'Bin Laden' offers Europe truce

[Spicy]

According to this morning's news, it was by no means clear whether the truce actual covers Britain, although we are of course part of Europe. What worries me is that we have gone hand in hand with America into Iraq and could still be tarred with the same brush. It is too soon in my view to relax our security measures just because a terrorist lulls us into a false sense of security.

 

[Eastleigh Seagull]

Bin Laden's sworn and stated goal is a Muslim caliphate across the world and any offer of peace must mean that his organisation is in the deepest possible shit.

With regard to ties between the Bin Laden family and Bush's family then yes they do exist but Osama was thrown out of his family who happen to run one of the world's largest construction business' and it is relaly only one for the conspiracy theorists that two rich families have in the past happened to have business dealings.

By the way Perth - America has withdrawn all of its troops from Saudi Arabia. Could you explain how major terrorist attacks in Bali and Jakarta and Turkey fit in with your 'only bombed because they were allied with the US' theory. I just cant believe that people can be so blinded by the anti-Bush feeling that they are more inclined to believe the world's worst fanatical terrorist above anything else - let alone want to negotiate and effectively surrender to terrorist pressure.

 

[Lammy]

Yeah America are really nasty people. Do you think they deserved Sept 11th?

Who are you talking to?

 

[smudge]

People in general

 

[Row Z Creased Shirt]

Yeah America are really nasty people. Do you think they deserved Sept 11th?

Of course they didn't deserve it. As always the civilian populations pay the price for their leaders actions (ie the Iraqis paying the price for saddams rule while he did not suffer at all under the santions regime, or israeli cafe goers and and bus users under Sharon), and these so called leaders will never take repsonsibility for the decisions they make.

I am loathe to turn this into anti-us rant, but if your country had been invaded by the US, your home blown up the US, your family murdered by the US or murdered by a government supported by the US, or your hospitals have been starved of essential medicines by sanctions etc then you may just have a different view on the US.

It does not neccessarily follow that you or I have to agree with their analysis of world affairs, but to not recognise how the actions of the US and the west in general have had a negative impact on the lives of millions of people in the mid-east, latin america and asia.

As we sit comfortably behind our keyboards I think we can all be reasonably sure that Europe and the US are unlikely to be successfully invaded. We are at a serious of risk of civilian populations suffering at the hands of lunatic terrorists (you can be pretty sure Blair or Bush wont effing pay). But compared to the millions of people affected by western economic and miltary policies around the world we'll be ok. However at the same time we seem to think is ok to visit this destruction on other peoples as we can tell them how to live.

 

[Dr Schnell]

Yeah America are really nasty people. Do you think they deserved Sept 11th?

I presume this was just a throw away remark. If not I'm sure there's room for you in the Al Qaeda organisation

 

[Josky]

Agreed but its unlikely that either Lammy or Perth Seagull are terrorists

Genius.

 

[Lammy]

Bin Laden's sworn and stated goal is a Muslim caliphate across the world and any offer of peace must mean that his organisation is in the deepest possible shit.

With regard to ties between the Bin Laden family and Bush's family then yes they do exist but Osama was thrown out of his family who happen to run one of the world's largest construction business' and it is relaly only one for the conspiracy theorists that two rich families have in the past happened to have business dealings.

By the way Perth - America has withdrawn all of its troops from Saudi Arabia. Could you explain how major terrorist attacks in Bali and Jakarta and Turkey fit in with your 'only bombed because they were allied with the US' theory. I just cant believe that people can be so blinded by the anti-Bush feeling that they are more inclined to believe the world's worst fanatical terrorist above anything else - let alone want to negotiate and effectively surrender to terrorist pressure.

It is my opinion that the only attack in recent times conducted by Bin Laden has been 9/11 (or 11/9 as it should be). All subsequent bombings/attacks I believe have been conducted by extreamists in or around hose countries who want in on the act. Most of those bombings were carried out by local people. The reason they were done there is because they had no means of getting th America or 'the west' to carry out there attacks. So in the case of the Bali bombing a holiday resort packed with westerns was chosen as a target. Easy meat as it were.

