A Convenient Truth » About the film

A Convenient Truth » About the film

There seems to be a remarkable degree of consensus on this thread that the "War on Terror" is a bogus war.

Yes, 9/11, M11, July 7th and the other attacks were outrages/atrocities/tragedies, as were the civilian deaths caused by the American backlash. Yes, we need the effective intelligence and police oprations to arrest any groups who want to bomb us. No, we do not need the limitations on our civil liberties that UK and US Governments are imposing in the name of WoT. No, we do not need the ridiculous military expenditure of the WoT. We should exit Iraq, and buy the Afghan opium crop for medical use instead of trying to stamp out the illicit opium trade.

Is that much pretty consensual (except for Iron Mike of course)?

If so, next question: what are we all going to do about it?

For Peace

Richard

Agony in Somalia

I received this email today from the Chairperson of the Center for Peace and Democracy in Somalia. The TFG he refers to is the nominal government of Somalia.

The ongoing agony of Somalia numbs the brain. What can we do? I have no idea, apart from starve the area of ammunition ... get control of the sea back from the pirates...get aid in by land...freeze the assets of the warlords...force the Ethiopians to withdraw...I have no idea.


I am once again writing to you but only reporting another shocking and negative incident from Mogadishu . I am afraid my colleagues and friends around the world would read me as a pessimist who always reports only the bad parts of things; I am not really that kind of a person, but there is no good news to report from Mogadishu nowadays.

The humanitarian situation in the southern and central Somalia only deteriorated for the past few weeks. Many more thousands of innocent civilians have been displaced and hundreds more killed with thousands wounded and huge properties lost in the war. Still corps of innocent civilian’s caught under fire were lying in the streets and in houses in southern Mogadishu .

People in Mogadishu witnessed the past couple of days the fiercest fighting in months in this year. This month together with April and March of the same year will be recognized as the worst months in human rights violations in Somalia as a whole. Together these months more than half a million persons have been displaced from their residents and estimated two thousand or more killed with an uncountable wounded. Always the worst affected are the civilians who were already so desperate with hunger and diseases.

Once again the TFG forces broke into CPD office in Mogadishu and this time they have taken out two of CPD staff members (Ali Farah Mohammed and Amir Hashi Ibrahim) at the office. This shocking incident happened three days ago and so far no we do not knows the whereabouts of the kidnapped staff. I have tried to reach members of the government, particularly the interior ministry but no signs of our staff have been found yet. The main gate of our office in Mogadishu was broken, some equipments taken by the TFG forces and the rest looted by freelance militias and other opportunists around. The same happened to a number of business and non profit organizations in Mogadishu .

Now then we are trying to move the remainder of CPD office equipment and documents to a safe place probably somewhere in Lower Shabelle - Merka is our main target for relocation at the moment. Shabelle radio which is also close to CPD office has been broken into and been shut down by the TFG forces and even though some staff members were taken primarily they were later released. We are running in the worst dilemmas of our time and it is not yet comprehensible to us how to handle this mysterious event. However, we will be using all possible mechanisms available to enable the release of our staff in a timely. Any suggestions and recommendations on what to do next would be a good asset for us at this critical moment.

Every body is suffering in Mogadishu and no one is left immune from the ongoing crises and violence. However, as of humanitarian and human rights organization we will not be abstracted from helping the needy and helpless suffering communities in southern and central Somalia . We are all being made IDPs by the current awful situation in Mogadishu but we will not give up helping the vulnerable communities and at least become their voices to the outer world.

On the other hand, thousands more displaced families arrived at Galgadud region with huge number of them in Adado town for the past couple of days. Thousands more are reported on the way from Mogadishu . This is only making the situation of the already desperate communities in Adado worse and needier. The influx of IDPs to Lower Shabelle region has also become uncountable.

I am once again asking the international community particularly the US, UK, EU and other governments involved as well as the humanitarian and human rights organizations to do all they can to help protect the civilians under fire. The civilians in Mogadishu are now asking themselves whether they are inferior and second degree humans. We are shocked by the muteness of the world powers from the genocide in the making in Mogadishu . What is the hidden agenda behind this muteness? Doesn't the world have a responsibility to stop such atrocities?

