No wonder many of our young people are so daunted by today's global issues that they block them out, focussing instead on designer food and the antics of celebrities.

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See this page for links to articles on OpEdNEws that articulate both sides on the issues in the middle east. It is the goal of OpEdNews to air opinions from both sides to stretch the envelope of discussion and communication. Hate statements are not accepted. Discussions of issues and new ideas for solutions are encouraged. .

Long ago, there was a widespread consensus that Britain and its allies emerged from World War 2 with an enhanced moral stature. Tales of gutsy pilots pitting their Spitfires against the Luftwaffe served to nourish some of us through the wintry years of boarding school. A line of Western leaders from Winston Churchill to JFK exuded an aura of valour, integrity and pizzazz; despite their flaws, despite the sanitised memoirs. Then came Vietnam. And with it the realisation that all men are equal in the capacity to commit war crimes, no matter what their flag.

This is why noble leaders are vital. It is why the Geneva
Conventions matter. It is why a free press is exalted, though almost
extinct. It is why a 100 countries have joined the International Criminal Court, despite bullying and blackmail from the US (cutting off aid to around 40 friendly countries who refuse to immunise its troops from prosecution). Thuggery knows no boundaries, as the terror wars are teaching us, but we can sometimes see its face. It was John Bolton who pulled the US out of the Criminal Court in 2002, and it was John Bolton who stymied the UN's recent attempt to condemn Israel's assault on the civilians of Lebanon. There are many such faces at the pyramid's apex.

The tone of an era is shaped by its senior decision makers. The West is sinking into the cesspit under the weight of leaders who stink. It is why we are tongue-lashed by liars financed by oil billionaires. It is why elections are stolen. It is why our presidents and Prime Ministers promote democracy abroad and befoul it at home. It is why the West is bereft of moral authority and keeps backing wars that backfire. It is why Tony Blair has called for a "fundamental reappraisal of British and US foreign Policy". Too late Tony, by too many years and too many bodies. Nothing you say rings true; fly off to MurdochWorld®, where dancing to the madman's tune will fill the coffers.

Further insights on the other faces in the pyramid, see http://www.johnhowardpm.org

INNOVATION IN THE MILITARY

As the horrors of Qana flashed across screens, a ceremony
took place at the Pentagon's Hall of Heroes, where a "role model" officer was bidden farewell "with accolades" by 200 attendees. The army's vice chief of staff, General Richard Cody praised the retiring officer for "serving wherever and whenever" he was needed, most recently at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. Yes, cuddly Major General Geoffrey Miller was moving on. "The last five years have offered me the opportunity to help this nation win the Global War on Terror," Miller said, although "losing" the war is more
likely. General Cody described Miller as a "leader and an innovator",
which is hard to deny. Among his innovations were the famed porno pyramids of a modern major general ...

It is worth remembering that during the early stages of the Iraqi invasion, President Bush was asked for his reaction to TV footage of captured American POW's, and he said he expected them to be "treated humanely, just like we're treating the prisoners that we have captured, humanely". Bush warned that those who mistreat prisoners "will be treated as war criminals", but ring leader Miller ended up in the Hall of Heroes. And Bush rewarded his high profile torture enthusiast with the job of Attorney General.

Citizens of America, Britain and Australia now seem to accept that their democracies are acting like fascist states, though on tiptoe, not in goosestep. All three countries are united in their refusal to join the rest of the world in demanding an immediate end to Israel's onslaught on Lebanon, which is enough to condemn Bush, Blair and Howard in the eyes of the fair minded. What really goes on in the collective mind of this imperial trio, each one brilliantly equipped to claw his way to the top of the power-heap, while forgetting the lesson most people learnt at their mother's knee, that killing babies is wrong, that bombing civilians is a war crime? These three have bombed children in Kabul, bombed them in Baghdad, and now they're endorsing the bombing in Beirut. All three profess to be Christians. All three have shared prayer meetings. What is binding Blair to Bush so idiotically, in this matter of perpetual war? How does the insane belligerence of Rupert Murdoch's media tie in with their delusions?

In the context of current events in the Middle East, the quotes contained here are scary:
http://www.johnhowardpm.org/thefirethistime.pdf

CRACKING THE WALLS OF A FORTRESS

Since 9/11, the actions of all these leaders have ensured the opposite of what they pretend to want. A US friend remarks, "the fiddler on the roof that was Israel has turned into a madman with a missile launcher in his pocket". Whereas Ehud Olmert stated on 11/June/ 06, that "The IDF is the most moral army in the world - it does not and never has made a policy of targeting civilians." This was prior to the bombing of Qana and brings to mind the April 15/04 comment of Richard Armitage, then US Assistant
Secretary of State prior to the Abu Ghraib torture revelations:

"We are the most humane military in the world."

So humane is this army that it rushed its missiles to Tel Aviv, while
simultaneously claiming to care about civilians. There was "no doubt about the missile which killed all those children yesterday," writes Robert Fisk. "It came from the United States, and upon a fragment of it was written: "For use on MK-84 Guided Bomb BSU-37-B".

