More crap

[khaosworks]

Ex-CIA director John Woolsey set to profit from war on terror.

More jobs for the boys, joining such luminaries as George Shultz (Bechtel), Richard Perle (Trireme) and Dick Cheney (Halliburton - our boy is still getting pension payments, remember?). Then there's ex-executives of major military contractors like undersecretary of the Air Force and NRO director Richard Teets (Lockheed), Secretary of the Air Force James Roche (Northtrop Grumman) and Former Secretary of the Navy (now Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security) Gordon England (General Dynamics). Funny how the people making decisions as to who to contract to for the military would be the same people who used to run the companies that get awarded the contracts.

British made tanks up against Indonesian rebels.

So much for Labour and the peace process. Meet New Labour - same as the Old Conservatives. When money flows, so do the arms and to hell with an ethical foreign policy.

Powell thinks we can get started on Mid-East roadmap after meeting with Palestinian leadership.

Sorry, Colin. Think again. There shall be no peace as long as Sharon lives.

Comments

[batyatoon]

As long as Sharon lives?
He's hardly the only obstacle to peace. Hell, he's hardly even the only Israeli obstacle to peace.

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

Obviously, the idea of peace in the Middle East (and this has been my view on the matter ever since putting down "From Beruit to Jerusalem" over 10 years ago) is about as realistic as finding out Jimmy Hoffa and J. Edgar Hoover kept a love nest together in the Bahamas where they regularly put on a drag revue as "The Naughty Rosenbergs".

However, the biggest obstacle in the path right now is Ariel Sharon. Every concession I've seen over the last couple of months has come from the Palestinian side, random violence aside (which have also been mirrored by Israeli violence). I've been following Ariel Sharon's career ever since Lebanon - how as Minister of Housing he pursued an agressive settlement policy - conquest by architecture, I called it. I've seen how he goes out of the way to antagonize the Palestinians and try to provoke them into positions where he can claim justification to use extreme force. There are other Israeli obstacles to the peace process, but like I said, he's the biggest one, weight jokes notwithstanding.

Show me Sharon has given any indication he's serious about peace and I'll ease up on the man. Yes, removing him won't guarantee peace, but I am quite certain it will guarantee some kind of progress down that line.

[demiankatz.livejournal.com]

If I'm not mistaken, his autobiography is entitled Warrior. This in and of itself seems like a bad sign.

[pickledginger.livejournal.com]

Sharon has been making it very clear, for decades, that he is far more interested in genocide than negotiation or accomodation.

[batyatoon]

And this differentiates him from most of Hamas how?

(Yes, I know. He's in charge; they're not. But still.)

[pickledginger.livejournal.com]

Apart from the most obvious (he's in charge; they're not *g!*)

He's got a nearly 3-to-1 kill ratio.
He's claiming it's all just "self defense" (despite that 3-to-1 kill ratio - and way to go, "defending" yourself against all those women in labor and unarmed peace activists); they're not.
He's busy decrying "terrorism", while perpetrating it.
Likewise for assasination, while advocating it.

I guess what it boils down to is, yes, he's in power, and they're not, and he's abusing the power he's got. Also, he's better armed. And he's a hell of a liar and a hypocrite.

[cellio]

Sharon is a problem, but I don't think he's the biggest problem. When Barak handed over the biggest pile of concessions ever offered, with very little in return, Arafat's response was to declare war. And Arafat is still in the picture.

Sadly, peace in the middle east will not happen in this generation, and perhaps not in the next either. The roots of hatred are deep, and until that changes there can be no lasting peace. When things like incitement to violence on children's television stop, then I'll pay more attention.