 |
| Jake Obetsebi Lamptey |
By
Ekow Mensah
Mr.
Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party
(NPP) says the Disciplinary Committee of the party is investigating the
allegation that executive members of the party stole donations meant for the
prosecution of the 2012 campaign.
He
said the allegation made by Mr Kennedy Agyapong, Member of Parliament for Assin
Central is baseless.
He
was speaking in an interview on TV3’s “Hot Issues” a current affairs programme.
“I
was National Campaign Manager and I have been National Chairman for four years
and I am not aware of any contribution or donation from Kennedy Agyapong” he
said.
He
said Kennedy Agyapong’s allegation is so serious that it needs to be
investigated to set the records straight.
Mr
Obetsebi-Lamptey said he preferred one of the contestants for the Presidential
candidature of the party but he said his position as national chairman prevents
him from naming his preferred candidate.
“As national chairman I have to be fair to all
the contestants and I cannot publicly show my preference” he said.
Mr
Obetsebi-Lamptey is sure that he will be re-elected as National Chairman of the
party.
Editorial
No To This!
The
Black Stars of Ghana has qualified for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and
government and the Ghana Football Association (GFA) have begun serious
preparations for the tournament.
We
understand, that a strong lobby is demanding that the state should fly
supporters to cheer the Black Stars.
The
Insight firmly disagrees and urges the Government to avoid any expenditure
which can worsen the sorry state of the economy.
From the estimates we have, it will cost a
minimum of US$7000.00 per person if Government decides to send supporters.
This
cost will not cover internal travel, feeding and accommodation.
If
Government decided to send just 1,000 supporters, it would need a minimum of
US$7million to do that.
This
is wasteful expenditure.
It is possible to mobilize Ghanaians in Brazil
and surrounding countries to support the Black Stars at virtually no cost to
the state.
The
Insight is of the view that given the poor state of the economy this money can
be better spent on a more important project.
Lack of guidance and counselling: The
main bane of formal education in Ghana
 |
| Okudzeto Ablakwa, Dep. Min. Education |
By
Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor
My good friends, thanks to Providence, we are
celebrating another Yuletide season and wishing each other "all the best
that life offers". Good to go that way because as human beings, we are
gregarious and should ensure that group interests are protected. But beyond
that is the individual interest too to realize.
Here is the catch. Our celebration of the
coming and going of seasons won't place us where we want to be unless we take
steps to turn the table in our favour.
"Life is war", as we say in Ghana,
which is why it is important for us to know where to pick the pieces and why
picking the pieces should place our country where it should be so we can stop
complaining about the dire circumstances in which our people live.
And it all has to do with the kind of
preparation that is given the people to play their part in nation-building.
That is where education—formal education, I mean—comes in. And there have been
perennial complaints about the inadequacies of our education system—not
necessarily because it has failed to train us into "parrots" or
"copy cats" but because it hasn't helped us solve pertinent problems
to move our country forward: a fact that no sane Ghanaian can afford to ignore
or deny!!
Ghanaians have been complaining about
unemployment for many years. And there is even an Association of Unemployed Graduates
in Ghana to accentuate that reality!!
One thing that I have stumbled upon on my
rounds to explain a particular problem that the youth in Ghana face in their
struggle to chart a proper path in life is the lack of guidance and
counselling, especially at the formative stages in life when they most need to
be informed about the vicissitudes of life and how the career choices they
settle on can make or mar their lives.
I have been to many places and seen many things
to persuade me that the kind of education system that we have in Ghana (since
the immediate independence era) hasn't helped the Ghanaian youth to know how to
deal with life in school or after school just because of the lack of guidance
and counselling. In other countries, structures are in place to help the youth
know where to go after schooling. And the youth don't fear the future for as
long as they know how to navigate the alleys of life-after-school.
I have known it for a fact that the youth in
those systems are guided right from the moment they enter the formal school
system to identify their naturally talented areas and be helped to explore
those areas without spreading themselves too thin.
