h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Kind of like misguided Kiwi humor.

Self serving joke.

It's not comfortable, sitting around biting your nails and wondering whether Dubya has enough far-sighted advisors to tell him to quit while he's ahead.

As the grossly injured party that has so far held back from striking out in righteous anger, the United States occupies the moral high ground, a position it hasn't approached for half a century. But it will lose this advantage with the first civilian casualty in Afghanistan. It will be back where it was before September 11, envied as a giant consumer society, but feared for its manipulation of other economies through the IMF and the World Bank, and with the blood of Korean, Vietnamese, Nicaraguan, Libyan, African, Chilean, Palestinian, Iraqi and Serbian women and children on its hands. That's a whole heap of bad public relations.

Already anxious, I'm not encouraged by Bush's comic-book rallying-cry: "If you're not with us, you're with the terrorists." If I were a praying person, I'd be asking the great Strategic Communication Consultant in the sky to put eloquence into the mouths of Bush's advisers. I'd want them to use the huckster's argument. "Hey, hold on a minute boss. We've got the high moral ground here. We can't buy this kind of publicity!"

Old Dubya may not be able to spell prescience, but I hope he can recognise good advice when his advisers offer it. If they do.

Hi guys
I have my buckets with me right here, ready and waiting. But I hope I dont have to use it.

LOOn, since u r the only fellow I see here at the moment, and seeing that u seem to "know" a "little" about the USA, who runs that country? And why are they (those who run it) willing to soak so much dirt protecting Israel? Honest question and I hope someone has an answer

It's all to do with a commodity that starts with O and ends with L

Would that be the one with an I in the middle?

Owl?

Owl? Wouldn't we have easier access to all that owl if we didn't have Israel there as a thorn in the side of the owl producing nations? I don't see the advantage.

I was under the impression it was a combination of the guilt for WWII and the jewish community in the Unites States.

I guess campaign finance cheques figure highly

Aha!
So its that owl with an "eye" in the middle who is the scapegoat but it has more to do with getting power right? That those who provide campaign funds to the seekers of the owl are really the ones in power. Now would these fellows be the same who control the media there too? Apart from LOOn's neighbour Rupert of course.
That guilt thing hasnt sunk in yet. An attempt at elaboration would do me frozen bones some good.

Peace

Or put another way trigger, the jewish community runs the US of mighty A? Just asking here

Ahmed

Oil is a very powerful motivation for what drives mideast policy. To have a clear steady supply is very important. It might even be more important to Europe inspite of that North Sea stuff (that makes Norway a virtual Saudi Arabia with all it's corresponding social free benefits).

There was a great drive after WWII to create the state of Israel because of the deaths of 6M Jews. There is a great deal of guilt associated with the Holocost because the US didn't do something sooner. The US has a fairly large Jewish population becasue it is fairly open, large and didn't have the same history of anti-semitism that Europe has.

To say that the US media, US business is controlled by Jewish interests is disguisting. It is the same type of C__p one would hear from Osama. The US is heavily influenced by the same business interests that the rest of the world is heavily controlled by, whether that is UK, US, Norway, NZ, etc.. These are large multinational corporations that owe no great alligence to any land. They want a stable environment or government policies were they can make money. It's called capitalism and it doesn't care if you are Jewish or Christian or Islamic or brown or white or yellow or short or tall. It is "show me the money".

Ahmed, of all your postings, this one I can agree with.

True, 6million dead at the hands of the nazis is something that the West should feel guilty about and never forget.

However, what about the 1-2 million Rwandians slaughtered in only a few monthss? A kill rate that Himler would have envied. And how about the similar number that Pol Pot and the Khyber Rouge knocked off in a few years?

Both examples of how we are selective in what we (ie Western powers) regard as important. We igonre UN resolutions against Isreal but steam in with 1000s of troups to free one oil rich dictatorship after it was taken over by another.

These inconsistancies that are one of the reasons that those who are ignored or worse, oppressed by western powers feel the only way to get their voice heard is by terrorist acts.

We hear that these attacks are attacks against democracy - but what recorse to democratic institutions do many around the world have. They see UN resoltions ignored, trade agreements made by Trans Nationals which control their governments that strip their natural wealth. How can you get your voice heard?

I deplore violence in all in its forms, but can understand why people around the world see it as the only way to get noticed.

Anyway, its late in the UK and I've had too much Irish whiskey. I hope those in other time zones will add some more well though out debate to this thread by the time I wake up.

ChawkE

The reason Israel has been funded so heavily is so America has a regonal superpower in its pocket to exercise its authority if any of the owl supplying nations step out of line. The whole "America is run by the Jews" line is anti-semetic bullshit, it's not a Jewish banking conspiricy its money, oil and regonal power yet again. Don't hate Israel because they're Jews, hate them because they're fascists, and America's imperialist lapdogs.

I don't think ZOG runs the country. We have many powerful interest groups in the US. It seems to me that the Jewish community is one of them, and its influence, in part, explains our traditional support of Israel.

America is not run by Jews. To say so just jumps on the centuries of abuse that they have taken, culminating in the Holocaust. What the Jews, in the context of Israel, have is major financial support from the US to support America's geopolitical aims in the region which is, of course, oil. As one commentator once said of the Gulf War, "what would happen if Kuwait's greatest export was asparagus?".

I don't believe that the Israeli nation is facist. True they have a particularly nasty leader in Ariel Sharon who is doing nothing to try to resolve the situation in the Middle East. We also have a US government that pretty much disengaged from the peace process, thus allowing the conflict to escalate. This is so different from when Clinton was US president as he tried and tried again to keep the process going. It finally took the attack on the WTC for the US government to lay down the law to the Israeli government when they started making threatening noises in the days following the atrocity.

I guess this a case of watch this space to see where the whole convoluted mess goes from here.

Blimey while I was replying to a posting it got yanked. Please put it back.
I and TPTB might not agree with it, but it forms an important part of the debate on this thread.

Israel is a fascist state, of course it is, they have occupeid a country and impose a strict sepratist regime there. It's apartheit in no uncertain terms. What on earth did i say that got it yanked?

It seems every time i use the word fascist it is taken as being liabelous. I suggested Mr Berlesconi was the other day and it got pulled.

I'd like to point out that i was attempting to dispell the idea that "The Jews of New York" run the US. This is ridiculous and dated anti-semetic propaganda lies.

I was just suggesting that if you must hate the Israeli government there are perfectly valid reasons to do so rather than resorting to racism.

As far as Jew's in the US go, there is a very strong left wing Jewish community in the US, whose cause is very much with the Palestinians. But you don't hear so much of that in the media. And it also explains why there are so few leading intellectuals in Israel, because they in the main do not support this regime.