The Barron Blog
Sunday, 19 September 2004
Wins And Losses Against Al Qaeda What Is The Score?
A section of this article on the "War On Terrorism" is reproduced from Toronto Star columnist, Linda McQuaiq:
"It's long been forgotten, but in the weeks immediately following 9/11, the Taliban government in Afghanistan actually offered to hand over bin Laden if the U.S. provided proof of his involvement in the terrorist attacks.
Washington instantly rejected the offer. What right did that primeval, two-bit country have to demand proof from America?
But the Taliban had a point, as Michael Mandel, an Osgoode Hall law professor, points out in a provocative new book, "How America Gets Away With Murder". Mandel notes that the Taliban's request for evidence was simply standard practice that any nation would follow when asked to extradite a criminal to another country. Oddly, then, it was the primitive leaders of the Taliban who, in this case at least, were following the rule of law.
Mandel also insists that the U.S. had an obligation under international law to seek a non-military solution. And the Taliban, for all its well-known defects, was keen to negotiate.
By the following month, with U.S. bombs falling on them, the Taliban leaders even dropped their demand for proof of bin Laden's guilt, and offered again to hand him over -- for trial in a country other than the United States. Clearly, the U.S. could have negotiated whatever terms it wanted.
But again Washington flatly rebuffed the offer, and all hopes of a non-violent solution.
Instead, the U.S. decided to go get bin Laden itself, launching a war that killed thousands of Afghans, including civilians who simply happened to be in the wrong place or be the wrong height. Mandel argues that this was illegal under international law. "(O)ne is not allowed to invade a country to effect an arrest."
And, of course, the U.S. failed to get bin Laden. Which brings us back to the question of whether following international law would have been such a bad option.
Of course, it's possible that the treacherous Taliban would never have surrendered bin Laden. On the other hand, maybe it would have. If so, the world's most apparently dangerous terrorist might have been behind bars and out of commission these past three years. Such an approach would have also sent a message that the U.S. respects international law, which, ironically, would have undermined Al Qaeda's recruitment efforts.
Nothing would dampen Al Qaeda's campaign to turn the Islamic world against America more than an American government that not only preached democracy and the rule of law, but was also seen to practise these things."
In the realm of power politics, threat of force can often be more successful than the actual force itself.(e.g. When JFK threatened Krushchev with nuclear annilation during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, he started pulling missiles out of Cuba. Similarly, when threatened with coalition forces from 1995-2002, Saddam Hussein dismantled his weapons of mass destruction.)
It isn't enough to engage in anti-terrorist rhetoric and platitudes about democracy. One has to actually succeed against the enemy(Al Qaeda).
You fight terrorists smart and you win. You fight stupid and you lose.
The Cuban Missile Crisis
Posted by qualteam
at 10:30 PM EDT
Updated: Sunday, 19 September 2004 10:55 PM EDT
Saturday, 18 September 2004
Beatles' Humor From 1964
As well as the music, one of the most refreshing things about George, John, Paul and Ringo was their sense of humor. Here are some highlights from 1964:
Reporter: "How did you find America, Ringo?"
Ringo: "We turned left at Greenland."
Reporter: "What do you call your haircut, George?"
George: "Arthur."
Reporter: "What are your own views on your group?"
John: "We're like a bunch of %&#*$ budgies. We'll all end up like performing fleas in suits."
Many pop psychologists at the time offered their opinion as to why the Beatles were so popular. Here was one interesting viewpoint:
Derek Taylor: "I always saw the Beatles in certain circumstances as a bit like Tom Thumb, who in Victorian times was wheeled around like a freak---a cute freak, but a freak nonetheless. The Beatles were seen like that, as novelties or freaks, like a panda with five legs."
The Beatles In 1964
Posted by qualteam
at 6:11 PM EDT
Updated: Saturday, 18 September 2004 6:13 PM EDT
Friday, 17 September 2004
Movie Review 81: Pleasantville
Mood:
down
Pleasantville may be someone's perfect world, but it isn't mine.
Two teenagers are sucked into a black and white 50s sitcom where existence is very small indeed. It's like living on a postage stamp.
Most of the characters act like they're out of some boring and stupid cartoon comic strip(e.g. "Gasoline Alley"?). Even a bad episode of Gulligan's Island looks good in comparison. Wouldn't you agree little buddy? One and a half stars.
