Bolton, who is on the record as advocating that the U.S. should be the only permanent member of the UN Security Council, delegates at the UN have tied themselves into a knot that makes the Bolton solution seem almost plausible in its simplicity.

Published in the NZ Listener 16/July/05

The 2004 German documentary The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium and the Dying Children broadcast on TV One on June 26 raises crucial issues. The evidence in the programme of German, British and US government knowledge of the toxicity of depleted uranium (DU) weaponry removes the subject from the realm of the controversial. It must follow that the West is guilty of having knowingly unleashed an inter-generational atrocity upon the most vulnerable and innocent.

If Mr Bush serves a full term, I believe that this assault on Iran will take place during the course of it - but I no longer believe it to be imminent. It would clearly be impossible for the US Administration to both cope with the Katrina Louisiana crisis and risk having to deploy yet more troops to the Middle East. That is not the only reason why I believe my anticipated timing is out. I also cannot believe that Sharon and Netanyahu would have had such a public split on the eve of something as momentous as the launching of an assault on Iran. I lost my bet!

This is posted as a bet to myself! It was written in the first week of July 2005. How long do we have to wait?

2005http://www.alternet.org/story/23413/
In his Pulitzer-prize winning book "Guns, Germs, and Steel," Jared Diamond examined how and why Western civilizations developed the technologies and immunities that allowed them to dominate much of the world. Now in "Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail Or Succeed," Diamond probes the other side of the equation: What caused some of the great civilizations of the past to collapse into ruin, and what can we learn from their fates? From the Polynesian cultures on Easter Island to the flourishing American civilizations of the Anasazi and the Maya, and finally to the doomed Viking colony on Greenland, "Collapse" traces the fundamental patterns of catastrophe.