BBC Question Time on 9/11

Here is the BBC Question Time about 9/11 (aired September 13, 2001) :

You may have heard mention of it or seen it at the time. It is … interesting. The BBC director general at the time said of it :

 he “would like to apologise to the viewers who were offended by it”.

He added that it was an inappropriate programme to broadcast live just two days after the suicide attacks on America, and should have been recorded and edited.
…
The BBC’s Media Correspondent, Nick Higham, said there was a recognition in the corporation that the audience could have been more representative of wider opinion.

Besides the shouting and jeering from the audience, there are a few points I’d like to highlight. Note the number of people (including the panelists) who attribute their own hobbyhorse as the cause of 9/11. Also, note some curious rhetorical techniques on display.

At about 21:29 (in the first clip), a guy says American & British aircraft flying over the skies of Iraq and Yugoslavia have done so in defense of Kurds, Iraqi Shia and muslims in Kosovo and is promptly jeered and shouted down. The counter arguments seems to be “You have no idea!”,  the idea that the only acceptable way to frame it is as killing muslims and that asserting things repeatedly makes it true.

At about 21:25 Yasmin Alibhai-Brown says to applause “I have been stunned by the way Americans are so shocked at how many people really truly detest them around the world.”

Speaking for myself, I don’t care if someone detests Americans. Oh, imagine the burden it must be to forever be wondering who a majority of Namibians consider to be their Super-Best-Friend-Forever. Treating global politics like high school cliques really doesn’t seem like the best way to determine policies.

Below the fold is parts 2 & 3 of the video and a transcript.

Why the desire to pull the troops out of Iraq in the first place?

*posted first on Friday Feb. 10, here*

In the Australian today:

NO sooner did President Barack Obama welcome home American troops from Iraq and laud that country’s stability and democracy than an unprecedented wave of violence across Baghdad and elsewhere revealed the severity of Iraq’s political crisis.

Unfortunate, yet hardly surprising, even to the most casual of observers.

And whilst I can understand (yet not agree with) the Left’s position not to send troops into Iraq in the first place – an argument, largely moot, for another day – what I don’t understand is their fervish desire to pull the troops out.

It always smacked of idealism, ideology, rather than hard-nosed practicality.

After all, what was so bad with having a US troop presence there to help maintain Iraq’s fragile democratic stability?

One could argue that I am biased because a) I am centre-right politically and b) because I live in South Korea, a nation that has had a US troop presence – some 37,000  28,000 or so currently – since the armistice between North and South Korea and have seen what a permanent US troop presence looks like.

I am happy to accept those labels and can gladly tell you that such a presence ain’t that bad.

By and large,  US bases in Korea – and Japan for that matter – haven’t been a problem.

Sure, issues pop up from time to time, but if one looks at the big picture, then a strong US presence here can only be seen as a good thing, a safe option, a pretty darn good insurance policy against North Korea trying anything major on.

Almost 60 years we’ve had US troops over here without any major problems. In fact, many major problems (a full-scale Nork attack comes to mind) have arguably been averted thanks to this presence.

So, why the rush to leave Iraq essentially free of any US military  before even a decade is up and before, as is clear now, the job is done?

OK, so perhaps it’s a bit like comparing apples and oranges. US troops in Korea, aside from those stationed at the DMZ, aren’t on active duty as they were in Iraq.

However, it’s not a completely dissimilar situation. Perhaps a good analogy would be to compare mandarins and oranges.

US troops not only provided safety and stability in the fledgling democracy that is Iraq – a country still steeped with sectarian and tribal rivalries – but surely they also provided a deterrence to anybody or any groups who want to destabilise the nation.

What takes years to build can take mere seconds to destroy, and I fear a lot of hard work is being undone on the whim of a flawed, feel-good, ideology.

So why?

The only practical reason that I can see for Obama pulling his troops out of Iraq is that with an Iranian confrontation looming which includes action needed in Syria, Iraq frankly isn’t important enough any more or at best, an impractical option for a potentially over-stretched military.

Of course, Obama – a man of the progressive Left – can’t actually come out and say that but it is reasonably well-known to those who don’t just get their news from the MSM that Obama is actually more of a war-time president than Bush was, having committed more troops to both Iraq and Afghanistan, and for a longer period of time.

So whilst the MSM might play along with the “bringing the troops home” narrative, the evidence indicates this simply isn’t the case.

