Sides? (was Re: the terrorist bombings in London

jbor at bigpond.com jbor at bigpond.com
Fri Jul 8 03:44:56 CDT 2005


>
>> The G-8 leaders are meeting at Gleneagles to ratify plans to provide
>> further debt relief to African nations (those which aren't ruled by
>> corrupt despots and genocidal warlords), to discuss other ways of
>> easing African poverty, and to implement protocols aimed at reducing
>> global warming and long-term environmental degradation.
>
> So generous a view! The G8 leaders will agree to the least necessary 
> to placate public opinion and preserve their nations' places in the 
> heirarchy of the world. The celeb voiced pleas for them to apply a 
> moral underpinning to their considerations are politically and 
> historically ignorant acts of egotism. At least Bush was honest in 
> clearly stating he was putting US interests first. (meaning US ruling 
> class)
>
>
>> What's most disturbing about yesterday's terrorist attack on London is
>> that the jihadists who perpetrated the bombings and the protestors in
>> Edinburgh seem now to be on the same "side". Both groups were
>> attempting to derail the G-8 meeting and to hijack the agenda of those
>> talks.
>
>
> Snore.
> Rob - repeat after me
> "Because I attack your enemy does not mean I am your friend"
>
>

Sorry, the same old tired dogmatism and empty slogans just don't wash 
any more. Read again what I wrote and put the straw man away. The point 
is that it's becoming easier and easier for people to equate violent 
terrorists with violent anarchists. In the long run it's only going to 
strengthen and prolong the conservative stranglehold over First World 
politics.

The other point I'd make is that neither the Islamic extremists nor 
your mob are ever going to make the slightest difference to African 
poverty or the future of the environment. These things don't even seem 
to figure on the agenda: both groups come across as fanatics, reciting 
worn-out cliches, obsessed by fantasies of destruction and revolution 
and bringing down the power elite.

Whatever their motives, however they're coaxed into it, it's the G-8 
bonzos who can make a difference. Compared to Geldof you're the one who 
comes across as politically and historically naive, if not indeed 
ignorant.

best




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