Why Terrorism is a Failure

Why Terrorism is a Failure

Terrorism fails to exert political pressure on governments, as nobody in the world wants random acts of violence to take the lives of their children, or indeed themselves.

Full article

International Connectiveness

International Connectiveness

Disturbing Trends is now being served from Atlanta based servers to improve international availability for all. We noticed a slowdown when we hosted locally.

The problem is apparently a lot of contention for international bandwidth - our local infrastructure is good for local sites, but Disturbing Trends is hardly about New Zealand, although this year we had to sadly report that it suddenly became troubled by a huge police operation against multiple "terror cells" - some of them were probably some local boys out shooting ducks but the public needs an explanation for the Napalm rehearsals.

Tama Iti, one man famous not just for his remarkable face full moko - and it's a superb example of the power of the reality of this powerful Maori art form has become the symbol of the forces that want to set up a Maori sovereign nation that the New Zealand Government is strictly opposed to; a separitist state run by Maori for Maori has a point, but only up to a point. There is more to gain by sharing strengh than arguing. But debate is between the living, on both sides of any thing worth debating.

Weapons of war have no place in this magical land. The meeting place is a place where minds work best but the battle field may bring about the flash of heroics, fear and dread: progress is about enabling people to get what they want as individuals, not selfish demagogs who are dictating to others that violations may unlock magical political clout. Nobody is going to want to listen to anyone who commits atrocities. We want to listen to what Mr Iti has to say. What he thinks as well as his more media savvy grand gestures.

Police have duty to protect public

Police have duty to protect public

"The real problem is not that the police acted, it was the premature and unnecessary invocation of the Terrorism law to deliberately make it fail."

The police raided and arrested a number of people and brought charges under gun control laws for illegal weapons and they also tried to lay terrorism charges. That failed. There is a lot of public support for the actions of the police but some of that is based on the generated fear aroused by the T word.

Charges are being brought and if these people are proven guilty of possessing automatic weapons and planning to hurt people - well I guess that is not going to be a walk in the park - but serious charges require a serious case that successfully passes the tests of justice including proper evidence, etc.

We want the law applied properly.

Homegrown Terrorists in Germany

Homegrown Terrorists in Germany

Muslim converts target Germany - Times Online - Home grown dissent exists in every country - but for dissenters to execute terror campaigns against their neighbors for the sole purpose of killing them - only encourages militant leaders to emerge. (For example: will Islam force another Bush upon the world by scaring the votors)?

Western Governments are becoming increasingly sensitive to the issue as perhaps ideological in nature. Nazi-ism was also idealogical in nature and witness the support its heartless faith acquired as its iron glove crushed freedom. But it was the reaction, by the allies - that burnt European cities. It is the reaction of Governments that raises the ante for the forces that reproduce terrorists. Breeding terror is the real cause for alarm.

When words like "surgical" are applied to acts of war, you can be fairly sure that civilians are still dying - why? Because they have.

Wars are not won or lost. People are lost. War becomes its own inevitability and should always be avoided unless the cancer is worse. Rebirth from utter destruction is expensive. There is no human condition, however desperate that requires annihilation. Even from despair, we find a way to reform ourselves, hence the wounds of war never heal, they are inherited.

...this one has shocked Germans more than any other: it has exposed the existence of a home-grown terrorist potential.

Home grown Islamic and other forms of terrorism existed before 9/11. Why it still shocks us is the same reason Bush gave for invading Iraq. Acts of war based on what ifs and profound logic have proven to breed terrorism, as totalitarianism will, also. It is up to people to turn the tide away from American interference, away from nuclear weapons, away from environmental damage, away from terror threat and back to putting our spare resources into understanding each other.

Rapid fundamentalism is the result of no education.

The Web of Deception

The Web of Deception

Robert Fisk: Caught in the deadly web of the internet - Independent Online Edition > Robert Fisk

Character assasination has taken on a whole new meaning as the "war on terror" progresses. The Dept of Homeland Security has a massive budget for spying upon the activities of potential terrorist threats. That is a reaction to the events of 9/11 and many have conjectured or argued a stance that the Governemnt used or even created 9/11 as a justification for control of the population with monosyallbic concepts and easily digested sound bites.

