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

Entry: War On Terror - A782813
Author: Golferguy - U197847

Hi My name is John i am 15, and this is my first Guide Entry using GuideML. It would be great for your help, eventhough this is not a very amusing or well written entry.

Hi John!

Welcome to H2G2!

I wouldn't say this wasn't well written, and as for funny, well, there's very few good jokes about the war. Although Chris Morris (an infamous British comedian, prankster, and satirist) suggested that the Americans were showing respect for the Islamic holy month of Ramadam by dropping empty food parcels....).

Entries for the guide don't have to be funny. Douglas Adams was an excellent writer, but the point of this site is not a tribute to his writing (although many people found this place because of that reason), but through his vision of a *real* Hitchiker's Guide to Earth which internet technology was making possible. So this is a peer reviewed, interactive encyclopaedia.

As for your entry, I think the key question is what you want to do with it. My feeling is that it's too soon for this to get into the *edited* guide, because it's obviously in danger of being overtaken by events. While articles can be updated, I think this would take too much updating too quickly. If you just want to leave it in the unedited section, that's fine!

I think a lot of research has gone into this, but I think there are a few things that you say that are highly controversial.

The main one is the Axis of Evil, which many people in Europe felt was an unhelpful thing to say, as the three countries are not allies. Indeed, Iran and Iraq fought a long and bloody war in which the west supported Saddam Hussein. Iran is slowly starting to liberalise, and North Korea was just starting to have constructive dialogue with South Korea. So many people think that the term is wrong and that the wrong countries have been singled out. What about Saudi Arabia, what about Syria??

Also, the military action wasn't just American. British and other forces were also involved. The Taliban are far from extinct (they're all hiding in Pakistan waiting for their moment to return). Afghanistan *isn't* a democracy, but might be moving towards one. More likely it will end up as a kind of aristrocracy.

Many people also thought that the "for us or against us" comment was also a bit dim. Can it really be right to say that if someone doesn't back American and coalition action 100% then they're *against* them? Surely there's such a thing as constructive criticism? If my friends stop me or try to dissuade me from doing something that they think is misguided, they're not neccesarily "anti-Otto"!

Phew! Well, you asked for opinions!

I think you'll make an excellent researcher for the guide, and I look forward to reading your future work. I think you might want to try something a bit smaller and a bit less controverisial for your next guide entry. Why not write something about golf? There's a few entries on it already (type "golf" into the search box), but there's no reason why you shouldn't write something about golf where you live, or a general entry on your home town, or something on another of your interests! If you want help and advice on what to write, you can either ask me, or if you click on my name and look on my personal space, you'll see links to guidelines etc.

Best wishes

Otto

The problem with the axis of evil quote was firstly THAT it occured, and secondly WHEN it occured.

Only iraq were still funding terrorism at that point, with the others making what for them would be great strides towards liberalisation and improved human rights.

The false acusation totally stoped all liberalisation in iran and north korea for months, and rolled back some of the reforms that were helping, thus setting back the american's cause.

On the wider front, america has a problem with the disparity between what it says it wants and what its actions tell others it wants.

for example, america wants the rule of law to be the case, with international law, but only as long as it doesn't apply to american soldiers commiting attrocities while peace keeping.

another example, america wants to attack iraq with coelition backing. the arabs have made it clear that there must be stability in the middle east, with a solution to the palestinian / israely conflict before this happens. but 2 days after israel is accused of attrocities in genin, while it is refusing to let independant observers in to verify exactly what has gone on, the american congress vote almost unanimously (with 2 abstentions) in total support of all israely actions to that point, even though the entire international community were outraged over israel's behaviour at that time.

America needs to figure out what it wants, find out what policies they are persuing need to be changed, and change them.

if they don't, then it is pretty obvious that you will end up getting another september 11th type event happening. (if the bombers say it is because of america's behaviour, and america don't change it, it is hardly a surprise that it is still easy to recruit more bombers).

Also there is a problem with bush and his rhetoric. either it is a war, or it isn't. by the treaties america have signed up to, either their captives are prisoners of war, and the geneva convention applies, or they are criminals, and the american criminal code applies.

in either case, america are in breach of their own law over these prisoners.

nice try on the entry though. keep up the good work.

Hey its John here i think all of this talk is great but i would not feel comfortable editing this piece with some of your suggestions because i live in the american bubble without BBC and therefore am writing with a biased american tilt on things. I had an idea if someone was interested that there could be an american view and a world view. This way there could be a combined entry that would show this complicated issue from a balanced point of view. please respond any one if you are interested

I am perfectly happy to keep giving you feedback to help remove the bush-friendly bias.

you do have some examples of the problems already to help with making the article more balanced. but if you don't want to include some stuff to balance the "isn't george right and wonderfull" slant that it has got at the moment, then I don't think it has much chance of entering the edited guide.

part of the conditions for the edited guide is that the entries try and be balanced.

you might not want it to end up in the edited guide, but if you do, you need to pop over to peer review, and look at the style guidelines.

I think an *edited guide* entry on this topic is going to be doomed to failure, as I really can't see any agreement being reached, and it's perhaps too soon to write.

Howeve,r if you wanted to write something for another purpose, go right ahead! I'm a bit busy to participate myself at the moment, and I feel I don't really know enough about what's *really* going on. One possible place to write this would be at Speaker's Corner (A756605)

Otto

Dear John

Hey, this is Lucrecia here! I'm relatively new on the site and I posted my first opinion about your article actually on the article. (My bad)

Anyway, I'm an American and I live "inside that bubble" as well. However, I have to agree with the Brits and say that George W. is oversimplifying things.

Here's another question for ya! What ever happened to Osama? I've heard his name thrown around in jokes and things, but it seems as if Americans dropped the war as soon as the Taliban were out of the country, as if that was our first objective.

The news in this past week has been dominated by a girl's kidnapping and killing, the stock market, the economy, and, oh, yeah a terrorist trial. We are supposed to be at war and I've seen little to no coverage of what we are doing in a long while. Have we decided that we've won or is George too busy with the economy and his vice president's scandals to bother with a war right now?

I think the war is mostly about getting re-elected. The only thing that seems to be happening with relation to the "war on terrorism" is that lots of unconstitutional laws are being passed in order to spy on american citizens.

I'm an American, and the air in the bubble is stagnant.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A1054496