Rumsfeld Warns Syria

[Urban Ranger]

Syria can pretty much thumb its nose at Rummy and does whatever it damn well pleases.

[Pekka]

Azazel, then you just have to tone more to the news, there have been lots of demonstrations against the war in Chechnya, and smaller demonstrations go on all the time.... I think that area is full of war crimes and sorrow.. it's a sad place. I'm not saying Russians are doing the war crimes, I'm saying both sides are doing them, and LOTS of them. All the time. I've seen few documents where they follow the troops and what happens.. it's sick. Everyones morale is so low, they don't give a ****, it's just basically getting back to each other with more disgusting crimes that upsets the other one. It's truly disgusting war, way more disgusting than let's say the US vs. Iraq. To every anti-war peeps out there, go out and demonstrate to stop that war. It's far more worse.

[Pekka]

But that war is complicated.. to me, there are no good guys in that war. I'd like to see demonstrations against that, and people going there to stop the war. It does nothing good, only bad to both sides. There definitely are no winners there and it doesn't seem like it would stop in the next few years.

[Az]

I didn't say that Russia are the bad guys. But Israel gets unproportionately more flak than any other country. with the exception of the US, these days.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Azazel
I didn't say that Russia are the bad guys. But Israel gets unproportionately more flak than any other country. with the exception of the US, these days.

You don't think these criticisms, or at least a large part of it, is justified?

[Ned]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Syria can pretty much thumb its nose at Rummy and does whatever it damn well pleases.

Rumsfeld to Syria: "Make my day."

[Az]

You don't think these criticisms, or at least a large part of it, is justified?

Some of them are, some of them are not.

This is not the issue. the issue is that Israel is being singled out.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Ned
Rumsfeld to Syria: "Make my day."

What's he going to do? Fart in their general direction?

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Ned
Rumsfeld to Syria: "Make my day."

Right, and prove the Islamic terrorists right that we're at war with all of Islam.

[Az]

Some of my best friends are Muslims.

[chequita guevara]

Some of my best friends are my best friends. Not all of them, though.

[Az]

Actually, I have no close muslim friends. I just love that saying. It's so funny.

[Ned]

What I think Rumsfeld will do is declare the Syrians combatants that may be fired upon if they are caught in Iraq. This is what he said about the Iranians.

[GePap]

Well, if Israel gets a disporportionate amount of blame, it also gets a disporportionate amount of attention. Far more people have died in sri Lanka from suicide attacks (the Tamil tigers may still hold the title of the organization to conduct the most suicide attacks) than in Israel, and the number of conflicts that have killed vastly more people than the ME conflict are very numerous. Israel is like a celebrity: in the spotlight, both in its own choosing amd made a "cause celebre" by outsiders form all sides. Like any celebrity, far more scrutiny will befall Israel than say Sri Lanka, The Central African Republic (anyone hear of the recent coup?) or the ongoing wars in Central Africa.

The, of course, thee is the matter of Israel birth: Israel begun like few, if any, other states have. This singular birth and sigular mission statement(at least for modern states), plus its location all conspire to draw plenty of attention and thus invective form all sides.

But there is also a slight difference between the relation between Israelis and Palestinians. Take chechnia. chechens and russians may agree they are different peoples but chechnia continues to be considered part of Russia. whereas the Arab regims abbuse their own people, Israel is abusing someone who is not "their own people" and has never been though as being so. Unlike in the rest of the ME, this can't be viewed as simply an issue more dmeocracy and liberalism and free trade will fix, since it is not an "internal" matter. That difference does matter, and it does call for a different frame of reference. In many cases there is a double standard, but in other, it is a different standard, and for some reason.

[Ned]

GePap, Russia is not abusing the Chechians and Israel is not abusing the Palestinians. The Chechians attacked Russia. Ditto the Palestinians with Israel.

The Russians have been accused of using excessive force. However, they appeared to do so to save Russian lives.

In contrast, Israel appears to go way, way out of its way to protect Palestinian lives at the risk of its own people. And still it recieves disproportionate criticism when instead they should be praised for their restraint.

The people who criticize Israel have an agenda.