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Sunday, February 27, 2005

Voices from Vatican

Media has been full of coverage about the recent medical "improvements" of Pope John Paul II who's been having a throat operation. He's 84 and in a very poor condition - and he definitely shouldn't be doing what he is doing. I can't imagine the pain this guy is going through every day - and the pressure he gets from people forcing him to think that he has to continue his work. I'm not a fan of his (considering the amount of trouble the Catholic Church causes these days with their positions on issues such as abortion & condom use) but this is simply inhumane. A man of his caliber should go with dignity instead of slowly rotting away with incredible pain and bodily difficulties.

I also fail to see the point of media coverage he receives in non-Catholic countries. We really don't care that much - and clearly I'm speaking mostly for myself but there are issues every day which deserve more exposure than Pope's medical difficulties. Finland is very - very far away from Vatican.

The Catholic Church should now do the humane thing and start searching for a replacement - and let the Pope rest through his final days.

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Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Pulling Out?

The results are in and Iraq has had a taste of democracy. People across the world and particularly the Democratic party in the US is eagerly demanding that the Bush Administration should immediately start planning an exit plan for the US troops. Of course there's no good reason for that. The Iraqi security forces are still lacking experience & manpower and the country hasn't got a fully functioning government yet. The pull-out would result in a serie of catastrophic terrorist attacks across the country and could ignite far worse consequences. There's absolutely no need to rush.

In fact the amount of US forces within Iraq should be increased. That would logically mean more security for the Iraqi people and manpower for the war on terror within Iraq. Of course it'd require money but we're talking about millions of lives here.
Pulling out is something that Al-Zarqawi & his folks want. Such action would send a signal to people like him telling that what they do is beneficial.
Al-Zarqawi already failed to stop the elections - and now he wants to destroy any possible democratic government. As long as the US troops are in Iraq that's not going to happen.

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Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Embarassing European anti-Semitism

Some of you might have heard of those shocking studies which indicate that most European citizens consider Israel to be the biggest threat to peace. And after this we dare to criticize Americans for believing that Iraq was a real threat?

Where were the Europeans when they were supposed to learn at school that for thousands of years Jews have been persecuted, killed and discriminated? Where were the Europeans when they were told that Hitler slaughtered over five million (that's 5 000 000) Jews only about sixty years ago? This new anti-Israel attitude indicates only complete ignorance toward history - or general lack of understanding.

For the first time during their long history the Jews now have a realistic chance to defend themselves - and for the first time they have an exceptionally strong ally. We should be happy for them - but we're not. Many of us are angry because they won't back off the way they have been forced to do for thousands of years. The situation in the middle-East is what it is - a good looking peace process is usually interrupted by an act of terror from Palestinian militants. And yet it's Israel who ends up receiving most of our criticism. And why? Just because Israel is free and democratic doesn't mean that it should tolerate violence or risk its own security.

So the next time you're about to nag at Israel - think of a situation where a boy, who's been bullied at school for years, decides for the first time to stand up against the ones who are attacking his rights - and tell me that the boy doesn't deserve our respect.

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Sunday, February 06, 2005

The Sunni/Shiite Problem

With a 60% turnout the elections in Iraq were a success. Now it has been a few days and the results are still not in - however there's no doubt that the Shiites will win and the Sunnis will lose - badly. Now what's going to happen? The Sunnis held the power for decades under Saddam Hussein (who was a Sunni) although being a Sunni didn't exactly prevent Saddam from killing you. And whether you were a Shiite or a Sunni you were still ruled by a single man. Now the Shiites will take the power and start rebuilding the country. If the Sunnis feel that they're being treated badly there's a high chance that terrorism within Iraq will increase. All this of course could lead to a civil-war.

And that's not the only danger. Many Iraqi Shiites want to turn Iraq into some Iran-type theocracy and the US has clearly expressed that this must NOT happen.

And then there are the Kurds. It seems that they don't want to get involved in any of these conflicts. Since the war ended these guys have been living their lives happily without being too concerned about terrorism. They obviously would like to establish a country of their own in northern Iraq - which is not a bad idea - it's just not going to happen.

So let's divide the country in three - let's establish a Kurdish country up north (Kurdistan), a Sunni country in the middle and let's give the south for the Shiites. This would of course require a lot of money, a lot of paperwork, a lot of energy and a lot of time & dedication - and unfortunately it's not going to happen.

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Tuesday, February 01, 2005

The UN & Darfur Genocide

Wow - It took a while but the folks at the United Nations finally came up with something. Their long-awaited decision is that there's no genocide going on in Sudan at the moment. It took a while - and naturally people died and will keep dying because of the way this international organisation works. Is it going to be Rwanda all over again a few years from now? Hopefully not - at least the EU is actually trying to build a military might that could quickly respond to crisis around the world. The actual peace-keeping phase could be left for the UN troops because that's where they're good at.

Iraq held historical elections only two days ago. The situation would have never risen if the US had listened to the slow and uneffective UN.
So while the UN's goal might sound noble there's absolutely no reason to try to seek for their authorization when it's not coming and especially when there's a genocide going on that has to be stopped on time.

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