Kulapavana

..after all is it so bad to be after the Muslims? Why feel uncomfortable to admit? This forum is ok you can say openly what's on your mind! Dont be ashamed like that, I guess it's also ok for Kula.

it should be ok to go after all evildoers on this forum: Muslim, Jewish, American or any other. people like BDM criticize just one rotten lot because the other one is from their own family. that is of course blatant materialism. people like him or Harivilasa work for a certain lobby as it is clear from their actions.

anybody who thinks you can bomb people into accepting your religion is a certified idiot, not worthy of a serious discussion. such people dont have even most rudimentary understanding of spirituality and act on the level of medieval clergy who gladly supported the slaughter and forced conversions of all "heathens".

Most thinking individuals are aware of the Eastern European sex trade that has a home in Israel among MANY places. Are you forgetting the many Arab nations, or do you just hate Israel so ?

you condemn UN wholesale and reject it's credibility based on the actions of a few corrupt individuals. I wanted to show you that exactly the same can be done with the state of Israel where prostitution is fully legal and slave trade semi-legal, and where many elected government officials are utterly corrupt.

and Israel is without any doubt the hub and home base of that sex slave trade, organized by Jewish mobsters 10 times worse than good old Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky, and where such callous monsters can feel safe and at home, protected from international law.

as usual, you do not address the merit of the case but attack the messenger.

Are you saying that Srila Prabhupada would have been considered, either by himself or by others, a brahmin if he hadn't taken diksa into brahma-gayatri mantra?

 

On what basis? On the basis that he translated and wrote commentaries to shastras? Is this exclusively the realm of a brahmin? Or is it the realm of a vaishnava?

you could consider Prabhupada as brahmin based on his guna and karma as listed in Bhagavad-gita, mantra diksa or not. unless you have brahminical qualities, translating and explaining shastra will be a difficult task and results uncertain.

Bhaktisiddhanta wanted to take his organization well past traditional GV boundaries and customs. That is why he adopted things like brahma gayatri diksa and Vaishnava sannyasa. He had a very broad vision, not bound by GV tradition.

Now, as far as Srila Prabhupada, he was not born into a brahmin family, yet he had received "brahmin diksa" in the form of the brahma-gayatri mantra. This mantra is not common amongst Gaudiya Vaishnavas, except for in ISKCON and Gaudiya Math. Brahmin diksa is not Vaishnava diksa. Vaishnava diksa is Krishna-mantra - Gopal mantra and Kama gayatri. Hence most Gaudiya Vaishnavas, whatever caste they may have been born into, are not made into brahmins by virtue of the brahma-gayatri, unless they happen to join ISKCON or Gaudiya Math.

no mantra can change your actual varna as it is based on your guna and karma. in vedic times disciples from different varnas received slightly different Gayatri mantras. just like they wore different clothes, carried different staff, etc.

S. Bhaktisiddhanta started the brahmana diksa system for particular reasons, like students from all varnas being able to perform proper temple arcana for example. There is a lot more to it of course, like showing that any Vaishnava can act as a brahmana in society.

and if you like dirty scandals, Sarnia, I can paste a lot of articles about white slave trade in Israel - from Israeli press, no less.

Like I am going to place value on ANYTHING the UN says

 

so you deny that Israel dropped over 90% of cluster bombs during the last theree days of war, so they could kill as many civilians as possible?

Even their sugar daddy US is investigating whether Israel broke secret agreements on cluster bomb use made between these two countries (it was a condition Israel agreed on in order to get these bombs from US - for free, btw.).

war criminals exposed one more time. lying, cheating and breaking every rule with impunity.

the spiritual world is often described as Vaikuntha planets enveloped in the Brahmajyoti effulgence and separated by the mighty Viraja river of Brahman from the material world. tatastha is the demarkation line between Viraja (spiritual) and material world, from where living entities originate.

this is a nice visualization but it has some limitations. perhaps tatastha refers not to a place, but a consciousness. perhaps you can stand next to Lord Vishnu and have a tatastha type consciousness.

what is my consciousness now? is it even tatastha? perhaps it is mostly material and that's why I'm here in the material world.

that is my latest rumination on the "fall of jiva" question.

UN condemns Israeli strategy as ‘immoral’

By Mark Turner at the United Nations, Harvey Morris in Jerusalem and Quentin Peel in Amman

Published: August 30 2006 19:34 | Last updated: August 30 2006 23:08

The United Nations on Wednesday described as “shocking and immoral” the fact that Israel dropped well over 90 per cent of its cluster munitions in Lebanon during the last three days of the conflict – when it was already clear there would be a cessation of hostilities.

