Letters to the Editor, September 17, 2003

First of all may I wish Aljazeerah continued success in its work. Secondly, please pass on to Chairman Arafat's web manager the fact that the website contains a bug or software problem. I was trying to submit a letter to Chairman Arafat but the programme failed twice. Cgecks by an expert indicated that there are problems on Chairman Arafat's official site. Since I'm sure many decent people throughout the world would like to write to epxress their support for him and the Palestinian cause the software bug is making it impossible for them to communicate with his site. If you can possibly, please pass this message on to those who maintain the official site.

In the Editor's response to Gayle Barnes you stated "Gayle, President Bush and the US government said that the war was launched to disarm Iraq of the weapons of mass destruction, not to spread freedom as you're arguing here."

If these were mentioned once, the goal was disarming Iraq of the alleged weapons of mass destruction. That was the goal of the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, in his famous UN presentation. The presentation was about that, not about freedom or terrorism. No US official has ever presented a link between Iraq and terrorism.

The Korean farmer committing suicide died for nothing - and the rich nations will continue to pay - just so the poor nations will stay poor. Please try to realy get this into your head - and don´t just shrug your shoulders and go on with your life !
As long as the rich nations don´t understand: a safer world will only happen, if the poor countries have a achance to make a living also ! Is this too hard to understand ???
How much money was wasted again on this WTO meeting ??? All attending should be ashamed - and pay for the meeting out of their own pocket - maybe next time they will try to be more constructive. When will change really happen ? Ever ??? Talk is cheap - actions are needed - and poor countries need a chance for a future !

Angela Badelt
Germany

Placing Hamas on the EU terrorist list without addressing the real cause of terrorism, the Israeli occupation

The making of an EU-terrorist list without any serious measures against the real causes of terrorism in the world, is very ineffective.

In this case the main cause lies in the continuation of the 36th year of Israeli occupation of the Palestine territories in spite of the in 1967 unanimously accepted UN-Security Council resolution 242 which called on Israel to withdraw its troops from the conquered areas.

Every occupation is an inherent oppression, humiliation and violation of human rights, which resulted in this case in 2 legitimated Intifadahs [as long as they are directed against the Israeli army] and the highly condemnable suicide-attacks.

The EU as an important political organisation has the moral duty and the political responsibility to use political pressure on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories, with economical sanctions as utter consequences. The making of a terrorist-list without any political action from the EU is not only ineffective, but it also makes the EU co-responsible for the consequences of the Israeli occupation, like Israeli violations of human rights and suicide-attacks as a reaction.

It's not so much that the 'US is trapped in an adventure without an exit strategy', it's more that Iraqis have been slaughtered in their defenceless thousands from the air and now massacred on the ground by invading occupying forces. The whole 'adventure' (great fun with accompanying CDs) was blatant warmongering intended to glorify US power/destruction/revenge and then to take money for re-building. Absolutely blatant. Now the stupid administration has put its soldiers in the position of 'sitting ducks'. Since their country was invaded and no surrender or peace treaty has been signed, surely the Iraqis are legally entitled to resist. US citizens certainly would in a reverse scenario with Iraq restoring democracy and a free non-servile press to the US. Here we go anyway with Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam, Algeria etc. Of course the US could never permit real democracy in the Middle East. The Arab street would be overwhelmingly anti-American now it has seen the deaths of slain Iraqi children!

Seems those silly 'old Europeans' got the Iraq situation dead right after all. Dead being the word!

Fareed Zakaria’s article: Why nation building is not fast food. (IE, September 16, 2003)

Fareed Zakaria’s comparison of US role in Bosnia under President Clinton and the US role in Iraq under President Bush carries serious anomalies. While the whole world was against Serb genocidal attacks against he Muslims and Croats in Balkans and Clinton move was certainly hailed as that of a ‘liberator’; role of the US forces under President Bush has invited almost universal condemnation for their illegal invasion of Iraq, with the sole intention of occupying and colonizing a third world Arab and Muslim country, mainly for its crime of being an Arab and Muslim country. Both actions cannot be compared with any sense of equity.

Further, Zakaria brings in the old US history of constitution making to highlight better US credentials than that of France, without taking into account how the current President Bush and his cabal are out to subvert that very constitution of the United States of America itself by issuing forth laws completely changing the whole fundamental character of US Constitution. Do these people have any locus standii, much credibility, to be involved in concocting and imposing a ‘foreign’ constitution on an occupied country?