John Kerry: Sadr "Legitimate", Hamas and Hezbollah "sort of" Terrorist

[Imran Siddiqui]

For the Hard of Reading

And let me requote myself:

What is the evidence they are initiating attacks against civilians and not helping out in attacks against border guards or military (seeing that is what they do)?

Let's put it this way. It seems strange that a group which has basically been involved in attacks against military forces suddenly decides that we should go after civilians as well, when it has rarely done so in the past.

[MrFun]

Imran and DD -- when is the honeymoon?

[Sovereign]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

Media should only be allowed to tape debates, and show ad's for campaigns. Nothing else.

How is this consistent with the idea of a free press?

I'm all for freedom of press. People should be able to voice their opinions about politics, candidates, etc.

BUT media influences politics and causes far more harm than the good it does.

The Media must cease and desist in directly influencing politics. I bet Ted Turner or Donald Trump would have an easy time making themselves good candidates.

Why?

They own lots of media. They'll use their media to paint a false picture of themselves, creating a false impression. Then people would be fooled, and vote for the wrong person.


If a normal income person who is a truly good leader with all the right talents and skills competed aganist a millionaire like Bush, Clinton, Donald Trump, Kerry, etc. who will win?

The millionaires. Simply because they control the media.


The freedom of speech is an illusion with the media. The only true freedom of speech is between people chatting, or debates on the internet.

[Mr. President]

The point of the media is not and has never been to be fair and balanced. It has two functions:

1) To provide certain facts (eg. "Pneumonic plague has broken out in Surat").

2) To promote specific interpretations of those facts, whether they belong to the government or to the media outlet (eg. "Malaysia is America's partner in the war on Islamic terrorism").

That's the way it's been since they had town criers, and I don't see it changing now. Sometimes you can bend it or use it to promote your own point of view.

/me points to his pile of around ten Time magazines bearing letters written by him

[Bosh]

Al Aqsa members in the West Bank city of Nablus say they speak with their Hezbollah handlers by telephone almost daily.

Whaaaa? Al Aqsa is a wing of Fatah, not Hizbollah.

[Edan]

Hezbollah is not a terrorist group. It is a non-state militia that has committed war crimes and attrocities. They don't hide, they don't pretend to be civilians.

I see - they sat in the "non-Civilian third class" section when they hijacked planes and wore "I work for Hezbollah" when they planted a bomb in a Jewish center in Argentina, did they?

[DinoDoc]

But that was 10 years ago! They're all cuddly now!

[Imran Siddiqui]

BUT media influences politics and causes far more harm than the good it does.

You can't cry for free press and then say a free press does more harm than good.

The freedom of speech is an illusion with the media. The only true freedom of speech is between people chatting, or debates on the internet.

... says a person who has no idea what freedom of speech really is.

[General Ludd]

How does that saying go, "Freedom of press is limited to those who own one."?

[GePap]

Can a terrorist stop being a terrorist? Accordiong to Bush, yes-Lybia gave up terrorism.

So the question is, when does a gorup and or organization stop being "terrorist"? Must it renounce violence to achieve aims? Or simply renounce acts that can be classified as terrorism thought still advocate violence?

I think the first, denounce terrorist tactics, but does not have to renounce violence. After all, an arrmy is simply an object to have around if you need to use violence to further your aims.

[The Mad Viking]

Just want to point out that when you won't listen to someone, when you silence their voice, all they have left is violence.

Terrorists are created when peoples needs are persistently ignored.

Were the Sadrists perpetrating violence before his newspaper was undemocraticallly and totally censored?