Jan Egeland, UN humanitarian chief, made his comments just hours after Kofi Annan, UN secretary-general, left Israel after talks with Ehud Olmert, prime minister, and other government members. The UN said Mr Annan had asked Israel to provide a map of where cluster weapons were used but did not raise Mr Egeland’s concerns because he was unaware of the details during his Jerusalem visit.

Israel intensified its military offensive in southern Lebanon in the 72 hours between Security Resolution 1701 being signed in New York and the ceasefire on August 14.

Cluster weapons contain dozens of small explosives which spread over a wide area and are either air-dropped or ground launched.

The UN said it had identified 359 cluster bomb-strike locations, and that 102,000 unexploded small bombs continued to maim and kill people every day.

“Civilians will die disproportionately again, after the war,” he said. “This should not have happened. It’s an outrage.”

He added that countries which had supplied Israel with the munitions, including the US, should take the matter up with the Israeli government.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/14f48cd2-3855-11db-ae2c-0000779e2340.html

I've never seen any sloka referring to Sage Vyas as a "brahmin". If you can provide one, please do.

Srimad Bhagavatam 1.5.32

etat sam´sucitam´ brahmam´s

tapa-traya-cikitsitam

yad isvare bhagavati

karma brahmani bhavitam

SYNONYMS

etat — this much; sam´sucitam — decided by the learned; brahman — O brahmana Vyasa; tapa-traya — three kinds of miseries; cikitsitam — remedial measures; yat — what; isvare — the supreme controller; bhagavati — unto the Personality of Godhead; karma — one's prescribed activities; brahmani — unto the great; bhavitam — dedicated.

TRANSLATION

O Brahmana Vyasadeva, it is decided by the learned that the best remedial measure for removing all troubles and miseries is to dedicate one's activities to the service of the Supreme Lord Personality of Godhead [sri Krsna]----------------------------

Vyasa is described as a brahmana in many places in Puranas and Mahabharata.

perhaps your confusion is that if you are a Vaishnava, your varna is completely irrelevant. that is a great over-simplification.

Yes I do have some doubt about that. What were the varnas of his mother and father?

that is irrelevant. his guna and karma are so obvious any consideration of janma is irrelevant. think about Srila Prabhupada for a moment in this context.

Where is it stated that Sage Vyas was a brahmin?

do you have any doubts in that area? was he a kshatriya? vaishya? sudra?

now and then feel free to use your brain for thinking, not just for looking up quotes...

After reading Tackle-berry's post I started hearing Guru Kripa saying "Pick the bone and bring it home" over and over in my head. I just hope this curse doesn't last all day.

that is precisely what happens when vaishyas interpret the shastra and are given the position of leadership. and this will continue in our movement as long as vaishyas are in power.

Scholarship is most often an impedient to Vaishnavism.

 

Lord Caitanya went to great lengths in order to establish His movement in a scholarly as well as devotional way. How about the Six Goswamis, especially Jiva Goswami? why was Lord Caitanya established as an incarnation of the Lord in a scholarly way by them? Not to speak of the great acharyas like Ramanuja, Madhva, and in more recent times Srila Bhaktisiddhanta and Srila Prabhupada? Do not be sentimental. Unless our movement has good scholarly basis it will be viewed as just another emotional religious sect.

Sudra varna is a legitimate varna of the Varnashrama system.

Nobody in the varnashrama system can be without a guru and still be considered part of the varnashram society.

 

I think your view of sudras is somewhat distorted.

Vedic sudras were not as degraded and lowly as you might think.

 

I never said vedic sudras were degraded as a group, worthless or not legitimate in any way - you just jumped to conclusions. yet, I studied many classical texts to get a better understanding on this issue of social interactions and I find your statements somewhat idealistic, if not utopian. for a dose of reality please study Manu Samhita. without knowing that text, any discussion of vedic varnashram system is incomplete.

Certainly not all vedic sudras were degraded yet Ajamila fell for one. Again, more like exception to the rule than the rule.

And lastly, the vedic concept of a kula-guru (family guru) was the norm in these days and that needs to be studied as well. The jagat-gurus were rare exceptions to that norm and their participation in social matters was marginal at best. And I would start there if I was to build a varnashrama system. Kula-gurus were always there for people, knew them well and were well known themselves. But they were NOT kings of the village, lords and masters of their flock. Then there were the local administrators who made sure things run smothly and properly, without any abuse. You cant roll brahmana a kshatriya duties into one. That is bogus and a recipe for abuse and failure. Anyway, it is a big subject.