Pleasantville Reviewed
Gasoline Alley
Posted by qualteam
at 10:22 PM EDT
Updated: Friday, 17 September 2004 10:29 PM EDT
Thursday, 16 September 2004
Congratulations To Kalan
Mood:
a-ok
He's sweet. He sings well, but not great. He rocks sometimes. He's cute. He's the new Canadian Idol.
Can you imagine being a star without a hit record? Well, Kalan Porter is just that. He's won the biggest karaoke contest in the country and his prospects are excellent.
Hopefully, he'll have a few(many?)memorable tunes. Even 50s idol, Fabian Forte, had that, and he still gives concerts at 61 based on a handful of good songs.
Kalan's Fan Club Page
Fabian's Homepage
Posted by qualteam
at 10:46 PM EDT
Updated: Thursday, 16 September 2004 10:50 PM EDT
Wednesday, 15 September 2004
Canada Wins The World Cup Of Hockey
Canada didn't do very well in the Olympics and Mike Weir almost won the Canadian Open at Glen Abbey.
However, with a stellar cast of NHL all-stars(every one a Canadian), a super canuck team won all its games.
Hockey is my favourite sport and has been since I was a kid. My team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, hasn't won a Stanley Cup since 1967, but I cheer for them every year.
As a nation, we've always produced great hockey players and great comedians.
You can't be good at everything, but everyone can be good at one or two things.
The World Champions
Posted by qualteam
at 11:33 AM EDT
Updated: Wednesday, 15 September 2004 11:35 AM EDT
Tuesday, 14 September 2004
More Hotel California Domain Names
A domain name and address makes it easy to get to a fun and interesting website. You can carry the address around in your head and use it anywhere with any pc.
Here are our latest "memorable names" courtesy of "Go Daddy Dot Com":
1. "The Zen Happy Pages"(www.zencult.com)
2. "The Gehenna Funhouse"(www.hellfun.com)
Both of the above websites are connected with "The Hotel California Mysteries"(www.log-line.com). Finding out about and defeating mysterious, powerful, religious freaks/aliens doesn't have to be boring or stupid.
It's a roller coaster ride into an unknown game so why not enjoy it.
Posted by qualteam
at 6:48 PM EDT
Updated: Monday, 15 November 2004 12:29 PM EST
Monday, 13 September 2004
Sunday, 12 September 2004
Three Years After 9/11
The following article is from Bob Herbert of the New York Times:
"It was Vietnam all over again -- the heartbreaking head shots captioned with good old American names: Jos? Casanova, Donald Cline Jr., Sheldon R. Hawk Eagle, Alyssa Peterson.
Eventually, there will be a fine memorial to honour the young Americans whose lives were sacrificed for no good reason in Iraq.
Last week, the New York Times ran photos of the first thousand or so casualties.
They were sent off to war by a president who ran and hid when he was a young man and his country was at war.
They fought bravely and died honourably. But as in Vietnam, no amount of valour or heroism can conceal the fact that they were sent under false pretenses to fight a war that can't be won.
How many thousands more will have to die before we acknowledge that George W. Bush's obsession with Iraq and Saddam Hussein has been a catastrophe for the United States?
Fewer and fewer Americans believe the war in Iraq is worth the human treasure we are losing and the staggering amounts of money it is costing.
But no one can find a way out of this tragic mess, which is why the dreaded word from the Vietnam era -- "quagmire" -- has been resurrected.
Most Washington insiders agree with Senator John McCain, who believes the U.S. will be involved militarily in Iraq for 10 or 20 more years.
To what end? You can wave goodbye to the na?ve idea that democracy would take root in Iraq and spread like the flowers of spring throughout the Middle East. That was never going to happen. So what are we there for, other than to establish a permanent military stronghold in the region and control the flow of Iraqi oil?
The insurgency in Iraq will never end as long as the U.S. is occupying the country.
And our Iraqi "allies" will never fight their Iraqi brethren with the kind of intensity the U.S. would like, any more than the South Vietnamese would fight their fellow Vietnamese with the fury and effectiveness demanded by hawks in the Lyndon Johnson administration.
The Iraqi insurgents -- whether or not one agrees with them -- believe they are fighting for their homeland, their religion and their families.
Americans are not at all clear what they're fighting for. Saddam is gone. There were no weapons of mass destruction. The link between Saddam and Sept. 11 was always specious and has been proven so.
