Re: SELECTIVE INTERVENTION: My Response to Castro - RE: Fidel Castro on Libya and Gadhafi: Nato, war, lies and business
Kwaku A. Danso
Livermore, Calif., USA * East Legon, Accra, Ghana
Check out my Latest Book and advice: LIFE IS WAR!
at http://www.pagepublishing.com/portfolio-view/life-is-war-2/
Also: Leadership Concepts and the Role of Government in Africa: The Case
of Ghana (2007, XLibris)
http://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Concepts-Role-Government-Africa/dp/142572499X
Revisiting history. Exchanges between Stephen & Kwaku Danso in 2011,~8 years ago
----- Forwarded Message -----From: "Kwaku A. Danso" <dans...@gmail.com>Sent: Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 10:35 AMSubject: RE: SELECTIVE INTERVENTION: My Response to Castro - RE: Fidel Castro on Libya and Gadhafi: Nato, war, lies and business--Stephen,
So why did you think I set this forum up?
Enjoy your day also – supposed to get to 80s today here.
Dr. Kwaku A. Danso (At Livermore, California, USA)
President - Ghana Leadership Union (NGO), Moderator-GLU Forum &
Publisher - Global Express Communications
East Legon-Accra, Ghana & Livermore, California, USA
http://groups.google.com/group/glu-ghana-leadership-forum?hl=en?hl=en
From: glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com [mailto:glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Stephen Yeboah
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2011 8:24 AM
To: glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: SELECTIVE INTERVENTION: My Response to Castro - RE: Fidel Castro on Libya and Gadhafi: Nato, war, lies and business
Danso,
I am glad that finally you have decided it's time for us to move on with your concluding statement:
"Let’s move on!!"
I honor this unconditional "seize fire".
On a final note though we need to encourage the young ones to challenge the authority, to question the choices our leaders make and not just accept "everything" prescribed for us. This lack of questioning authority/seniors/elders in our society whether in secondary schools, work places, churches and especially the honorables working for the government being paid with tax payers money, perhaps has contributed immensely to our woes. Encouraging that with the right leadership will help us to see the very changes Danso and Stephen and others so much desired for Ghana. It starts right here on Glu-Forum. We should be the change we want to see in our world. We need to be critical about those in authority and also hold our own selves accountable for our actions and inactions. Thanks.
Thanks and have a nice day. The weather is so beautiful so enjoy while you have it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
Stephen
From: Kwaku A. Danso <dans...@gmail.com>
To: glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2011 9:42 AM
Subject: RE: SELECTIVE INTERVENTION: My Response to Castro - RE: Fidel Castro on Libya and Gadhafi: Nato, war, lies and businessStephen,
Is it impossible to resolve an issue between a known good friend and somebody you may not know or even like?
Since America is biased, and these wars have been going on for more than 2,000 years, what do you suggest?
Would you suggest the US forget about these people, when they are fighting, and perhaps abstain from voting when issues about Israel and Palestine come up to the UN?
Please help us.
Is it possible for the US to wipe their relationship with Israel out of human memory and history?
PLEASE my good friend, as we all get old, we realize there are things we cannot change and we learn to live the best way and change what we can. Ghana still has open gutters and last November I took pictures of a huge gutter being build with iron rods and stones, real concrete work, in Tema on the main Adiringanor road. I have hated open gutters since I was a child! What haven’t I written about these open gutters! What haven’t I written to Presidents of Ghana since the 1970s! What have they all done about it?
We need to criticize, comment, and still keep trying. However, to recommend America to stop being biased, stop being friends with Israel, stop selling arms, stop getting involved in other peoples affairs, stop drilling oil from other nations and digging their own, stop being former slave traders or descendants of slave traders(?), honestly, are not practical solutions!!
Let’s move on!!
Dr. Kwaku A. Danso (At Livermore, California, USA)
President - Ghana Leadership Union (NGO), Moderator-GLU Forum &
Publisher - Global Express Communications
East Legon-Accra, Ghana & Livermore, California, USA
From: glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com [mailto:glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Stephen Yeboah
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2011 3:32 AM
To: glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: SELECTIVE INTERVENTION: My Response to Castro - RE: Fidel Castro on Libya and Gadhafi: Nato, war, lies and business
Emmanuel,
Absolutely I equally condemn any attacks launched by the Hamas, Hezbollah or any other militant groups to kill innocent Israeli civilians. You can't achieve peace with violence, it's not sustainable. Again let me repeat, both sides have their hands dirty, however when you have a mediator that is biased towards one side it rather complicates the matter. What happened when former US president Carter stated the obvious? They even threatened him with "economic" sanctions to his center and hate mails. How do you expect peace without justice first? The God we all know is impartial whether we agree or disagree.
Thank You.
Stephen
From: Emmanuel Effah <emm_...@yahoo.com.au>
To: glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2011 10:24 PM
Subject: Re: SELECTIVE INTERVENTION: My Response to Castro - RE: Fidel Castro on Libya and Gadhafi: Nato, war, lies and business
Stephen
You wrote:
" Israel should be contained (the source of many troubles in middle east with unconditional support by the main mediator- US)"
Thanks for being a voice for the innocent Palistineans who have lost their lives from Isreali attacks.
However in your critical comments on selective intervention and stance against atrocities, I have not as yet come across any of your postings where you have condemned rocket attacks killing Isreali civilians. If you have done so in any of your postings please refer me to such a posting.
--- On Wed, 30/3/11, Stephen Yeboah <sye...@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: Stephen Yeboah <sye...@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: SELECTIVE INTERVENTION: My Response to Castro - RE: Fidel Castro on Libya and Gadhafi: Nato, war, lies and business
To: "glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com" <glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com>
Received: Wednesday, 30 March, 2011, 8:07 AMDanso,
Ha ha ha ha !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am glad that you don't want to end the debate. If the intention is to use the policy of attrition then I am not sure you will succeed. Let's roll our sleeves and keep going. Although, let me also say that it may be a distraction to some on this forum and in that case we may want to consider taking it offline. I woouldn't mind that and since you own this forum you can choose the "battlefield". I had specifically asked you in the past to produce a single email that I supported Gadhafi or Castro and you could't. You used the theory of "intent/implication" in other words, Stephen praised Castro for his good works in healthcare for the 3rd world and that's enough evidence to say he supports Castro. That doesn't make sense at all. How many times do you want me to answer that question that I have answered 2x times already? BTW, Whether I support him or not, how is that revelant to the "selective" intervention debate which is the subject matter under discussion?
Please let me repeat loud and clear once again and again that I don't support any autocratic government. Never in my postings here or writings anywhere in cyberspace have I supported an autocratic government. Although I do support a multi-polar world with each country taking into consideration its culture to develop a socio-economic system that is fair which the people themselves want. Who are we to tell another country that they are wrong and we are right? Who gave us that moral authority?
It's no secret to you and many others on this forum and my friends that I don't believe in exporting U. S. style "democracy" and "capitalism" to the rest of the world as America has been trying for centuries. Look at these two stupid wars that were launched It has cost tax payers $1.5 trillion. I have every right as an American and Ghanaian citizen to choose to believe in whatever I want. Similarly I also don't support those who claim to protect civilians by using overwhelming power and destroying human lives and property and then turn around and sell them the same military software and hardware to butcher their people. Where lies the moral justification? How do you claim neutrality when you go into a nation to protect civilians and you end up enabling armed rebel forces to destabilize a nation? How do you justify that? You are not being realistic when there are massive demonstrations going on around the world. The problem is you are hooked on CNN and perhaps don't watch other news media outlets for the news of the world. The CNN gives us what American audience wants to hear and see. My friend as I said this debate will never end and I don't mind if we want to thread on that path. Do you want to tell me that millions of people rallying and demonstrating against these wars don't know what they are doing? As my sound advice to you and will all due respect, I have told you already and let me repeat that you cannot always be right and you also need to pause and accomodate divergent views. At least I am not the only one on this forum who have those sentiments. Why do you think UN, U.S. and allied forces are right but RUSSIA, CHINA and Germany and all other countries are wrong? Who can stop NATO even if they were wrong? Let's see how events unfold in the next coming weeks.
Now you have asked for my solution.
1. The NO FLY ZONE is okay so long as the rebels don't take undue advantage to slain innocent civilians who support Gadhafi. Both Nato and the rebels have to be held accountable for their actions. Who is going to hold them accountable? George Kwafio has provided a solution - public opinion
2. During Israeli Hezbollah war in 2006, the UN and allied forces met to find peaceful resolution that ended the war. That was very rare for Israel to agree to unconditional seize-fire to the surprise of the world (although there's speculation that Israel was shocked by Hezbolla's response and hence the unconditional seize fire - first time in Israeli history I was told. Usually they quit only when the want to). The Lybian lives are as precious/valuable as the Palestine's women and children's that the Israeli's army butchered with their overwhelming and superior military equipment supplied by the almighty United States. If you tell me that Lybia's situation was more urgent and unique hence they had to act right away then you are not being realistic. Supporting the rebels to kills pro Gadhafi civilians is wrong and most would agree that this is outside the UN resolution 1973, however according to the news coming out of Lybia some civilians have been caught in cross-fire and I hope the proponents of resolution 1973 were not ignorant of the collatoral damage to both infrastructure and civilian iives.
3. Thirdly, if NATO truly wanted peace and only to protect civilian lives per UN resolution 1973, then they should have deployed ground forces to protect the city of Benghazi that they claim if they hadn't acted its siege was eminent by the approaching Gadhafi forces. If they want peaceful resolution why take actions that can lead to civil war by supporting and enabling the rebels. Now they are thinking of shipping arms to the rebels. They claim they have destroyed Gadhafi air defences and many of his ground forces. Now they should find political solution which I believe if Gadhafi truly cares and loves Lybia as he claims he will be willing to. Any attempt to use force by rebels to take Tripoli will lead to a bloodshed and untold hardships.
