Leaving Iraq, Self-Determination of Nations, Adventures!

[tcpip]

Australia is leaving Iraq, after costing 2.3 billion in public funds. A legal brief has been sent to the International Criminal Court claiming John Howard committed war crimes in authorising the invasion. Kevin Rudd's comments lend credibility to the claim, saying that the invasion was conducted "without a full and proper assessment". I am glad we are washing our hands of this tawdry affair. The invasion was without ethical or legal justification and the only reason a similar writ hasn't been served on George W. Bush is because the United States is a rogue nation in its failiure to join the International Criminal Court. Getting Bush on trial is going to be a task for the American people alone.

On a related matter I have recently ended up in a bit of a debate with my religious colleagues concerning the self-determination of the Tibetan people. In the last two issues of the Beacon they have published an article by Michael Parenti who rejects a utopian potrayal of Tibet as an independent regime. My criticism of the article (last page, second issue) is that none of this deals with the basic principle of self-determination of nationalities. The lengthy response by the editors utterly fails to address this basic matter. As a result of their failure, I've joined the Australia-Tibet Council.

Went to see the latest Indianna Jones film on Saturday. It's a significant step down from the eighties classics; not a disaster, but if I'd known beforehand what it was like I wouldn't have bothered to see it at the cinema. Gaming has been good with an excellent session of RuneQuest: River of Cradles (example story in lin) last Sunday (and with a new player, Sam) and with good developments in the two PBeM games that I'm running. I also have another RPG-related annoucement to make, but that's going to have to wait until the next post ;-)

Comments

[synabetic.livejournal.com]

Seeing GWB get his in a legal sense sure would be nice and refreshing. Like nationalistic lemonade. Sigh. We'll see... I have hope, though.

And yes, I realise "hope" is just another 4-letter word. On the bright side, the current situation in the States doesn't make me miss Ze Homeland too much. Heh.


Glad to hear Australia is leaving the Iraq Mess. Only 2.3 billion? You lucky bastards. (there's an "if we were really lucky..." joke in there, I just know it)

I still need to see the new Indy movie. Yeah, I know I made a comic concerning it-- but the truth is I still have yet to see it. Seems like the consensus is: wait for the DVD.

Thankfully the turnaround time on DVD release is like 3 months after the movie leaves the theatres.

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

The article by Michael Parenti is interesting, but seems to be following the same route as many politicians: Let's discuss the ends and not care about the means, especially if it involves loss of personal choice. Tibet as a whole may be better off now than they would have been without the Chinese takeover, but it should have been their choice. Similarly, even if the Iraq invasion by the USA had turned out to be a success, that doesn't mean the USA had the right to make the decision for them.

We have more and more politicians getting away with this in little steps in recent years. We're supposedly better off if a terrorist can't take a drink onto a plane, so it's deemed worthwhile spending billions of dollars and inconveniencing millions of travellers by not allowing them to carry a drink onto an international flight. We're supposedly better off if our ISP filters our internet content, so we're going to be forced to pay millions of dollars to have slower internet connectivity.

These are all manifestations of the same problem: Those in power deciding when we will be better off, without any regard for the concept of individual freedom.

[cluebyfour.livejournal.com]

2.3 billion? If only the U. S. had spent that much. We'd have withdrawn after 56 hours!

Not that I fancy the ICC or other governing bodies with global jurisdiction (and really, if they were effective, the U. S. would have been prevented from invading Iraq in the first place), but yes, I would gladly see Bush and his neocon cronies put on trial, not just for atrocities committed in Iraq but for all other crimes the government has committed against its own citizens.

[imajica-lj.livejournal.com]

Next post?

Tease.

[noneuklid.livejournal.com]

I was in a similar conversation about Tibet recently, although it was substantially more low-brow (kind of an interesting political application of the principle "as above, so below" to the Internet). It may indeed have been a mess under the regime of the Lamas, but it was their mess.

[dputiger.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to decide if I should write in with views on the ICC, Bush, and the War in Iraq, or not. My fingers twitch as my brain advises that wanking on a topic for the sake of some moderate disagreement may not, in fact, be the best use of my ever-vanishing pool of available time. ;)

I weep for my nation

[castleclear.livejournal.com]

At times I'm embarrassed to be a United States citizen. The people saying that the Bush Administration "hijacked" the country are right; Gore Vidal called it a coup d'etat. GWB & his administration is the worst in our nation's history. The $10 billion (US) spent each month for this war, the use of private, for-profit mercenary soldiers, intelligence officers and other contractors in lieu of the U.S. military with the resultant legal murkiness about accountability especially for war crimes, the suspension of the Geneva Convention (aka torture/water boarding as part of "enhanced" interrogation), the suspension of federal legal protections for "detainees" at Guantamo and elsewhere abroad, "extraordinary rendition" of prisoners/detainees to Egypt and elsewhere for explicit torture, all the lies used to market the war to the U.S. public as well as deceive the Congress.

I don't know why my nation has not brought impeachment proceedings against Bush, Cheney and others. It needs to be done. I've written, but don't have significant political clout personally. Our media often doesn't bother reporting protests any more, as it did during U.S. involvement in Viet Nam.

Yes, I would very much like to see the Bush, Cheney et al, brought forward to the World Court for war crimes. Even if prosecuted only in absentia would be better than nothing. I hope the next U.S. president is much wiser and more ethical. GWB has been the world's greatest terrorist for 5-6 years now! I'm more than ready for a positive change.

Glad you're enjoying gaming; I haven't played RuneQuest in years. Thanks also for the Indiana Jones report; I'd heard elsewhere that it wasn't very good.

[mia76.livejournal.com]

wow, "war crimes" is strong language... although it does make a lot of sense. i kept wondering what the US/UK/etc were doing there. literally, i'm not saying this to be ironic or anything. i'd be sitting in front of the TV thinking, "wait, these people have no business being there... what are they doing there again?" and i'd feel so ignorant for thinking so. but then maybe everyone else was just as confused... i don't know.