crozby

Seems like the the life of one of their citizens has a higher value to them than serving the interests of the US right now. I wish my government was more like that.

If the walls sole intended purpose was to reduce terrorism then why has it been constructed entirely within the West Bank?

Maybe we get fed false information, but it was my understanding that the operation in Rafah to find tunnels destroyed hundreds of houses, made up to 1000 homeless, killed scores of locals, half a dozen or so when a tank shelled a peaceful demonstration, destroyed infrastructure (water, electric etc.) and only found just 1 tunnel (other reports say 3 tunnels). With all the highly advanced technology available I find it impossible to believe that the tunnel(s) couldn't have been found and destroyed without all the additional carnage. Besides, dealing with terrorism by destroying their properties and those of their relatives doesn't make a lot of sense to me: it's just going to make them more pissed off and have even less to lose.

The following link contains a map which appears to show that the barrier is well within Palestinian territory. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3111159.stm I think Israel would have got more international support for the barrier if an attempt had been made to route it fairly. As it is she has left herself wide open to accusations of land-grabbing.

Maybe if the wall/fence wasn't built entirely on Palestinian land it wouldn't be such an issue. Why was it put there, and not along more established borders?

Both parties and their supporters are as bad as each other. The whole scene is pathetic and counterproductive. And to think that you guys recon this democracy of yours is a shininng example to the rest of the world...

Hardly immoral. These organisations have been screwing their customers for decades. It's about time they have to think about lowering thier profit margins in order to price their products more reasonably. Look at how iTunes has taken off simply by offering easy access to fairer priced music.

I was wrong in believing that Saddam had not attempted to buy plutonium fron Niger. Like your own party, I believed the authorities who stated that the documentary evidence supporting such a claim was forged. Is Bush going to appologise for backing away from supporting the claim? Not likely. What is Really interesting about this though is that someone who knew Saddam was trying to buy this stuff decided to make it public and produced forged documents in order to make the claim credible. Which person or organisation would have done that, and why?

The point is that vigilanties are wrong, period. Supporting this kind of action is taking the simplistic and short term "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" line. This approach may provide a quick fix but just doesn't work in the long term.

Give up Bill. These guys apparently have more faith in Dubya than most Christians have in God. Nothing you or anyone else can say will convert them into non-believers.

Thanks very much!

Dangerous to whome? Free elections and press didn't prevent Enron et al from screwing its employees and shareholders. Nor did it prevent Tony Blair from suspending a pledged ban on tobacco advertising following a 1 million pound donation from the owner of Formula One racing - a sport reliant on that advertising. Nor did it prevent the USA from invading Iraq on the flimsiest of pretexts in the face of overwhelming opposition from the rest of the world. People in capitalist societies are constantly fucked over by governments and big business. There are millions of people on this planet who are as happy living under a communist regime as others are living under a capitalist system. The Democratic way isn't the only way or the best way, it is just another imperfect system that works most of the time for most of the people under it. China is far more interested in making stuff and selling it to the rest of the world than in converting anyone to communism. It is already becoming more 'westernised' and allowing increased foreign investment. The only recent 'conflict' with China was when they caught a US spyplane that then collided with and downed one of their fighters back in 2001. Other than that, what threat have they posed to any western nation? I wish more Americans would go to places like China on holiday - they are different and fascinating countried and not at all as scarey as people have been manipulated into believing by all the cold war propaganda bullshit.

You put communist at the top of your list. What exactly is wrong or scarey about a nation that is communist?

What has China done that makes you so wary of it?

Jeffrey if you were here as a student you should know that the big difference between the US and UK is binge drinking. I just came back from Perris which, apart from the DZ has about 1 shitty bar, inside a restaurant, which is not even open past 9 during week days. Whereas, in the UK every village, town & city has bars. The city of Salisbury has a population of 30-50 thousand and boasts 50 bars within half a mile of the city centre. Binge drinking is a real problem here amongst the 17-30 year olds. Friday and Saturday nights are seen as the nights to get completely trashed after a hard weeks work, and all the bars in all the towns and cities get packed with drunk people. Associated with this is an ever increasing amount of drunken violence which is caused purely by the binge drinking. Occasionally weapons are used, mainly knives, but because the vast majority of people don't leave their homes with a drunken fight in mind they are unarmed and its mostly kicking, punching and hair pulling that goes on at closing time, although glassing is on the increase. There is no doubt in my mind that if these same people were carrying guns there would be absolute carnage every weekend. They are not killers when sobre, but after their 8th Vodka Redbull who knows what they'll think makes sense in the moment. We just wouldn't survive adding guns to the current drinking culture here.

Yeah, they are the commies of the new millenuim, out to take over the world and steal all our liberties and convert us into Muslim fundamentalists.

i do. our firewall scans for dirty words and abundance of human flesh colours in images. everything else slips through.

Er... the BBC is the British Broadcasting Corporation. It is not a US entity and is not even mentioned in the document you linked to. In the UK we have media bias - some newspapers are pro-Blair and others aren't. However, great effort is made to ensure that the BBC is not biased and in the vast majority of cases it is seen as impartial.

This is a bullshit article written by a pro-Israeli reporter with an axe to grind. Maybe someone who thinks otherwise could take a quick look on the BBC News site at the reports of the Rafah demolition and enlighten us with all the inaccuracies and arab-bias they contain?

What criteria would you use to determine that both invasions are finished? And when do you recon that will happen?

I'm confused. Did Rumsfeld lie under oath or not?

Do you think escorting is there to protect the people on the plane? I think they will be sacraficed at the first hint of a problem, particularly after the slow response during 9/11. And on top of that there's the increased chance of being accidentaly blown out of the sky due to a friendly fire incident. I'd take un-escorted every time if given the choice.

Do airlines offer discounted tickets on 'escorted' flights given the slightly lower chance of reaching ones destination in one piece?

Some countries like Australia charge immigrants a fee if they cannot speak English to cover the cost of English lessons. This seems a fairer system than providing translators for all the public facing government/health departments and expecting the taxpayer to pick up the tab.

Please DO vote. Despite the impression given by our arse-licking, self-serving political leaders, the rest of the world wants Bush out and we are relying on you guys to make it happen. Whilst Bush and his band of lying, manipulating megalomaniacs are calling the shots the world is a far more dangerous place than it needs to be.