Bushbred

I certainly hope that something good will finally turn up. Perhaps one day we might celebrate with a nice dark Turkish coffee in Beirut then drive off to Haifa for a desert.

Thanks, Logic, wish I could accept you invitation, but my wife died three months ago, and I could not bear to leave her little dog. Anyway I'm gettin' a bit old for travel -goin' on 86. Studied for my degree in Sri-Lanka in 1981, later majoring in international relations and third world problems with Honours. Also previously my wife and I spent time in the US during when one of their nuclear facilities happened to give trouble. Youngest son graduated over there.

This has all happened in between playing golf during over 30 years retirement from the farming business, now run by our grandkids.

Had a lucky life really, seeing I was forced to leave school early in the Great Depression to help save the family farm at the time.

Anyway, really glad to have made your acquaintance, mate. I'll probably be dead and gone, but again I'll say, let's hope our world can sort itself out.

George C, Mandurah - WA

bushbred

I am sincerely sorry about the loss of your wife. I wish you all the best for the future.

Peter

Logic.

'What racism? If its the Jews you mean, they are not a race.'

Israel is one of the most racist countries in the world - it is not comprised of simply 'jews' hence making the distinction between the various groups imperative.

Ashkenazi Jews are racist towards Other Jewish minorities and towards the Arabs.

The Arabs are a race therefore the treatment of Arabs inside of Israel and in the occupied territories is considered racism and is in violation of international law.

What indoctrination you ask? and you accuse us of being armchair experts on the situation. Precisely your ignorance on the subject is a direct outcome of such indoctrination. Through Zionist propaganda, by censoring the content inside Israeli schools, disallowing Palestinian history in the curriculum, rewriting the events of the 1948 Nakba catasphrope when 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes (also known as the Israeli National day of independence), forbidding the Israeli-Jewish Left groups from putting up signs on land indicating that this was once Palestinian land, encouraging hatred towards the Arabs by reinforcing the Holocaust and the threat of terrorism etc.

It's all indoctrination.

Israel is not a democracy - it is an ethnocracy. It is a militant state! Open press? An Israeli soldier filmed a raid on an Arab home. The soldiers refused to allow a dying woman treatment to a hospital as they were inspecting their home (which contained nothing). They belittled the members of the house and treated them like animals. This footage leaked to the press. It was removed after 24 hours as it showed footage that the public denied could exist in their beloved country. They did not want to see this behaviour because they are oblivious to its existence.

Let's not forget 'a Land with no people for a people with no land'. Classic example of propaganda.

'And Muslims, Jews, Christians all have a vote and the right to stand for parliament. What other middle eastern country does that?'

Lebanon. Such liberty has not prevented it from being bombed to oblivion - executed by none other than your wonderful 'democratic' state.

Also - regime change is the America's greatest policy.

Had it not of been for US and British interests in Iran, Iran would not be in the position it is in today. It was once the most democratic of societies with one of the most liberal governments the country has ever seen. It was also in control of its own oil (and isn't every country allowed to have control of its resources? Surely Irael's interest in the West Bank is purely for power reasons and not for the extensive amount of water supplies available inside the territory...or perhaps not!)

Anyway the point is the British couldn't handle Iran's new leader. So they overthrew him and the country was plunged into 25 years of terror with one of the most conservative governments the country has ever seen.

So any criticisms of the Iran as a society in comparison with western society are surely contradictory and hypocritical considering that Iran would not be in such a position had the Western world stayed out of its affairs.

Don't be so naive to think that this current trend of hyperbolic language and dramatic melodrama concerning Persian society is somehow indicative of America's role to come along and save the backward oriental East from the throes of the Islamic world.

It's nonsense. Pure and simple! Those who believe it are admitting that they are clueless to history.

Then again I don't think they focus on history in an engineering degree. I could, however, be mistaken.

America has intervened in countries for decades now - each time with this regime change. Each time the country has been worse off than they were previously - and then subsequently invaded by the US so that the *insert name of country here* can become 'liberal and democratic again'. The formula is so predictable it can almost be used as a template. Just insert the name of desired country, fill in the blanks, throw a few missiles, carpet bombs and other forms of mortal weaponry and you can graduate from the American school of Invading, controlling and destorying feable countries.

fleurette

So much bitterness.

America has interfered in many countries, often with a deleterious effect. But all of them? What about Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Germany. The US also has its great success stories.

And can you really blame the West fot appointing the Ayatolla in Iran. I seem to remember that the revolution as covered in the papers suggested that the Persian people might have had an input here. And the restrictions on women and the use of children as mine detectors, all well documented, were hardly produced by Westerners. And who do you blame for the Taliban or the Syrian occupation of Lebanon?

And why did oil rich nations not invest in something for their people as had happened in the West instead of a minority grabbing it all for themselves and wasting it on luxuries? Whose fault was that?

And Israel is less racist than Iraq Egypt Yemen or Iran who badly treated the Jews. Did they have the vote or equality in law that the Muslims get in Israel? The popular cry from the Israeli critics that they are racist is nonsense. They want a state where the majority are Jewish. Christians muslems Buddhists Hindus have the equivalent. But this is not racism. It is clear that the Lebanese Christians wanted to remain in the majority there. And there are complaints that the Muslims put pressure on them to leave.

Sure they have done wrong things I have no time for Bush or Sharon or for the settlers. But so has their oponents. And there are some nasty regimes in the Middle East. Muslims must accept some responsibility for their extremists. They are the ones with the keys to controlling the fascists in their midsts. We arev trying to control our own fascists ie the Exclusive Brethren) Muslims must do the same.