In a message dated 12/02/2003 14:45:04 GMT Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<< I believe unequivocally that this proposed war is absolutely, completely senseless. I stand by a previous statement. It's about the oil. Period. If we were so morally high and mighty, we'd be in many other countries in droves. I'll use my favorite example -Sudan. We don't give a rat's ass about the atrocities there because they don't have a single thing we want. >> Anne, I'd like to chime in and state that I am entirely in agreement with you here. I believe that the arguments in favour of war are mere rationalisations of a more atavistic urge; and of a greed for control. I am sickened by the UK government's craven capitulation to the sweeping tide of warmongering, and unpersuaded by the cries of terrorist threats to the UK and supposed Iraqi connection with them. One of the first rules about manufacturing consent is to create a climate of fear. Tell people they're in mortal danger from a shadowy enemy and they'll go along with whatever you want. Only thing is, the people aren't swallowing this one - despite a pretty much universal revulsion at Saddam Hussein and all his works, I've talked to very few people here who are in favour of the war (and that includes conservatives, with small and large "c"), and by contrast, the anti-war march on Saturday looks set to attract hundreds of thousands of people. Why don't we trust our government(s)? Well, there's that "dossier" on Iraq that turned out to be largely based on a decade-old Phd paper; then there are incidents like the one below, which I was sent by my Uncle, a retired submarine commander in the Pakistan army. Apologies to anyone who is offended by his general comments about the USA, which I could have edited out, but decided not to. Here we go then: you couldn't make it up... << You may not believe what happened this morning at sea when we were returning from a trip to other Gulf countries. To tell you the truth I would not have believed if I was told this. But this really did happen while I was on the bridge of the Bahrain Navy missile boat. Our boat is 62 meter long we have one gun forward and one aft. In the midships we have four exocet missile launchers and a helicopter deck aft of the missile launchers. We saw a USN ship at about 8 miles in clear visibility at 0800 and identified it as cruiser Bunkerhill. She too was going toward Bahrain and we were 5 miles from the fairway buoy. There was no other ship in sight. The cruiser was asking the port authorities about pilot boarding her to enter harbour. We had not contacted the port as yet. The port authorities asked Bunkerhill if she could identify a ship near her. We were about one mile from Bunkerhill at that time. Bunkerhill told the port control that there was a commercial vessel close to her!!!!!! I just burst out laughing so did the rest of the bridge staff. We immediately called the port and identified ourselves. I wish I were on the bridge of that idiot ship to see their reaction (If there was any!). I thought only the general public in US was ignorant. And these idiots have weapons of mass destruction and are allowed not only to keep them but use them too. Funny world this! Allah be praised. >>
