More Propaganda

[brad]

unless you pimp out a 9 year old virgin or something im afraid its all sloppy seconds as they are forced to work in brothels and not allowed to leave; oftentimes the reason is that the 'debt' they incurred by being flown in (from their native country) must be 'worked off' before they are allowed any freedom at all or even allowed to leave the brothel. of course the juice is running ...

[Cyrus]

"Maybe the USA should just divert some Special Forces teams as soon as we finish with Saddam and Tikrit and help them do it straightway."

Men from the American Special Forces and various other branches of the military, including black-bag folks, have been actively participating in Israeli raids in Palestinian civilian areas, and particularly in home raids, for years. It has been both a learning and alliance-consolidating experience, according to both sides.

"More good riddance to bad rubbish."

The current quagmire in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict has been brought along NOT by any alleged "Palestinian intransigence", but by the Israeli leadership being hell-bent on ethnically-cleansing, in steps, the whole of Israel from "rubbish". There is no distinction between "good rubbish" or "bad rubbish" in the minds of the Israeli leadership. They are all "rubbish" and the only problem is how to bring about "good riddance" to all of it.

If you doubt this or cannot see this, there's little hope of you ever understanding what's going down. But adherence to safety blankets (Israelis good/Palestinians rubbish) is understandable.

[MMMMMM]

Cyrus: [ QUOTE ]
The current quagmire in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict has been brought along NOT by any alleged "Palestinian intransigence", but by the Israeli leadership...

[/ QUOTE ]

So Hamas et al vowing to violently scuttle any peace process and following through by sending suicide bombers over the course of the intifada is not, in your view, worthy of being considered "Palestinian intransigence"? Well, maybe it's not intransigence...maybe it's a whole lot worse than mere instransigence.

I'm not saying that Israeli leadership does not have any role or negative impact in this saga, even perhaps somewhat deliberately. But completely discounting Palestinian intransigence is IMO a ridiculous stance.

The problem with eliminating terrorist leaders sporadically is that there is plenty of time for new leaders to emerge and the terrorist infrastrucure remains largely intact. What needs to be done, if the terrorist leaders will not see the light of reason leading to peace, is to go after them wholesale as we've done in Iraq (and are continuing to do). Before too much longer practically all the Baathist diehard leaders in Iraq will be dead or captured, and their operational infrastructure dismantled. This may be how the terror-leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah, etc. will have to be dealt with too.

[nicky g]

M,

I agree with you about organic food (although organic apple juice is so damn good). But re pesticides, my understanding is that one of the main bits of GM tech currently being marketed is a gene that's modified so that the crop can stand to take even more of Monsanto's RoundUp pesticide, not so that it no longer needs to be sprayed. Maybe there are other crops that work the other way round. I think the main risk from GM foods (aside from the economic/political side) isn't directly to human health, but cross-polination with other crops/free-growing vegetation etc. A gene that makes certain crops incredibly resistant isn't necessarily something you want in weeds, for example.

[nicky g]

Sorry, hadn't read Brad's thread in which he mentions the same issues when I wrote this.

[adios]

"Because they should be sending cash, not food. I made that very clear. Cash would stimulate local economies, food exports destroy them."

And then the USA gets condemmed for enriching the powers that be in the various governments and not helping the people that need it most [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img].

Interesting link possibly:

U.S. May Penalize Israel Over Fence

A qoute from the article:

[ QUOTE ]
Congress authorized more than a decade ago cuts in U.S. aid to Israel by the amount the Jewish state spent on settling Jews on the West Bank and in Gaza

[/ QUOTE ]

[nicky g]

I just saw the same story on the BBC website - positive development. I'm not sure that those cuts have ever actually been implemented; but adding the fence to the punishable offences is a good step.

[nicky g]

surely that happens everywhere (girls tricked into sex slavery), not just Israel. that it was legal previously was probably a loophole, no?

[MMMMMM]

Roundup is an herbicide not a pesticide, right?

Pest-resistant crops would need less pesticide sprayed on them, which sounds great--but if they then end up spraying them with more herbicide that doesn't sound so great...;-)

I'd bet that pesticides are a lot more toxic to humans than herbicides, though.

[MMMMMM]

I think Isreael should have every right to put up a fence if the Palestinians keep sending over suicide bombers.

er, why don't they just stop, nicky?

Arafat started an intifada rather than negotiate further.