Whilst I don't agree with what Bin Laden is doing (I think it is sick in the extream) you have to ask yourself, what is driving so many people to such hatred of the West. It is here that you will find ways in which to address the problems. America likes to fight fire with fire as it makes a very visible and public statement to the voters that they are doing something. When all they are doing is fanning the flames. Whilst Saddam was obviously not a nice person, was it really a good idea to invade them after 9/11? Another reason for some arabs to take up arms against the west. Is it really a good idea to anounce to the world that you are firmly behing the Israelis against the Arabs? These are all actions undertaken by America so that they can be seen to be taking a tough stance against terrorism. It is a little pathetic in my book. America (and Europe) needs to rise above it as it were. Put down their arms and discuss the issues that has caused such violent hatred of the west. Often America sees somthing it doesn't understand and fears it. Communism is a classic example. The thinking behind communism is a very beautiful idea. Everyone is equal. No one is more important than anyone else. However, this does not take into account human nature and it back fires somewhat. Greed is a major catalyst of this. My advise is live and let live. Different cultures have different ways of doing things. Often things that our own countries have done in the past. Beheadings, torture, genecide. These are all things that the west have been guilty of a one time or another. No one invaded us because of it. We developed out of it ourselves. Another problem with these arab states has been the sudden influx of huge amounts of money generated by oil. I dictatorship is bad enough but a dictator with a shed load of money is very scary indeed!

 

[smudge]

So flying planes into buildings was purely anti American, it didn't widen any Middle East conflict making the world an even more dangerous place. The bombs in Madrid showed me that the terrorists threaten anyone who has ties with the U.S.
Face facts, the U.S are our biggest allies, this makes us a big target. I'm not too keen on Mr Bush & hope he loses the election, but the terrorists won't change, they'll still kill & maim innocent people.
I can't see an end to any of it; I wish it would though.

 

[Pavilionaire]

How is Bin Laden in a position to offer a deal to anybody when he lives in a cave and his best friends are Mr. Mouse and Mr. Spider?

The only long-term objective is to get the UN to manage the whole situation in Iraq - peacekeeping, elections etc - and get the coalition forces out. Such a move would render Bin Laden's proposal obsolete.

Once the UN have built up a bit of credibility they can them go into Israel and perform a similar function.

We are all doomed while we have this U.S.A / U.K / Israel vs Muslim / Third World polarisation.

 

[Hatterlovesbrighton]

America's traditional stance (up until their entry into the Second World War) had been that of isolationism. They didn't care what the rest of the world got up to as long as they wern't bothered themselves. They only entered into WW 1 after the Germans sank an American civiliian cruiser and then promptly returned to isolationism after the war.

They wern't part of the League of Nations (the first attept at the UN) and we all know how they entered the second world war.

They only really became a player on the international scene following WW2 when they saw the threat of communism to their (and our) way of life. If they had returned to isolationism do you really think that the Iron Curtain would have stopped where it did? Stalin would haven't blinked an eyelid about taking over more of Europe if all he had to worry about was the UK and France.


America do now take action when they see it right to protect their interests. Now i'm not saying that things are all rosy but I think the world is a damn sight safer with America playing a part rather than sitting back and watching the rest of the world do what it likes.

 

[Lammy]

America's traditional stance (up until their entry into the Second World War) had been that of isolationism. They didn't care what the rest of the world got up to as long as they wern't bothered themselves. They only entered into WW 1 after the Germans sank an American civiliian cruiser and then promptly returned to isolationism after the war.

They wern't part of the League of Nations (the first attept at the UN) and we all know how they entered the second world war.

They only really became a player on the international scene following WW2 when they saw the threat of communism to their (and our) way of life. If they had returned to isolationism do you really think that the Iron Curtain would have stopped where it did? Stalin would haven't blinked an eyelid about taking over more of Europe if all he had to worry about was the UK and France.


America do now take action when they see it right to protect their interests. Now i'm not saying that things are all rosy but I think the world is a damn sight safer with America playing a part rather than sitting back and watching the rest of the world do what it likes.

Helping a country that is being invaded is fine. i.e. Kuwait. But to attack a country for no reason other than you don't like the bloke running things i.e. Iraq is wrong.

 

[perth seagull]

By the way Perth - America has withdrawn all of its troops from Saudi Arabia. Could you explain how major terrorist attacks in Bali and Jakarta and Turkey fit in with your 'only bombed because they were allied with the US' theory.

Bali was not bombed by Al Queda. It was bombed by the JLA. That said, the attack was targeted at Westerners, particularly Australians. Australia is allied to the US.

The bombings in Turkey targeted UK interests. The UK is allied to the US.