4. UN should pass resolution 1974 that any autocratic country in the world that uses force against its own citizens will face military action (the list includes Saudi Arabia, Syria, Bahrain, Zimbabwe and much more)
5. Israel should be contained (the source of many troubles in middle east with unconditional support by the main mediator- US)
6. Imperialism and the use of force to invade soverign countries must seize (already part of UN charter) - The powers that be will say no way......what am I saying they have already said no. In this modern world, in April 2003 US launched an invasion against an unprovoked nation. they will always find an excuse because the engine of the bulk of their economies thrives on this one
7. The military campaign must stop now since the NOBEL Price laureat Obama said last night that United States has done what it promised to do. If it continues there is the likelihood of a more serious escalation of armed conflict and the chances of humanitarian crisis may increase
8. If the internation community aka allied forces care so much about humanitarian crisis/civilians in Lybia they should try to stabilize the situation in Libya as soon as possible by stopping the bombing. It definitely presents a test to the stance on moral and necessary justification for this operation. Let's see how the UN and international community aka allied forces effectively manage this crisis after the military campaign is over
9. History and military interventions as well as reality have proven that the use of force is not an effective way to resolve crisis (debatable since you may differ here but many experts do share this sentiment). You cannot address a political problem with military solution. Iraq and Afghanistan are case studies for all of us. Stability in any nation can hardly be supported by military intervention and if you are able to give me one example, I will be glad, don't think it was military intervention alone that solved the Bosnia crisis. Civilians are always the biggest victims in such conflicts.
10. I personally supported the chinese stance of insisting on consistent principles of obstaining from using force in a soverign nation to resolve internal issues during the adopted UN 1973 resolution
11. Finally stabilizing the situation in Libya demands immediate seize fire by the allied forces. Contrary to what the media is saying, Gadhafi forces have stopped attacking the rebels. You know the western media is badly damaged for not upholding the basic principles of truth in journalism.
Thanks,
Stephen
From: Kwaku A. Danso <dans...@gmail.com>
To: glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2011 1:44 PM
Subject: RE: SELECTIVE INTERVENTION: My Response to Castro - RE: Fidel Castro on Libya and Gadhafi: Nato, war, lies and businessStephen,
I am sorry the debate is not over!! What do you mean by:
“I am done with the debate because it is taking a whole new dimension and many distractions and digressions,,”
What do you mean by taking a whole new dimension, and distractions and digressions? Who brought in examples of Cuba and how well they had done against the US and better medical systems and then Afghanistan and Israel and Palestine and Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and Syria, etc. Were we not talking about the case at hand: of Libyan Khadafy killing his people and whether it was right or wrong for the allied forces to intervene?
I am very busy and was trying to end this yesterday but you told me that you type xxx per minute and can do multi-tasking, running your business in Ghana and your company in America and doing your PhD work, so let’s keep it going, then my friend! It’s not over at all!
Me “misinterpret and distort” your position?
How? And For what? Do you think you understand the English language better than I do or others? If your intentions in using words like “greedy”, “crusaders”, etc, for the American or allied side was meant to be something else, then please use other words. I have not heard you use any words for the man who ordered for his people demonstrating to be killed!! None! So be my guest, let the debate begin.
Do you think a world view is defined or philosophy is defined by merely stating your point: “It is immoral war,,, I hate war,, it is selective justice“, and just walk away!!?
Huh?
When Plato and Aristotle argued about human societies and the ethics of leadership and government, did they just state their points and walk away? There are whole books on the teachings of Aristotle,, Plato, Socrates, etc., and I have a couple in my office upstairs! I am sure you have them too. You said you have not read the Lee Kuna Yew book, and I strongly advise you to read it since you cited Cuba as developing under a dictatorship and I want to cite Lee Kuan Yew ad developing without dictatorship. The size of Singapore should not matter, since China is far bigger than Japan or the US.
Look, if you feel you are right and more ethical than the whole Western world including America, and want to define a new world of ethics, then please stand up and defend it! Every generation has their philosophers and intellectuals, as Karl Max and Adam Smith and others did for society.
Selective intervention, as you call it, should not just be stated and you run. If it is wrong, you need to define and explain to us how it should be done when military or other brutal dictators start killing their own people or others as Adolf Hitler did, the Rwandans did, Idi Amin did, Gen. Ratko Mladic and Radovan Milosevic did in Bosnia, and now Khadafy was going to do!. You need to justify that for example, you think for every people‘s demonstration that takes place on earth, or say when any government uses force and violence against their people, the US and allied forces must intervene immediately and show that is practicable. Is it? Even when I said to give the President some time to deal with one situation before the other, you did not seem to understand or heed. You had already made a conclusion that the President, who is the head of the operation, was simply a crusader, greedy, immoral, trying to take away a poor Libya’s oil! My Gosh!!
DEBATE - How do you define an argument or debate?
You made your opinions and supported them in the argument by citing examples where the US was wrong, did not have the moral rights, and you used previous examples about Israel and Palestinian issues (supported by Steve Nyarko), and then went on to give bragging points about the “beneficent” nations that had maintained their independence and dignity and stand against the crusading and immoral greedy Americans and Europeans, built better health care systems, educational systems, and these are the nations of Fidel Castro’s Cuba and Col. Khadafy’s Libya are your examples!! Do I lie?
Kwaku Obosu-Mensah was supporting you or you were in the same camp, even though his did not go further to use Castro and others as example.
So where am I misinterpreting you?
Do you expect America and the allied forces to jump on every nation from now on, and bomb them?
Are all situations the same?
Look, unless you number questions in Yes /No or 1-5, A-E formats, I don’t have to sit down and answer questions in any order but in fact have made my points. You also refuse to answer why if America is so greedy, selfish, lack care and concern, and Libya and Cuban leaders have done so well in the last 50 years, you and I chose to come to America instead of Cuba! It is a choice we all make in life! I made mine and you even came from Russia to America. So why? Americans disagree but they give their leaders room to lead! We have the UN and for the first time they have intervened when a brutal African ruler is killing his people! And that you blame them? Huh!
Where were you when other wars in Bosnia and Uganda and Ethiopia and Rwanda and Sierra Leone and Liberia and even Ivory Cost, were taking place!! Why didn’t we hear your voice louder, then? And now you have such a loud voice you hate war!! Congressman Ron Dellums stood up and he lived his life on that basis. My Gosh! I have made my points and exemplified them and I m not distorting anything you have said, but just using them in context to make conclusions, that you admire the style of dictators like Castro and Khadafy and in fact by not seeing anything wrong with his shooting at his own people for the crime of demonstrating, and rather condemning the UN decision and condemning these as greedy unjust crusaders, you are supporting the dictator and criminal Khadafy who has ruled by his nation for 40 years with no dissent and with murder on his hands for killing thousands!!
To help you define your stand against war, let me help you with clear answers and my position based on the questions in your own words and mind as to how world leadership can act and does act based on human limitations and resources:
1. How do you address this SELECTIVE INTERVENTION by the western allies when UN-ARMED PEACE PRO DEMONSTRATORS were shot and killed in Bahrain, Yemen and Syria?
ANSWER (K.Danso): The UN has to look at every case when it is brought up by dissent groups, or other nations who report. They can only do only so much at one time,, and none of these cases in Bahrain, Yemen, Syria, will be ignored if there is enough interest per the citizens or others protesting! Timing is very critical for any protest groups. The news media can only be at the so many sites around the world to report. PLEASE exercise patience, they are working on it! Trust that behind the scenes, Obama is working on it.
2. How do you justify the Israeli INCURSION in Gaza when children and women were butchered by overwhelming military power of Israel supplied by the very mediator?
ANSWER (K.Danso): You don’t ever justify such things. America is one nation and they are friends of Israel, but Israel is not a robot. You examine the cause of such Israeli actions and you see that for every one of them there is a provocation before from the Palestinian side. Last week, as everybody was focusing on Libya, a Palestinian bomb was launched and exploded in Israel, killing many and injuring more. Did you hear about it? The war between Israel and her neighbors have been going on for over 2,000 years and American cannot simply get up and take sides. For the last 40 years I know since the time of Jimmy Carter to now, Americans are trying. If you have a better solutions, please provide it to Obama’s White House or wrote to Hillary. Thanks.
3. See you are not being realistic and you are just stuck to one side
ANSWER (K.Danso): So I am not realistic but you are? Do you realize this is your opinion, and ,,, is arrogant?
4. basic principles of liberty without discrimination
QUESTION TO STEPHEN (by K.Danso): My good friend, and who created those principles? Where do you see this in practice, and do you think you possess these principles more than others, such as the current leadership of the US?
5. Let's say tomorrow we wake up and there is uprising in SAUDI ARABIA which is coming since it is one of the most repressive regimes, will the U. S and its allies intervene to save civilian lives?
ANSWER (K.Danso): There is leadership decision-making based on every situation. It’s called Situational leadership. There is no written laws on such matters in the US and every leader has to use his best judgment based on perceived US interests and ethical and moral principles of the President, as Obama said yesterday (hope you listened).
6. If Israel wakes up tomorrow and start killing children and women because there is suicide bombing in Israel. Will UN hold an emergency meeting and send interventionists to save civilian lives?
ANSWER (K.Danso): Yes, the UN always will hold emergency meeting, but Israel will be there to defend their reason. And if they are justified, there is nothing anybody can do but try and negotiate peace.
7. Please don't tell me that the world is not fair and that's how things should be. I will disagree with you on that.
COMMENT (by K. Danso): No, it is not my place to tell you about the world. I only speak what I have found about the world and how it works. Whether we like war or poverty or world hunger or not, we don’t have a choice, and the best we can do is try our best to help. As Jesus of Nazareth once said in the Bible when some questioned why Mary would pour expensive oil and wipe his feet, instead of selling the oil and using the money to help the poor, “the poor you will always have with you, but not me,,”. Please read the Bible ,, I believe in Luke.
