The much talked about elections have happened, a new Iraqi Government in in place and the car bombs are going off at the rater of 300 a month. The American media, with its gaggle of embedded journalists have avoided commenting on one major development:the insurgency in Iraq, rather than winding down, as antticipaated has begun to carreen out of control. It is showing more maturity, seleting potentially vital targets and is also succeding in keeping the American troops at the forefront. The...
Nearly 60 years ago, a President of the American Historical Association, Carl Becker said famously:Everyman his own historian. What he meant was that each human being understands the events surrounding his life from his/her individual perspective. The victim remembers an incident differently from the pertetrator. Hence historical memory is the stuff life and civilization is made of, and we must not tamper with History just to make a rhetorical point or two. Granted that there can be different...
Some years back, Fredrick Forsyth, the Dan Brown, of the 70's, wrote a book called Dogs of War. In this novel a group of mercennaries trasined by an American Company attempt to overthrow the Government of an African country by sending highly trained and armed gun slingers for hire from South Africa. How closely life imitates art can be gleaned by the fact that Sir Mark Tatcher, son of Dame Margret Tatcher, was convicted of just this crime:using mercenaries against the lawful government . The ...
In two days time the Electorate in UK will head for the polls. Tony Blair and his Labour Party will return to power with a much reduced Parliamentary majority. If the Conservatives are not able to benefit from the backlash of the Iraq War they have no one to blame but themselves. During the run-up to the War, when the Labour Party backbenchers were reluctant to endorse Blair's assessment of the situation in Iraq, the Conservatives bailed out the PM.. Having done that the Tories cannot now cl...
Cardinal Josef Ratzinger has been selected the Pope of the Roman Catholic denomination by his fellow cardinals. Being an arch conservative, he is probably the best man to succeed the late pope, John Paul II. The great American historian, David Goldhagen in his book the Moral Reckoning refers to this particular pope in one of his chapters. Even the meticulous research by this Princeton trained historian did not lead to the discovery of the singgular fact that Ratzinger spent his entire youth ...
Nearly 3 months after the elections in Iraq, the Government is yet to be formed. This fact alone must make supporters of the war in Iraq wonder what is going on there. The Western media, the embedded ones particularly, were eloquent in their parise of the Elections, as though the mere fact of holding the elections will bring peace and stability. In fact the elections have made thibngs much worse fro the Americans and their collaborators. The sectarian divide is increasing day by day. The poli...
The milling crowds around the Vatican says it all; a much revered religious figure is at the end of his earthly ministry. CNN is crying itself hoarse as if the Pope is not keeping his date with the Maker. Probably by the end of this day this great man may have died. The Carinals dressed in their red cassocks will meet in the Lateran Palace to elect a new pope, and in all probalility he will be an Italian. It is ironic that Church visitation is coming down drastically in USA and in Europe and...
Ms Terri Schaivo is no more. Early yesterday she died in Florida and in death she has achieved an iconic status that will live for a long long time. I admire her parents whi faught valiantly to keep her alive. The American Personal Law that allows the husband to take extremely important decisions relating to the life and death of the spouse needs to be reassesses as parents too have responibilities. The case was almost entirely the work of her husband Micheal who seems to have been quite cav...
The recent killing in the shools at Minnesota is only the latest in a long and dreary stream of killings. After each such massacre there is the ususal voive of reason and moderation asking for gun control. The sane voices are soon drowned by a cacophony of noises emanating fro the gun lobby. The time has come to move a constitutional ammendment to out law the sale of guna to any one under thwe age of 30. The guns sold must be registered at the AFT of the Federal Government. The sale of hand...
The parents of Ms Terri Shaivo are on perfectly sound legal and moral grounds when they say the they want their daughter to be kept alive. The wishes of the parents cannot be set aside just because the person concerned is not in a position to excersise her "will and judgement". Allowing a human being to die by the removal of the feeding tude ammounts to murder andthe US Congress has rightly stepped in to assert the right to life. It is unfortunate that the right to life has to be backed by a...
Even before the dust had settled on the Atlanta killing another horrific event took place. In a church a seeingly educated, educated suburban dwelling parishner pulled out an automatic weapon and killed 7 people before shooting himself. This event like the Atlanta Killings suggests that it is time to consider seriously a law against owning guns. The argument trotted out by the spokesmen of the NRA that the right to bear arms is a constitutional right is misplaced, because the Bill of Rights p...
Even before the dust had settled on the Atlanta killing another horrific event took place. In a church a seeingly educated, educated suburban dwelling parishner pulled out an automatic weapon and killed 7 people before shooting himself. This event like the Atlanta Killings suggests that it is time to consider seriously a law against owning guns. The argument trotted out by the spokesmen of the NRA that the right to bear arms is a constitutional right is misplaced, because the Bill of Rights p...
The spate of events in the USA, most importantly the senseless killing of the presiding judge at the circuit court at Atlanta,leads to one overwhelming conclusion:It is time to seriouly think of gun control. Of course, it nay be argued that the murder of Justice Barnes has nothing to do with gun control because the hand gun used in the crime was snatched from a police woman. This argument is a false one in that the easy availability of hand guns makes it possible for the fugitive Nicols to th...
George Orwell in his masterpiece called 1984 and his Politics and the English Language identified a new kind of cognitive disorder in the world: the inability of a so called thinking human being to understand the implications of his words. This is only symptomatic of a moral personality marinated in the politics of violence racism and in short sheer street smart thuggery. When men, women, and children are being killed for no reason except that a Governemnt sitting fatr away with a pile of wea...
In a recent article in the Washinton Post, BushJr was given an appropriate title: President of Fabricated Crises. Whenever the USA wants to flex its muscles in any part of the world a crisis is generated and acting on exaggerated inputs from field operatives a full fledged war is launched. We have seen the is Afghanistan, Iraq and now the President and his Secretary of State Rice are making familiar noises against Syria, Iran and North Korea. The recent assasination of Rafik Hariri has come ...