terrorists & freedom fighters

i was reading this article on a link of mine, gave me some food for thought.

"Consider the following actions of a political organisation:

1. Attacking British military and police personnel
2. Bombing a hotel and killing 91; mostly civilians
3. Assassinating a British politican and peer
4. Murdering 99 civilians over a sample 4 month period

Would the George Bush, Tony Blair and John Howard regimes waste any time in designating it a terrorist organisation worthy of a free holiday in Guantanamo Bay or Abu Ghraib prisons? Would such a bunch of murderers earn Dubya's epithet as Islamic Fascists? You bet.

Would these terrorists deserve to be hunted down all over the world and when caught, brought before Dubya's military tribunals to be found guilty and executed? You bet - especially if you're a pure as the driven snow Neo-Con Christian Fascist!

Now, here's a little more detail behind each of the terrorist actions listed above.

1. A Jewish terrorist organisation called Irgun, killed numerous British military and police personnel from 1944 through 1948.
2. Irgun claimed responsibility for bombing the King David Hotel; causing the 91 deaths.
3. In 1944, Lord Moyne was assassinated in Cairo by Irgun's sister organisation, Lehi.
4. From April 1939 to July 1939, 99 civilians were shot dead or blown to bits by Irgun.

Yet today, when Hezbollah and Hamas are doing no more than emulating Irgun's business model, they stand condemned as terrorists and "unlawful" combatants by the US, UK and Israel. While Hezbollah's and Hamas' terrorist actions cannot be excused nor condoned, sadly, the hypocritical amnesia of the US, UK and Israel furnishes convenient cover to reduce Lebanon into rubble.

Now, if Winston Churchill (who was a friend of Lord Moyne) had remained in power after WW2, and had reduced Jewish held towns and villages in Palestine to rubble - in an effort to kill off Irgun (just as Israel justifies its actions in Lebanon now), would Condi Fried Rice have regarded this as no more than "birth pangs" of a new Israel? Hmm, somehow I think not!

Let's talk a bit more about Irgun. When it was most active against the British, Irgun was led by none other than Menachem Begin. It was Begin who ordered the bombing of the King David Hotel. Considering that such an act today would surely have earned him odium to perhaps the same level as that reserved for Osama bin Laden, Begin instead became the sixth Prime Minister of Israel while leader of the right wing Likud Party.

Under his watch, Begin charged Ariel Sharon with the task of greatly expanding Jewish settlements in the occupied terrorities - the cause of much enmity between Israelis and Palestinians for such a long time. Then in 1982, with Begin still as PM and Sharon as Defence minister, Israel embarked on the ill-advised invasion and occupation of Lebanon. It was during this invasion, that large numbers of Palestinian refugees were massacred in the Sabra and Shatila camps by Lebanese Christian militias allied with Israel.

So things aren't really as objective and balanced as the US, UK and Israel would have the world believe. In their fantasies, the "good guys" have a higher moral standing than the "bad guys". The high moral standing of the good guys allows them to commit war crimes directly or through proxies like Israel, against unarmed civilians; while dismissing the deaths as "birth pangs" of a new Lebanon. Yeah right. Some birth that's going to be in the rubble strewn country!

Yet the reality is that we in the west, not only failed to capture, try and execute an unlawful combatant and terrorist called Menachem Begin, we recognised him as the lawful prime minister of Israel. We compound our hypocrisy by green lighting the systematic destruction of a friendly and democratic Lebanon, all in the name of destroying Hezbollah; an organisation formed to protect Lebanese Shia Muslims during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

The US, UK and Australia among others, lauded Menachem Begin as a Freedom Fighter but regard Sheik Hassan Nasrallah (present leader of Hezbollah) as a terrorist. One person's freedom fighter is another's terrorist. Moral hypocrisy founded on expedient values has no bounds in the White House, Downing Street and Kirribilli House, don't you think?"

