be just

 Democrats Do Poland   : Information Clearing House - ICH : "Historically, the country of Poland has always been assigned the same role in the theater of international politics. Its kinda like the unnamed actor in the red shirt who beams down to the planet with Kirk and Scotty and the rest of the regular gang. He’s only there for one (fleeting) reason. You know he’s gonna get zapped by the local evil alien. If you’re Poland, you’re expected to do two things. One is to get smashed by one or perhaps even several of your vastly more powerful neighbors. The other is to then be occupied, or perhaps even simply swallowed up wholesale. Over time, the Poles even got good at this themselves, sometimes assisting in their own annihilation with techniques like the liberum veto, an innovation which allowed any (and every) member of parliament to unilaterally bring the legislative session to a close and vacate all legislation already passed to that point. Sort of like the veto-driven ineffectiv...

Why Soldiers Rape | War on Iraq: A Soldier Speaks | AlterNet : "An alarming number of women soldiers are being sexually abused by their comrades-in-arms, both at war and at home. This fact has received a fair amount of attention lately from researchers and the press -- and deservedly so. But the attention always focuses on the women: where they were when assaulted, their relations with the assailant, the effects on their mental health and careers, whether they are being adequately helped, and so on. That discussion, as valuable as it is, misses a fundamental point. To understand military sexual assault, let alone know how to stop it, we must focus on the perpetrators. We need to ask: Why do soldiers rape? Rape in civilian life is already unacceptably common. One in six women is raped or sexually assaulted in her lifetime, according to the National Institute of Justice, a number so high it should be considered an epidemic. In the military, however, the situation is even worse. Rape...

blackagendareport.com - 9/11 and the Great American Decline : "'So, what do you think will happen now?' The question was posed by the taller of two young Israelis, my sole companions in this section of Liberty State Park on the Jersey City side of the Hudson River, the morning of September 11, 2001. 'Everything has changed,' I replied, unaware that the same phrase was simultaneously forming on the lips of millions around the globe. 'Yes, everything has changed,' said the Israeli, looking not at all displeased. He turned to resume taking photos of the great smoking space that had been the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, and of the huge, low cloud that drifted across New York Bay to Brooklyn. My fellow witnesses to the collapse of the second tower were already positioned at the riverbank when I arrived at the scene on foot after having rushed past police who blocked all vehicular entrance to the park. The athletic, military age duo were clicking away w...

American Civil Liberties Union : New FBI Guidelines Open Door to Further Abuse : "Washington, DC - Following a briefing today at the Department of Justice (DOJ), the American Civil Liberties Union reiterated its deep concern over new guidelines that would govern FBI investigations. The new guidelines would lower standards for beginning 'assessments' (precursors to investigations), conducting surveillance and gathering evidence, and would replace existing guidelines for five types of existing guidelines: general criminal, national security, foreign intelligence, civil disorders and demonstrations. The rewritten guidelines have been drafted in a way to give the FBI the ability to begin surveillance without factual evidence, stating that a generalized 'threat' is enough to use certain techniques. Also under the new guidelines, a person's race or ethnic background could be used as a factor in opening an investigation, a move the ACLU believes will institute racial ...

Woyanne starts exporting women to Saudi Arabia :: Ethiopian Review : "Housemaids from Ethiopia will start arriving in the Kingdom soon. This follows the go-ahead given by the government in Addis Ababa for the recruitment of housemaids to work in the Kingdom. Recruitment offices across the Kingdom have already begun to make contacts with manpower agencies in the Horn of African country. The arrival of the first batch of housemaids within a fortnight will ameliorate the shortage in house help especially after the recruitment of Indonesian housemaids has become problematic, Al-Madina Arabic daily said."

120,000 Iraqis enduring an unhappy limbo in Egypt - The National Newspaper : "CAIRO // More than three years after thousands of Iraqis fled to Egypt to escape sectarian violence in their war-torn country, many say they still do not feel welcome here, but are wary of returning home. “I wish I could go back home, but the security situation is still not good; electricity and water are not available all the time, and prices are very high,” said Abdel Khedr Abdullah Jawad, who left Iraq with his wife and two sons in early 2006, after violence between Sunni and Shias flared. The family now lives in a sparsely furnished rented flat in 6th of October City, 20km south-west of Cairo, nicknamed “New Baghdad” for the thousands of Iraqis who have settled there. Egypt has become a popular destination for Iraqis. Before the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, there were less than 800 Iraqis living here. That number has swollen to 120,000, according to the Iraqi Embassy, with a further 10,600 registered...

Truthdig - Reports - Quagmire, Phase 2: The Invasion of Pakistan The United States has just invaded Cambodia. The name of Cambodia this time is Pakistan, but otherwise it’s the same story as in Indochina in 1970. An American army, deeply frustrated by its inability to defeat an anti-American insurgent movement despite years of struggle, decides that the key to victory lies in a neighboring country. In 1970, the problem was the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Cambodia. Today it is Taliban and al-Qaida bases inside Pakistan, which the United States has been attacking from the air for some time, with controversial “collateral damage.” George W. Bush has now authorized independent ground assaults on Taliban and al-Qaida targets in Pakistan’s Tribal Territories, without consultation with Pakistan authorities. These already have begun. This follows a period of tension, with some armed clashes, between American and Pakistani military units, the latter defending “Pakistan’s national sovereignty.” Pakista...