Some 20,000 marines, seamen and air crews from half a dozen countries, a US nuclear aircraft carrier strike group and three US Marine gunship carriers are practicing an attack on a fictitious mechanized enemy division which has invaded its neighbor. It is the largest amphibian exercise seen in the West for a decade, staged to simulate a potential Iranian invasion of an allied Persian Gulf country and a marine landing on the Iranian coast. Based largely on US personnel and hardware, French, British, Italian, Dutch, Australian* and New Zealand military elements are integrated in the drill.
Bold Alligator went into its operational phase Monday, Feb. 6, the same day as a large-scale exercise began in southern Iran opposite the Strait of Hormuz. This simultaneity attests to the preparations for a US-Iranian showdown involving Israel behind the words on Feb. 5 of US President Barack Obama (“I don’t think Israel has decided whether to attack Iran”) and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Feb. 3 (“The war itself will be ten times as detrimental to the US.”).

(*BTW, I don’t recall Aussie PM Gillard highlighting that one.)

And this:

As the US and Israel carried on bickering over the right time to strike Iran’s nuclear sites, their war preparations continued apace. debkafile’s military sources report that flight after flight of US warplanes and transports were to be seen this week cutting eastward through the skies of Sinai on their way to Gulf destinations, presumably Saudi Arabia, at a frequency not seen in the Middle East for many years.

Add into this mix reports that China will reportedly help Saudi Arabia build a nuclear bomb, and that both China and India have started paying Iran for its oil in gold thus helping thwart current US/UN sanctions (more of which were recently thwarted by Russia and China), then we see a stage set for a showdown and we see the reality that rhetoric aside, Obama won’t be bringing many troops home at all.

To someone who doesn’t know any better, it’s as if Russia, India, and China – all wannabe first chickens to the trough – are ganging up on America.**

PS Who wouldn’t love to be a fly on the wall listening in to what the US is really saying about China? Their ever-expanding use of soft power is in many ways, stuffing it all up for America. China must surely be becoming an ever-increasing pain in the neck.

This leaves Australia in an interesting position. Our main export partner is China. Our main ally is the US. We send China our goodies to help them get rich and rival America. We practice shooting our guns with America to help keep America on top.

And yet China and America are also so deep in each other’s pockets. America buys China’s goods. China buys America’s debt.

Fun times.

** I highly recommend reading The Lucifer Principle by Howard Bloom. Part of the book talks about the pecking order of nations.

So which one?

Which Republican presidential nominee?

Having just spent an hour or so watching the New Hampshire GOP Republican debate, having gleaned various tidbits over the internet since a while back, I can honestly say I don’t know.

Yet.

In comments at that link, Ron Paul’s supporters come across as a tad too fervent, as does Paul himself. He just comes across as a bit whiney. Quick to complain about a problem but a bit wishy washy with any solutions.

Romney arguably won, but he comes off as Obama-lite+religion. He’s big government but I will say he’s tending to own his opponents. He does look presidential and has the establishment’s backing… not necessarily a good thing when up against Obama who REALLY has the Establishment’s backing and REALLY (at least) talks presidential (except here where he sounds about as formidable as Julia Gillard).

New video from the makers of “We Con the World” – Guns, Guns Guns! #flotilla

If you liked the Flotilla Choir in We Con the World last year, you’ll want to see Latma’s latest offering, the Audacity of Dopes band with Guns, Guns, Guns! 

An encore of last year’s Flotilla Choir masterpiece:

(via Big Peace)

It’s not Godwin’s unless it’s an *inappropriate* analogy

At Andrew Bolt’s, but bears re-blogging:

“I’m sorry, but the fascist analogy must now be drawn“

Bolt comments: [all links added by me for the benefit of those not familiar with these themes]

I never dreamed I’d live in a country in which Jewish businesses were boycotted and blockaded.

The shame. The utter shame.

But then I’d never dreamed, either, that I’d be taken to court for expressing my opinion. Or that a news organisation would be denied a government contact for being political unsympathetic. Or that news outlets would be banned by government ministers for asking basic questions. Or that academics could protest against free speech.

What the hell is happening here?

UPDATE: Flashback to Melbourne 2009 (via Nilk) … it’s not like they’re being subtle, people:  “Nazis Needed”

.

