Tuesday Thoughts
Jun. 1st, 2010 09:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chris_gerribRotary today, and back to work, so a few random thoughts instead of a bigger post.
Random Thought #1
You may remember how, back in early 2009, the Right was screaming that the bailout of GM and Chrysler was The Worst Idea Ever. Now comes word that GM is making money, repaying the taxpayers, and didn't need to use some of the cash we offered it. This is actually not surprising - the US has a long history of successfully bailing out large companies.
Random Though #2
Over the weekend, the Israeli military boarded ships carrying "peace activists" to Gaza with humanitarian supplies. A number of said activists got killed in the attack. Now, don't get me wrong - the "peace activists" were spoiling for a fight. However, Israel callously disregarded international law, and pissed off a major Muslim ally (Turkey). As this guy says, Let's say you were a cartoonish, Ahmadinejadesque lunatic fixated on destroying Israel. How would you go about achieving your goal?. Well, dumb-ass stunts like this are exactly how you'd do that. Hell, even the Israeli press gets it, as seen by The Case of the Seven Idiots.
ETA: Israel's Aid to the Free Gaza Movement. Basically, what he said.
Random Thought #1
You may remember how, back in early 2009, the Right was screaming that the bailout of GM and Chrysler was The Worst Idea Ever. Now comes word that GM is making money, repaying the taxpayers, and didn't need to use some of the cash we offered it. This is actually not surprising - the US has a long history of successfully bailing out large companies.
Random Though #2
Over the weekend, the Israeli military boarded ships carrying "peace activists" to Gaza with humanitarian supplies. A number of said activists got killed in the attack. Now, don't get me wrong - the "peace activists" were spoiling for a fight. However, Israel callously disregarded international law, and pissed off a major Muslim ally (Turkey). As this guy says, Let's say you were a cartoonish, Ahmadinejadesque lunatic fixated on destroying Israel. How would you go about achieving your goal?. Well, dumb-ass stunts like this are exactly how you'd do that. Hell, even the Israeli press gets it, as seen by The Case of the Seven Idiots.
ETA: Israel's Aid to the Free Gaza Movement. Basically, what he said.
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no subject
Date: 2010-06-01 08:53 pm (UTC)However, I agree that this raid demonstrates that Israel's policies towards Gaza are at odds with its interests, since it really calls into question the justice of killing ten people in international waters to stop a shipment of humanitarian supplies to the people Israel is blockading.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-04 05:39 pm (UTC)And then the news broke the other way. Turns out that the "peace activists" were not peaceful at all, instead being both armed and aggressive. Were you sorry about that?
no subject
Date: 2010-06-05 02:53 am (UTC)Certainly some of the protestors on one ship attempted to resist the IDF boarding, but none of them had firearms, which means the match up was completely asymetrical in the Israelis favour, and so the use of deadly force on people with sticks attempting to run non-military supplies, seems unjustified, as well as really poor policy for Israel.
I can criticize Israel's actions without supporting the actions of its opponents, but do you honestly take everything Israel says at face value?