My many years in the United States have exposed
me to this reality. It may be so in other countries, which is why those
countries create opportunities for the individual to realize his or her own
aspirations for the good of the society.
In Ghana, we have a mixed-bag kind of situation
that hasn't helped us in any way. The Ghana Education Service doesn't even see
anything about individual talents or future aspirations of students in the
system. Neither does the Ministry of Education do so. In effect, every student
entering the system is lumped up together with the rest and general education
imposed on all to make them jacks of all trades but masters of none.
In consequence, then, the Ghanaian system of
education is good at giving general education that produces nothing concrete to
boost national development. The students take all courses and end up being
confused and not really being guided toward specific strongholds on which they
can depend to make their presence felt.
General education is good inasmuch as it can
produce an individual who knows a bit about everything but it has its down side
too, which is terrifying in our present-day Ghanaian situation. It cannot give
that individual the skills to contribute anything concrete to solve any
particular problem in any field.
It all boils down to the lack of guidance and
counselling. Let me cut a long story short to say that there are many avenues
for helping the Ghanaian student to become more productive than what we have
had all these years.
Why is it difficult for the Ministry of
Education and the Ghana Education Service to adjust to the demands of
contemporary times and introduce guidance and counselling as imperatives in the
education of Ghanaian students? Guidance and Counselling units at the various
schools, well-staffed with people who know what the field is about can go a
long way to address pertinent needs.
I have a hunch, which is that many job
opportunities exist to absorb the Ghanaian graduates if only the officials at
the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service can be progressive in
their thoughts and attitudes to help give the requisite guidance and
counselling support that the students need so they don't go about plowing the
entire field and reaping nothing.
The worsening unemployment problem is
attributable to this condition. Will our authorities think outside the box to
help our youth chart better paths in life? What is the value of education if it
can't help the individual fit into the society to improve conditions?
All the billions of hard-earned money being spent
on education won't translate into anything beneficial for the country if the
"educated" youth cannot fit into the society, that is, be employed
after many years of being in the classroom. Why are our leaders so lazy
upstairs?
It is annoying to realize that the Ghana
Education Service has been decentralized and has Directorates in all the
districts of the country but cannot do anything to improve the situation. In
effect, all that the tax-payer’s blood, sweat, and tears pump into sustaining
the Ghana Education Service doesn’t produce anything beneficial to assure the
society of a brighter future. It has all along been a drain.
Are we Ghanaians so handicapped in our thinking
abilities not to know how to make education serve our purposes so we can use
education to improve our standards?
I shall return…
E-mail:
mjbokor@yahoo.com
85 richest people as wealthy as half of the world's
population
 |
| Britain's Queen Elizabeth |
As
World Economic Forum starts in Davos, development charity claims that growing
inequality has been driven by a 'power grab' by wealthy elites
The
world's wealthiest people aren't known for travelling by bus, but if they
fancied a change of scene then the richest 85 people on the globe – who between
them control as much wealth as the poorest half of the global population put
together – could squeeze onto a single double-decker.
The
extent to which so much global wealth has become corralled by a virtual handful
of the so-called 'global elite' is exposed in a new report from Oxfam on
Monday. It warned that those richest 85 people across the globe share a
combined wealth of £1tn, as much as the poorest 3.5 billion of the world's
population.
Source:
F. Alvaredo, A. B. Atkinson, T. Piketty and E. Saez, (2013) ‘The World Top
Incomes Database’, http://topincomes.g-mond.parisschoolofeconomics.eu/
Only includes countries with data in 1980 and later than 2008. Photograph:
Oxfam
The
wealth of the 1% richest people in the world amounts to $110tn (£60.88tn), or
65 times as much as the poorest half of the world, added the development
charity, which fears this concentration of economic resources is threatening
political stability and driving up social tensions.
It's
a chilling reminder of the depths of wealth inequality as political leaders and
top business people head to the snowy peaks of Davos for this week's World
Economic Forum. Few, if any, will be arriving on anything as common as a bus,
with private jets and helicoptors pressed into service as many of the world's
most powerful people convene to discuss
the state of the global economy over four hectic days of meetings, seminars and
parties in the exclusive ski resort.