8. Finally the law of Karma is a universal law just as the law of you reap what you soul. These laws are universal that are not a respecter of ANY PERSON or NATION. How clear can I be?
COMMENT (by K. Danso: You don’t have to be clear to me. I learnt about the laws of nature when you were just a baby,, and so please don’t patronize me. Just make your points. As I have said, my father did not create the world,, and my late grandfather had questions in his mind all the time till the time he passed as to what kind of humans we are! So if you have the answers and solutions to the world, please do what you can to help. Thank you!
9. You can't escape those laws whether you are Hitler, Castro, Gadhafi, Stephen or Danso, PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
COMMENT (by K. Danso): Thank You! No disagreement on that.
10. How long and when did the U. S. and allies gather for an emergency meeting to stop millions of Sudanese being killed on humanitarian grounds?
ANSWER (K.Danso): Honestly I don’t know but it took too long in my books, years!! That is the reason I said this was a historic decision based on the new UN Secretary General, and we, you and I and Kwaku OM, must commend the UN and not simply say that just because they did wrong in Sudan, they should sit again and let thousands be massacred again! I have said and repeat the world is getting better and better at responding to such things, and one day dictators will think twice before they shoot their own people!
11. When Isreal defied international condemnation and continued with the incursion in West Bank, Ramalah and Gaza and massacred children, women, was an emergency meeting held to send B-52 and air craft carriers to stop the blatant aggression?
ANSWER (K.Danso): No! I don’t think they can reach an agreement to use B-52 and aircraft on Israel. Israel is a very powerful member and has powerful friends with veto power. They may have as much power on the seat as Russia and I assume nobody will dare send B-52 bombers to stop Russia “to stop blatant aggression”, which has happened before in Russia but the UN did nothing! What is your point? You refuse to accept that the world is not totally fair and humans make a decision and they will not decide to send troops to a powerful member to avoid major world war!! Simple logic of practicality!
12. What about those peaceful pro-demonstrators in Bahrain, Yemen and Syrian that were gunned down? Should those masacre be ignored? Why did the world body not take action but was able to live with that conscience when clearly the allied forces had the power to stop the aggressors?
ANSWER (K.Danso): No we should not ignore these. It’s like patients waiting to be taken care of in an operating table by humans. When you have an accident and waiting, 30 minutes looks like infinity of hell!! That is what I meant by life is not fair, my good friend. Trust me the Yemen, Bahrain, Syrian issues will be resolved in good time.
13. Hows does the invertentionists justify neutrality in this?
ANSWER & COMMENT (K.Danso): Nobody will justify neutrality – as I have explained above, it’s a matter of time.
14. Will the allied forces also protect pro Gadhafi civilians?
ANSWER & COMMENT (K.Danso): Good question,, if you ask my opinion,, there may be a need to do that. Life has tough question, Stephen, and I welcome you to the school of hard thinking some of us have been engaging in for decades! I am not mad at you for tearing your shirt and even drinking some palm wine on these hard issues. But trust me we have similar situations in Ghana also. Did you hear teachers were shot at when demonstrating for more pay? What do you say to that? Why no news? No discussion? Why is the USN not getting involved?
15. My friend these are questions that I was expecting you to address them.
ANSWER & COMMENT (K.Danso): I hope I have. Waiting for your responses to mine also. And don’t tell me you are done. We are not done yet.
Dr. Kwaku A. Danso (At Livermore, California, USA)
President - Ghana Leadership Union (NGO), Moderator-GLU Forum &
Publisher - Global Express Communications
East Legon-Accra, Ghana & Livermore, California, USA
From: glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com [mailto:glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Stephen Yeboah
Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2011 9:23 AM
To: glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com
Subject: SELECTIVE INTERVENTION: My Response to Castro - RE: Fidel Castro on Libya and Gadhafi: Nato, war, lies and business
Danso,
I hope you read my previous mail that I am done with the debate because it is taking a whole new dimension and many distractions and digressions from the original debate. However, I think it is very appropriate to pass some comments here to clear the air once and for all since you seem to MISINTERPRET and DISTORT my position oin this issue. The selective intervention is wrong. The key word here is SELECTIVE. You are not far off my position if you will agree with me that it is hypocrisy to the highest point to intervene in one place to protect loss of civilian lives when you are able to intervene in other places where civilians but for your own "personal" or "national" interests, agenda and greed you watch while innocent civilians are being slaughtered (and you know those places since I have cited many examples-Bahrain, etc). Where lies your moral conscience and justification? . Everyone in his "right" mind will not stand by when he is attacked and brutalized if he is capable of defending himself. Do you want to tell me that the millions of anti-war protesters around the world are wrong? Don't tell me they are minority. Some of your neighbors in Livermore do not support WAR. There are some will definitely will support every US Action damn the consequences and costs to tax payers. There are those who simply love wars. As I have said.
My question which you haven't answered yet but keeping citing examples of Hitler is not relevant to our debate. How do you address this SELECTIVE INTERVENTION by the western allies when UN-ARMED PEACE PRO DEMONSTRATORS were shot and killed in Bahrain, Yemen and Syria? How do you justify the Israeli INCURSION in Gaza when children and women were butchered by overwhelming military power of Israel supplied by the very mediator? See you are not being realistic and you are just stuck to one side. I will have no problem if these INTERVENTIONISTS uphold and apply the basic principles of liberty without discrimination. Your answer has always been the world is not fair. That is unsatisfactorily answer. Let's say tomorrow we wake up and there is uprising in SAUDI ARABIA which is coming since it is one of the most repressive regimes, will the U. S and its allies intervene to save civilian lives? If Israel wakes up tomorrow and start killing children children and women because there is suicide bombing in Israel. Will UN hold an emergency meeting and send interventionists to save civilian lives? Please don't tell me that the world is not fair and that's how things should be. I will disagree with you on that.
Finally the law of Karma is a universal law just as the law of you reap what you soul. These laws are universal that are not a respecter of ANY PERSON or NATION. How clear can I be? The very Mujahadens that US supported during the Soviet invasion are the very ones that fighting against America now. You can't escape those laws whether you are Hitler, Castro, Gadhafi, Stephen or Danso, PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Summary of Questions:How long and when did the U. S. and allies gather for an emergency meeting to stop millions of Sudanese being killed on humanitarian grounds?
When Isreal defied international condemnation and continued with the incursion in West Bank, Ramalah and Gaza and massacred children, women, was an emergency meeting held to send B-52 and air craft carriers to stop the blatant aggression?
What about those peaceful pro-demonstrators in Bahrain, Yemen and Syrian that were gunned down? Should those masacre be ignored? Why did the world body not take action but was able to live with that conscience when clearly the allied forces had the power to stop the aggressors?
Hows does the invertentionists justify neutrality in this? Will the allied forces also protect pro Gadhafi civilians?
My friend these are questions that I was expecting you to address them.
Thanks,
Stephen
From: Kwaku A. Danso <dans...@gmail.com>
To: 'Stephen Yeboah' <sye...@yahoo.com>
Cc: glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2011 10:11 AM
Subject: RE: My Response to Castro - RE: Fidel Castro on Libya and Gadhafi: Nato, war, lies and businessStephen,
Just watch what happens in the next few months or years. As I have sad many times, the world is growing and getting better every day. Do you know Americans had an average life expectancy of around 57 in the early part of the century, and were dying of malaria, water borne diseases and other preventable diseases like in Ghana in the 1900 time, only 100 years ago!!
PLEASE note that I studied about the Law of Karma in high school, Prempeh College, before age 17, starting around 1963, and I am glad you have also studied it. There are still things I am learning, but there are lots of things I know about and you are also learning, my good friend.
Th BIBLE – we all or most of us read it. The bible says Thou shall not kill and it also teaches us about Compassion and also teaches that Blessed are those who help those in need and I challenge you or anybody else to prove to me that what America and allied forces are doing, in trying to save a possible massacre by one mad man in Libya, is not right!! Neither you nor Kwaku OM, or any others, can prove that America and France and Italy and UK and Canada conspired to go and bomb Libya simply to take their oil from them, as some of you are implying of a sinister motive in the allied no-fly zone bombing! It is ridiculous!! Col. Khadafy, Fidel Castro, and others I include such as Adolf Hitler, Idi Amin, Jerry Rawlings (even if not as large a scale as others), have shown brutality on their people and it takes compassion and desire to help those in need to sacrifice the children of America for such an exercise. Does Ghana show such compassion to others, even next door, when Gbagbo troops fired on women demonstrating and killed 9 of them? Huh?! What is the point of going to Church when you watch a mad man killing and engaged in an act that can lead to a massacre.
Yes, don’t get me wrong. Many Americans knows what their government did in the past, some of them were wrong, including possible Iraq and Viet Nam wars, and Afghanistan. The price they are paying is fair, as you suggest. However, due to that past, does a new President watch and use the dzi-wo-fie asem principles of Atta Mills and let millions die? No way!! No way!! No way!!
The same Law of Karma, also taught in Buddhist teachings, is that if you close your eyes and refuse to help somebody in need, somebody in grave danger, when in fact you have the means, it is bad Karma. Why do you think it has taken Ghana over 40 years before we discovered something that was lying right under our oceans, when both right and left, North and South, others had discovered it! It was partly because of the way we behaved when Nkrumah was betrayed, and again, as a people, closing our eyes and sleeping when our neighbors were being abducted at night by Jerry Rawlings and his people in the early 1980s to be killed!! Ghanaians themselves in the military took part in torturing our own people! There is a price for that! Today we have a President who cannot even assert himself, be that his own fault or nature, afraid of a mad dictator breathing down his neck! All those are part of Karma! Destiny, Nkrabea! We have sowed bad seeds and we are reaping it! Our people faked as educated and took over Ministerial positions they did not have the competence to manage, and we are paying the dear price where leaders do not know how to manage and call for accounting, duped to pay $100 million for something we could buy for $20 million, duped and unable to even build a Water system when loans and grants totaling more than $603 million were given, and now being asked to pay $1.6 billion per year for the same water!! Yes, we all suffer if we watch the lies and deception in Ghana and refuse to hold people accountable, call them on phone, visit their offices, confront them, hold them by the shirt collar (as I put it) and rather hide under our beds on the sound of one gunfire!!! Where are men when you need them!!
