Re: ...sign a brief message thanking the men and women of the U.S. military services for defending our freedom.
Well, I don't think that "defending our freedom" is a military business only. USAID personnel across the world, American writers, and (US) minority activists are also to be praised for promoting freedom. Eventually, the best way to defend our freedom (of thought/speech) is to use it! But then, are we talking of the same freedom to begin with? There're many different freedoms --the freedom to drive a SUV at 50c/gallon, the freedom to deny the Palestinians their own freedom, the freedom to lie about the real masterminds behind 911, anthrax, the '98 bombing of US embassies, etc. So many freedoms indeed!
The latest on the so-called anti-globalization circus:
Anti-war protests begin in Italy
Wednesday, November 6, 2002 Posted: 2:44 PM EST (1944 GMT)
PISA, Italy (Reuters) -- Four days of anti-war and anti-globalisation protests have kicked off in northern Italy with a sit-in outside a U.S. military base to protest against the threat of war on Iraq.
The protests will culminate with a rally Saturday in the art city of Florence that is expected to draw up to 150,000 demonstrators.
Facing one of its biggest public safety challenges since a G8 summit in Genoa last year, Italy has enforced exceptional border controls to try to prevent extremist protesters infiltrating the country. Some two dozen people have already been turned away at the borders.
Wednesday, more than 1,000 protesters from across Europe marched on Camp Darby, a military base on the outskirts of Pisa.
Police helicopters hovered overhead and hundreds of paramilitary Carabinieri kept watch as protesters set alight a huge puppet figure of a NATO soldier, shouting "Yankee go home."
"This land should be the property of Italian citizens, instead it has been forced into military servitude," said Pino Gianpietro, a spokesman for Cobas, an activist union.
Camp Darby, set up in 1952 as a logistics base for the U.S. military, houses some 400 U.S. military and employs around 700 Italian civilians. It was conceded to the United States in 1998.
"We're here to oppose American military might," said Tom Unterrainer, 22, a member of British group Globalise Resistance.
Billed as the European Social Forum, the Florence gathering is intended to mirror the World Social Forum that takes place in Porto Alegre, Brazil, each year.
Fearing that damage may be done to artistic gems such as Michelangelo's David, more than 6,000 police have been assigned to patrol Florence and surrounding areas during the event.
Amnesty International issued a statement Wednesday calling on Italy to ensure that policing of the forum adheres to international human rights standards, which Italian officers are accused of having violated at the Genoa summit.
At that event, more than 300,000 protesters took to the streets, leading to violent clashes between police and some demonstrators. One protester was shot dead.
cnn.com
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Isn't it ironic that Europeans never complained about globalization when it suited their economic interests and propped up their welfare for the past 500 years? From the discovery of the Americas in the XVth century to worldwide colonialism in the 1960s, Europe sat behind the wheel of international commerce, wrote the rules of the game and carved up the earth among Britain, France, Belgium, Portugal, Italy and the Netherlands... Now, as Asian countries have outstripped Old Europe at her own game, Europeans want to change the rules! |
