censorship during war Re: [LINK] Guardian: Al-Jazeera tells the truth about war

[Richard Archer]

At 5:52 PM +1000 1/4/03, Deus Ex Machina wrote:

>the democratisation of the middle east is a heroic step forward for mankind!

This is one of the most misguided statements I have seen in a long
time.

This war has nothing to do with democracy and everything to do with
the U.S. attempting to extend their power in what they see as the
natural right of the most powerful nation on earth to conquer the
rest of us and force their politics and morals upon us all.

And even if this was about democracy, the democratisation of the
Middle East would be a disgusting throwback to the shameful era of
European colonialism and Christian missionaries (no offense meant
to Christians who stay at home).

It is the remnants of turn of the century colonialism and the
disgraceful way the Europeans pulled out of the area leaving
arbitrary national borders with no cultural meaning that is
the root cause of the unrest.

I mean, WTF happened to Kurdistan? That whole country was eliminated
by the French and English when they decided to ignore the Treaty of
Sevres  and arbitrarily divided the country and Kurdish people
between Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq.

And it's *still* happening in Israel/Palestine despite numerous
U.N. resolutions condemning Israel's actions in the strongest
terms and requiring Israel to withdraw back to their border as
drawn up in what... 1948?  And guess who shows up casting an
"unreasonable veto" in a whole lot of defeated resolutions?

This whole mess is complete hypocrisy.


>during war the government *must* release a tremendous amount of mis-information.
>
>we have no rights to the truth till *after* the war.

What an load of nonsense. In a democracy it is the absolute right
and indeed requirement that the people know and understand exactly
what it is their elected representatives are doing *at all times*.

If the people don't know what the hell their elected representatives
are doing, how on earth can they know whether or not they want to
vote them in or out at the next election?


>the amount if disinformation doesnt seem to be perticularly high either.

Seems to me that the amount of disinformation coming out of the U.S.
government sources is nearly 100%. The *real* truth slowly filters
out through other independent sources but by then the U.S. propoganda
machine has grabbed the headlines with another load of bull shit.


My apologies for the tone of this note. I'm afraid Vic's ravings
and the tide of world events have left a rather bitter taste.

 ...Richard.