More civilians have died in the crossfire in this "war on terror" (if you include the events in Iraq since the US invasion) than the war sought to protect from the acts of terrorists. It is hard to accept that the War in Iraq is the same as the war launched to prevent Al Qaeda from establishing, it can be argued that the US invading Iraq was the best thing that could have happened for Al Qaeda.

The war on terror has flipped the tables on the US economy and in conjuction with cynical tax cuts made the poor of America (90%) utterly dependent upon the whim of a cartel of billionaires that rely upon growth in public consumption to continue being powerful. The US has blundered into a new form of slavery. The US now have a war effort in play, so a percentage of your grandchildrens' income is going to be paying the bill. This is a reduction in the freedom of Americans since Bush came to power.

The first signs of a totalitarian state was the questionable election results that saw the Republicans only begin to enact their agenda after the public were well hypnotised by 9/11. Before 9/11 it was evident that new thinking had pushed aside pursuit of Al Qaeda started under Clinton.

The imprisonment of journalists and academics is the next stage of a new McCarthism. It seems that it now happening and I wonder if the voices of all those Homeland Security agents who are not finding terrorists around every street corner are in fact writing propaganda to "flush out" terrorists? Or, indeed, if it is the activity of "the enemy" - whomever it may be.

It relies upon uncalled for judgement of individuals when looking at Wikipedia articles. Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that almost invites slander but is regulated by its own active editing "community". But they can not keep up with concerted efforts to commit acts of libel by "concerned citizens" who remain anonymous to the public eye.

Free speech is one thing. Being able to endanger the lives of others is something else.

Budget, American Style

Budget, American Style

Bush created a budget balancing act based on increased spending, mainly military, of three trillion dollars. A trillion is 1000 billions, using the American system of dealing with numbers that are simply too big. 1,000,000 is our familiar million. 1,000,000,000 (one billion) is becoming a more commonplace concept of the 21st Century - and already we are talking in "trillions" (one of which looks like this: 1,000,000,000,000).

The 3,000,000,000,000 or so America spent on its friutless effort in Iraq has probably been borrowed from Saudi princes who probably are forced to indirectly fund the food chain that disposses far too many and creates al Qaeda. Perhaps that is the underlying rationale behind the Bush invasion. It was not Daddy's record, but a deal we are not allowed to know about.

The Saudi royal family and its grip on power is funded by the centering of profit from oil extraction from the largest oil fields in the world through just a few hands who then appear to me to pitch America against their own enemies - the Shiite revolution that would render their power obsolete.

America stepped into a breach that appears to be more chaotic for the intervention. It has stepped into the breach of a war brewing on both sides of it. It needs to shore up Sunni support against its new spotlight of threat: Iran.

Whom is fooling whom?

American intervention is an effort to prolong the status quo, history tells us unfathomable power in too few hands is not a stable form of Government. It has resulted in revolution elsewhere, America and France are fine examples of a Republican success that followed revolutions.

How to win against terrorism

How to win against terrorism

Where US is helping to make gains against terrorism | csmonitor.com

It is possible to win the war on terrorism. In this example local Phillippine troops are now having some succss against Abu Sayyaf.

"Perhaps most acute is the need to channel funds into poor communities like Panamao, where schoolteachers say they haven't been paid for over a year." this kind of community development is necessary to create a future society of thinking individuals who do not resort to evil to make their political point. Individuals who do not believe in the death cult of Al Qaeda or any other perversion of their faith or culture.

Invading Iran

Invading Iran

Al Jazeera English - Americas reports an ex-US general warning against the US launching an attack on Iran. The consequences for security in the region were severe, the retired army lieutenant general Robert Gard said. He is a former military assistant to US defense secretary, Robert McNamara, and he urged the US government to "engage immediately in direct talks with the government of Iran without preconditions."