Tweaaaa!!
Let me share this also – nothing personal or secret. Yes, it is okay to disagree, but my position is not changing to believe that one man, no matter how he or others view him, should be given a life-long mandate to rule his people! Never!
Dr. Kwaku A. Danso (At Livermore, California, USA)
President - Ghana Leadership Union (NGO), Moderator-GLU Forum &
Publisher - Global Express Communications
East Legon-Accra, Ghana & Livermore, California, USA
From: Stephen Yeboah [mailto:sye...@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2011 4:00 AM
To: Kwaku A. Danso
Subject: Re: My Response to Castro - RE: Fidel Castro on Libya and Gadhafi: Nato, war, lies and business
Danso,
It's my prayer that your prediction happens. I believe in the law of Karma. I also do believe in the universal application of justice. The ultimate universal moral law of whatever a man souls that and only that will he reap. Anyone who kills by the sword will die by the sword, period. God's laws are not a respecter a person or any nation. Those applying force may be prepared to face force in their lifetime. Remember during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the late 70s? The mullas that America armed ultimately turned against America using the very ammunition and tactics US taught them against the Soviets. This law of Karma that the Akans say se wo dua bor2dee a wontwa kwadu (if a man sows plantain he will not reap banana). It may not be on the battle field but somewhere in life. Thou shall not kill is one of the ten commandments. No exception to this universal law. I still love you as the bible teaches me to do. I harbor no hard feelings towards you albeit our opposing views on this issue. We will continue to agree to disagree on these issues. Just like Republicans and Democrats in America. They live in one country but they do disagree. On glu-forum, we will agree and also disagree on some issues. We just have to tolerate divergent views and try to manage our differences which are bound to happen. Even a husband and wife don't agree on everything. It's natural but we should listen more and also tolerate different views.
Thanks,
Stephen
From: Kwaku A. Danso <dans...@gmail.com>
To: 'Stephen Yeboah' <sye...@yahoo.com>
Sent: Monday, March 28, 2011 11:28 PM
Subject: RE: My Response to Castro - RE: Fidel Castro on Libya and Gadhafi: Nato, war, lies and businessStephen,
I will let you rest since you say you hate war period!
It is possible that was bothering you.
I have simply asked you what we should do then, when Khadafy was murdering his people, and you guys keep coming back.
Why should the AU need permission from anybody in order to negotiate?
Didn’t the rebel start some 3-4 weeks before the allied forces decided to strike?
The AU has been hopeless and I for one did not hear anything from them.
Stephen, it is not good diplomacy or politics to simply go and kill Khadafy. He represents some factions and he must use his brains,, or in the long run, he will be arrested and tried like Charles Taylor. You watch.
K. Danso
From: Stephen Yeboah [mailto:sye...@yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, March 28, 2011 9:28 PM
To: Kwaku A. Danso
Subject: Re: My Response to Castro - RE: Fidel Castro on Libya and Gadhafi: Nato, war, lies and business
Danso,
I hope you have read Kwaku Papabi's email below. All my answers are contained in his email. I told you I am done debating you and you keep asking me questions that I have already stated my position about. See the email below by Kwaku Papabi it says it all:
"This is what some of us have been saying from the beginning only for our words/positions to be twisted and misinterpreted. It is wrong for Gaddafi to murder other people; it is time for him to go after 41 years. It is also wrong for France, Britain, and the US to murder Libyans by dropping bombs indiscriminately on Libya. When an AU delegation asked to be allowed into Libya to negotiate, the delegation should have been allowed to do just that. Apparently, a peaceful end of the conflict does not sit well with some French, British, and American politicians. I can just imagine how many people have been killed even though Gaddafi is still alive. I'm surprised at how these people and the press that represent them talk about the coalition destroying military bases and tanks but do not hint that people live in such bases"
I am sorry I will not be able to continue with this debate anymore.
Good night.
Stephen
From: Kwaku A. Danso <dans...@gmail.com>
To: 'Stephen Yeboah' <sye...@yahoo.com>; glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com
Cc: 'K Danso' <k.d...@comcast.net>
Sent: Monday, March 28, 2011 11:01 PM
Subject: RE: My Response to Castro - RE: Fidel Castro on Libya and Gadhafi: Nato, war, lies and businessStephen,
Okay. “Selective military campaign intervention”.
Did you hear Obama’s speech and what do you think about what he said?
1. Is he lying?
2. Did all the nations you cited or who were or are going through these citizen rebellions and demonstrations occur at the same time?
3. Did any of their leaders order for mass shooting of demonstrators and promise no mercy and start marching with armored vehicles?
And now on Israel and Gaza: whiles not supporting some of the actions of Israel I would consider excessive retaliation,
4. Can you cite any cases where Israel, whiles things have cooled down for months, has been the first to launch an attack at the Palestinians without any prior provocation?
5. Do you think US has made any effort to end this Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
Please don’t ask me to produce your words. We are not children and you don’t have to say “I love him” for people to know where your heart is. Aren’t your words and argument obvious enough where you stand and depicting support for Cuba’s Fidel Castro and their history of dictatorial practices and one-man rule for the last 40 or more years, and methods used, and also supporting what Gadhafi is doing and has done in the past? Aren’t you the same man praising the systems in question? Isn’t that the same as supporting these dictatorial system and these one-man rulers? Didn’t Gadhafi start shooting and killing his own people before the UN made the resolutions, or you think you are the only man on earth who saw what was going on? If so where did you get your information form?
Can you help us understand who gave you the moral right to think that your views and standards are better than the majority of the UN ambassadors who met and deliberated on these issues and may have evaluate d the details and picture and reports in this Libyan conflict?
You have used the words immoral, hypocrites, crusaders, and many others for the members of the UN who voted, and called the decision selective justice. Do you think the leaders of these nations, US, Canada, UK, France, Italy, Turkey, Spain, etc, are all hypocrites and conspired to make selective justice on Libya to take away their oil, as you inferred in one mail?
Please help us understand.
Take your time – one by one.
AND BTW Thanks for correcting me on the GDP numbers for US and China – saw it one mail,, but could not respond right away.
Cheers,
Dr. Kwaku A. Danso (At Livermore, California, USA)
President - Ghana Leadership Union (NGO), Moderator-GLU Forum &
Publisher - Global Express Communications
East Legon-Accra, Ghana & Livermore, California, USA
From: Stephen Yeboah [mailto:sye...@yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, March 28, 2011 9:28 AM
To: glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com
Cc: K Danso; danso jfk
Subject: Re: My Response to Castro - RE: Fidel Castro on Libya and Gadhafi: Nato, war, lies and business
Danso,
Please don't quote me on your statement below in YELLOW mark. This is not what I said and also please let's also try to stay within what brought us to this point. Let me state UNEQUIVOCALLY, LOUD AND CLEAR once and for all that I have not and I am not supporting any dictator. The debate wasn't about any dictator it was about SELECTIVE MILITARY CAMPAIGN/INTERVENTION. Also I have not and I am not advocating for any one particular system. Although, I have stated without a regret that we need a Multi-polar world and not just one. My position was and it still is the SELECTIVE MILITARY INTERVENTION by the western allied forces amounts to hypocrisy and selective justice. I said why isn't the same powes with their military fire power intervening in Bahrain, YEMEN, Syria, etc? How do you justify such blatant display of hypocrisy and thinking it's okay when children have been slaughtered in Ramalah, GAZA, and West Bank when U. S even veto against UN condemnation. WHY? My friend tell me where I am morally wrong for stating the obvious. I don't support Gadhafi. Please if you are able to produce a single email that I have written that supported Gadhafi I am a man enough to apologize in the front of EVERYONE here on this forum (Have done that before and willing to do so again).
Finally, my position about this IMMORAL SELECTIVE JUSTICE remains very much unchaned. So, Danso if you are not able to produce those emails then you know you can't prove me wrong.
Thank you sir and have a nice day.
Stephen
Your statement:
Folks, what is good for the goose is good for the gander and Stephen and those advocating the Eastern style dictatorship and supporting the Soviet, Cuban, Libyan or Chinese style of rule must be honest with themselves enough to ask if they would be willing to live under those kinds of governments!!
From: Kwaku A. Danso <dans...@gmail.com>
To: glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com
Cc: 'Stephen Yeboah' <sye...@yahoo.com>
Sent: Monday, March 28, 2011 10:32 AM
Subject: RE: My Response to Castro - RE: Fidel Castro on Libya and Gadhafi: Nato, war, lies and businessBrenya,
Thanks for stepping in.
I am shocked but glad that Stephen thinks he types very fast and hence all these do not affect his time taken away from other issues and commitments.
Well, every man has his strength and so I will leave it at that.
Even me, not working full 8-5 time but developing projects at my own time, at home, and also typing very fast, know that these exchanges and forum takes lots of time that sometimes eats takes into other things.
Every man or woman has a right to go through phases of life in learning, and I hope Stephen is one who in 10, 15, 20 years from now, will remember that his thinking was wrong! If Stephen wants to continue this argument on line by line basis, I will be glad to do that also, since I don’t give in when I know I am right. Some men behind me who thought in 1983 (29 years now, right?) they were right and supporting the “let more blood flow” in Ghana are now well settled in America in their professions, making good money and not a single one of them went back home!! No! One of them is a well known architect, and when he and his wife meet me, he can never feel as warm or wants to discuss any politics anymore. Not a single one of them went back to help the revolution!!
