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

Shame there aren't going to be many forest's left for you to play in once Bush has finished. Who's putting bets on how itchy his trigger finger is for the nukes at his disposal.
Hope the world survives Americas retaliation.

Beebs,

Howdi! Was this just a random posting, or did you see one of the rants on this subject that I've posted in the last couple of days?

Either way, Congratulations! You appear to have fould someone who thinks the same way you do!! If you haven't seen it already, have a little look at my postings re: Revenge, WWIII etc.. Any comments gratefully received!

Bambi.

and your post caught my eye. Like you, I have nothing against the Americans, but if you say retaliation on the scale that they are planning is wrong everyone seems to hate you. Remember Pearl Harbour? The Japanese killed 2500 people and got 2 nukes in return, who knows what they will deem appropriate for this attack. A wise man once said 'an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind' which you have probably heard before, but it's true. it's nice to talk to someone who feels the same way, this whole mess has got me really scared that we could be facing self-annihilation.

You are so right - it's so nice to hear someone who doesn't want to blow up the plannet! There are others though, you will probably have seen the peace bits, this is courtesy of "a girl called Ben"... http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F76974?thread=141920&skip=0&show=20 And this is the draft 'people for peace' h2g2 anti war group. http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A633331 It's something that really worries me though, Americans *claim* that freedom, primarily of speach is the most important thing to them, blah blah constitution, blah blah, but the first thing that appears to go when something like this happens, are those values. Anyone Arab looking gets called a "damn towel-head", anyone who dares to say that revenge is wrong gets shouted down. And as for saying Afganistan might be right to protect bin Laden, well... Look out for those Nukes!! I guess it is because people are scared and feel under threat. I'm not say what happened was a good thing, but maybe we (in the West) might appreciate how others who have been under threat for years (eg. Palestine) have felt. I remember when I was a child talking to a vet. He said that a scared animal was far more likely to bite than one that felt safe. If there were less fear in the world, maybe there would be fewer atrocities. Bambi.

Well put Bambi. One of the things that the American's conveniently gloss over is that their constitution declaring 'Justice for all' and 'Every man has the right to bear arms' was originally written for white men only as they considered the native Americans and black people to be sub-human and therefore not entitled to the privileges of civilistation. For all they know, the indians could have had it right and the white way of thinking is completely wrong but they have forced it onto the rest of the world with the rider 'be like us or you are our enemy' I don't know if you read the Terry Pratchett discworld novels, but in Jingo he makes a direct comparison with America without actually mentioning the country name. He compares it to a vampire - sucking the unique culture out until all that is left is a carbon copy of the USA

I haven't read any Terry Pratchet, but I keep meaning to. I promise I will as soon as the opportunity reasonably arrises.

I know we in England haven't exactly got a social history to be proud of: The Slave Trade, The Crusades, etc. But neither have the US, a fact they conveniently choose to forget when it comes to preaching to the rest of the world.

What worries me right now is the way that the UK leaders seem to be doing exactly what GD Bush wants - Acting just like the proverbial poodle!! I assume you are British from what you have said previously (though that is just a guess and please correct me if I'm wrong...), so you may have heard Mr Blargh's reply to GDB's worrying speach. I was seriously irritated at the way it was assumed that Mr Blargh was speaking for me (and all the other Brits who have written in to h2g2 and said they don't want to declare war on ANYBODY), when he said he will do whatever the US wanted!

Hmmm.

Bambi

You guessed right, I am British originally from Manchester but now living near Liverpool. it seems to me that Blair has realised that Britain is no longer as leading a world power as we once were and he is just grasping at any opportunity to make Britain look powerful. Instead he looks like he just wants to hand over control of Britain to America, as if we were just another State that the President controls, Saying yes yes yes what a wonderful idea to anything America wants. Is this really the kind of leader we want? What happened to a democratic society where government is there to carry out the will of the people? Bush say's 'it is a war on terrorism and all terrorists have to be wiped out' Blair agrees immediately and pledges to do anything it takes. Does this mean sending bombers over to Ireland to make sure we take out the IRA? What about the East Timor freedom fighters who we sent our army to train and also supplied with weapons to help bring democracy to the region? Or does he mean terrorists that look different to us. If we are no longer willing to see an opposing point of view to our own then we become a dictatorship not a democracy. If some of this doesn't make perfect sense I apologise, but I am full of the flu at the moment and my head is very fuzzy, finding it hard to think properly.

Beebs,

It all makes perfect sense (which is more than can be said for a lot of things I have read over the last two weeks!) Your explanation for Blairs response *may* be accurate, I don't know. But never-the-less, it is very worrying. I am not a coward, but if Germany invaded Poland, I wouldn't object to a war after "All alternatives had been exhausted' (I think that was the phrase used when Chamberlain dclared war on Germany). However, I think what worries me is that war was the first thing mentioned. The whole attitude seems wrong ot me. The US government should have been requesting the support of people in their quest for Justice for the dead, not declaring war. Then I would have been 100pc behind Blair when he said,'We will do whatever we can to support...' For example, GDB said he wanted bin Laden "Dead or Alive", he should have said he wanted him, but ONLY ALIVE, as he wanted to bring him to Justice. Meanwhile, Blair jumps in and instead of trying to calm things down and saying things he that are supportive, non-commital, he eggs him on further, making things worse. I find it very difficult to listen to/watch the news now, as it is filled with politicians shouting abuse in the general direction of anyone who doesn't bow to their point of view. That's not democracy, as you say.

The other thing that seems to have been forgotten is that one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter. As you say, we supported the East Timor Freedom Fighters, but I bet others saw them as terrorists. I don't know about you, but I have a certain amount of sympathy for the fighters in Chechnya, but others view them as terrorists. I admit I nothing about what they have been doing, but my sympathy is based on the fact that I feel they have been harshly treated at times. Of course these are the bits that reach the Western press, I guess the same view could be what people in the East might see if Bush&Blair do anything OTT.....

Bambi

PS Hope you are begining to feel better