THE HANDSTAND

JUNE 2003

 
..ANSWERS AND ANTI-GLOBAL WAR "In modern times, the powerful carry out multiple wars of conquest"

[Translation from the Italian by Ardeshir Mehta]

In modern times, the powerful carry out multiple wars of conquest. I am not saying "multiple" in the sense of many, but in the sense of being in many places and in many ways. As a result, modern wars are today more modern than ever ... but it's not bombs that change geography. Bombs change the distribution of geography, its dominion. Thus, in this limited field of points and lines, today one party dominates, another tomorrow. And that's what's called geopolitics. In actual fact, geographic maps don't show natural resources, people, cultures, histories, rather they show who is the owner of these territories.

For the powerful, all of humanity is a child that can only be docile or rebellious. Bombs remind the infant that to be docile is convenient, while to be rebellious is inconvenient.

... But this war is not against Iraq, or rather not only against Iraq. It is against every attempt, present or future, to disobey. It is a war against rebellion, that is to say against humanity ... and it is because of this that the slogan "No To War" has covered the entire planet.

Lieut. Commander Marcos, from "The Other Geography", March 2003.

STOP PRESS:British activist Stephen Jakobi, of Fair Trials Abroad, said: "The US is
kicking and screaming against any pressure to conform with British or any other kind of international justice."

American law professor Jonathan Turley, who has led US civil rights group protests against the military tribunals planned to hear cases at Guantanamo Bay, said: "It is not surprising the authorities are building a death row because they have said they plan to try capital cases before these tribunals.

"This camp was created to execute people. The administration has no interest in long-term prison sentences for people it regards as hard-core terrorists."

Britain admitted it had been kept in the dark about the plans.

A Downing St spokesman said: "The US Government is well aware of the British Government's position on the death penalty."

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