Winnie
Byanyima, the Oxfam executive director who will attend the Davos meetings,
said: "It is staggering that in the 21st Century, half of the world's
population – that's three and a half billion people – own no more than a tiny
elite whose numbers could all fit comfortably on a double-decker bus."
Oxfam
also argues that this is no accident either, saying growing inequality has been
driven by a "power grab" by wealthy elites, who have co-opted the
political process to rig the rules of the economic system in their favour.
In
the report, entitled Working For The Few (summary here), Oxfam warned that the
fight against poverty cannot be won until wealth inequality has been tackled.
"Widening
inequality is creating a vicious circle where wealth and power are increasingly
concentrated in the hands of a few, leaving the rest of us to fight over crumbs
from the top table," Byanyima said.
Oxfam
called on attendees at this week's World
Economic Forum
to take a personal pledge to tackle the problem by refraining from dodging
taxes or using their wealth to seek political favours.
As
well as being morally dubious, economic inequality can also exacerbate other
social problems such as gender inequality, Oxfam warned. Davos itself is also
struggling in this area, with the number of
female delegates actually dropping from 17% in 2013 to 15% this year.
How
richest use their wealth to capture opportunites
Polling
for Oxfam's report found people in countries around the world - including
two-thirds of those questioned in Britain - believe that the rich have too much
influence over the direction their country is heading.
Byanyima
explained:
"In
developed and developing countries alike we are increasingly living in a world
where the lowest tax rates, the best health and education and the opportunity
to influence are being given not just to the rich but also to their children.
"Without
a concerted effort to tackle inequality, the cascade of privilege and of
disadvantage will continue down the generations. We will soon live in a world
where equality of opportunity is just a dream. In too many countries economic
growth already amounts to little more than a 'winner takes all' windfall for
the richest."
The
Oxfam report found that over the past few decades, the rich have successfully
wielded political influence to skew policies in their favour on issues ranging
from financial deregulation, tax havens, anti-competitive business practices to
lower tax rates on high incomes and cuts in public services for the majority.
Since the late 1970s, tax rates for the richest have fallen in 29 out of 30
countries for which data are available, said the report.
Source:
F. Alvaredo, A. B. Atkinson, T. Piketty and E. Saez, (2013) ‘The World Top
Incomes Database’, http://topincomes.g-mond.parisschoolofeconomics.eu/
Only includes countries with data in 1980 and later than 2008. Photograph:
Oxfam
This
"capture of opportunities" by the rich at the expense of the poor and
middle classes has led to a situation where 70% of the world's population live
in countries where inequality has increased since the 1980s and 1% of families
own 46% of global wealth - almost £70tn.
Opinion
polls in Spain, Brazil, India, South Africa, the US, UK and Netherlands found
that a majority in each country believe that wealthy people exert too much
influence. Concern was strongest in Spain, followed by Brazil and India and
least marked in the Netherlands.
In
the UK, some 67% agreed that "the rich have too much influence over where
this country is headed" - 37% saying that they agreed "strongly"
with the statement - against just 10% who disagreed, 2% of them strongly.
The
WEF's own Global Risks report recently identified widening income disparities
as one of the biggest threats to the world community.
Oxfam
is calling on those gathered at WEF to pledge: to support progressive taxation
and not dodge their own taxes; refrain from using their wealth to seek
political favours that undermine the democratic will of their fellow citizens;
make public all investments in companies and trusts for which they are the
ultimate beneficial owners; challenge governments to use tax revenue to provide
universal healthcare, education and social protection; demand a living wage in
all companies they own or control; and challenge other members of the economic
elite to join them in these pledges.
•
Research Now questioned 1,166 adults in the UK for Oxfam between October 1 and
14 2013.
Geneva II
 |
| Syrians Support President Assad |
By
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
The
Geneva II peace conference in Switzerland is attended by forty States,
including the Vatican. The purpose? To provide a venue for the Syrian people
and the factions dividing them to solve their differences over a conference
table, using diplomacy instead of arms? No, anything but. It is a microscope on
an emasculated UNO, controlled by the USA.
