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Saturday, Nov 7, 2009
Portlander
Published Letters: 434 Editor's Choice: 13
Actually, the parallels between Iraq and Viet Nam are very strong. We created the mess in Vietnam by refusing to recognixe Ho Chi Minh's government in 1945 and sending the colonial French filth back in in 1946. We aided the French colonial war from 1948-1954 and then sabotaged free elections in 1956. Then, we aided and abetted the Diem brothers in attempting to impose catholocism on a country that was 90% Buddhist. We created the mess in Vietnam just like we created it in Iraq.
The same warped thinking led to the same catastrophic outcome.
As always with Salon, the only analysis we get og the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is that of an Israeli. When it comes to this issue, Salon wouldn't know diverse points of view if they kicked them in the face. Salon is flat out biased toward Israel regardless of the actual facts.
That sais, the article is OK, but presents only one point of view and is clearly biased. If we are to examine the issue fairly, we need other points of view. How about breaking long tradition and have just one article by a Palestinian - Hanan Ashrawi would be a good start.
Israel will now unilaterally declare its borders - ethnically cleansing even more Palestinian land in the process - and the US will kiss its ass and call it peace.
Esseff: If you don't believe that Salon has a pro-Israeli bias, then I suggest that you haven't read Salon very much or for very long. I have been reading Salon since its inception, and I still have yet to see even one article by a Palestinian to balance the hundreds by Israelis and American Jews. Indeed, I haven't even seen an article by someone like Michael Lerner. Further, David Talbot was a quite fanatic supporter of Israel including Israeli settlements.
I don't ask for exclusion of pro-Israeli points of view, I would simply like some balance - something Salon has never had on Palestinian-Israeli issues.
As for Juan Cole, he is somewhat less pro-Israeli, but the idea that he presents a countervailing perspective is ridiculous. Salon would never permit that.
Mr. Ben-Yehuda-
It's a nice thing to talk about facts, but it's even better to know what they are.
1- Israel conducted a vicious campaign of terrorism against Arab civilians in 1947 to make the future Israel as Arabenrein as possible. Participating in this terrorist campain were Begin (Deir Yassin), Shamir and Rabin.
2- In 1948, after partition, Israel expelled tens of thousands of Palestinians from their homes at gunpoint and dynamited several hundred Palestinian villages.
3- In 1953, Israel participated with the U.S. and Britain in overthrowing the democratically elected government of Mossadegh in Iran. Israel also trained the Savak, the Shah's secret police force, that murdered over 100,000 people and tortured a quarter million more. That is actually a fairly sound justification for Iranian hatred of Israel - although it is impossible to hold any book for the Iranian whack jobs now in power there. It should also be noted that Israel trained the secret police forces for the military dictatorships in Chile, Argentina and Brazil - another 100,000 murdered and another quarter million tortured.
4- In 1956, Britain, France and Israel attacked Egypt in order to secure the Suez Canal. In this case, the U.S. did the right thing and stopped this aggression.
5- The 1967 war was not a defensive war, it was a preemptive war of aggression. Israel murdered 34 Americans on the USS Liberty as part of this war.
6- The 1973 Arab war against Israel was a just war - Israel was occupying Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian land. Had the U.S. not intervened on the wrong side in that war, Israels' fascist occupation filth would not be on Syrian and palestinian land today.
7- In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon killing more than 30,000 Lebanese civilians.
8- How can you justify anything to do with the Baruch Goldstein worshipping Nazi filth in Hebron, Kirya Arbat and Amona?
The actual facts are quite different than you portray them. I guess you forgot about these things.
As for ethnic cleansing, stealing someone else's land, building settlements on it in which only Jews may live and then jailing, torturing and murdering the rightful owners is the very definition of ethnic cleansing.
Mr. Ben-Yehuda: Why did I not say all those other things. Gee, who knows, probably because I don't believe them. You call anyone who disputes you and criticizes the policies of Israel, and then you say you want a rational argument. Amazing.
You are woefully misinformed, Mr. Yehuda. I will admit that I understated the peril to Israel in 1967 - except for the land grab in the Golan after the ceasefire (the attack on the USS Liberty was cover for that land grab). Everything else is documented thoroughly. Since we have no way to communicate, there is no way to have further discourse. I would leave my email address except that the tone of your almost totally inaccurate diatribe would probably expose me to danger to me and my family.
King-
Why the Curling bashing? Admittedly, you wouldn't set curling to the Clash or Nirvana, but have you ever been to a live curling event? Bundle up, take a flask of brandy, and it's really quite interesting. It's certainly more interesting to me than figure skating - the skating's OK, but I have to turn the sound off to avoid the saccharin BS. Curling, OTOH, offers virtually no opportunities for the schmaltzy crap. There's even a moderately entertaining movie featuring curling called 'Men with Brooms'
I stand admonished and humbly corrected.
Spin is also what the toilet does when it flushes.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The Maine fight was supposed to be the dress rehearsal for repealing California's Prop. 8 -- but gay marriage lost
Once one obtains Seriousness credentials in the Washington media, they are irrevocable no matter one's conduct.
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