- intectus, 190806

tomorrow's the start of the 3rd week of term, and im still finding it a tad hard to get my feet on the ground & the brain geared towards a more academic mode of thought. still feeling slacky, although in reality i do realise how taxing honours year is gonna be. just hope that this false sense of lullness would go away real soon. i seriously need to buckle down & start focussing. oh yes i should. soon.

one sucky downside that im starting to realise about honours year, is the fact that life in campus tend to get pretty individualized. most of the people i know have graduated, while the rest have such differing schedules that it's hard to meetup for breaks, lunches and watnots. not so much of the buzz that i know of yesteryears. it's now either time in the honours room (with its deafening silence), the forum, or the dungeon. i guess it's just one of those moments in life where adjustments gotta be made again.

met up with the bikeforum people on friday night at yishun dam. a total of 28-30 bikes turned up, if i didnt miscount. will hopefully post up some pics if i manage to get hold of it.

this event is coming up soon. there will be a Super4 convoy joining.

interested? closing date for registration's 5th Sept.

by the way, Happy 22nd B'days to Wan & Yan. a year older, a year wiser i hope. hehe. best wishes to u two. =)

they say that one man's loss is another man's gain. well, apparently or so it seems that way. all the time. ah well, the world works in funny ways. or at least life does. question is, will i ever be someone else's gain? let's just wait and see on that yeah.

it's been a week in the new term and it's looking like a very busy one ahead. readings and research aplenty. ahhh mampus.

add more inches?

i hate junk mail. and spam. no i dont need to enlarge my manhood. i dont want to invest in some phony-sounding enterprise, nor am i interested in going to Vegas. and i definitely do not know anyone named Umet Kerklavibogu. whaaaaat nonsense sia. to top it off, the NUSmail's asking if i wanna go for a sexual assault workshop. *stunned*

.....................

a long overdue update

im off work today. yay! well actually i had to, but i kinda gave up my slot for the day. partly because i aint feeling that well physically, and partly because i just wanna have some time off for meself. the throat's bothering me again, and making me feel all heaty all over. seems like each time im gonna fall sick, that's where im most vulnerably hit. gotta drink more water i guess.

my so-called holidays sorta picked up a wee bit the past week or so, after slogging for the most of it at work. went on a short trip to batam with my work colleagues, a total 12 people in all. nope not for anything funny, but just to chill out. stayed at this 3-star (i think) beach resort that had a 5-star service and staff. we helped ourselves to the seafood fare there, while some indulged in shopping. given the exchange rate, it cannot be helped feeling a little wee bit richer over there. haha. since that wasn't my 1st time there, i was not overwhelmed like the others to shop and whatnots. only got some kerepek and dodol for the family, and of course made my contribution to the sampoerna enterprise. it was a good break, away from the hustle and bustle and flow of this everyday life here.

i also had a family chalet over at the far eastern corner of the island, organised by my civil-servicing cousin. as always, the chalet turned out to have a kenduri-like atmosphere whenever the entire family's involved. so kecoh... bbq, gossips, portable sheesha, the usual. i made full use of the huge pool they have over there. took time to .. ermmm .. practise my swimming skills or whatever there is to it. all part of my plan to keep my options open, in case i turn to PE teaching some time in the near future. oh yea, nothing's complete when me & my cousins are concerned if fishing's not part of the itinery. however the spot where we went behind the chalet near the shipping wharves weren't that good. not many were caught. hmm mebbe the fengshui's not right ah..

me and some of the work people have also in recent times been experimenting with prawn fishing. my doubts that it wasnt gonna be much of a challenge, proved to be wrong as i got more and more hooked on it. seriously, it really tests your patience. and prawns these days are smart i think. but the thrill of catching, ahhhhh...beats everything. but it's a bit expensive though. so yea can't make it into a habit. haha.. you guys should give it a try one day.

school is starting next week. it's so fast man. well, considering that its since may. im in the midst of bidding right now. can you believe it, some joker is actually bidding one of the breadth modules with 4372 points. like what the fug?! either he has never taken any breadths before, or he simply has never heard of the term in moderation. oh cmonnn...

ok, gotta go get ready now. meeting bo & lester at sakae for buffet later. yummmmeh ..

til the next time, take care all.