In Vedic culture the Rajarsi was see to it that eveyone had a guru.

 

Brahmins are the gurus for all the other varnas, not just the Ksatriya and Vaisya.

how can you not know that?

 

Brahmins are the gurus of sudras in the Varnashrama system.

exceptions like Vidura, who was born to a sudra mother by a great sage Vyasadeva (brahmana) do not make a trend. how many other examples of sudras with a guru in VEDIC times can you find?

and as I said earlier:

Originally Posted by Kulapavana

"sudras in vedic society did not have gurus as a rule, but there were very notable exceptions to that rule."

------------------

in general sense sudras learned spiritual life from brahmanas but not at all like other varnas. they did not go to brahmana led school, did not observe brahmacarya, did not get a mantra and did not get a sacred thread. read Manu Samhita for details.

It's alright to mislead asuras.

only if you are Krsna...

otherwise you will be contaminated. it happened in our movement in the past.

are you saying that because a person is born in a certain household they should not have a Guru? your post is very rude toward sudras, and wreaks of elitism and bigotry. What about all the western converts to Gaudiya Vaishnavism, what caste are they, they all have a Guru?

that is not what I was saying. I said that in vedic times sudras usually had no gurus. is that not true? I did not say that this is what we should do today. Even devotees with sudra nature should have a guru. Anyway, this is largely a pure theory as even most devotees dont like to talk about their varna. What is your varna, prabhuji? do you live by the rules of that varna?

caste does not equal varna. caste system was created by people, varnas are natural divisions given by Krsna. study the two so you can understand the difference.

you accuse me of rudenes, bigotry and elitism. perhaps that is true. yet the current caste system in India is far more rude and bigoted than whatever I said here.

I said that you should not study varnasrama system from a sudra, because such people usually do not have proper understanding of such matters. social issues are the domain of brahmanas and kshatriyas and you should learn this subject only from them. That is actually Krsna's arrangement, so blame Him if you like.

The varna of western converts and for all people in general nowadays should be determined by guna and karma as the samskaras are not very effective in our age (kalau sudra sambhavah - in the age of Kali everyone is sudra by birth).

But we should not be eager to talk about varnasrama in society at large unless we take a long, hard look at our own society in that respect. We have far too many vaishyas and sudras pretending to brahmanas and kshatriyas and causing all kinds of havoc in our society.

our spiritual master comes back birth after birth to help us on our path of bhakti

suuuure... he is our servant.

but seriously. a spiritual master from our past can help us by directing us from within to a new, current spiritual master so that we can continue our progress. but you would have to have been very sincere in your past life to get such a special mercy from your guru. and like Mahaksaji said, it is all arranged by Sri Guru, Lord Balarama.

In Vedic society everyone has a guru.

that is perhaps an overarching conclusion, not based on any shastric references. sudras in vedic society did not have gurus as a rule, but there were very notable exceptions to that rule.

as to determining the varna of converts. there are few, if any, shastric references to such cases. in general, if your case was exceptional, guna and karma would be primarily taken into account when considering your varna.

how useful is the varna classification today? just as useful as it was then. dont listen to a sudra if you want to know about the meaning of varnashrama system for example

Srila Sridhara Maharaja: ...There are so many enemies in the name of religion. They are flourishing and such a great future will be lost. It is intolerable. And especially Prabhupada asked me to go to the West. I could not go, but Prabhupada has brought the West to me, so I have got some holy duty to discharge about that, I feel. It may not be broken into pieces. United we stand, divided we fall. But if hopeless, there's no alternative. We must always side with the truth, not with the falsehood. Hare Krsna.

Swami Maharaja took the responsibility of that great unfinished work and did wonderfully successful work and we feel proud for him. We feel such pride for his activity. How can we tolerate in our lifetime, within two or three years after his departure, that it will be broken into pieces? It is intolerable. Hare Krsna. But if for the sake of quality, for the sake of truth, we are to face such a situation, it can't be helped. Truth is everything, satyam param dhimahi.

http://www.gosai.com/chaitanya/srila_sridhara_mj/affection/oag_3.html

Telling people lies or misleading them in the name of "helping them" or for any other "noble" reason is at best only preyas, short term benefit at the expense of real long time gain. At worst, it is just plain cheating.

BDM and co are loading up as we converse..

yes, they are loading up their BS cannons

the article lists a lot of interesting facts and figures, even if you dont agree with the conclusions.

