I never did get all my links up yesterday. Too many distractions. More distractions this morning but reader Yolanda Flanagan just sent me this and I must put it up. It's not long so here is the whole thing. It gets to the nub of what is going on around the world. Lord Acton's observation in 1887 is as true today as it was then: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

What If There Were Real Balances of Power?
About "World Peace"
By Gilad Atzmon

Now, when it is beyond doubt that the Anglo-American (the English speaking world) 'war against terror' is leading to self-defeat, there is one simple strategic alternative that would make this planet a much safer place. The first lesson one learns when attending an introductory course in international affairs is that the balance of power and the power of deterrence are the most crucial ingredients for peace. The cold war showed this. America and USSR never engaged in a direct conflict. They simply had too much to lose.

If 'world peace' is our main concern, we must achieve a balance of power, we must let the oppressed people of this world have access to the most advanced weaponry. If the Palestinians, for example, were equipped with the latest anti air missiles, anti tank missiles, cluster bombes and cruise missiles, there would be no need for foreign intervention in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The Palestinian militant would not have to carry out any martyrdom operations in the centre of Tel Aviv. Like the Mujahideen who crashed the Soviet army and the Vietcong who defeated the Americans, the Palestinians would punish the Israeli soldiers and concentrate solely on them. They would shoot down the Israeli combat airplanes and would destroy the Israeli tanks as soon as they entered the Gaza strip. Soon Israel would have to pursue every possible option to achieve peace with the Palestinian people while addressing the 'Palestinian right of return'.

Balance of power is the only key to peace. Islamic militants, when equipped with the right weaponry, would concentrate on Anglo-American military targets. They would never kill civilians or attack what the Americans call 'soft targets'. The Islamic struggle is about liberation not about bloodthirstiness. It isn't about a culture clash or about war against our values. Anyway, the only values we have are 'market values', basically the price of oil. We can't fool ourselves anymore. In the age of 'Guantanamo Bay ' and continuous killing of thousands of Iraqi and Afghani civilians, we cannot claim to have 'values' to defend.

If Islamic militants could practically endanger our existence we would have to listen to them with great respect. We would then have to look for a genuine means towards reconciliation. I suggest that we allow the Iranians to be as nuclear as we are, we leave Syria alone, we must help the Palestinians become as armed as their Israeli enemy. We should be living in a world that embraces the notion of 'balance of power'. I assume that the key to peace therefore is to dismantle the hegemony of America, Britain and Israel. There are different ways to achieve such an aim. Supporting the strength of the European Union is an obvious one, opposing America and Israel is another. In all this, the impeachment of Mr Blair and Bush is necessary. We can not anymore expect those evils to have enough dignity to resign.
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