Even those who have been displaced and made homeless by the fighting in Mogadishu cannot be reached by humanitarian assistance? I hope time will come when all perpetrators will be held accountable for their actions and deeds. Why the world is only crying against the violence’s in Darfur and Burma where the worst is happening in Somalia ? Are the Somalis - particularly civilians in Mogadishu second degree to those other communities around the world or no one cares what is happening? The answer of all these questions lies with YOU?

I, however, have a responsibility as a civil society activist to call for international assistance. Please for those of you who have the power and the responsibility; try to act as fast as possible and stop the killings of Mogadishu civilians. The TFG, the Ethiopians and the insurgent/resistance militias have a responsibility to protect the civilians and restrain them and preserve the international humanitarian laws and regulations but it is all clear to us that none of these actors cares the consequences of their deadly actions. Both the TFG and the Ethiopian forces in Mogadishu tried all they could to silence the free media and the civil society organizations in Mogadishu .

I think time has come to advocate for the dying innocent civilians in Somalia and we all have a responsibility to take prompt and meaningful action against that?

Best Regards

Ali Said Omar Ibrahim, Chairperson

Center for Peace and Democracy (CPD)

oD: The Riddle of the Christian Gunman

Abdulsaidka writes:

"maybe the name of the gunman is Christian, you didn't clarify what he was and what is your point in that please?"

No, the paper definitely did not mean that the gunman's name was Christian, or Brian or John.

The headline meant he was a gunman from the "Christian" social group in Beirut - a Phalangist of some kind I guess. (this was a few years ago mind; not now. I do not want to start another war). He was shooting people, and he killed 9. He was probably on a roof. I cannot remember more, but there are three main possibilities:

1 Maybe it was in a gunfight with other gunmen, in which case he was just being a hero,
2 Maybe he was shooting at the man who shot at him, and killed the man who shot him but also killed another 8 innocent citizens. That would make him a soldier, but not a very good one. The 8 civilians he killed would be called "collateral" in Iron Mike's language. At least it would be if he was an American official soldier. If the gunman was against American interests, it would be called some kind of "terrorist atrocity" maybe. Anyway, it happens all the time, especially with bombs.

3 Or maybe all 9 were civilians, so in that case he was a terrorist, by definition (if he was doing it for political purposes).

I said he could not be a Christian, because he was killing people. On second thoughts, I am being too "judgmental" (that means passing judgments on other people. It is a failing of mine). I meant in the sense of Christian as someone who tries to follow Christ.

I believe that Christ would not shoot people with guns, torture them, drop bombs on them or any bad stuff like that. I do not call myself a Christian, but I do try to follow Christ on this point at least.

(I am not very good at it in that I get angry easily, but I do not hit people, but maybe I would if I had had my country taken away from me, though I hope that I would join people like OneVoice instead of killing).

Many people who do call themselves "Christians" would believe as I do that Christ would not shoot people with guns, torture them, drop bombs on them or any bad stuff like that, but they say it is OK for them to do it.

They justify it by saying that
they had to in self defence, or that
the other side made them do it or that
they were going to bomb us in 45 minutes, or that
they are trying to get hold of nuclear weapons,

(but never because they wanted the oil under their sand).

In the scientific term used to describe ego defence mechanisms, they "rationalise" their motives, to reconcile in their minds the unbridgeable difference between what Jesus Christ said about loving their neighbour, and what they are in fact doing.

I hope I am making sense to you here.

So when I thought he was not a very "Christian" gunman, I meant that he was not being very loving to the 9 he killed, nor to their families and friends. I was saying he was being unChristian. But in saying this I was being unChristian, by judging him to be not a Christian, I was being unChristian myself maybe.

I love the music of Bob Marley. He said, "We're not here to judge the good from bad, but to do things thing that are right". That is a quote from the New Testament.

(He also said, "One good thing about music, when it hits you feel no pain").

It is not our work to be saying this person is good and that person is bad, and especially not to say "this man is not doing good" when we are doing even worse things ourself. Jesus made himself very clear on that point.

I hope I have cleared up what I meant about the Christian gunman.

Salaam

Richard

PS I am pleased that God, Allah, El, and YHVH are all different names for the same great Being. Truly the One has many many names. Almost as many names as there are groups of people, but that's OK. It's natural, we have lots of different languages, the Great Spirit gets lots of different names.