Andrew Klavan’s One-State Solution for the Middle East

In an effort to bring peace to the Middle East, President Barack Obama has proposed that Israel should return to its 1967 borders in exchange for being annihilated by its enemies.  PJTV‘s Andrew Klavan has a better idea:

So. Much. Win.

Tweet of the Day

O, Canada!

Channel 7’s Mark Riley Reacts Badly To Accusation That He Still Beats His Wife

Or, as Colonel Robert Neville says, “What’s good for the goose is good for the slander.”

No, really.

The latest terror round-up

Let’s start off with Tony Blair noting that the war on terror has left too many Muslims thinking we’re out to get them. Of course, that’s not the case, but is it really such a surprise the West is taking a closer look at Islam in an effort to understand why so many terrorists are Muslim?

We note that two Israeli soldiers have been convicted of using a Palestinian boy as a human shield. Does the same kind of scrutiny occur in the Palestinian territories when their folk do the same (and on a much larger scale)?

And speaking of pricks who use civilians as human shields, it’s good to hear the Taliban, thanks largely to the surge and all our fine soldiers, is “getting an absolute arse-kicking”. Indeed, they’ve been decimated.

Cheney. I knew it!

Don’t ask me how I know. Probably the same way you do. You can sense it, right? Feel it?

I knew that slimey Cheney SOB was involved in 9/11. How involved is anyone’s guess, but that’s not the point. He was involved.

The troof is out there… well at least if you’re mum turned activist Cindy Sheehan.

Seriously, would it be better to despise or pity her? Flogging her dead son’s memory around like that still, in order to keep pounding out the redundant, irrelevant dribble of far Left groups who so callously took advantage of a once pround but then grieving parent is, either way you look at it, not a good look.

Israel’s shame

Go here to register your complaint against the Jewish state.

H/T Bolta

Meanwhile, gay Spaniards prefer terrorists over homosexuals.

UPDATE

And it looks like hardly any aid was on that flotilla to Gaza to begin with, and none was on the Mavi Mamara. Conspicuously absent was medical aid – what Gaza really needs.

H/T Aussie Dave

*cross-posted

The failest fail since failtown burned down.

That paper of record the Gruinaid (Guardian), has come up with a set of pictures of a protest held in Palestine.

But its the lamest concept in protests ever. If you thought giant paper mache heads were the in thing then daaahlink thats just so last season…

So without further ado I present the most lame protest convergence idea in history.

The AVATAR/PALESTINE protest convergence….

I present AVARETARD.

 

An Avaretard protester climbing a "blockade" into Israel? It would help for consistency if the other protesters appeared to be following him, you know over where the other cameras are pointing and theres smoke plumes.

 

If only hed leave the plastic bag on....

 

Fortunately starvation of oxygen to the brain is unlikely to affect this tool...

 

Aieee!!!! I die, I die!! stagger stagger, crawl crawl....gurgle...

 

I actually feel pity for the poor old dude in front there...

 

Theres a few more piccies at the Guardian link, but I think I can safely say the lamest protest of 2010 has already been found.

US Citizen? Sign the petition against cap n’ trade

If you’re a man-made global warming sceptic, or if you think the science perhaps isn’t settled, or if you are worried about a potential communist world government, or if you are worried about giant non-sovereign world taxes being imposed on all of us, or if you think the governments of this world already have too much power, or even if you’re not convinced yet either way, and don’t want a road paved that there’s no turning back on in just two short weeks, then sign this petition.

SIGN HERE

People literally right now are speaking at Copenhagen presenting the other side to this man-made CO2-driven man-made climate change/global warming argument. They will also be speaking tomorrow. Time is of the essence.

UPDATE

This post differs from the original. It came from watching the latest Monckton videos (the end of Part 4 of which part 1 was posted by 1.6 below), about a GLOBAL problem – but unfortunately only US citizens can sign that petition. Hence, first update removed, replaced with this.

Then why bother?

President Barack Obama’s administration says a July 2011 target date to begin withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan is not set in stone.

Ahmadinejad, Chaves “together to the end”

One can only hope, when it comes to them, it’s soon.

Paying Unassimilated Muslim Immigrants to Leave

The tide has shifted. Even many liberal-left Democrats are beginning to tire of government enforced, “cultural diversity” when the subjects in question are Muslim immigrants who refuse to assimilate, and do nothing but breed on the dole and threaten their hosts with violence… and often enough, act out on those threats.

