Libya - another war based on lies

William James (1842-1910), the father of modern Psychology  said "There's nothing so absurd that if you repeat it often enough, people will believe it." (this quote is often wrongly attributed to the Reichsminister für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda, Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels, making it sexier).

Anyway, everywhere we turn we see NATO members stating that bombings in Libya are for the "protection of civilians", when it is in plain sight that regime change is the goal... even if the country's infrastructure is wiped out in the process and if the casualties of a full fledged war are much higher than a simple insurrection suppression by Khadaffi. Acephalous journalists echo this propaganda view like  inebriated parrots.

This protection of civilians euphemism bears a deja vu feeling when we think about the chorus line on "weapons of mass destruction" endelessly repetead by the Bush administration to get rid of Saddam Hussein. However now it is more serious, besides President Hussein Obama, such words are also coming from the European side of the Atlantic. From Sarkozy, from Cameroon... These men should know better!

Come the day when Europe actually needs to fight a war for legitimate reasons, the public will be saturated and credibility exhausted. As if no one knew about Peter and the wolf...

Tornadoes and houses fit for three little pigs

Tornados are a common weather phenomenon. However the destruction and death toll caused year after year, decade upon decade, by tornadoes in the US is totally unjustifiable.

The images of devastated cities illustrate the root of the problem: buildings with a reinforced concrete structure are left standing, with minor damage, but timber framed houses are totally smashed. Remember the straw and stick houses in the "three little pigs"? Sounds familiar?

The problem is that most housing is made of these fragile timber structures. This is a fraud that the construction industry has been perpetrating on America for a long time, convincing Americans to pay for wooden huts as if they were proper houses.

Why doesn't tornado coverage in the media ever ask, "why are houses destroyed"?
This destruction is not inevitable, measures can be taken. As most countries regulate construction in seismic zones, a similar approach must be take where there is a relevant tornado risk. This is in the public interest, even if it may not please the construction lobby.

Or can't America build houses that survive a little wind? Not enough civil engineers?

Tornadoes, wooden houses and concrete buildings

hats off to Ghaddafi!

Today Ghaddafi caught NATO's airforce (the de facto rebels' airforce) on the wrong foot:

Pesticide-spraying planes did a clean raid over Misurata, destroying the rebels´ fuel supplies.

A true David against Golias operation, improvised with the "resources of the land".

You've got to admire the man's nerve and his determination to survive against all odds. And considering his intelligence, the rumours that he is of Jewish origin are ever more credible!

montage - Jewish Muammar Gaddafi wearing a Keppah

As our SAS colleagues say: "who dares wins".

I guess a few people in DC, Paris and London are having second thoughts!

Misurata fuel tanks on fire - Libya civil war

Does anybody doubt that a full blown civil war will cause more instability, destruction and casualties than what would have been a simple and clean insurrection suppression? Haven't politicians bombing theoretically to avoid civilian casualties failed to notice the qualifying adjective "civil" in civil war?

Ghaddafi will probably eventually fall, but many now calling for his departure will probably in hindsight miss him. In the "democracies" established in "Hi"-raq and Egypt more people are killed than under their totalitarian predecessors, and life for Christians and other minorities became impossible.

Bin Laden - only idiots would kill him!

Given the chance of capturing Bin Laden, only idiots would kill him!

The man should be an endless source of information on the Islamist networks worldwide.

Finding him unarmed, given a chance of apprehending him alive, would any intelligent person kill him?

Of course Americans have a reputation of shooting first, and asking questions after, but there must be someone in the administration with an IQ above chicken level.

So, I would not be surprised if for the next few months Mr Laden would still be alive.
Probably locked in a cubicle somewhere, under daily torture, until he spills all the information.

Then one day, his mind properly drained, he will receive a merciful shot in the head and his body will be destroyed. Maybe even dumped at sea...

Of course the US would never bring the man to a court of law, where his career financed and propped by several American administrations would be publicly scrutinized. Americans cannot stomach that they created and nurtured Mr Laden.

Furthermore, any court process would end in the death penalty. An execution of Mr Laden would certainly bring back to the US some of the bad karma they have for long spread across the globe.

Bin Laden may well be alive, undergoing torture somewhere in the globe.

Krugman: disturb your orthodoxy!

thought of the day, that may last for a while:

"...if you’ve reached the point where you don’t pay attention to anything that might disturb your orthodoxy, you’re not doing science, you’re not even pursuing a discipline. All you’re doing is perpetuating a smug, closed-minded sect."

Paul Krugman on the NYT

Evidence that Kosovo's leadership was complicit in grisly crimes

from the Econonist:

KOSOVO marked the third anniversary of its independence on February 17th in sombre mood. Only last July the country's leaders were riding high last year in the wake of anadvisory opinion by the International Court of Justice that its declaration of independence had not been illegal. Now their reputations are in tatters.

First came allegations of fraud in last December’s elections, which angered its strongest supporter, the United States. Soon afterwards, a report produced by Dick Marty, a Swiss politician and former prosecutor, made lurid claims about the involvement of Kosovo's leadership in organised crime. In the last few days two new documentss have come to light that appear to bolster the most nightmarish of those allegations. 

First, a disclaimer. In Balkan politics, the dictum, “if you are not with us, you are against us” usually applies. Some readers have attacked this blog simply for reporting on the Marty affair. As a fog of confusion, claims and counter-claims swirls over the allegations laid against Kosovo's leaders, we lay out here what is already known about the issue, and what is new.

more from the Econonist

British PM on Muslims in the UK: State multiculturalism has failed!

Echoing the declarations of of German Chancellor Angela Merkel (October 2010), the British PM admits that Muslim integration in Europe has failed:

" Do they believe in universal human rights - including for women and people of other faiths? Do they believe in equality of all before the law? Do they believe in democracy and the right of people to elect their own government? Do they encourage integration or separatism? "

The question is now: will the Brits be coherent and stop pushing for Turkey's integration into the European fatherland?

What are you waiting for Mr Cameron?

PS: Sarkozy on the same note! Sarkozy estime à son tour que le multiculturalisme est un "échec"