August 30th bits & bobs

[Guest DeputyHawk]

Just putting some recent news items up for discussion, if anyone feels like throwing their two cents in. If there's any interest, I'll try to start doing this as often as possible.

 

1----Isreali defence minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer's "Gaza-Bethlehem First" peace initiative looks to be on the verge of collapse after one of HIS OWN TANKS fired flechette shells into a Palestinian encampment at Sheikh Ajlin, killing four people including a mother & her two sons who were sleeping at the time. Flechette shells spray thousands of darts over a wide radius and are have been outlawed by human rights groups. What the HELL is Israel playing at? Obviously Palestinian groups have perpetrated attacks just as callous and more so as this in the past, but why go through the effort of proposing peace plans and then pulling off a sick stunt like this? The plan, fragile in the first place, was to see limited Israeli army withdrawals in exchange for Palestinian police keeping a tighter reign over security in vacated areas. So much for that idea.

 

2----A big deal is being made over the discovery by divers in Honolulu of the mysterious fifth Japanese midget submarine of December 7th, 1941 just a few miles away from Pearl Harbor. Within its shell there are the remains of the two Japanese crewmen, as well as both of its unfired torpedoes. The bullet hole in the conning tower, almost unquestionably fired from the USS Ward, appears to be conclusive proof of the long heralded assertion that America fired the first shot of the Pacific War. SO FRIGGIN' WHAT? Now I can be just as critical of American military policy as the next man- usually more so- but the midget submarines were clearly just the first of a huge attacking wave that initiated one of the most brutally premeditated attacks in military history. It's a long fucking stretch to try to claim America actually started the Pacific War just because they shot the first bullet against an invading sub in their waters. Sheesh.

 

3----The complete waste of everyone's time that has been the UN World Summit on Poverty & the Environment in Johannesburg looks to get even more farcical as more than 20 different organisations are set to stage protest marches, including the African National Congress who are actually protesting IN FAVOUR of the summit in opposition to the other marchers. The summit itself is in total deadlock over the billions of dollars worth of global farm subsidies handed out by the wealthy nations to their farmers which the developing countries simply need to see curtailed in order to survive. The main opponent of reducing the domestic handouts if of course President George Bush - apparently jokingly reviled amongst other international delegates as The Toxic Texan - who has no plans to attend the UN Summit.