I am not talking about history, and the facts we all know that Spain, Britain, the Dutch, France, Belgium, Germany, and these Europeans were greedy and selfish people who travelled around the world and conquered many nations and dominated them for centuries and even took some people as slaves!! Despicable to think of! No! Those have no argument! They are established facts, and the grandchildren and great grandchildren of those so-called globe explorers and greedy people have been trying to pay the debts of greed and selfishness for the past 100 or more years now!!
Folks, what is good for the goose is good for the gander and Stephen and those advocating the Eastern style dictatorship and supporting the Soviet, Cuban, Libyan or Chinese style of rule must be honest with themselves enough to ask if they would be willing to live under those kinds of governments!!
We are human! So why do you condemn other humans to live under the rule of such nations when you yourself run out to seek your fortunes in the America or British or other systems!! Huh!!
Look, the world is not perfect yet. Humans are still fallible. There is crime in every nation! America has a lot of crime, and the statistics are mind-boggling! There are selfish people and greedy people in every nation! There are wicked people, real evil people in every nation!! That is the world that the almighty God created.
However, in or around 594 to 508 BC the good people of Athens Greece, came together and created a system that many nations who are not prosperous and live under the rule of laws adopted called democracy. Few references on Google may help.
Anyway, I am still open to solutions that others offer to solve the situation that could have ended up like Rwanda. What do people think should have been done?
The AU had folded their hands, and some saying dzi-wo-fie asem,, did not want to get involved even in neighbor’s case. Our own President does not want to get involved even in West African issues and so how about Libya, far away! When 9 women or so got shot down and killed when they were demonstrating for former President Gbagbo to leave, did an of the African Union members condemn it? At east I didn’t hear it. So folks, if Stephen and others want to support Libya and Castro, let them do so. It is their option, but for God’s sake, don’t ever think you want to convince me that in the also 50-100 years these type of one-man rule has contributed anything 1/1000th the contribution made by the other ideology of free enterprise elected democracy and controlled under rule of laws. China has developed in the last 30 years because they finally yielded to some form of capitalism. Don Xiao Ping wrote that it was better to let some of the people become rich than for all of them to remain poor!! Yes! It took opening their doors to the West before their so-called economic growth occurred. And as much as their controlled economy is fine,, when Japan tried it for decades in the 1980s-90s, what happened in the early 2000s? Japan has been stuttering and gone through many recessions. Don’t get me wrong, they are still better than Ghana, and I know their ability to survive is mainly due to their culture. Free economy without regulations is also bad, as the US is going through now due to the greed of the Republicans! (Ooops! Where is Jerry? I am gone!)
Cheers,
Dr. Kwaku A. Danso (At Livermore, California, USA)
President - Ghana Leadership Union (NGO), Moderator-GLU Forum &
Publisher - Global Express Communications
East Legon-Accra, Ghana & Livermore, California, USA
From: glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com [mailto:glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Brenya
Sent: Sunday, March 27, 2011 6:42 PM
To: glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com
Cc: Stephen Yeboah
Subject: Re: My Response to Castro - RE: Fidel Castro on Libya and Gadhafi: Nato, war, lies and business
Stephen can I step in here. I think all may be ok. A hearty exchange of opinions on different spectrum's.
My take is that Kwaku's positions and opinions are actually quite steadfast, consistent. I don't interpret it that he changes them depending on what is happening.
To Folks who have had the habit of secretly appealing to others to end things - at times when you do so secretly (as I think has perhaps been done on my behalf recently) you may inadvertently cause a split of sorts. I know you may be peace makers how ever doing soin secret may at times make onlookers, stakeholders feel/think in the wrong direction. A sense of disequilibrium then occurs. Process perhaps.
Hearty and open resolution is not a negative thing. Patronizing is.
It is not a positive result to be concrete, stubborn, unchanged in position as maturity and learning takes place - at least some shifting occurs. Process perhaps.
Best on your prep or presentation on Monday's technical architectural design. Do yourself and your family proud - and us too!
Sister Brenya
Brenya
On Sun, Mar 27, 2011 at 7:39 PM, Stephen Yeboah <sye...@yahoo.com> wrote:
My Dear Danso,
No Danso, I am not confused at all. On the contrary I think it's you that is confused changing your positions and opinions depending on what is happening. As I said before and let me repeat here that if I want to continue this debate perhaps it , may never come to an end and so for the sake of maintaining our friendship, the desire to work together to effect changes we all very much desire and want to see in Ghana and also for the respect of some on this forum who have secretly appealed to me I will end this debate and say let's move on.
I promise you that you will not hear my opinion about this "surgical" intervention in Lybia by the allied forces but make no mistake to conclude that my position on the application of force to solve political problems has changed. No it remains unchanged. My world views remains largely unchanged as well. Let me finally say, let's agree to disagree and move on. Good night. I have technical architectural design presentation at work tomorrow and I've got to prep for that. Good night from Woodbury in Minnesota.
Friendly yours,
Stephen Yeboah
From: Kwaku A. Danso <dans...@gmail.com>
To: glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Sunday, March 27, 2011 4:23 PM
Subject: RE: My Response to Castro - RE: Fidel Castro on Libya and Gadhafi: Nato, war, lies and businessStephen,
You are very confused indeed. Trust me when I tell you that I have been where you are!! Trust me!!
Human being mature and know where food and money comes from!! Period!!
Did the people of Cuba vote Castro into power to free tem of the so-called sex trade?
Did Cuba have a leader there/
Why do you keep taking small bits of statements and making mountains out of it?
Look, I have talked enough and made reference to my book, and more so that of Lee Kuan Yew, that address a lot of what you guys are grappling with regarding economic wealth gap and social injustice in history, and it is left to you all to read and get different perspectives on how people get out of poverty and presumed social injustice, and how some people got so high up the ladder!! It is not through revolution, my friends!! Period!! It took me 40 agonizing years and 3-4 years of full time sacrificing and expensive study and comparative analysis and brainstorming with some of the managers interested in leadership, who included corporate executives, school superintendents, US Army officers, and using books and articles written by top University professors from the US, UK, Canada and some ideas from China, India, Japan, Ghana. As much as I am not a fast reader, I really paid my dues and shed tears and sweated through late nights reading articles, sometimes as much as 500-1,000 pages of them per week and summarizing ideas and my views. As you and Kwaku Obosu Mensah know, American PhD is not about doing a research and Dissertation only. You have to take courses, term papers, exams, and read books and books and books and articles. There was a time I was like a Zombie!! Tired and keeping up but won’t give up.
Stephen, don’t you think there are reasons some nations and some people have attained high economic status and others have not? Does it not bother you? Do you think taking a gun and letting everybody scatter and having a revolution is the answer to all human civilization and happiness?
How dare you ignore the human suffering of others right before us and being adjudicated before an international body called the UN and needing action, simply because you think Americans have not been fair in the past in some issues.
It is not my fault that Castro used the gun instead of other mans to power!! Where I come from such people have committed treason and I don’t support them! Fact that they, Castro and Gadhafi and Hussein and others have survived for 40 or 50 years doesn’t make it right!! Okay!!
Please let everybody get it straight!! I have never supported some of the bad things the US and UK and France have done in the past in Africa and around the world! No. However, this GLU forum is not set up to use guns and violence or to support such to achieve social justice. No! I just sent out some private mail to those in Ghana what we may be able to do to test some system I have in mind about the system allowing a mad man to abduct a child from a classroom, and rape her. Why is that man not in jail by now? If Mills is asleep, then it should be our duty to fond way to persuade him from assuming further 4 years! We are too far behind for this book-boko (slow-slow) and mmobrowa humility style ain’t cutting it for some of us! (as Americans may say)
I want a few people if need be, and I want us to use our “superior intelligence”, as Nana Kyei called it, to try and effect positive change in our nation! Period!! Nobody with superior intelligence will convince any that a dictator using taxpayer funds to provide medical care to his people and to a few of us in our villages constitute enough help and contribution to humanity so that it justifies him or others of his kind to kill his own people to maintain power. No way!!
So please get it straight,, and if you have specific questions for me,, I don’t mind explaining and sharing from my studies since I was a child in elementary school on the moral and ethical principles and concepts that have guided human behavior since the time we got out of caves!! And when push comes to shove, I can count myself as having as much knowledge as any on such issues!! So please disagree with me, but don’t try to preach to me!!
Thank you!!
Dr. Kwaku A. Danso (At Livermore, California, USA)
President - Ghana Leadership Union (NGO), Moderator-GLU Forum &
Publisher - Global Express Communications
East Legon-Accra, Ghana & Livermore, California, USA
From: glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com [mailto:glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Stephen Yeboah
Sent: Sunday, March 27, 2011 11:12 AM
To: glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: My Response to Castro - RE: Fidel Castro on Libya and Gadhafi: Nato, war, lies and business
Danso,
See there you go again. Does having a relationship with America automatically make a country better? Why do you think so? Can you share with us what you know about Cuba that some of us don't know based on your statement "I honestly think he would have been better to have developed a relationship with the US instead of allowing the Soviets to use his land to plant a Nuclear site," Are countries such as Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican that have been under US influence for centuries better economically apart from being the tourist destination to satisfy the "sexual" appetites/resting for some Americans. I have some Caribbean friends and and those who have who have visited these islands, the stories and eye witness accounts we get leaves more to be desired for these so called sovereign nations of Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican, etc. You therefore cannot convince some of us with your statement above that Cuba would have been a different story if they had a better r/ship with the US, no that's unproven hypothesis.