It
is just as well that the Russian Federation, the People's Republic of China and
Brazil are present at the Geneva II talks, providing at least a chance of a
counterweight to an agenda evidently controlled by the Washington-Saudi Axis,
as was visible in the invitation to Iran and then its withdrawal, just because
Iran stated that it did not come to the conference with any preconceived
position or demands and that the onus should be on a venue to provide the
Syrians with the means of finding a domestic solution to their issues, a
solution made by Syrians for Syrians.
Syrian
"Oppositon" or "National Coalition" President Ahmad Jarba,
who has close ties to Saudi Arabia, had said before the Conference that its aim
should be to depose President al-Assad, a position echoed by Washington and its
poodles. Under what right, and who are they to impose conditions? Jarba
himself, an ex-con, had been imprisoned twice for treacherous activities and
stands as a figure closely linked to arms trafficking to the terrorist forces
inflicting so much suffering on the Syrian people.
Without
so much support from abroad, namely Washington and its poodles and the Middle
East Cooperation Council, namely Saudi Arabia and Qatar, there would be no
civil war in Syria and so the claim by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem,
representing Damascus, that some of those attending have Syrian blood on their
hands is true.
While
the face-to-face talks begin only on Friday, the outcome is not difficult to
see. In fact, the meeting at Geneva is a classic example of how not to organize
a peace conference.
For
a start, Washington, as usual one of the key players in the conflict due to its
belligerence, proxy supporting of terrorist groups and anti-Assad rhetoric, has
already called the remarks by Walid Muallem "inflammatory", while
saying nothing of the activities of the terrorist groups that Walid Muallem's
Government has been combatting heroically, and nothing, indeed, of the part
played in these activities by Washington and its minions. What right does Washington
have to make any claims over human rights, when it controls the concentration
and torture camp at Guantanamo Bay which is a paragon of human rights abuses,
where prisoners are held for years without any semblance of due legal process?
It is like having a serial rapist presiding over the trial of a paedophile.
Secondly,
while Algeria is present, while Morocco is present, along with Belgium, Norway
and Greece, and Indonesia, where is Iran, one of the key players in the region
as a regional power with direct influence over all the events taking place?
Nowhere. Why not invite Burkina Faso and Albania? Why is Iran not present?
Maybe because Teheran announced on the same day it was invited that it was
going to reveal evidence, documentary evidence, of those with links behind
terrorist activities in Syria? The "un"-invitation presented to Iran
by Ban Ki-Moon proves whose bed the Secretary-General sleeps in. If this is how
the UN behaves, what right does this organization have to present itself as a
venue for crisis management? Having such a biased organization hosting such an
event is like asking the Inquisition to mastermind the protection of religious
minorities or those holding unorthodox beliefs.
Thirdly,
Jarba represents exactly whom? A fraction of those taking up arms against the
Syrian Government? Or the entire Syrian Opposition? Obviously the former, in
which case he is at the talks in what capacity and what right does he have
either to represent those who do not recognize him as their representative, or
indeed present himself as a credible spokesperson when all he is in fact, is a
traitor and a criminal? It is like inviting Jesse James to be sheriff of a town
housing a large deposit of banknotes.
Fourthly,
let us finish on a constructive note. The way to solve the Syrian civil war is
for external forces such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and their masters overseas,
to cease aiding, arming, training and financing terrorist groups operating
within Syria, to allow the Syrian government forces to exterminate the terrorist
elements slicing the breasts off women, raping girls before or after they are
beheaded, roasting men alive in ovens or playing football with the heads of
decapitated boys, to allow the Syrian people to decide for themselves what they
want to do and to stop being so hypocritical. Interference in the internal
affairs of a sovereign state is illegal.
Well,
it is supposed to be. But then again on law-of-the-jungle Planet Earth 2014,
anything goes. Including arming terrorists.