Forget about the Zionists, the state of Israel is a pawn of the born-again Christians and their end-times agenda, trying to bring on Armageddon, so Jesus can return as Judge (read Revelation 19) and damn all us Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists and New Agers to an eternal torture pit. This is why the British Christians HELPED the Zionist Jews in their creation of the Zionist state in what was Palestine. Without the help of the born-again Christians, Israel would not be a country today. A country I might add, Orthodox Jews do not recognize as a legitimate nation, but see as an abominable creation of secular Jews and born-again Christians with a hidden agenda of bringing on the end of the world (LITERALLY!).

Some people see the central role zionist theologians(?) and thinkers played in the creation of the entire end-times hysteria among Christians as one more element of their propaganda tactics, so I'm not sure who is using whom in this game.

... and the greatest helper to zionists in their task of carving out Israel was actually Joseph Stalin.

Question: What are those "popular gurus" like Stephen R. Covey, Kevin Cashman and Ken Blanchard?

they are not gurus but mundane writers/specialists in the field of leadership and management.

The Bhagavad-gita (4.13) declares that this social division, known as varnashrama, was based on qualities and activities (guna-karma) – not birth.

in practice, even in Vedic times varna was determined by birth, more precisely, on mother's varna. exceptions to this rule were exceedingly rare.

the daivi varnasrama concept proposed by Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura makes varna dependent on guna and karma alone, but implementation of such a system is very difficult in practice. who actually determines your varna? your guru? and how does he know what your varna is, if he cant even recall your name? what if there are differences of opinion between family and guru as to your varna designation?

trying to improve on the vedic model is a tough challenge.

<TABLE><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top>Source: http://www.globalresearch.ca</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD><TD vAlign=top>Published: August 25, 2006 Author: Edward S. Herman</TD></TR><TR><TD> </TD><TD vAlign=top></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- Torture, Death and Devastation -->With Israel engaged once again in a major war of aggression in Lebanon, and protected once again from any effective global response by U.S. power and veto, it becomes clearer than ever that the central global problem of organized violence and lawlessness in the early 21st century lies in the aims, collaboration and power of the U.S.-Israeli axis. These partners in aggression and state terrorism reinforce one another’s projections of power, the out-of-control superpower protecting its regional client’s ultra-ethnic cleansing, while the Israeli lobby within the United States supports the violent projection of power by the United States, which provides further cover for Israel’s escalating regional violence. What is most remarkable, however, is the feeble resistance to--and sometimes positive support of --the ATDD axis’s violence by the European countries and “international community” more broadly.

Free to Aggress

Consider that the United States has carried out three wars of aggression in violation of the UN Charter just over the last seven years (Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq), and that without having digested its Iraq aggression--now universally recognized as having been based on lies and a cynical abuse of UN processes, as well as being the “supreme crime”--it has actually begun a fourth aggression, against Iran, once again under the cynical cover of the UN (see Edward S. Herman and David Peterson, "The Fourth U.S. 'Supreme International Crime' in Seven Years Is Already Underway, With the Support of the Free Press and 'International Community',” Counterpunch, May 11, 2006). Furthermore, the United States was the main driver of the “sanctions of mass destruction” against Iraq throughout the 1990s which resulted in the deaths of perhaps a million Iraqi civilians, possibly the greatest genocide of the post-World War II era (with only the Congo and Rwanda serious rivals), a project also carried out by the cynical misuse of the UN.

Instead of resisting these aggressions and genocidal operations, the G-8 and international community have appeased the aggressor and genocidist, never condemning its aggressions or imposing sanctions in response to its major crimes, but even collaborating with it, and in the case of Iraq giving it ex post approval and support for the deadly occupation. The UN, created specifically to prevent “the scourge of war,” has failed to pose any serious constraining force on the serial aggressions by the United States, or those of its Israeli client. This failure, and the global crisis that it reflects, has hardly been recognized in the Western media and intellectual circles, for the same reasons that underlie the appeasement and collaboration—the military power of the superpower, fear of the economic and political consequences of opposition to the United States’ and its client’s rampaging, some sense of solidarity and support for U.S. and Israeli objectives and policies on the part of global elites and media, and cowardice and lack of moral fortitude.

