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Politics : War -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas M. who wrote (18762)	1/4/2003 5:30:26 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23908

"Of course he [Saddam Hussein] is not a threat. Why did he not do anything in 1991 when he had the power, the equipment and a large army? Everybody knew how to support him when he was at war with Iran. "The proudest achievement of the CIA was placing the Shah of Iran on the throne. It also went on to fully equip his army during the Cold War; between 1972-1976 America handed over to the Iranians arms worth $27 billion. America is the biggest arms supplier in the world. "Terrorism, everybody is talking terrorism now. The Israeli code of fear is now shared by the world. Violence and terrorism are not moral, though defining an act of terrorism is difficult. I think there can be solutions with no violence. After years of oppression, you will always have years of misery. "I will say something that people do not like to hear: Governments are responsible for most of the acts of terrorism. I wrote a piece a while ago that estimated that more than 98 percent of all terrorist acts are committed by governments. In Argentina most of the people who disappeared were a result of government actions. "In Israel, 90 percent of the terrorism can be attributed to the government; preventing people from work, school, bulldozing their homes, torturing, living under curfew. America with its bombing of Afghanistan, Iraq and much before that caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent citizens all over the world. "I went to North Vietnam in 1971, when the U.S. was trying to destroy civilian dikes through bombing. Our government figured out that if it could destroy Vietnam's capacity for irrigation, it could starve the people into submission. Nearly all the history of oppression comes from governments and its aim is mostly to preserve and enlarge its power. How do you explain the massive American support of Israel, a support which reaches far beyond what we call "the Jewish lobby." "Americans are saturated with one-sided presentations. They have prejudices against minorities, whom are usually the poor who have no voice. The events of 9/11 also helped to intensify support of Israel. "In any American newspaper, you will find that the terrorism against the U.S. and Israel is treated identically and must be addressed in unison. Of course this is not the case. In the Israeli case, it is their presence in Palestine, and in the U.S. case it is caused by being in places it should not be." This is not the way the American people see it, and Bush's popularity has never been higher. "One must remember that Bush won the presidency, but did not win the elections. The current popularity means nothing. In March of 1991, his father's popularity reached the highest ever in American history: 20 percent more than his son's today. But 20 months later, he lost the elections to a guy from Arkansas whom no one had heard of." Are you an optimist? "Yes, I definitely am. I have to be. Sometimes you see things that you have done have helped. The civil rights movement did change things. I think we have now reached a critical stage. If we do not start addressing the growing number of poor people in the world and the growing gap between rich and poor we will be back in the Dark Ages." Clark has visited Israel many times, and he once spent four days as an official guest of the Israeli government. In recent years, he has been representing the Palestinian Authority in the American courts against law suits filed by Israeli terror victims who carry dual nationality. "The current situation [in Israel] is absolutely tragic. It has degenerated into pure violence. People must step back and say `this does not work.' People must recognize that they cannot control it all, and go ahead with peace talks. The recent Labor Party elections have shown that some people do want to have something better than violence. "Do not be mistaken. I do love the Israeli people, but I always like the people who suffer the most." _____________________________ haaretzdaily.com