Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Iraq- lots and lots of people are still being brutally slaughtered

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This girl's parents have just been killed by US soldiers (more images and background to the incident here). The photographer, Chris Hondros, was "disembedded" for publishing this.

9 comments:

  1. You are supposed to be a scientist even if you describe yourself as a "punk" example. So, a reference and some background or context would be a minimum requirement, please.

    For example, one thing I learned was that Mr. Hondros was not "disembedded" for that photo but for taking photographs of dead marines.

    Another thing I learned was that the family you refer to were shot and killed because they failed to stop at a checkpoint. Given the number of suicide car-bombers, that puts rather a different interpretation on it, wouldn't you say?

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  2. We've been through this before you fucking retard. This is a personal blog and not a peer-reviewed publication. You really are an ignorant pleb if you can't distinguish between the two and, therefore, are not welcome to post here. In any case I don't tolerate racists so any further comments from you will be deleted.

    Anyone browsing desiring evidence of this moron's racism, see here:

    http://duffandnonsense.typepad.com/duff_nonsense/2008/07/you-aint-seen-nuthin-yet.html

    Specifically, I refer to this passage in the comments by the twat himself:

    "I am an Englishman, so when it comes to deciding my views on Israel, I look at it with a cold, calculating eye. I think that Israel, despite its faults - and every nation has its faults - is an excellent example of democratic prosperity to the Arab states that surround it, which is why so many of their rulers desire to exterminate it for ever. I would certainly want the continued existence of Israel and would support it, from a distance, but only because it acts as an outpost against *my* enemies.

    In other words, Israel stands to us in much the same way that Belgium did in 1914! "

    Apart from this blatant hatred of brown people Monsieur Duff also resorts to ad hominem attacks and personal slander against those who criticise his illogical positions. Definitely a rather nasty piece of work. I bet he votes Tory all the way.

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  3. What an excitable little chap you are! Perhaps you could explain to your other reader what is "racist" in that passage of unremarkable 'real-politik'?

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  4. Ok, I will. First a definition of racism from Wikipedia:

    "Racism, by its simplest definition, is discrimination based on the racial groups to which people belong"

    You have posited that Israel is "an excellent example of democratic prosperity to the Arab states that surround it, which is why so many of their rulers desire to exterminate it for ever". This statement is bizarrely inaccurate but I will not deal with its inaccuracies further here because what it does do is set up the 'Arab states' as the subject of the rest of the paragraph, which continues: "I would certainly want the continued existence of Israel and would support it, from a distance, but only because it acts as an outpost against *my* enemies."

    The reference to "*my* enemies" in this context is unequivocally directed at the same, unspecified "Arab states" mentioned previously. As Israel is 'surrounded' by Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Syria this generalisation encompasses a wide diversity of cultures and races. However, it is unquestionable that 'Arabs' are the target of this statement due to the previous sentence. Therefore you have identified a specific ethnic group and stated that they are your enemies. The definition of “enemy”:

    1. someone who is hostile to, feels hatred towards, opposes the interests of, or intends injury to someone else
    2. a hostile force or nation; a fighting member of such a force or nation
    3. an alliance of such forces

    Whichever definition you choose you have applied it to the racial group in question. Whether this counts as “discrimination”, as in the definition of racism above is open to interpretation. However, as you have spoken favourably of Israel it is clear that you are not so sociopathic as to apply the term enemy to all races uniformly, including your own. Therefore you have discriminated against the Arabs in specific. Ergo, you are a dirty little racist.

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  5. Oh, so you mean that when I was anti-German during and after WWII that makes me a racist?

    I was going to warn you about depending on Wiki for support but I thought it might distract from the debate, and so I used it in return as you seemed comfortabl;e with it. However, and apropos your last quote from it, some of us of - shall we say of a scientific persuasion? - do not take United Nations-speak as the last word on any subject, particularly as that organisation contains the largest collection of crooks, thugs, murderers and thieves outside of the Mafia!

    Try for a start, something a little more scholarly - the OED:

    "Racism: [...] the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics, abilities or qualities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races."

    Nothing I wrote indicated that Jews/Arabs, who, I repeat, are of exactly the same race, were superior/inferior to each other, only that at certain times in the past 60-odd years I have preferred for *strategic* reasons first one side then the other other.

    I guess that from your background you find it hard to understand that when it comes to matters of strategic importance to one's country, there are people (me) for whom race is of little or no importance. In a friendly way, may I suggest a crash course in Machiavelli and Clausewitze, it will broaden your outlook from the, er, somewhat narrow channel in which it appears to be trapped.

    Oh, and the constant use of childish 4-letter invective does not aid your argument.

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  6. Yes, well, that's a reply that tells you all you need to know about Ph.D students and explains why the term 'higher education' is an oxymoron.

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  7. Just for the sake of accuracy:

    The family in the car did not 'fail to stop at a checkpoint' they were shot at by a patrol. There was never any 'checkpoint'.

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  8. I got the checkpoint reference from Wikipedia:

    "On January 18, 2005, an Iraqi family was travelling in a car which failed to stop at a US checkpoint in Tal Afar."

    There's no mention of such a checkpoint in the author's description of the incident through the second link. Irrelevant, really. When you have soldiers on the streets in fear of their lives you get collateral damage. Its the inevitable byproduct of guerrilla war. When those same soldiers have dehumanised the people around them the level of collateral damage increases hugely. Both these things should not have been allowed to happen. Its the UK and US's fault that troops are there in the first place and that such dehumanisation is so widespread amongst troops who are bitter and confused about their role in the Iraqi genocide.

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Feel free to share your opinions of my opinions. Oh- and cocking fuckmouse.