Israel as well as the United States has been free over several decades to aggress, ignore any UN resolutions or rulings, ignore international law governing the behavior of an occupying power, and steadily “redeem the land” of Palestine by ethnically cleansing the Palestinians. It carried out a major invasion of Lebanon back in 1982, with no penalty for this aggression, no penalty for a lengthy illegal occupation, or for periodic Iron Fist bombing and ground attacks on Lebanon, or for its lengthy maintenance of a terrorist proxy army on Lebanese soil. Its fresh major aggression in Lebanon in July and August 2006 is also being carried out without any UN or other international penalty or sanctions, again as in 1982 with the protection of the U.S. veto and U.S. power, and Israel is currently threatening Iran and Syria without any apparent U.S. or international community constraint.

Torture Centers

In addition to preeminence in aggression, the U.S.-Israel axis has long been important in sponsoring and using torture. The U.S. use of water-boarding goes back to the war against Philippine “niggers” in 1900; its use of electronic methods of torture was extensive during the Vietnam war, along with “Tiger Cages;” and this country was the principal sponsor of regimes of torture in the 1960s and 1970s as U.S. leaders struggled against nationalist-populist upheavals in the Third World. Many premier torturers learned their lessons in the School of the Americas in those years. Abu Ghraib, Bagram and the rendition gulag are not a break from the past or contrary to “American values,” they are built on a solid tradition. (Chapter 2 of Chomsky and Herman, The Washington Connection, published back in 1979, was entitled “The Pentagon-CIA Archipeligo.”)

Israel has used torture on a systematic basis against Palestinians for decades, the New York Times noting matter-of-factly in 1993 that Israel's torture victims were running to 400-500 per month, but that Israel was "rethinking" the merits of its "interrogation" practices (Joel Greenberg, "Israel Rethinks Interrogation of Arabs," Aug. 14, 1993). If this was being done to Jews on a systematic basis in some country, the outcry would be deafening, but here also an Israeli practice condemned everywhere as barbaric is treated in very low key and brings about no negative policy responses from the United States or international community. This has permitted Israel to thrive, to command massive international aid, and to be given regular accolades as a model democracy, despite its long record of being "the only state in the world to effectively legalize the use of methods which constitute torture or ill-treatment" (Amnesty International, "The Israeli government should implement the High Court decision making torture illegal," Sept. 6, 1999). (This statement was made prior to the coming into power of the “moral values” regime of George Bush, Dick Cheney and Albert Gonzales.)

Killing Machines—The Killing Business is Good

The United States and Israel are also major dispensers of death to peoples who stand in their way. Both are highly militarized, the United States now the dominant military power on earth, Israel toweringly superior in military strength to any of its neighbors. Both have increasingly displayed the arrogance of power and a readiness to use their superior arms in lieu of peaceable means of settling disputes. Both have gravitated to the use of high tech weaponry that has devastating effects on civilians, but which reduces the need for land troops and aggressor casualties. As noted, their violent proclivities are now mutually reinforcing.

The U.S. use of atomic weapons against civilian populations in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties in what was a demonstration and warning performance, stands alone in the annals of violence, and the United States has a long-standing tradition of brandishing and threatening to use these ever more lethal monstrosities. Israel also has a sizable nuclear weapons arsenal, and has long posed a threat of first use, reinforced by the absence of any nuclear retaliatory power by its nearby rivals. The Iran “threat” of acquiring nuclear weapons is the threat of potential self-defense, which would rob Israel of one important element that allows it regularly to use force against its neighbors.

During the Vietnam War, in which the United States deployed its ferocious weaponry lavishly against a resistant peasant society, it killed several million people. To this we may add hundreds of thousands killed in Cambodia and Laos. Many thousands have continued to die in Indochina from the millions of unexploded bombs that litter the soil and that the United States has made no effort to clean up or even provide supportive map guidance or technical aid. As one sign read over a U.S. military camp in Vietnam, “Killing is our business, and business is good.”

Much of U.S. death-dealing has been via sponsorship. It sponsored and long had a special relationship with the Suharto dictatorship, aiding its initial genocidal burst in 1965-1966 with possibly a million or more civilian deaths by massacre, and supporting its invasion-occupation of East Timor and some 200,000 further deaths there. It sponsored the rise of National Security States in Latin America, with death squads flourishing and U.S.-trained counter-insurgency cadres establishing a state terrorism “infinitely worse than the terrorism they were combating” (an Argentine post-junta truth commission). The U.S.-sponsored wars in Central America in the 1970s and 1980s took a heavy civilian toll, with genocidal attacks on the Guatemalan Mayan Indians, among other large-scale state murder operations. The U.S.-sponsored killings in Latin America in those years run into the hundreds of thousands (the “disappeared” alone were estimated to be 90,000 back in 1981). The U.S. “constructive engagement” with apartheid South Africa and support of “freedom fighter” Savimbi in Angola contributed many hundreds of thousands of deaths in that area in the 1970s and 1980s.

