It's offline. I'm hitting this place over a phone line. Oh well, it at least means I'm getting lots of programming done (I'm working on the community based multi-lingual experience engine).
As you know, the US has dropped at least eight bombs on Red Cross buildings (which reminds me, good work bombing that hospital yesterday). The first time, they said it was just human error and apologized. The next time, they said it was the target the planes were told to hit, but that it had been a targetting error at HQ, and pointed out that the Taliban might be storing weapons in the Red Cross buildings. Yesterday, the defense department announced that they had actually intended to hit the Red Cross buildings because they had been commandeered by the Taliban (which is denied by the Red Cross). Now here's the punchline: Last night the story was on MSNBC at this link, but when I looked at it this morning, all mention of the story has been removed… What's up with that?
As Professor Sir Michael Howard, one of the world's more respected military histories pointed out yesterday, Al-Qaida and the Taliban are winning this war. He adds, on this war on terrorism, that there is “no policy more likely, not only to indefinitely prolong the war, but to ensure that we can never win it.”
Even though they got beat once by the Afghans, and the Taliban warned them, “Instead of dividing Afghanistan, Russia should make arrangements for paying salaries to its workers in its own country. Afghanistan is an independent country, and cannot accept puppet owners, and cannot accept slavery,” Russia is committing 250,000 troops, and the US is doing the same. Top that off with the 7.5 million Afghans that could starve to death this winter with the aid lines cut off by war, and you have one obvious result: a whole lot of death and misery on all sides… and that's the best-case scenario.
The US media has been just wonderful, right? Since the raids are failing and the bombing is useless, the CNN chief has ordered the reporters to “remind the viewers why the US is bombing“. You've got to love being lied to, right? At least the government will get more money (of course, that means the people get less). Whatever you do though, don't try and pretend there's freedom of the press, because unless you work for one of the highly controlled mainstream news agencies, or you live well outside of American reach (is there such a place?) you simply can not report on things freely.
And this, this is the most disgusting capitalizing on this yet. It really makes me sick. War, no matter which “side” you support, should never be used to trick children into giving you money.
PS. You'd think given the last voting fiasco, they'd be more careful!