Sweden, a country I love – OK, I really love the women – and have lived in, is paying the return trip for asylum seekers who have been turned down. Note that the countries listed are all Muslim countries, that a higher percentage are now being refused, and that applications are also dropping as the people back home get word that the public teat is running dry.

Denmark is going that one better, as they are paying unassimilated Muslim residents about $20K US to… ahem… get the fuck out. The something that is rotten in Denmark is the unassimilated Muslims, and the natives want them gone.

Expect this to spread. Peace-loving citizens of western nations – who will readily self-identify as libertarians if the terms are properly defined for them – are fed up with this malignant ideology parading as a religion, and they bloody well want their countries back.

Here in the US, the solo terror attack by Nidal Hasan is being called a terror attack in newspapers that were formerly allergic to the word. Deniers are being shouted down, and even their hearts aren’t into their arguments anymore.

Not only that, but there are now calls for the abjectly ridiculous Clinton-era gun ban for military bases and posts to be rescinded. This is major big progress. I grew up a military brat on Air Force bases in the 60’s and 70’s: My dad carried a .357 revolver around with him whenever he was flying, and nobody ever gave it a second thought. It’s a military base for fuck’s sake! Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines are supposed to be fucking goddamned ARMED! Expect this to change, and soon. Even lilly-livered generals don’t like to be caught with their pants around their ankles while their unarmed soldiers are mowed down by lunatics.

There will also be an end to this kind of malfeasant shit. Hasan’s superiors wondered if he was a bleeding psychotic nut-case, but nobody wanted to take the heat for accusing a Muslim of being a danger. A hearty fuck that to that noise. That’s gone soon as well, and three cheers.

Westerners are long-suffering because we’re civilized, and we’d like more of the world to share in our prosperity and standard of living, but if you invite a dog into your house and he refuses to stop shitting on the carpet, well, you’ll rid yourself of the cur sooner or later, no matter how much you wish he’d shape up.

That’s what’s happening now: Muslims have been shitting on the carpets of western countries too long, and the owners of those carpets are tired of cleaning up after them. We’d like to walk on those carpets barefoot without worrying about stepping in a pile of Muslim shit.

Perhaps in another few centuries Muslims will be ready for civilization, but they aren’t now.

Send them back to their bat-shit filled caves and their flea-infested sand dunes. That’s where they belong.

Let the Muslims shit on their own carpets.

Stupefying WTF: Ahmadinejad is Jewish!

In what has to be the Mother of All WTF Moments, it has now been revealed that – this really is beyond comprehension – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was Born a Jew!

“A photograph of the Iranian president holding up his identity card during elections in March 2008 clearly shows his family has Jewish roots.

A close-up of the document reveals he was previously known as Sabourjian – a Jewish name meaning cloth weaver.

The short note scrawled on the card suggests his family changed its name to Ahmadinejad when they converted to embrace Islam after his birth.”

Wow.

UPDATE: My instincts were right, it seems, but I gave in to the sensationalism: It was just too freaky to be true.

That actually makes my frame of reference for reality a more secure thing. LOL!

Will Israel attack Iran soon?

Well, not so much ‘attack’ as take out their nukes and some other military targets.

Lubos Motl’s post, here, suggests that it’s highly likely (probably shortly after the latest UN junket) and ‘kind of a good idea’…

Agreed. Especially after Ahmadinnerjacket’s disgusting rant at the UN.

H/T Breitbart and TT over at Blair’s.

Iranian bastards!

Not the people, the bloody government, if this report is true where does the governments legitimacy come from?

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246296541275&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

As the Iranian authorities warned the opposition on Tuesday that they would tolerate no further protests over the disputed June 12 presidential elections, a report emerged of the hangings of six supporters of defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Not one of this six, no this lady was hung for killing a man trying to rape her.

More below the fold.

Hat tip to Atlas Shrugged

Best Iran Protest Roundup: Tom Gross

I’ve been posting inane, funny stuff, mostly because other blogs are covering Iran so well. I’m just not equipped to do that. One of the best one-stop shopping roundups I’ve come across is at Tom Gross’ Mideast Media Analysis. Lots of video and the best analysis out there, IMO.

You could spend an hour there, and you should.

For the troops

Nilk, Kae and BOAB have started a blog for the Aussie troops. Sending care packages. It’s called Ocean, Sky and Khaki. It’s on our Blairite blogroll under “For the troops”.

