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8. september 2004
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Many Germans want the Berlin wall back
The reunification of east and west Germany, so far at the cost of a trillion euros, have hardly been a resounding success: There is still an invisible wall between them.
A poll by the Forsa institute found a quarter of western Germans wishing the 15 million east Germans were cut off again by the Berlin Wall, living in a different state, while 12 percent of eastern Germans wanted out of the united Germany. [...]
Westerners are sometimes disparaged as arrogant know-it-all "Wessies" while easterners are at times referred to as 'Jammer Ossies' (whinging easterners) in the west.
The Forsa survey, based on interviews with 1,002 easterners and 1,005 westerners, highlighted a feeling in the west that easterners are ungrateful for the financial support they have received since 1990 and they should do more to help themselves.
Thirty-seven percent of west Germans said the 80 billion euros ($96.28 billion) the government pumps into the east each year was too much. But almost a third of east Germans thought it too little, Forsa said.
No doubt serious funding was necessary, but the response from a sizeable minority of east Germans' sounds a bit like a reaction to crack heroin.
10:40:41 PM 
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Two keys to win war on terror
Jim Hoagland's column in the Washington Post gets a lot of things right:
That is the ultimate political tragedy of the rebellion in Chechnya, which is no longer a struggle solely concerned with independence from Russia. Chechnya's indigenous political leaders have failed to prevent their campaign to escape Russian rule from being appropriated by the Islamic nihilists intent on destroying and humiliating "nonbelievers" everywhere. [...]
Nations survive from the bottom up. Anti-guerrilla campaigns, learned commission studies or new Cabinet-level departments do not save countries in crisis. What saves them is social cohesion, and the awareness and common determination of citizens to protect their future. That provides them the ability to overcome the anger, hatred and fear that are terrorists' primary weapons.
That is the dual strategy needed for winning the worldwide war on terror. The demands of the terrorists themselves are unreasonable, their goals are often as hidious as their methods. The grievances voiced by people that thrives on death and destruction are rarely worth listening to. But the climate where terrorism grows is typically one of oppression, misery and brutality. The Russians and the Chechens together have created this climate in Caucasus. Corrupt rulers and the hateful clerics have created a similar atmosphere of despair in the Arab world. Islamists have filled a void that existed.
Thus there has to be a dual purpose of a war on terror: First, fight and destroy the terrorists. Second, and equally important, address the real "root causes" on the ground, replacing corrupt and brutal rulers with democratic ones, and fight back the hateful Islamist preachers and ideologues by giving people a hope that they can obtain a good life instead of a 'glorious' death slaughtering infidel children.
9:12:40 PM
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BBC about blogs in Iraq
The Beeb writes about Iraqi blogs and it's not only about Salam Pax.
Mr Fadhil believes the "truth" about Iraq has been mis-represented and exaggerated by the Western media.
Most Iraqis, he said, are glad Saddam Hussein is gone. And they want the American-led forces to stay, for now.
"No one wants to fight America or the coalition. When I say no one, I mean the majority.
"The majority wants peace, wants democracy, wants to live their lives, have a peaceful life. They want freedom and democracy. That's what we see."
Ali Fadhil and his brother Mohammed got such a response to the ideas they expressed in their weblog that they have decided to run for parliament.
At the end, of course, the article returns to Salam Pax.
Salam Pax himself took some time off from blogging after the Abu Ghraib prisoner scandal as the photos shocked him so badly that he, for once, had nothing to say.
He now has a new blog called Shut Up You Fat Whiner.
Which could refer to either Moqtada al-Sadr or Michael Moore, who may, when you think about it, well be twins separated at birth.
7:15:08 PM
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John Kerry links Iraq to war on terror
The Bush administration has been successful in linking the war on terror with the Iraq war, a connection that was surely debatable at least before the invasion, and John Kerry now agrees.
''Today marks a tragic milestone in the war in Iraq; more than 1,000 of America's sons and daughters have now given their lives on behalf of their country, on behalf of freedom, the war on terror,'' Kerry said as he arrived in Cincinnati on a campaign stop.
''I think that the first thing that every American wants to say today is how deeply we each feel the loss, how much this means to all of us as Americans, the sacrifice that we feel on a very personal level,'' he said.
''And we are determined that as a nation we will always remember it, we will always stand up and fight for what they have fought for and their sacrifice will not be in vain,'' Kerry said. ''We are committed to making the right decisions in Iraq and the right decisions for them here at home, and that is the way that we will honor their sacrifice.''
This is for the swing voters. To the antiwar base Kerry says Iraq was the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm not so sure his double message plays well in either scenario. Security and war are probably not the topics the Kerry campaign should emphasise at this point.
7:59:52 AM
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© Copyright 2004 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.10.2004; 07:22:57.
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