BLAIR DODGES ARREST: As Barman Attempt Citizens Arrest
 |
| Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair |
By Tony Cartalucci
As
with every Western-backed conference assembled regarding Syria, dramtic
fabrications revealed just ahead of proceedings are intended to give them and
their predetermined outcomes both gravity and "urgency." Upcoming
"peace talks" to be held in Switzerland are no exception. A report
cooked up by the unelected dictatorship in Qatar is based on an anonymous
source, codename "Caesar," and remains admittedly unverified.
The
BBC's report, "US and UN express horror at Syria torture report,"
claims:
The
report, by three former war crimes prosecutors, is based on the evidence of a
defected military police photographer, referred to only as Caesar, who along
with others reportedly smuggled about 55,000 digital images of some 11,000 dead
detainees out of Syria.
The
BBC then reveals the propaganda value the report is intended to serve in
upcoming talks by stating:
US
state department spokeswoman Marie Harf said it "underscores that it makes
it even more important that we make progress [at Geneva II]. The situation on the
ground is so horrific that we need to get a political transition in place, and
we need to get the Assad regime out of power."
Of
course, spokesman for UN Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay would admit the report
remains unverified (emphasis added):
Rupert
Colville, spokesman for UN human rights chief Navi Pillay, told AFP: "This
report is extremely alarming, and the alleged scale of the deaths in detention,
if verified, is truly horrifying.
Readers
must recall another codename, that of Iraqi informant "Curveball"
whose lies would lay the rhetorical foundation for the invasion and occupation
of Iraq. The UK Independent's article, "Man whose WMD lies led to 100,000
deaths confesses all," would recall:
A
man whose lies helped to make the case for invading Iraq – starting a nine-year
war costing more than 100,000 lives and hundreds of billions of pounds – will
come clean in his first British television interview tomorrow.
"Curveball",
the Iraqi defector who fabricated claims about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction,
smiles as he confirms how he made the whole thing up. It was a confidence trick
that changed the course of history, with Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi's lies
used to justify the Iraq war.
And
once again, a disingenuous West along with a complicit UN is going into a
so-called "peace conference" with unverified allegations designed to
manipulate public perception on the most visceral levels, circumventing facts,
logic, and reason, to bolster their position in a conflict they themselves
engineered and are still purposefully perpetrating with the hopes of achieving
long-desired "regime change."
The
ongoing conflict in Syria was engineered by the West and its regional allies as
far back as 2007, revealed by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh
in his article, "The Redirection: Is the Administration's new policy
benefiting our enemies in the war on terrorism?" which prophetically
stated (emphasis added):
"To
undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has
decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In
Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government,
which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken
Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also
taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A
by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist
groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and
sympathetic to Al Qaeda."
It
is now admitted that Al Qaeda comprises almost entirely all of the militants
fighting the Syrian government, many of whom are foreigners crossing into
Syrian territory with NATO's aid.
Iran,
big absentee at Syria conference
 |
| Iran President Hassan Rouhani |
By
Dr Amir Dabiri Mehr
After nearly three years of chaos and war in Syria,
which have left tens of thousands dead and more than two million displaced, an
international conference has kicked off in Switzerland with key player, Iran,
being absent.
The
failure and inconclusiveness of the Geneva-II meeting due to Iran’s absence is
a foregone conclusion. To that effect, we explain the eight important factors
affecting the future of Syria:
1.
The Syrian government which has maintained its sovereignty on the country’s
territorial integrity despite involvement in armed struggle with numerous
terrorist groups over the past three years.
2.
Some opponents of President Bashar al-Assad, who favor bloodless and warless
transition to post-Assad era. These groups oppose the continuation of Assad
clan’s rule, but they do not necessarily call for the overthrow of the Syrian
government. Syria’s National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change is one
of them.
3.
Groups and individuals who want the overthrow of Assad at any price, even with
war and terror. These groups are like those who will not shy away from
destroying a house to evict its occupants. They lack any popular base in the
country. The Free Syrian Army (FSA) and the Syrian National Council (SNC) are
classified in this category.
4.
