Libyans
fleeing NATO bombing and Qaddafi's brutality head to
the
small Italian island of Lampedusa. Ironically, hundreds are
dead,
when their boat capsized within sight of a NATO warship.
Sol, Portugal
Unethical NATO
Should Go the Way of the Warsaw Pact
"One
recent day in the community of Europe, thanks to the indifference of a NATO
warship crew off the coast of Italy, men, women and children drowned just a
ferry or two away - war refugees fleeing the terror of Lord Qaddafi. … I was
convinced that these international forces obeyed some (few) values and had
ethics of some kind. Again I was wrong. … In the distant 70s when my minority
group yelled, 'No NATO and no Warsaw Pact!,' they were right."
Fleeing from Qaddafi or NATO
bombs, refugees died in sight of a NATO warship.
Last weekend a formal
election campaign began [in Portugal].
The vacuousness of the
speeches is disheartening, although this time the void can be justified by the
agreement signed among the three major parties and the international organizations which are advancing Portugal the money to pay its most pressing debts.
The trouble is that this
hasn't rid us of the “tired” rallies or the “innovative” dinners and lunch
parties.
The only news seems to be the
new color of the patrons at such events. They are immigrants, dressed in
traditional garb, who don't understand the language of our country or even know
where they're going. They are “invited” on trips to historic cities - Évora is one example -
complete with picnics that fill Geraldo's town square.
I’m one of the 40 percent of
Portuguese who don’t yet know which party they'll vote for, but who will
certainly vote. Because some of us have fought and suffered for the right,
which has become a duty.
The electoral folklore has
distracted us from what's happening around the world, while our dear candidates
travel around like roasts broiling in the uncooperatively hot sun.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
One recent day in the
community of Europe, thanks to the indifference of a NATO
warship crew off the coast of Italy, men, women and children drowned just a
ferry or two away - war refugees fleeing the terror of Lord Qaddafi and the
bombings of his unworthy regime.
While
NATO bombs Libya to save civilians from Libyan
despot
Muammar Qaddafi, it seems indifferent to the
refugees
fleeing the attacks of both NATO and Qaddafi.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization,
founded in 1949 during the "Cold War," arose as a result of the
growing military power of the Soviet Union and its satellite countries to
oppose a fragile Europe, which at the time was carrying out its post-World War
II reconstruction. The so-called “Eastern countries” founded the Warsaw Pact in
1955.
We were told at the time that
the military arsenals of the two blocs, capitalist and communist, had a
deterrent effect and would guarantee a peace fueled by the science of fear.
With the fall of the
communist bloc in 1991, the Warsaw Pact became extinct, but NATO remained and
grew.
I swear I don't know why or
for what. What I do know is that the children of some of us continue to go to
Bosnia or Afghanistan under the framework of our commitment to NATO.
May the generals who explain
the wars on television forgive me, but I have never understood the urgency of
buying submarines - with a contract established by the Guterres government
(1995-2002) and with the vessels arriving only two or three months ago.
Of course, for something to
be valid doesn't require me to understand. But like all other citizens, I do
have to pay.
What I cannot tolerate is
having to pay for barbaric behavior, like that which took place
near Lampedusa, when those hundreds of war refugees looking to save
themselves and their families were left to their fates by an entity that we,
inhabitants of “developed” and “civilized” countries, are keeping alive.
I’m an undercover activist,
but I was convinced that these international forces obeyed some (few) values
and had ethics of some kind. Again I was wrong. And I feel like I was alone in
being wrong, because I haven't heard of a single protest, not even at Puerta
del Sol in Madrid.
In the distant 70s when my
minority group yelled, “No NATO and no Warsaw Pact!,” they were right.