Israel’s killings have been on a smaller scale, but still notable in light of their claims of being victims of terrorism and merely retaliating to the actions of their weaker neighbors and the Palestinian resistance to their occupation and ethnic cleansing. Israel’s supposed “retaliation” to Palestinian “terrorism” featured a ratio of Palestinian to Israeli deaths of 20 or 25 to 1 until the second intifada, when the ratio fell to 3 or 4 to 1, though with a higher injury ratio (the figure of 25-1 is given by James Bennett in the New York Times, March 12, 2002). The killings at Sabra and Shatila, mainly of women, children and old people, has been estimated to run between 1,500 and 3,000, which is far greater than the Israeli police estimate of PLO killings of Israelis for the entire period 1968-1981 (282). The total of Israeli killings in Palestine are hard to estimate but run to tens of thousands. The Israeli killings of Lebanese in the 1982 invasion has been estimated at 17-20,000, and the numbers killed in Lebanon before and after that date surely run into many thousands.

Devastation

The United States has used its advanced weapons technology and wealth not only to kill large numbers in countries that stand in its way, but also to destroy their infrastructure and means of livelihood, thereby teaching them and others a lesson in the costs of opposition, setting back their capacity for development, and taking vengeance. Vietnam’s forests were bulldozed and destroyed by chemical warfare, its lands were widely ruined by chemicals and millions of bomb craters, a large fraction of its most competent and productive males were killed, mainly in bomb strikes, vast numbers were wounded and traumatized and hundreds of thousands of children suffered birth deformities by chemical poisoning. Vietnam could no longer pose a threat of a working alternative model. Neither could Nicaragua pose a “threat of a good example” after a decade of U.S.-sponsored terrorist and economic warfare that reduced incomes by half and played a key role in ousting the reformist Sandinista government. El Salvador, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Afghanistan, the Congo and Angola are other states that have not recovered from U.S. direct or sponsored attacks.

Iraq was devastated in the Persian Gulf War of 1990-1991 and was then not permitted to recover, even to restore its badly damaged water and sanitary facilities, let alone to feed its people. The 2003-2006 invasion-occupation took a further heavy toll of Iraq’s already devastated infrastructure, and was also notable for the invader’s severe damage done or permitted to be done to Iraq’s libraries, museums, and other important historical monuments. Iraq is a shattered society, with serial blows administered by the United States and mainly Britain, with UN connivance.

Israel ravaged Lebanon time and again from 1978 onward, with exceptionally heavy destruction of infrastructure in 1982 and now again in 2006. In 2002 Israel began a systematic destruction of the infrastructure of Palestine, destroying public buildings, records, medical facilities, libraries, among other facilities. In its recent 2006 assault on Gaza, nominally to help free a single captive Israeli soldier, its first target was the electric power station that serves 700,000 Palestinian civilians. Further targets included rooftop water tanks and mains, bridges, roads and medical facilities. At no time has Israel been penalized or punished by the EU, let alone its patron superpower, for these multiple open, blatant and illegal attacks on civilian facilities.

Conclusion

This is an age of escalating violence, led by a militarized superpower with an enormous capacity to kill, closely linked with an expansionist and militarized client that sees benefits to its “Greater Israel” and ethnic cleansing program in chaos and warfare. This is a continuation of long-standing policies of this Axis of ATDD, but rendered more dangerous by the death of the Soviet Union (and the ending of real “containment”) and the coming to power in the United States of an exceptionally irresponsible, stupid and weak administration. The weak, stupid and amoral frequently do stupid and horrendous things to compensate for their mistakes, and once again in the Middle East they have unleashed large-scale violence and the threat of an even wider war..

The Axis of ATDD is setting the tone across the globe. It preaches that those resisting it only understand force, but the world recognizes that this is straight out of Orwell and that in truth it is the axis duo that only responds to force or its threat. Thus the Axis leadership provokes a responsive militarization and violence across the globe, and the huge problems facing the peoples of the world (poverty, disease, environmental threats, inequality, racism, democratic deficits) are unaddressed and become steadily more serious.

These problems are not going to be dealt with until the world’s publics become sufficiently aroused to throw out the rascally leaderships of the Axis and/or to force the non-Axis powers to resist Axis violence with actions that bite and cannot be ignored.