Terrorist Takfiri groups like al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and
the Levant (ISIL), who are waging a war on the Syrian government and nation
thanks to military and financial support by Saudi Arabia. These groups seek the
revival of Talibanism in the Levant and then in
Iraq.
5.
Saudi Arabia and some of its Persian Gulf allies, who are spending their
windfall petrodollars in the hope of installing a desired government in
Damascus even at the price of deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians.
Saudi Arabia is investing millions of dollars in terrorist activities in Syria
in a bid to compensate for its failure in post-Saddam Iraq where most people
have repudiated Saudi-backed Wahhabism and Salafism.
6.
Supporters of stability in Syria, like Iran and Russia: These two countries
deeply believe that the solution to the Syrian crisis is not summarized in war,
terror and pressure and that a peaceful and political solution must be sought
in view of political transition in this country. The significance of
Iran-Russia position is that Tehran and Moscow both wield too much clout with
the political and economic and even security and military structure in Syria
and they are able to implement their plans for Damascus. For Iran, Syria is
like a barrier to Israeli security and military threats. In other words,
Damascus is the strategic fortress for anti-Israeli resistance. Syria and
Lebanon’s Hezbollah form a security belt for Tehran against Tel Aviv threats.
7.
Western governments led by the US: They look into the ongoing developments in
Syria from two aspects. The first aspect is the idea of New Middle East,
promoted by former US President George W. Bush. The US invasions of Afghanistan
and Iraq respectively in 2001 and 2003 were two steps taken for the realization
of New Middle East idea which requires regime changes in the region and
formation of governments oriented to economic capitalism and political and cultural
liberalism. The so-called idea of globalization is a cover-up on modern
colonialism. The second aspect will be to harm the Axis of Islamic Resistance
in the Middle East. Damascus has traditionally been instrumental in preserving
this axis. The Western governments imagine that Iran-Hezbollah link will tear
apart if the Syrian government is toppled. Therefore, unseating President Assad
is in fact the necessary preparation for the elimination of Hezbollah and
defeating the Axix of Islamic Resistance against threats and savageries by the
racist Zionist regime.
8.
International bodies like the UN: International bodies are not influential
enough to tackle the crisis in Syria and their weak position came to the
limelight after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon withdrew his invitation to
Iran to attend the Geneva-II conference. However, their role in providing
humanitarian aid to war-stricken people in Syria should not be ignored.
Any
roadmap for resolving the crisis in Syria is required to have clear position vis-à-vis
these eight players. For instance, negotiation with terrorist Takfiri and
Wahhabi groups is totally useless. The only way to get rid of these terrorists
would be to convince Saudi Arabia to cut its military and financial aid to
these groups in order to accelerate their annihilation in Syria. Similarly, the
Syrian opposition could not play any effective role in the future of Syria
without shifting its strategy from military conflict to political opposition.
To that effect, Turkish officials have acknowledged that they excessively
supported the Syrian opposition during the first and second years of crisis in
Syria.
Therefore,
keeping Iran away from the Geneva-II meeting is a big political mistake which
will block any reasonable solution to the Syrian crisis. The US has committed a
strategic mistake by ignoring Iran’s influence in Syria and instead empowering
Saudi Arabia. Riyadh could do no more than feeding money into terrorists and
triggering more firefight in Syria.
If
the terrorist Salafi and Wahhabi groups reach power in Damascus they will
doubtlessly have no constructive idea for the country and they will choose the
policy of terror which may even target European capitals and the United States.
In that case, Western intelligence services are unlikely to be able to thwart
their terrorist plots. A similar dangerous game was played in Afghanistan in
the 1980s when the Western governments supported Afghan militants against then
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). But al-Qaeda and Taliban were born
out of these Afghan militants and they finally struck New York on September 11,
2001. This deadly blow hit the US under George W. Bush, and nobody blamed
Ronald Reagan, who was the US president in the 1980s. US President Barack Obama
must be asked if he will remain accountable for any future attack on the US
interests due to the White House support for Saudi-backed terrorists.