H/T Paco

Baghdad flower show

What was that about Operation Iraqi Freedom being a failure, doomed from the start, a mistake?

IRAQ is holding its first-ever flower festival…

The Left has to face it. They were dead wrong.

How many rockets can you buy for five billion bucks?

As if the international community raising/pledging $5,200,000,000 for Hamas to buy more rockets to reconstruct their territory after Israel finally took action against Hamas’ daily rocket attacks wasn’t enough to make you feel ill, resident Internet idiot, Damian Lataaaan still isn’t happy.

It is cynically being used to manipulate a series of political outcomes that will benefit only Israel, not least of which will be the hopeful sidelining of Hamas as a political power in the Gaza.

First, Lataaaan has no actual evidence of this. Second, why would this be such a bad thing anyway?

Let’s face it. If Hamas really gave a rats about their people, then they wouldn’t use them as human shields or use money desperately needed for schools and hospitals to buy yet more rockets and the like.

But of course, Lataaaan would sympathise with a bunch of folks who tell their children to kill their neighbours. Fuckwit.

Just WTF do you want, Lataan?

Chastizing Obama over his approach to Iran because he’s being to harsh on those nice Iranians? Sympathising with a government that tells its children to hate?

Lataan needs help.

Saudi Scholar: Biofuel is Sinful

Sheikh advises ethanol biofuel use prohibited by Islam:

DUBAI (AlArabiya.net)

A prominent Saudi scholar warned youths studying abroad of using ethanol or other fuel that contains alcohol in their cars since they could be committing a sin, local press reported Thursday.

Sheikh Mohamed Al-Najimi, member of the Saudi Islamic Jurisprudence Academy, based his statement on a saying by the prophet that prohibited all kinds of dealings with alcohol including buying, selling, carrying, serving, drinking, and manufacturing, the Saudi newspaper Shams reported Thursday.

Saudi and Muslim youth studying abroad would violate the prohibition if they used bio fuel, he said, since it “is basically made up of alcohol.”

Cue outraged Greenies with giant papier-mâché Mohamed heads?

h/t Jon Ham

UPDATE:  Just thinking more on this…  Yesterday I had a blood test down at the Path Lab and the nurse used ~~GASP~~ an  alcohol swab to prepare the site.  WTF are Good Muslims supposed to use – goat saliva?

Fat chance, Ahmadinejad

From the Times Online.

Iran’s hardline president appeared to hint at a softening of relations towards the US today, claiming he was “ready for dialogue” if President Obama changed American policy.

And just kind of changes is he looking for?

“It is clear that the change [by Obama] must be fundamental and not tactical,” the Iranian leader said.

Fundamental, eh? Don’t think so, pal.

Following those comments, Mr Ahmadinejad set tough conditions for any breakthrough, demanding that Washington withdraws its troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and that it apologises for what he said were decades of US “crimes” against Iran.

Tell him he’s dreamin’.

How about this one, Iran? Quit your nuke program. Like the hand Obama is extending to you, do the same towards Israel. Voila, you might get your ‘breakthough’. Hardly likely, though, with Israel’s Likud party as front-runner for the elections today and with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni heading ‘number two’ party, Kadima. Well, we’ll see. She does favour a two-state solution to the Israel/Palestine conundrum.

Oh, and Jules Crittenden, in an Obama wrap up of sorts, notes the POTUS isn’t unaware of Iran’s support for Hamas and Hezbollah, either.

Did the president of the United States actually intend in his first press conference to kiss mullah ass? To his credit, Obama managed to summon up a mention of Iran’s support for terrorism and its pursuit of nuclear weapons. He specifically indicated that Iran’s support for Hezbollah and Hamas is not appreciated, a not insignificant observation. He said that when his administration holds face-to-face talks with the murderous, terrorism-supporting, nuke-seeking mullahs, who desire to dominate the region, he’ll let them know that support for terrorism and pursuit of nukes are not acceptable. Unclear about the regional domination part. I’m sure the mullahs, when they have their big primetime moment on equal terms with the Great Satan, will be very impressed, but will have their own thoughts about all that. Obama didn’t indicate how he intends to impress the unacceptability on them, though he said the United States must use all the tools at its disposal, including diplomacy. That may suggest the soft talk comes with a big stick, though a big stick you don’t care to use is basically kindling.

Methinks the mullahs ain’t gonna be happy. But at least the media will probably be onside this time ’round.