At some point, as in Vietnam, the American public will balk at the continued carnage, and this tragic misadventure will become politically unsustainable.
Meanwhile, the death toll mounts.
One of the reasons the U.S. effort in Iraq is unsustainable is that the American people know very little about the Iraqi people and their culture, and in most cases couldn't care less.
The war in Iraq was sold as a response to Sept. 11. As it slowly dawns on a majority of Americans that the link was bogus, and that there is no benefit from this war, only endless grief, political support will all but vanish.
(This could take a while. In a poll done for Newsweek magazine last week, 42 per cent of respondents continue to believe that Saddam was directly involved in the Sept. 11 attacks.)
We've put our troops in Iraq in an impossible situation. If you are not permitted to win a war, eventually you will lose it. In Vietnam, for a variety of reasons, the U.S. never waged total war, although the enemy did. After several years and more than 58,000 deaths, we quit.
We won't -- and shouldn't -- wage total war in Iraq, either.
But to the insurgents, the Americans epitomize evil.
We're the crazed foreigners who invaded their country and killed innocent civilians, including women and children, by the thousands. We call that collateral damage. They call it murder.
For them, this is total war.
Bush never prepared the nation for the prolonged violence of this war. He still hasn't spoken candidly about it.
If he has an idea for hauling us out of this quagmire, he hasn't bothered to reveal it.
The troops who are fighting and dying deserve better."
Please pray for peace in Iraq.
Posted by qualteam
at 6:41 PM EDT
Saturday, 11 September 2004
A Poor Record On The Defense Of Earth
If we relied only on military might and political expertise to defend our countries, this world would have been reduced to a nuclear wasteland a long time ago.
Long before 9/11, there were problems of how intelligence acencies obtained and analysed their data. I knew these defects and I'm sure others knew them too. Whistleblowers had exposed flaws in the CIA many times, but no one was listening, especially, the present administration in Washington.
Lapses in intelligence go back before World War Two when Washington knew in the early 30s of Japanese plans for conquest and Hitler's "Mein Kamp". Without a doubt, both Hitler and the Japanese could have been stopped before they started World War Two.
Humans are often negligent in their duties, so ordinary people should rely upon spiritual protectors(angels)to help them expose and triumph over evil.
Most of us can't look around corners and government agents only seem to discover what they want to find.
Life is journey and the enemies we meet on the way can be many. God help us to distinquish our true friends from our vilest enemies.
The Angel At Hotel California
Posted by qualteam
at 10:35 AM EDT
Updated: Saturday, 11 September 2004 4:39 PM EDT
Friday, 10 September 2004
A 9/11 Victim Speaks Out
This letter was published in the Toronto Sun, today. It's from Nicole Gabrielle whose father, Richard Gabrielle died at New York's Trade Center.
"My father was killed on Sept/11/01, when I was 23 years old. I've been quiet for nearly three years, but now I am so offended, I can no longer be silent.
As we approach the November election, I can't help but reflect on what kind of world my father would have wished for me. Honestly, I cannot imagine a world where my father would have ever wished for four years more of George W. Bush. The admininistration has done more harm to our nation than most of us can bear to acknowledge.
We are at war with Iraq based on false intelligence. We had a half-hearted attack on Afghanistan and never did find Osama bin Laden, my father's alleged killer, dead or alive.
Every day, in my father's name, American soldiers and innocent Iraqi citizens die based on the faulty intelligence regarding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. How long will these deaths pile up before the U.S. learns from its history that Iraq is becoming another Korea or Vietnam?
We have squandered the sympathy and compassion that were showered upon us by people all around the world immediately after 9/11. We should have used that precious opportunity to work together with other nations for peace.
Instead, we have chosen the path of war. I feel constantly overwhelmed with the lies, the media manipulation, the threats, the fear.
Fear is being used as a weapon. Americans are being manipulated. And now, most of us are too scared to say anything about it.
We should not be so complacent as to allow the status quo to continue because they tell us how safe we are....because we are not safe.
I am only one person and I feel weak screaming alone. It is only when we are united in our mission for truth and change that we will have the strength in numbers to help turn this great country around.
Don't listen to the rhetoric. We owe it to my father and to nearly 3,000 others who were murdered on that warm, sunny morning in September of 2001."
Posted by qualteam
at 5:18 PM EDT
Updated: Friday, 10 September 2004 5:34 PM EDT
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