Despite
unilateral propaganda campaign against the Islamic Republic, policymakers and
decision-makers in Tehran do not hold a rigid-minded view of Syria. Iran favors
a government born out of the will of the Syrian people. Tehran believes that
only the Syrian people are competent to decide to keep Assad or choose a
successor.
Any
Syrian government will have to bow to political and economic reforms and it
will not survive by adopting autocratic policies. But the point is that this
political transition does not run through gun barrels and artillery fire –
financed by Wahhabi-minded reactionary Saudis and backed by the US. The solution
will be through ceasefire, dialogue, general election and all-out efforts to
assuage sufferings and pains of this nation.
Undoubtedly,
the future generations will not forgive the current world decision-makers for
their passiveness vis-à-vis the ongoing oppression and injustice against the
Syrian nation.
Syria and the West's stupidity
 |
| Terrorists operating in Syria |
By
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
The same perpetrators of hundreds if
not thousands of the most horrific scenes of torture in the illegal invasion of
Iraq are now expressing horror at stories of human rights abuse in Syria, where
the same perpetrators have been cavorting with terrorists, fomenting a civil
war, then complaining when the authorities fight back.
Just in case Messrs. Obama, Cameron,
Hague and Kerry had not noticed, there are hundreds of armed groups running
around Syria committing atrocities against the civilian population, against the
fire service, against the Syrian police force, against the Syrian armed forces.
One questions what the US and British authorities would do if the same sort of
mayhem was unleashed upon their people.
Would the authorities stand back and
do nothing? Or would they do what they did in detainee centres in Iraq? Has
everyone forgotten the Great American heroine Lynndie England, the one who was
"just having fun" torturing or posing with tortured Iraqi civilians
in Abu Ghraib prison? Let us not forget that the cases of torture in Iraq
number tens of thousands of cases and there are hundreds if not thousands of
cases of abuse which were not investigated - the US and UK personnel were
committing human rights atrocities long after the Abu Ghraib scandal, not in
their own countries, but overseas. Let us not forget that the centre of human
rights abuse in Cuba is the Guantanamo Bay concentration and torture camp where
detainees have been held for years without due legal process. Is this what the
USA and its poodles stand for?
And suppose we entertain the notion
that without massive support from the West and from their disgusting lackeys in
the Gulf, terrorist supporters such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia, then the Syrian
"Opposition" would never have inflicted itself upon Syrian society
and there would never have been a Syrian Civil War.
Let us also not forget who and what
was behind the supposed chemical weapons attacks in Syria last August, which
the west knew about, and which in some quarters were considered to be a valid
action by the Syrian Opposition if they created a casus belli. Let us also not
forget who the Syrian Armed Forces are protecting: Syria's civilian population.
Syria's
civilian population - the women who have had their breasts sliced off in the
street by the western-backed terrorists, the girls who have been gang-raped
before or after decapitation, the boys who have had their heads torn off and
used as soccer balls, the old men humiliated before their families, the bakers
roasted in their own ovens for daring to bake bread and put food on the tables
of innocent Syrian families.
If
these demonic hordes perpetrated these atrocities, the West should remember
that it was not the Syrian authorities and should remember who is ultimately
responsible: the West. Then when their demonic hordes get a taste of their own
medicine, the West complains. They can dish it out but they cannot take it
themselves.
So
suppose the West got out of Syria, stopped creating civil wars in sovereign
states, allowed the Syrian authorities to clean up the mess the West has
started, and minded its own business?
As
for excluding Iran from the peace talks in Geneva, after Iran was invited, just
because Iran refused to come to the talks with a pre-conceived conclusion
before the talks had even started, this speaks volumes about the West's absence
of diplomacy, and says everything in favour of Teheran.
Surely,
the sensible position would be to create an environment for the Syrian people
to choose their own destiny - Syrian solutions for Syrian problems, by Syrians
and for Syrians, not by America and its poodle States, whose own human rights
record and history of intervention read like the worst type of terrorist
manual.
No comments:
Post a Comment