In my mind it is simple. Fear sells, economies are bad. World economy is too dependent on non-renewable energy, which mostly comes form historically colonized counties.
For LONG term world survival we need economies not based on continually expanding market and non-renewable energy to fuel our activities. Until people can force their governments to realize these facts, messes like Iraq will not go away and who's who on terrorist list will continually change as political capital is gained or lost for the governments writing the lists.
The big question in Iraq is, what will the United States do about the intractable dichotomy of speaking for democracy (majority rules) while clearly not wanting what the majority of Iraqie people want? Do they give up democracy or give up their social political agenda for Iraq?
At least that is my humble opinion. Dale
At 07:48 PM 2003_08_19, you wrote:
On Tue, 19 Aug 2003, Jim Sibley wrote:
> >More Americans die at American's hands than at > >terrorists'. Start with your road toll. > > John, are you implying that the same is NOT true for > Australians? That more Australians are killed by > terrorists than on the Aussie roads?
Not at all. I do think we should have kept out of Iraq though. However, it's not Australia that's leading the charge. > > Now you're being a wee bit silly. Time for a change of topic!
My point is not silly: the US is giving an inordinate amount of attention to what really is a much more minor problem, and arguably in doing so making things far worse.
It's the same here: a white pointer snacked on a swimmer at a local beach: the second fatal shark attack (on humans) I can remember in Perth, and they closed the beach and mounted a shark hunt.
Never mind the fact the most dangerous part of going for a swim at Cottesloe is getting there and back.
We too are getting a bit carried away with this terrorist threat: the Australian Government wants parking in front of its buildings in the Perth CBD to be prohibited, and the council (which controls parking) isn't about to agree to that.
Business too is parnoid about the this perceived threat, and a recent International survey showed that all the major Australian businesses in the survey have given the matter some thought and have plans in place to protect their computer systems.
"LINDA MOTTRAM: Australia is the country which is best prepared for a terrorist attack, according to an international research company which has just created a new index of global terrorism." http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2003/s927293.htm
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Cheers John.
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