While emotion is often considered a turn-off in serious debate, it can crack the walls of a fortress. A clip currently circulating online, shows a CNN anchor interrogating Colonel Miri Eisen, 40, reputedly "one of Israel's most effective weapons in the media war ... plucked from the ranks of the IDF Intelligence Corps after demonstrating a unique talent at explaining and persuading". On this occasion, CNN departed from its traditional brief that viewers be "the first to know" ... and the last to understand. The anchorwoman pushed and the spin Colonel spun, "a Hezbollah rocket launcher was right next door to the building in Qana".
http://wakeupfromyourslumber.blogspot.com/2006/07/cnn-anchor-takes-israeli-spokeswoman.html

However, the Israel Defense Forces has changed its mind. "It now
appears that the military had no information on rockets launched from the site of the building, or the presence of Hezbollah men at the time".
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/745185.html

None of this stopped Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Dan
Gillerman, telling the UN Security Council that Qana was "a hub for
Hezbollah", and that "Israel had urged villagers to leave". For a start, as he well knew, residents had no means to leave. A Spanish
journalist in Qana, Monica Leiva, told Focus News, "There are no Hezbollah activists in the village of Qana. Israel is bombarding buildings and vehicles. There are only civilians here,"
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=138&ch=0&newsid=93149

Lies, spin, cruelty and greed; that's the mantra of our times.

AS I write, the IDF is attacking a hospital in the World Heritage city of
Tyre and ramping up the Lebanese civilian death toll, for which, employing the persuasive dexterity of Colonel Eisen, it will express regret. No wonder many of our young people are so daunted by today's global issues that they block them out, focussing instead on designer food and the antics of celebrities. Today's big media story is the rise in oil prices. The real story is the collapse of enlightened leadership in the West.

ENDS

http://www.richardneville.com.au

POST SCRIPT

• "There is almost no evidence that Bush won the election in Ohio", and much evidence that he and Cheney stole the race, as in 2000. "This is not an allegation but a fact, notwithstanding the establishment refusal to discuss it". Mark Crispin Miller, Prof of Media Studies, NUY).

• 10,000 tons of heavy fuel oil has leaked from the Jiyye power plant, due to repeated air strikes by Israeli warplanes. A third of the Lebanese coast is polluted. According to Environment Minister Yaacoub Sarraf, "Chances are our whole marine ecosystem facing the Lebanese shoreline is already dead. What is at stake today is all marine life in the Eastern Mediterranean". http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=74428

1945: IT TOOK US AWHILE TO LEARN THE TRUTH

In the Second World War, three months after the defeat of the German army in May 1945, Europe was at peace and Japan was on the verge of surrender. At this time, on August 6, US President Harry Truman announced that an "American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima, an important Japanese Army base", though he was well aware the target was a city of 400,000 inhabitants. Despite Truman's pledge that the US wanted to "avoid, as much as possible, the killing of civilians", the world's first Atomic bomb was detonated without warning 600 meters above the Shima hospital in the center of the city during morning rush hour. Between a quarter and a half of its people were instantly incinerated, and over a thousand died slow agonising deaths. However, General Grove assured Congress that nuclear radiation caused "no undue suffering – in fact, they say it is a very pleasant way to die". (On the eve of the Baghdad invasion George W Bush assured the world that Iraqi civilians would be spared "in every way we can"). Three days after bombing Hiroshima, the US dropped a nuclear bomb over the Roman Catholic cathedral in Nagasaki, with incredible effect, but for no apparent reason. The official July 1946 report on the Pacific air war by the US Strategic Bombing Survey concluded: "Japan would have surrendered even if Atomic bombs had not been dropped".

The day before obliterating Nagasaki, the allies signed the London Agreement, which made crimes against humanity punishable in an international court. Awkwardly, the fourth Hague Convention of 1907, had banned the bombardment of civilians. However, the American war crimes prosecutor, Telford Taylor, decided that since air bombardment had become a "recognised part of modern warfare", such acts had become "customary law". As historian Sven Linqvist points out: rather than ruling that the allies – "especially the allies" – had committed this kind of war crime, "the American prosecutor declared the law had been rendered invalid by the actions of the allies". (See A History of Bombing by Sven Lindqvist, Granta Books, London, 2001)

http://www.richardneville.com.au/journal/2004/journal200405.html

Authors Bio:
Richard Neville has been a practicing futurist since 1963, when he launched the countercultural magazine, Oz, which widened the boundaries of free speech on two continents. He has written several books, including Playpower (71), the bio of a global serial killer (79), his sixties memoir, Hippie Hippie Shake (95) and his latest handbook of social change, Footprints of the Future. A social commentator and a professional futurist with a sharp tongue, Richard is based in Australia, where he continues to stir the possum.
He co-founded a futurist oriented socio-political website: http://www.homepagedaily.com -which aims to be the first global student newspaper.