Posted on 11/19/2004 9:52:58 AM PST by timbuck2
WHY all the fuss about the recent killing of an unarmed Iraqi in a mosque by a US marine? We are only outraged because the murder has been captured on film, and the US army is only appalled because the marine was stupid enough to commit murder in front of a camera. This is war, and in war this sort of abhorrent behaviour continues every minute of every day all over the country.
Check the facts. The US army is able to provide a reliable estimate of the number of insurgents killed (about 1600), but has no idea of the number of civilians killed. Maybe it's just easier to just label everyone as an insurgent? Only about 500 insurgents have been captured. And where are the prisoner of war camps?
Only about 200 insurgents have been wounded -- an appallingly high killed/wounded ratio of about eight to one. Maybe it's easier to kill them rather than patch them up and let them live to tell the truth?
And what is an insurgent anyway? Perhaps he and the thousands of others are just a tad angry about having their country invaded, their city occupied, their homes destroyed and their lives ruined.
Paul Greenway
South Plympton, SA
Here is his bio from The Lonely Planet website.
Paul Greenway
Paul caught his first tropical disease in 1985, and has had the 'travel bug' ever since. Gratefully plucked from the security and blandness of the Australian Public Service, he is now a full-time traveller and writer, who has written a diverse number of Lonely Planet guides, including Mongolia, Madagascar & Comoros and Iran. He has also contributed to the Maluku and Irian Jaya chapters for Indonesia and co-wrote Indian Himalaya. During the rare times, Paul is not traveling, or thinking, reading or writing about it, he watches every minute of every possible Australian Rules Football match, has regressed to his teens and wants to play in a heavy rock band again, and will do anything to avoid settling down. He is now based in his mother's spare bedroom in Adelaide, South Australia.
http://shop.lonelyplanet.com/author_detail.cfm?authorid=1081&productID=1705
Is it the same guy who writes the letters to The Australian? Most likely.
He is mentioned in the paper in an article on travel writers. Here is a sampling of his latest letters to the editor that always seem to get published. Included are also so other mentions of this "intrepid" travel writer and Iraq war "specialist." ------------------------------------------ JOHN Howard may promise to abolish all taxes, provide free health care for everyone, and even trim his eyebrows, but he will never receive my vote for one simple reason: he dragged Australia into an immoral, illegal and unnecessary war against the wishes of the majority of Australians. There is no greater sin for a prime minister, and he deserves to be severely punished on October 9.
Paul Greenway
Simple questions on Iraq
AS it becomes official on both sides of the Atlantic that Iraq offered no threat to the West, had no weapons of mass destruction and had no link to September 11 or al-Qa'ida, Messrs Howard and Downer continue to roll out the respective justification of ``well, the people of Iraq are better off without Saddam''.
If that's the case, are we going to invade Cuba, Libya, North Korea, Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe or any of the other countries around the globe run by despots? Or perhaps we should have invaded Iraq 25 years ago, before Saddam invaded Iran (which killed one million), gassed the Kurds and invaded Kuwait.
I still want our Prime Minister and Foreign Minister to answer two simple questions: why Iraq and why now?
Paul Greenway
* BULGARIAN travel guide reader Pavel Lesev was incensed to read a contribution from Paul Greenway in Lonely Planet's Europe on a Shoestring that suggests: ``If you get caught drinking and driving in Bulgaria, you get a lengthy prison sentence. If you're convicted of the offence again, they kill you. By firing squad.'' Lesev writes that Bulgaria doesn't even have the death penalty (according to Amnesty International, Bulgaria formally abolished it in 1998) let alone a policy for blowing away drunk drivers. ``I have lived in Bulgaria for over 20 years and have never heard of anyone getting executed for repeated drink-driving offences,'' Lesev adds.
* We all know John Howard is incapable of saying the word "sorry" for any reason. But perhaps he could do a Thorpey and say "oops" instead, and admit the invasion of Iraq was illegal and immoral and that it has done nothing but exacerbate the threat from terrorism.
Paul Greenway South Plympton, SA
Even for the most intrepid guidebook writer there are destinations that are beyond the pale. They're the ones Paul Greenway goes to. Lonely Planet's ``go anywhere man'', he has written guides for Mongolia and Iran, among others. He has seen the awesome scenery of Mongolia and trekked in the virgin jungles of Madagascar. And then there's the pricklier side. ``I am not terribly brave,'' he says, ``but I have been in sticky situations that make entertaining dinner conversation, without really being dangerous. Like being stuck for five days in a tent camp halfway between Leh and Manali in India during a snowstorm, being arrested and spending the night at the police station in remote Mongolia for straying too near the undefined border with China. And being interviewed by the Iranian secret police because I wanted to renew my visa an unprecedented four times, getting giardia in Mongolia and dysentery in the Comoros Islands.'' ---------------------------------------------
What's the point of my post? There is a very vocal minority out there that flood newspapers with leftwing nonsense. This semi-employed loser lives with his Mom and yet manages to get published multiple times in the daily national paper of Australia.
I guess this post is a bit of an anthropological examination of homo sapiens of the leftwing persuasion... Conclusions? They tend to be unemployed, live at home and exhibit less than average intelligence.
:-)
-T
You got that right....except they don't live to tell the truth.
They live to kill Australians in Bali!!
Your travel bug is calling.
Paul Greenway
Some people shouldnt be allowed to talk.
The avg wanker tends to be stoopid.
It seems pretty obvious re the cause and effect
of the aformentioned letter.
1) US was attacked by turdorists
2) US concluded the absence of distinction btw/
Afghaniland, Iraq, Iran, etc, terrorists
3) US did Afghaniland
4) US is now doing Iraq
5) US will do Iran
6) wankers will be wankers
What point do you think it is that this wanker does not
comprehend?????
MV
CAMPS? I was thinking we'd just let them loose in Australia.
LOL!
LOL. I mean come on! How do morons like this get published? Granted, he writes bad travel guides (see the Bulgarian guy who is all pissed off?) and the occassional letter to the editor, but his voice just adds to the cacophony of the anti-American, anti-war, anti-Western prfessional protester crowd.
-T
This sounds like the title of a really bad after school special. LOL!
How do you post pictures? There's one of the supreme wanker here:
http://shop.lonelyplanet.com/author_detail.cfm?authorid=1081&productID=1705
-T
I can't see why the free world has chosen him to lead us in these dangerous times.
The author is a twit!
Post pictures like this:
< img scr="paste url here" >
Get the url by right clicking on the picture and clicking properties. Just copy the address.
Some pretty rough writing here (probably from Paul himself) but something interesting emerges that tells a lot about Paul's character. Obviously a classic case of arrested development.
Memo to Paul's mum: you need to do considerably more to help the lad grow up.
The only good terrorist is a dead terrorist.
He is a typical neutered western male islamophile absolutely "fascinated and bedazzled" by the hyper macho Muslim males.
Think of - the idiot from California who became a jihadi. El sensitivo Cat Stevens who turned Mooslem,
D H Lawrence, ad nauseum.
Petition to US congress re: the Marine in Fallujah:
http://www.petitiononline.com/as123/petition.html
52551 signatures and counting.
"So basically, he lives in his mom's basement, except when he leaves for a few weeks to be a hobo and bum things off people in exotic lands.
I can't see why the free world has chosen him to lead us in these dangerous times"
We almost did - John Kerry!
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