It's a complex world and Cuba has done the best under the assault circumstances by a super power. Why Cuba decided to go that way is up to the Cubans but clearly they didn't like the Yankees leadership prior to Castro ousting them from his Island. You have to read "Havana before Castro" if you have time. I quote "Prior to the revolution, Havana lived up to its reputation as the nightlife capital of the Americas, particularly as relates to pleasures of the flesh". Is that what you want for Ghana? If so then forget it I don't want to be part of your envisioned Ghana. Human dignity and freedom is very important to all the good conscious people of the world. This is my Sunday sermon before going to church.
Later,
Stephen
From: Kwaku A. Danso <dans...@gmail.com>
To: glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Saturday, March 26, 2011 10:54 PM
Subject: RE: My Response to Castro - RE: Fidel Castro on Libya and Gadhafi: Nato, war, lies and businessGilbert,
Okay,
I withdraw the comparison of Castro with Rawlings and Gadhafi.
You are right, the man has been forced to use his intelligence to help his people survive with nobody to look up to! I am reading a book that indicates the self-survival in Agriculture and food production in Cuba even got better after the collapse of the Soviet system and no more aid coming in from the Soviets.
I honestly think he would have been better to have developed a relationship with the US instead of allowing the Soviets to use his land to plant a Nuclear site,, and that would have been a No! No! for anybody. They almost caused a world War when the US placed a blockade preventing the Soviet ship from landing in Cuba,,, and fortunately the Soviets blinked!!
I would have loved Castro if he had done what Lee Kuan Yew did after say 5 or so years. Who would not have voted for a man who was doing so well for his people!! Huh!! These dictators simply lose some sense and sensibility! Period! Why?
It is my policy never to support any dictator and I could care less if they are doing business or not. Seeing the way China has done under a dictatorship, Cuba would have done well to have made some effort to get back to normal relationship with the US. They did not. The US consumes 25% of the world resources and whatever Cuba was making the US would have bought, to help their people. Free and fair bilateral trade would have helped their people 4 times what they have been able to do themselves! I know one Ghanaians who is now in Miami area, after a degree in Computer Science. The opportunities America offers makes it almost suicidal not to some kind of normal relationship,, and trust me one does not have to suck up to America! Lee Kuan Yew never did! Castro could have done the same!
Dr. Kwaku A. Danso (At Livermore, California, USA)
President - Ghana Leadership Union (NGO), Moderator-GLU Forum &
Publisher - Global Express Communications
East Legon-Accra, Ghana & Livermore, California, USA
From: glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com [mailto:glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Gilbert Salam
Sent: Saturday, March 26, 2011 6:43 PM
To: GLU Ghana leadership Union
Subject: RE: My Response to Castro - RE: Fidel Castro on Libya and Gadhafi: Nato, war, lies and business
I was in Cuba April 2010. What I saw and heard from people I was impress not to say there were no other Cubans who feel oppress and lack freedom of expressions. Racism between Cubans of Spanish ancestors and African is lowest in Latin America.
Cuban are the most educated throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Cuban also has the lowest number of citizens per doctor throughout Latin America and The Caribbean.
Cuban leadership takes research very seriously. If the United State of America had continue trading with Cuba when Castro took over. Cuba would have overtaken Singapore with development.
Cuba would have develop technology to ravel US. Any nation with leaders that believes in research would always be at the cutting edge. The United State is the one that criple Cuba.
Kwaku it is not fair for you to put Castro in the same category with Rawlings, Khadafy and Hitler. Castro do not have secret accounts. Rawling is educating his children in a foreign country while the education system in Ghana is left to rout. Khadafy and his family are living in luxury Castro does not own any estate not even in Cuba let alone in foreign country."There is debt of service due from every man to his country, proportioned to his bounties which nature and fortune have measured to him"
Thomas Jefferson
Gilbert Ishaq Salam.
From: dans...@gmail.com
To: glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: My Response to Castro - RE: Fidel Castro on Libya and Gadhafi: Nato, war, lies and business
Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2011 16:53:05 -0700Sly,
Stephen is considered my friend, and he can take it.
You don’t remember him calling me closed minded? Looking at issues from only one side?
Not to worry, my friend!
No offense intended. I can be as passionate as Stephen,, don’t take my old age as a weakness and jump all over me that I don’t share your Fidel Castro promises and Muamar Gadhafi’s promises of building a desert Mecca that I heard 40 years ago!! These people have not developed or built a single cell phone technology, Internet, Bio-tech, Chemical we can all use, Network adapters, etc, etc in 40 years!!
K. Danso
From: glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com [mailto:glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of SYLVANUS WORMENOR
Sent: Saturday, March 26, 2011 4:44 PM
To: glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: My Response to Castro - RE: Fidel Castro on Libya and Gadhafi: Nato, war, lies and business
Kwaku Danso wrote:
"Do they sell mirrors in Minneapolis area there?" ....
..."My good friend, you don’t have a mirror in your house?!! Are you crazy!!!" ...
My response: Let's try and stay away from these references to mirrors, please. It spoils the debate.
Sly
--- On Sat, 26/3/11, Kwaku A. Danso <dans...@gmail.com> wrote:
From: Kwaku A. Danso <dans...@gmail.com>
Subject: RE: My Response to Castro - RE: Fidel Castro on Libya and Gadhafi: Nato, war, lies and business
To: glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com
Cc: "'Michael Appiah-Kyeremeh'" <kwes...@gmail.com>
Date: Saturday, 26 March, 2011, 17:30Stephen,
If I did not know you better, id say you are insulting me. How the heck can you say I look at the world from one angle and you are not doing that
Soul Singer Janet Jackson sang and asked ”What have you done for me lately!”
And Actor Cuba Gooding asked: “Show me the money!!”
Has Cuba done more good for Ghana or you or for me and for us and the world than America?
Has Cuba done more good for the world of modern civilization and lifting the lives of the human race than America?
Does Cuba send more aid to the rest of the world than America?
How many patents and inventions has Cuba recorded in the world in the last 50 years compared to say one American company,, take any you like – HP, Intel, IBM, AT&T, Bell Labs !
For God’s sake, let’s learn to argue with dignity and stop this worship of human beings!!!
Yes, one man has survived for 40 or 50 years and is great!! The Lord has blessed him! So can we say his society has been lifted like American society has lifted and changed the lives of people around the world? Did Lee Kuan Yew also not ban certain vices in society,, but why didn’t he confiscate the assets of the British, but rather build an industrial Park and invited Texas Instruments, HP and others to come assemble parts there and create employment for is people! Could Cuba not be a good pace to manufacture Semiconductor parts, with all their discipline! Was Woolworth and other retail stores in Cuba engaged in prostitution?
Come oooooooonnnnnn!!!!!!!
Do they sell mirrors in Minneapolis area there?
Look, nobody is saying Castro has not done anything good in life,, but for God’s sake to argue that one-man rule and one-man genius is a model human society should follow is not the best use of our minds! Yes, Kwame Nkrumah was great! After he left the scene, what happened? Yes, Castro is great, and after he leaves, hopefully his transition is gradual and the good works will continue! Look, I am 64 years old and I have been engaged in these kinds of arguments since College at Berkeley some 43 years ago!! Don’t you ever assume that I am not as well read on these issues as you are! Never assume that! I just don’t care to argue on these one-man Savior rule nonsense anymore!
Look, when I came to American, in less than half a century, the same time Fidel Castro has used all his genius to rule with iron hands, America and the world did not have Stereo Tape recorders and in fact in class those who had small pocket recorders were champions! – i.e. the broadcast of music through left and right audio channels were not invented! Electronic calculators were not invented! Stereo music, and Cassette Recorders, and Stereo Cassette, and Multi-combined units of Audio, and the Color Television, etc were not invented! With the invention of Electronics, and improvement in Telecommunications, we have had the Fax machine, the transmission of data on paper across the world using phone lines, Audi-Video Teleconferencing where you can see somebody across the world, and then further Semiconductor miniaturization of electronics has led to electronic Watches, Calculators, Appliances, Computers and Communications, Software and hardware, through networks we now have Electronic mail, Internet and Global data storage and searches through such companies as Google, Facebook, etc. In 1979-80 calls to Ghana form US had to be booked before one could get through and the operator would call you in the night!! It was $2.50 or so per minute! Today you can see somebody you are talking to in Ghana using Skype and it’s free!!
Please for God’s sake, tell me what percentage Cuba and brilliant mind Castro and Gadhafi and Idi Amin and Samuel Doe and Jerry Rawlings and others have contributed to the world community of humans for you to compare them to America!!
My good friend, you don’t have a mirror in your house?!! Are you crazy!!! Is the world of human achievement only measured by how long a leader can survive in power? So Castro has helped you in Ghana to cure your sick and so he has done better than America? How dare you say such a thing!
Huh!!!
With use of human intelligence, perhaps the men and women of “superior intelligence” as Nana Kyei said, Britain has been able to let go of the patapaa war-mongering principles of the 12-16th centuries and maintain their antique Chieftaincy and Kingship system, aka “Royalty” system, and allowed freedom to reign, as MLK said. They have allowed other intelligence in Britain to emerge, with their controversial media, and allowed democracy to sustain their nation! Why can’t the Arab world learn such lessons and allow their countries to advance also? Why can’t our people in Africa learn also? When will the village empty and bony-chest-thumping patapaa rule of multiple wives and children running around villages with red soil, goats sh**ing all over the place, and open gutters breeding mosquitoes in our cities end!!
And Please don’t tell me your President has a law degree from Oxford or attended Sandhurst or Yale!! Okay!! Gilbert, please spare me the equal intelligence argument! I am asking about use of human intelligence and human spirit of love for each other to manage resources, and compete on this globe fairly under the rule of law, and produce improved living conditions for our people!! Real hard core use of our intelligence to produce products and services, and live well like we live in Woodbury Minneapolis and Livermore California!!!
Huh!!
These are some of the issues that bothered my late grandfather and he asked:
What kind of people are these people?
Are they animals?
