World News Thread & Breaking News!!

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My experience is that the trouble makers are frequently the police themselves, sometimes police in uniform as reported in article cited above, sometimes police in civvies or other agents of the authorities out to provide an excuse for violence by the police. The public would be safer if the authorities allowed concerned citizens to express themselves. Of course democratic politics might then lead to the end of the career for some politicians.

In small numbers those instances does happen. But lately I've seen on news is that most large cities police forces around the country has cops video recording of the area of where the protesters took place probably use as evidence in case a major break out does occur. In all the police are taking every precautionary measures to ensure safety for the protesters, the public, and themselves. Concerned citizens can expressed their grievances through city halls and state capital buildings, BUT they have to abide by the law lay first, can't barge in there and scream your head off holding a Molotov cock-tale bottle with one hand and megaphone with the other.

 

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It is quite unreasonable to demand that protesters should abide by the law. People had to break the law in order to win the right to organize trade unions. Whether you have to break the law will have to depend on circumstances.
Englishmen often date their democracy from 1215 when King John acknowledged that the militarily most powerful barons should have a say in the government of the country. Universal male suffrage was introduced in the US formally in 1870 but only effectively extended to blacks in 1965. It was introduced in the UK in 1919.( Votes for women is another interesting subject ).
We now see that power in these countries have effectively devolved to the bankers. See this citation from an article in yesterdays The Daily Telegraph, a right-wing British newspaper:

Anglo-Saxon politicians are getting impatient and increasingly shrill. Their friends on Wall Street and in the City, pens poised over campaign donation cheque books, are desperate for the markets to surge.
After all, end-of-year results and Christmas bonuses are now at stake. But convincing Berlin that “quantitative easing” is the answer will be a very, very hard sell.

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The approval rating for the US government is now about 20% which is quite low even for formally undemocratic governments.
We now see the peaceful Occupy movement ( the remark about Molotov cocktails is ridiculous ) that in an as yet unspecified way seeks to re-introduce democracy in the US is being met by violence.

 

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We now see the peaceful Occupy movement ( the remark about Molotov cocktails is ridiculous ) that in an as yet unspecified way seeks to re-introduce democracy in the US is being met by violence.

Lol...I meant to use it as metaphor as to what's been happening around the world every time a protesting gets out of hand. But so far so good there hasn't been too much violence occurred as of lately.

 

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The main violence reported today is the massacre on the Tahrir square in Cairo. People are killed at a higher rate than in Syria.
What is the attitude of Western governments in this case?

 

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The main violence reported today is the massacre on the Tahrir square in Cairo. People are killed at a higher rate than in Syria.
What is the attitude of Western governments in this case?

In Tahrir Square the government didn't need to send in tanks and APCs to gunned down people like in Syria (how much is true of course are still pending). Syria is basically under siege compare to Egypt. Egypt already has set up a temporary government with plans to for elections next year. Now the violence that's occurring from week to week got to do with dislikes between Christians and Muslims in the neighborhoods, not the people as a whole. I hope the Egyptian and the Syrian govt. will find the solutions to end the bloodshed and start getting their lives together again.

 

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In Tahrir Square the government didn't need to send in tanks and APCs to gunned down people like in Syria (how much is true of course are still pending). Syria is basically under siege compare to Egypt. Egypt already has set up a temporary government with plans to for elections next year. Now the violence that's occurring from week to week got to do with dislikes between Christians and Muslims in the neighborhoods, not the people as a whole. I hope the Egyptian and the Syrian govt. will find the solutions to end the bloodshed and start getting their lives together again.

My information is very different. The power in Egypt lies now with the Military Council that was set up after the coup by Nasser against King Farouk in 1952. The Military Council tries to achieve a position similar to that of the Turkish military forty years ago as ultimate political organ in the state. To that end it has proposed a committee to write a new constitution for which it would select 80 % of the members and parliament, whose election has been delayed from this month until next year, the remaining 20 %. The riots between Christian and Muslims, which were said, most improbably, that they were instigated by the Christians, were most likely the work of military intelligence or else of one or more of the other secret services to distract the people from the political moves by the Military Council. It didn't work and the demonstrations on Tahrir Square were growing again so the military are now trying violent intimidation, with some 33 dead this weekend.
The situation in Syria is very different. Its government is actively supported by many minorities, among them the Christians, while there is armed opposition apparently payed for by Saudi Arabia. It is the duty of the military of every country to act against an armed opposition, think of the US Civil War, whether internally or externally financed, but especially the second.

 

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Earlier today, we presented the latest developments in the escalating possibility of an imminent air (and potentially land) campaign targeting Syria by the "western world", a move that would infuriate not only Iran, but also Russia and China, both of which have made it clear they would not sit idly by and let such an "aggression" stand. Now it is Russia's turn to retaliate. Cutting straight to the chase - in a nationally televized appearance by Russian president Dmitry Medvedev: in response to what the Russian believes is an active incursion and a potential act of eventual aggression on behalf of NATO countries in Eastern Europe (and hence the US), he said the following...

 

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Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the military to prepare the capability to “destroy” the command structure of the planned U.S. missile-defense system in Europe...

 

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Lol...I read that article too. It was interesting to hear Putin is very interested in Russia's goals to counter the U.S. Missile-Defense system in Europe. How well will the Russian do, we have to wait and see. That missile defense shield won't be ready till 2020 being it will be station in Poland and Hungary.

 

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We have still no reliable evidence that Iran is working on a nuclear weapon and if it is it can only be as a deterrent against aggression against itself. So if an anti-missile system is to be set up against Iran it can only be to make an assault on that country "safe". So it is no wonder that Russia doesn't buy this story.