And now thanks to the USA taking the Albanian side in the Balkan war, Albania also has the unfortunately privilege of being the second most pro-Bush country in the world.
If we have governments we must have wars - either internal wars on [some of] the state’s subjects, or external [on other states and their subjects] - or preferably [from the states point of view], a blend of both at the same time.
Those who want governments but envision a limited one that does not make war [ or makes very little] either on its own citizens or on the citizens of other states and their governments are fantasists pure and simple, in my humble opinion.
That’s strange since mass graves are being found roughly every 6 months. But of course pretending to find clearly marked “MAIISVE GRAVE HERE” in a month ort two would have been stupid.
If you’ve ever been to Kosovo you would not bring this up since you’d have noticed that the female-to-male ration is abnormally high.
Everyone I know hosted a kosovar family for several months in 1999 because they all where moved from they homes and forced to flee for their lives. By comparison, the Turkish genocide in consisted of forcing people to move, with many than dying due to the harsh environment. I really can’t se why that would be called genocide and village-burning, family-killing and an entire people’s flight should not.
There are many things one could hold against the Kosovo war. Yes, the KLA did kill Serbian civilians, yes NATO did bomb civilian targets and yes it was a tax-financed war (from NATO’s side, the KLA financed itself through drug sales) and yes, its strategic importance cannot be dismissed as the true motivation of the entire affair. But I live to damn close to the place to pretend that nothing of importance happened to Kosovo. Please take my word for it: it was indeed the nastiest thing saw since the heydays of the WW2.
And now thanks to the USA taking the Albanian side in the Balkan war, Albania also has the unfortunately privilege of being the second most pro-Bush country in the world.
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I wonder who could be the first.
But seriously, when once every millennia it just so happens that some strategic concern (potential pipeline routes) go nearer your border that those of the happy neighbors, and some major Empire is positively disposed to actually intervene and stop the barbaric treatment that has been imposed on you from at least 1913 (not to say that Albanian minorities have been the only ones to be treated barbarically), you do thank the heavens and stop giving a damn on how dumb and blood thirsty the leader of Empire is.
Years ago I had the luck of going to Israel with a very varied group. After somehow managing to run away from the State-supplied guide we took over as a guide a Catholic priest (an acquaintance of one of my fellow escapees) who happened to have been sent there as a sort of “paid vacation” by his dioceses, if you know what I mean. [;)] He had worked in the Holy Land for years immediately after graduating from the seminary so he knew his way around.
He took us around the Old City and the surroundings and explained us so many things you won’t find even in “alternative” tour guides. For example when walking through the Muslim and Christian Quarters you’ll see many buildings flying oversized Israeli flags. Far from being a display of patriotism it means the building has just been taken over by Jews from previous Christian (usually Catholic or Copt, Armenian and Orthodox are much tougher nuts to crack) or Muslim owners: they will be removed as soon as renovation works start. According to our guide it’s a “silent war, something nobody likes to talk about”. He also said that religious institutions running hostels in the Old City are under “tremendous pressure” to sell to Jews. The fact that Orthodox and Armenian institutions have now found patrons in the former USSR backing them with plenty of cash and political power is not something the Israeli government likes much. On our final evening we went to a traditional restaurant just outside the Old City. The owners said they still haven’t come under pressure to sell because they were Christians but they felt they would have been the next as soon as the last Muslims were taken care of.
It’s clear Christians are tolerated but not beloved: they generate a steady cash income but that’s pretty much it. Israel has always been a deeply “racist” (I sue the term for lack of better alternatives) country but in the last two decades it has got even worse. In some aspects it’s worse than apartheid-era South Africa: at least in South Africa all whites were equals. In Israel Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern European descent seem bent on marginalizing even other Jews, especially those with a darker skin (“yemenites”, falasha etc). Our beloved tour guides (the butt of countless jokes) was in fact a blue eyed, red haired Ashkenazi, not to mention a reserve Tsa’hal (Army) officer. [;)]
I advice everybody to go to Israel once in a lifetime, even if you are not a devoted Muslim, Christian or Jew. Think of it as a way of furthering your instruction into the evils of State. You will see how compulsory schooling and conscription are used as means to turn individual Israelis into blind pawns. You will see how a powerful elite (the ultra-orthodox Ashkenazim) enjoy immense privileges: they can attend their own high quality private schools instead of junior propaganda camps, they are exempted from conscription, they enjoy generous tax breaks and a certain degree of legal invulnerability. You will see how apartheid works in a democracy without the usually highly vocal human rights groups blinking. You will probably be surprised why the tour buses take such long detours to avoid passing near the slums inhabited by the miserable Arabs or the second-class Jews. You will wonder why the Holocaust museum seem more designed to put the (invariably foreign) visitor to shame instead of being a simple memorial to the lives lost: guides will invariably take you there and expect you to feel guilty about something that happened before your birth. It reminds me of those gigantic Great World ossuaries (Verdun, Redipuglia etc) designed to be propaganda tools and not memorials.
Can anyone tell me why does USA give away so much money to Israel every year?
I know that they have a great lobby but why there is no protest for that in USA?
Tea Party anyone?
[:P]
Why is so bad to give away money for your people, but not for foreigners?