Dr. Kwaku A. Danso (At Livermore, California, USA)
President - Ghana Leadership Union (NGO), Moderator-GLU Forum &
Publisher - Global Express Communications
East Legon-Accra, Ghana & Livermore, California, USA
From: glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com [mailto:glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Stephen Yeboah
Sent: Friday, March 25, 2011 10:20 PM
To: glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com
Cc: Michael Appiah-Kyeremeh
Subject: Re: My Response to Castro - RE: Fidel Castro on Libya and Gadhafi: Nato, war, lies and business
Danso,
I thought you will respond to any posting only after reading and thanks for admitting that you didn't read Castro's article. Your statement"
"I find is sad that intelligent people like Fidel Castro and Muamar Gaddafi think the best way to join the world community of nations is through seizure of assets of the “colonialists”, driving them out, and then isolating their people from the mainstream of human civilization."
Question for you:
Are those countries such as Jamaica and Haiti that opened their doors for western playground for prostitution and gambling better than Cuba? I was right when I said you see the world from western lens and that is dangerous. Before Castro came to power Cuba was a prostitution ground, sexual appetite paradise for the Yankees. He saw something wrong with that and rooted the oppressors from his country. What's wrong with that?
Let me therefore give you a little history lesson about Fidel. Despite a U.S. trade embargo and numerous assassination attempts on his life, Castro has outlived 9 U.S. Presidents. With all the super power fire power privileges, the man became a torn in the flesh of America. Just 90 miles south of Florida and they couldn't get rid of him, Remember the failed operation of the Bay of Pigs? There must be an invincible hand that is protecting this man. All those who sought his life have passed on to the next world and the man is still breathing. US policy toward Cuba has damaged America’s image abroad and trust me Cuba was inspirational to all oppressed nations world over.
See, Castro is one of the smartest leaders that world has ever known. Fidel Castro, contrary to what America would have us believe, the man has done so many good things for the world but because you see the world from one angle perhaps you may not even know that Fidel Castro's Cuba has trained many doctors for the world that serve in rural areas in your own country Ghana that you love so much.
The Latin American Medical School (LAMS, remember, since I will talk about it again at the end of my email) that Castro built and calls the gift for the world is the largest medical education program in the world and trains more doctors (and of course quality ones and contrary to what they would make us believe). Cuba trains doctors and send them to many Latin American countries. Cuba has been able to survive U. S. embargo against this small island nation that beats the mind and imagination of even the Americans themselves. Castro was a key figure in sending troops to fight for our brothers in Angola, Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe, etc. So not everything you hear about Cuba is that bad as they will once again make us believe using the western propaganda apparatus - the media.
I think this debate may never end since some of us will stand for what we believe in. On a side note here is information about the LAMS
For those on this forum who have brothers and sisters, friends and others that want to have free medical training here is information for you: Americans flock to this school and if Cuba is that bad why are Americans going there to train to become doctors who may work and operate in U. S. hospitals and clinics. Folks some of these things are contrary to what we hear. I just use common use to ask questions.
Information about Castro's GIFT for the World.
Latin American Medical School
Latin American Medical School (ELAM in Spanish) offers a basic universal curriculum for all students. In the first year, students complete a bridge program that includes Spanish language courses. In the second year, students will begin two years of study of basic sciences, including courses in anatomy, pathology, microbiology, embryology, genetics and more. Students then proceed to four years of clinical rotations alongside Cuban doctors. In the sixth year, medical students partake in a rotating internship that consists of several pre-professional roles, including internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics, surgery and comprehensive family medicine. Americans who wish to take part in the Latin American Medical School program can contact MEDICC, an organization based in the United States which seeks to help American students obtain a medical education in Cuba.
Latin American Medical School
Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba (MEDICC)
1814 Franklin Street
Suite 500
Oakland, CA 94612
510-350-3052
medicc.org
Students from all over the world go here to train. I got this information when Barbara Waters interviewed Castro and this man is sharp. Yes, for those who want to know Castro has a PhD and was one of the smartest students according to biographical data.
From: Kwaku A. Danso <dans...@gmail.com>
To: glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com
Cc: UMC-the-third-force-ghana <the-third-...@googlegroups.com>; africa_t...@mh.databack.com
Sent: Friday, March 25, 2011 10:33 PM
Subject: Re: My Response to Castro - RE: Fidel Castro on Libya and Gadhafi: Nato, war, lies and businessFolks,
I just finished reading the first article I have read written by Fidel Castro. If he wrote it himself, then he is smarter and understands English far better than I ever imagined. He is still active and on top of major world issues.
He wrote this as having been part of a speech by his Foreign affairs minister;
‘Cuba fully shares the worldwide concern for the loss of civilian lives in Libya and hopes that its people are able to reach a peaceful and sovereign solution to the civil war occurring there, with no foreign interference,”
(Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, in his remarks March 1, 2011 before Foreign Relations ministers in Geneva).
It is quite unfortunate that as innocent human beings were dying daily, and Gaddafi made the threat of “no mercy”, that friends of Gaddafi, the AU, Fidel Castro, could not leverage enough influence to have convinced Gaddafi to stop and negotiate before the UN voted and the first allied planes took off!
Folks, we are all human beings, and some of us may feel stronger than others as to what we can do to save our people from some perceived or real oppression by other leaders or social injustice. However some of us have watched the world for too long. I personally have seen enough not to trust and like this super-savior mentality using the gun!! I don’t like Adolf Hitler, I don’t like Idi Amin, I don’t like many including Fidel Castro, Eyadema, Samuel Doe, Saddam Hussein, Gadaffi, Jerry Rawlings and many others who feel they know best what is good for others and hence use brute force of arms to take over nations and run them till they die and hand over to their families, sometimes siphoning billions of dollars in foreign their fellow humans and use the gun to achieve it!! No! No! Noooo!!! Period!!
I find is sad that intelligent people like Fidel Castro and Muamar Gaddafi think the best way to join the world community of nations is through seizure of assets of the “colonialists”, driving them out, and then isolating their people from the mainstream of human civilization.
Kwame Nkrumah was smarter in not seizing property and assets completely after independence, but buying the European companies out gradually. However, on hindsight with the greed, corruption and absolute lack of love of our people, I only wish he had made some sort of partnership agreement with the European owners, let them manage these factories for some couple of decades till some of us who had been sent overseas returned home to gradually merge in and eventually take over management of those corporations. I also wish he had not been so ideological and incurred the enmity of the very people he was working with, the Americans, and hence got caught in the crossfire of the cold war! Declaring one’s religion, ones faith, one’s ideology, one’s tribe, wearing it on one’s arms for all to see, and letting everybody know you are a Catholic, Methodist, Muslim, Hindu, etc, when your people are hungry and need to build good roads, a dam and other modern elements of civilization, does not put food on the table! For God’s sake, let’s forget ideologies and let’s move on and build human organizations!!! Americans were very smart in declaring the separation of Church and State early in their nation building!
I feel the pain of my friends who feel passionately that the world is not fair and perhaps, just perhaps by aligning with one side or the other social justice will emerge. Trust me folks, the American or British is no more wicked or greedy than the African when it comes down to the wire! Test a 100 Americans, British or Canadians versus Ghanaians, Nigerians, Congolese,, and you may be surprised to find the white man is no worse than the black man!
As Cassius said in Julius Caesar (Shakespeare): “The fault, Dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in us”
The white man would never have thought of or succeeded in enslaving our people if Africans had not cooperated through the selfish and wicked Chiefs and others. According to Author of the book Millennium, Prof. Felipe d’Armesto, were it not for the chaotic nature the Europeans found our human organizations when they encountered us Africans in the coasts, the thought may not have entered their heads and history might be different. Of course our lack of curiosity and strategic mind to learn from them, likeness for their alcohol, helped the image of weakness and vulnerability.
So, folks, I am sorry, but not sorry! Let us watch how the coalition disengages Gaddafi from his thrown as King of Kings of Africa and don’t count on any sympathy from me. I am predicting Gaddafi will negotiate an early settlement rather than have his nation destroyed. He has an estimated $40 Billion stashed away in foreign bank accounts of these allied nations! Let the demise of Gaddafi be a warning to all African leaders and would-be coup makers who think a little marijuana and a gun qualifies them to be rulers of their respective countries!!
Cheers,
Dr. Kwaku A. Danso (At Livermore, California, USA)
President - Ghana Leadership Union (NGO), Moderator-GLU Forum &
Publisher - Global Express Communications
East Legon-Accra, Ghana & Livermore, California, USA
From: glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com [mailto:glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Brenya
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2011 11:29 PM
To: GLU Forum
Subject: Fwd: Fidel Castro on Libya and Gadhafi: Nato, war, lies and business
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Yao (GM) <yao.a...@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 1:14 AM
Subject: Fidel Castro on Libya and Gadhafi: Nato, war, lies and business
To: oky...@googlegroups.comFidel Castro on Libya and Gadhafi: Nato, war, lies and business
By Fidel Castro Ruz -Guest Perspective- | Last updated: Mar 16, 2011 - 11:37:06 PM
<image002.jpg>
Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi addresses the 64th session of the General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 23, 2009. Photo: AP World Wide Photos
'The empire is now attempting to turn events around to what Gaddafi has done or not done, because it needs to militarily intervene in Libya and deliver a blow to the revolutionary wave unleashed in the Arab world.'
As some people know, in September of 1969, Muammar al-Gaddafi, a Bedouin Arab soldier of unusual character and inspired by the ideas of the Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser, promoted within the heart of the Armed Forces a movement which overthrew King Idris I of Libya, almost a desert country in its totality, with a sparse population, located to the north of Africa between Tunisia and Egypt.
Libya's significant and valuable energy resources were progressively being discovered.
