99 Red Balloon Peace Event called for day of Salthill war show

by paul o toole Thu Jun 14, 2007 21:39

As the world spirals downward into an abyss of violence and destruction, it is all portrayed as entertainment. The connection is never made with the victims being destroyed. De-contextualising, is what it is called. We are never shown the dismembered victims, the purple blobs left on the roadside that used to be laughing children with dreams of their own, only moments earlier.

As Amy Goodman, journalist, and host of globally sindicated radio show-Democracy Now-said about American television.........'just for one day, show the victims, show America the destruction their government is engaged in, show the dead mutilated bodies and you would end this war to-morrow, because the American public dont have the stomach for it'.

by gavina Thu Jun 21, 2007 20:11

'just for one day, show the victims, show America the destruction their government is engaged in, show the dead mutilated bodies and you would end this war to-morrow, because the American public dont have the stomach for it'... [sic].

Maybe we should all be shown the civilians who have been blown apart in New York, London, Madrid, Israel, Bali, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, Pakistan, Yemen, Egypt, Morocco, etc, etc... Or the 186 children plus 160 others slaughtered in Beslan, or the theatre-goers in Moscow, or the shoppers and worshippers murdered in their scores every day in Iraq. Show us these people, and every non-terrorist in the world would be on America's side.

Can we please just face a few facts: there are bad people in the world (please look beyond your American bogeymen). Your Islamist idols are not freedom fighters, they are not heroes. There is no moral equivalence between them and the West. The West is not driven by a blind, murderous, religiously-motivated crackpot goal. A god who orders you to kill children and civilians is not God, it's the Devil. In a world where war has existed since day 1, it's time to pick a side. If you can identify with the deliberate murder of children and civilians (where this is the stated aim, not accidental bombing, tragic as it is), then please leave the West and join them. If you don't care for the murder of children, the beheading of innocents and you don't want your legs blown off next time you're on the train, but still find you like nothing more than to bad-mouth the West, attack planes, and release balloons, then please quit the endless, nauseating anti-West, anti-Americanism and be proud that you live in the West, imperfect as it is. We have seen all the anti-American marches and demonstrations, but where are the marches against the Islamist filth? Why the implicit support?

And while I'm at it, where the hell are the Muslim "not in my name" marches? They're well able to muster a crowd, threaten the West's civilians en masse, and kill a few dozen people when a cartoon is published (if it wasn't so serious it would be laughable), but hardly a peep when their 'brothers' murder all around them. It speaks volumes.

by Slacker (again) Thu Jun 21, 2007 20:34

I'm not with either of ye on this.

Killing = bad
freedom to protest=good
freedom to congregate=good

I see two congregations who both wish to gather to enjoy a show and give their views.

The Aeronuts (like admittedly myself) to celebrate aviation in all its forms (yes that includes the fighter jets)
The anti-war lobby (like most readers I presume rightly or wrongly) who wish to celebrate all the higher ideals of peace.

I welcome the non-invasive nature of the GAAW's event this year. As long as you do not try to physically prevent the airshow from taking place, I fully support your right to congegate and get your message of peace across to those who would prefer not to attend the airshow, and wish your event the best.

Providing a choice to the citizens of Galway, good on ye. I won't be attending, but then again I am an aeronut.

by Coilín Fri Jun 22, 2007 11:16

Gavina, the total number of people killed through acts of small-group terrorism all over the world over the last few years amounts to a small fraction of the number of Iraqi civilians killed during the invasion of Iraq. The former can be counted in hundreds, the latter in their hundreds of thousands. The US military problem is thus a thousand times bigger than the problem of small-group terrorism.

Also, it doesn't help to exaggerate, as you do when you mention "the shoppers and worshippers murdered in their scores every day in Iraq". If it were true that terrorists were killing scores of civilians every day in Iraq, then there would be more Iraqis on America's side. But you do exaggerate.

It may be helpful to remember the origins of the word "terrorism" in the French Reign of Terror. Terrorism is the invention of the powerful state, which reserves the right to imprison, torture and murder its enemies - real or imagined - but the label has since been usurped and is now more often applied to small groups. Powerful states like the US attempt to reserve unto themselves the right to use bombs to attack people, to destroy water purification systems and other life-giving infrastructure, while denouncing the use of bombs by small groups. So we are supposed to accept the principle of "Big bombs good, small bombs bad."

Similarly, spectators at the air show are supposed to think "Aircraft bombs good, truck bombs bad? I don't buy it. It's all terrorism.

As tax-payers, most readers of this Indymedia site are already contributing to police work to prevent small-group terrorism, and so we have no obligation to take to the streets to protest against the small bombs. However, we are also subsidising the abuse of Shannon airport by the US military, and this places an obligation on us to speak out against the big bombs that are dropped on Iraq by our de-facto military ally, the United States.

I have received the following message from Ed Horgan, former commandant in the Irish army and decorated UN peacekeeper:

"Shannon warport is full of warplanes for Sunday Galway air show. Seven Afghan children have been killed by US Air Force 18 June. Protest Shannon Saturday 2 pm for those who care."
For further details, please contact Edward Horgan: 085-1026631 or edward.horgan at ul dot ie.

Will you be there, Gavina? Do you care about the Afghan children killed by the US Air Force?

Best,
Coilín.

by gavina Mon Jun 25, 2007 11:54

Coilín,

For someone who claims to actually give a damn about all of the big bad wolf's victims, you display a shocking ignorance of the situation with regard to terrorists in Iraq. In case you've been in a coma for the last 4 years, here's a rundown of just the last 3 weeks' worth of glorious terrorist activity in Iraq (courtesy of http://www.iraqbodycount.org/database/recent/), or just listen to the news if you don't believe it:

Sunday 24 June: 26 dead
Saturday 23 June: 50 dead
Friday 22 June: 56 killed
Thursday 21 June: 65 dead
Wednesday 20 June: 56 dead
Tuesday 19 June: 145 dead
Monday 18 June: 93 dead
Sunday 17 June: 65 dead
Saturday 16 June: 22 dead
Friday 15 June: 56 dead
Thursday 14 June: 33 dead
Wednesday 13 June: 41 dead
Tuesday 12 June: 52 dead
Monday 11 June: 40 dead
Sunday 10 June: 60 dead
Saturday 9 June: 63 dead
Friday 8 June: 83 dead
Thursday 7 June: 92 dead
Wednesday 6 June: 88 dead
Tuesday 5 June: 103 dead
Monday 4 June: 72 dead

...And another 30 so far today.

In just 3 weeks, 1391 people murdered almost exclusively by terrorists using car and truck bombs detonated in the midst of civilians, and death squads roaming Baghdad's streets.

You say the Americans have killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians, and 'small-group terrorists' have killed just hundreds? It would seem you're somewhat prone to hyperbole. Tell me how many Iraqi civilians have been killed by US forces in the last 3 weeks. Then compare that figure with the 1391 people listed above. Perhaps your support for 'small-group terrorists' would wane somewhat, were you to look at the raw statistics.

And to answer your last cheap little question about whether I care about Afghan children killed by US forces: indeed I do, but were they targetted? Did the US plan to murder those children, did they sit down and say, "we're gonna kill us some kids today"? Was this their goal? Please tell me that you can see the difference between planning to murder children, and children being killed as a by-product of war, extremely sad as it is? Can't you see this?