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<P><B>From:</B> <A title=jim@maze.cc href="mailto:jim@maze.cc">Jim Miller</A>
</P>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=TheBanyanTree@remsset.com
href="mailto:TheBanyanTree@remsset.com">TheBanyanTree@remsset.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, April 12, 2003 3:18
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: TheBanyanTree: Mohammed
Saeed al-Sahaf . . .</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3>I'm sorry you have such a jaundiced view of the world and
it's inhabitants. <BR><BR>Next time, may I suggest, before you rant in my
space, you at least support a minuscule fraction of your outrageous claims
with definitive evidence. Without absolute proof, these are simply more
vitriolic myths spread to a gullible Internet.<BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3><BR> </DIV></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3>I'm glad to see you're up and about again, Jim,
you had us all a little worried for a time.</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I wasn't aware that I was ranting in your space about anything. Rather I
was expressing an opinion in my own space - it is your or any other subscriber's
decision whether to listen or not, to respond or not.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>We don't have a television. My 'outrageous claims' as you term them come
from 2Mb of reports filed on a website independent of governmental influence and
pressure. The reports cover the progress of the US-led invasion of Iraq in all
its gory and factual detail; the sources include:</DIV>
<P>Norman D. Livergood/Hermes Press<BR>Amnesty International<BR>The
Independent<BR>John Pilger/The Independent<BR>William Safire, The New York
Times<BR>Catherine Taylor/The Christian Science Monitor<BR>Nezavisimaya Gazeta
which on 5 apr 03 leaked the information that a Russian naval task force
including three nuclear subs was on its way to the Gulf<BR>Antonia Zerbisias/The
Toronto Star<BR>Anthony Shadid/The Washington Post<BR>Robert Fisk/The
Independent<BR>Sky News<BR>The Hindustan Times<BR>Ellen knickmeyer and david
crary/Associated Press<BR>Andrew Ellson/The Guardian<BR>Gideon Levy/Haaretz
Daily</P>
<P>The URL is <A href="http://www.iraqwar.ru">www.iraqwar.ru</A></P>
<P><!--StartFragment --> There was a time when I thought the people who lived
worked and died in Middle Eastern countries were poor uneducated unskilled
lesser-than-me heathens. Then in the late sixties the Royal Air Force gave me
the opportunity of seeing them in a different light, one which shone very poorly
upon my own country. </P>
<P>The Iraq that the US-led coalition invaded is a sovereign nation just as the
United States of America is a sovereign nation - and 'invaded' is the truth
by any interpretation of international law as a trip to the nearest library
would confirm.</P>
<P>Iraq is a country of 25 million people, more than 50% of whom are
children under the age of 15. Why such a high proportion of children?
Because many adults have been eliminated in previous conflicts.</P>
<P>Its people invented irrigated farming 12,000 years ago. (They have become
very good at it. They had to - only 1% of the land is pastoral. With the
exception of wheat, its farms have produced enough food to sustain its
population throughout all the sanctions imposed since Desert Storm.)</P>
<P>They invented writing - worked out how to tell the time - founded modern
mathematics - invented the first legal system that protects the weak, the widow
and the orphan - were the first occidental people to build cities and live in
them.</P>
<P>Abraham, the father of Israel, the father of Islam, the father and 'model' of
Christian faith, was from Iraq.</P>
<P>Genghis Khan and his descendants, including Kubali Khan, were not the
first despotic rulers of Iraq. The nation from which the 'modern' human race is
believed to have sprung, has since antiquity been ruled by dictators - some
benevolent, some not. (It should not be forgotten that it was the USA
that put Saddam Hussein in a position to become the ruler of Iraq in the first
place.) 'Genghis Khan' means Universal Ruler - he went on to create the largest
empire the world has ever seen, one which encompassed those countries we know as
China and Russia as well as the Middle East - one hopes George Bush does not
have the same colonial imperative.</P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>Now Sachet said:</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>If I'm not willing to direct my efforts either in
support or opposition, to where my actions can have a realistic impact,
than hot air is all I'm producing and no one needs that blowing in their face.
If I've chosen to do these things, then I have to decide whether or not my
friends, neighbors and relatives wish or need to hear my viewpoints. Especially
in places or situations that do not lend themselves to debates or
pontificating.</FONT></P>
<P>I have made no secret of my personal opposition to 'the war' and I have used
every legitimate means to voice it. Whether TBT is a place where these actions
can also have a 'realistic' impact is a matter of opinion. Mine is that they
can, because TBT is a community of thinkers and writers, therefore a community
of people who should not be afraid to look at two sides of the same coin
and be prepared to make realistic decisions on the evidence presented.
</P>
<P>I agree war is not pretty, I have seen it first-hand. I agree that the
335,000 coalition soldiers in the Middle East, many of whom are nowhere near
Iraq, are not there by their choice but by their government's. I agree that the
soldiers personally need our support, but that does not mean I have to agree
with them being there. I do not blame Private Nick Boggs for killing a ten-year
old boy, or the marine who killed a woman because she happened to be
standing next to a man in a uniform and then said "I'm sorry but the chick got
in the way" (John Pilger/The Independent) ." No, I blame the system that
has allowed that to happen, the governments which created that scenario, and the
powers behind those governments. Only the world community can curb those
powers.</P>
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