Born into the heart of a Bedouin community, nomadic desert shepherds in the region of Tripoli, Gaddafi was profoundly anti-colonialist. It is known that a paternal grandfather died fighting against the Italian invaders when Libya was invaded by the latter in 1911. The colonial regime and fascism changed everyone's lives. It is likewise said that his father was imprisoned before earning his daily bread as an industrial worker.
Even Gaddafi's adversaries confirm that he stood out for his intelligence as a student; he was expelled from high school for his anti-monarchical activities. He managed to enroll in another school and later to graduate in law at the University of Benghazi, aged 21. He then entered the Benghazi Military College, where he created the Union of Free Officers Movement, subsequently completing his studies in a British military academy.
These antecedents explain the notable influence that he later exercised in Libya and over other political leaders, whether or not they are now for or against Gaddafi.
He initiated his political life with unquestionably revolutionary acts.
In March 1970, in the wake of mass nationalist protests, he achieved the evacuation of British soldiers from the country and, in June, the United States vacated the large airbase close to Tripoli, which was handed over to military instructors from Egypt, a country allied with Libya.
In 1970, a number of Western oil companies and banking societies with the participation of foreign capital were affected by the Revolution. At the end of 1971, the same fate befell the famous British Petroleum. In the agricultural sector all Italian assets were confiscated, and the colonialists and their descendants were expelled from Libya.
State intervention was directed toward the control of the large companies. Production in that country grew to become one of the highest in the Arab world. Gambling was prohibited, as was alcohol consumption. The legal status of women, traditionally limited, was elevated.
The Libyan leader became immersed in extremist theories as much opposed to communism as to capitalism. It was a stage in which Gaddafi devoted himself to theorizing, which would be meaningless to include in this analysis, except to note that the first article of the Constitutional Proclamation of 1969, established the "Socialist" nature of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.
What I wish to emphasize is that the United States and its NATO allies were never interested in human rights.
The pandemonium that occurred in the Security Council, in the meeting of the Human Rights Council based in Geneva, and in the UN General Assembly in New York, was pure theater.
I can perfectly comprehend the reactions of political leaders embroiled in so many contradictions and sterile debates, given the intrigue of interests and problems which they have to address.
<image003.jpg>
'Almost immediately [after the Cuban Revolution], the empire promoted against our people dirty warfare, counterrevolutionary gangs, the criminal economic blockade and the mercenary invasion of the Bay of Pigs, guarded by an aircraft carrier and its marines ready to disembark if the mercenary force secured certain objectives.'
All of us are well aware that status as a permanent member, veto power, the possession of nuclear weapons and more than a few institutions, are sources of privilege and self-interest imposed on humanity by force. One can be in agreement with many of them or not, but never accept them as just or ethical measures.
The empire is now attempting to turn events around to what Gaddafi has done or not done, because it needs to militarily intervene in Libya and deliver a blow to the revolutionary wave unleashed in the Arab world. Through now not a word was said, silence was maintained and business was conducted.
Whether a latent Libyan rebellion was promoted by yankee intelligence agencies or by the errors of Gaddafi himself, it is important that the peoples do not let themselves be deceived, given that, very soon, world opinion will have enough elements to know what to believe.
In my opinion, and as I have expressed since the outset, the plans of the bellicose NATO had to be condemned.
Libya, like many Third World countries, is a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, the Group of 77 and other international organizations, via which relations are established independently of economic and social system.
Briefly: the Revolution in Cuba, inspired by Marxist-Leninist and Martí principles, had triumphed in 1959 at 90 miles from the United States, which imposed the Platt Amendment on us and was the proprietor of our country's economy.
Almost immediately, the empire promoted against our people dirty warfare, counterrevolutionary gangs, the criminal economic blockade and the mercenary invasion of the Bay of Pigs, guarded by an aircraft carrier and its marines ready to disembark if the mercenary force secured certain objectives.
Barely a year and a half later, it threatened us with the power of its nuclear arsenal. A war of that nature was about to break out.
All the Latin American countries, with the exception of Mexico, took part in the criminal blockade which is still in place, without our country ever surrendering. It is important to recall that for those lacking historical memory.
In January 1986, putting forward the idea that Libya was behind so-called revolutionary terrorism, Reagan ordered the severing of economic and commercial relations with that country.
In March, an aircraft carrier force in the Gulf of Sirte, within what Libya considered its national waters, unleashed attacks which destroyed a number of naval units equipped with rocket launchers and coastal radar systems which that country had acquired in the USSR.
On April 5, a discotheque in West Berlin frequented by U.S. soldiers was the target of a plastic explosives attack, in which three people died, two of them U.S. soldiers, and many people were injured.
Reagan accused Gaddafi and ordered the Air Force to respond. Three squadrons took off from 6thFleet aircraft carriers and bases in the United Kingdom, and attacked with missiles and bombs seven military targets in Tripoli and Benghazi. Some 40 people died, 15 of them civilians. Warned in advance of the bombardments, Gaddafi gathered together his family and was leaving his residence located in the Bab Al Aziziya military complex south of the capital. The evacuation had not been completed when a missile directly hit the residence, his daughter Hanna died and another two of his children were wounded. That act was widely rejected; the UN General Assembly passed a resolution of condemnation given what was a violation of the UN Charter and international law. The Non-Aligned Movement, the Arab League and the OAU did likewise in energetic terms.
On December 21, 1988, a Pan Am Boeing 747 flying from London to New York disintegrated in full flight when a bomb exploded aboard, the wreckage fell on the locality of Lockerbie and the tragedy cost the lives of 270 people of 21 nationalities.
Initially, the United States suspected Iran, in reprisal for the death of 290 people when an Airbus belonging to its state line was brought down. According to the yankees, investigations implicated two Libyan intelligence agents. Similar accusations against Libya were made in the case of the French airline on the Brazzaville-N'Djamena-Paris route, implicating Libyan officials whom Gaddafi refused to extradite for acts that he categorically denied.
A sinister legend was fabricated against him, with the participation of Reagan and Bush Senior.
From 1975 to the final stage of the Regan administration, Cuba dedicated itself to its internationalist duties in Angola and other African nations. We were aware of the conflicts developing in Libya or around her via readings and testimonies from people closely linked to that country and the Arab world, as well as impressions we retained from many figures in different countries with whom we had contact during those years.
Many known African leaders with whom Gaddafi maintained close relations made efforts to find a solution to the tense relations between Libya and the United Kingdom.
The Security Council had imposed sanctions on Libya which began to be overcome when Gaddafi agreed to the trial, under specific conditions, of the two men accused of the plane sabotage over Scotland.
Libyan delegations began to be invited to inter-European meetings. In July 1999 London initiated the reestablishment of full diplomatic relations with Libya after some additional concessions.
In September of that year, European Union ministers agreed to revoke the restrictive trade measures imposed in 1992.
On December 2, Massimo D'Alema, the Italian prime minister, made the first visit to Libya by a European head of government.
With the disappearance of the USSR and the European socialist bloc, Gaddafi decided to accept the demands of the United States and NATO.
When I visited Libya in May 2001, he showed me the ruins left by the treacherous attack during which Reagan murdered his daughter and almost exterminated his entire family.
In early 2002, the State Department announced that diplomatic talks between the United States and Libya were underway.
In May, Libya was once again included on the list of states sponsoring terrorism although, in January, President George W. Bush had not mentioned the African country in his famous speech on members of the "axis of evil."
At the beginning of 2003, in accordance with the economic agreement on compensation reached between Libya and the plaintiffs, the United Kingdom and France, the UN Security Council lifted its 1992 sanctions against Libya.
Before the end of 2003, Bush and Tony Blair reported an agreement with Libya, which had submitted documentation to British and U.S. intelligence experts about conventional weapons programs and ballistic missiles with a range of more than 300 kilometers. Officials from both countries had already visited a number of installations. It was the result of many months of conversation between Tripoli and Washington, as Bush himself revealed.
Gaddafi kept his disarmament promises. Within five months Libya handed over the five units of Scud-C missiles with a range of 800 km and hundreds of Scud-B which have a range exceeding the 300 kilometers of defensive short-range missiles.
As of October, 2002, a marathon of visits to Tripoli began: Berlusconi, in October 2002; José María Aznar, in September 2003; Berlusconi again in February, August and October of 2004; Blair, in March of 2004; the German Schröeder, in October of that year; Jacques Chirac, November 2004. Everybody happy. Money talks.
Gaddafi toured Europe triumphantly. He was received in Brussels in April of 2004 by Romano Prodi, president of the European Commission; in August of that year the Libyan leader invited Bush to visit his country; Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Texaco and Conoco Philips established renewed oil extraction operations through joint ventures.
In May of 2006, the United States announced the removal of Libya from its list of nations harboring terrorists and established full diplomatic relations.
In 2006 and 2007, France and the U.S. signed accords for cooperation in nuclear development for peaceful ends; in May, 2007, Blair returned to visit Gaddafi in Sirte. British Petroleum signed a contract it described as "enormously important," for the exploration of gas fields.
In December of 2007, Gaddafi made two trips to France to sign military and civilian equipment contracts for 10 billion euros, and to Spain where he met with President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Contracts worth millions were signed with important NATO countries.
What has now brought on the precipitous withdrawal of U.S. and other NATO members' embassies?
It all seems extremely strange.
George W. Bush, father of the stupid anti-terrorist war, said in a speech to west Point cadets, "Our security will require … the military you will lead, a military that must be ready to strike at a moment's notice in any dark corner of the world. … to be ready for preemptive action when necessary to defend our liberty and to defend our lives.
"We must root out terrorist cells in 60 countries or more … with our friends and allies, we have to stop their proliferation and confront regimes which harbor or support terrorism, as is required in each case."
What might Obama think of that speech?
What sanctions will the Security Council impose on those who have killed more than a million civilians in Iraq and those who everyday are murdering men, women and children in Afghanistan, where just recently the angry population took to the streets to protest the massacre of innocent children?
An AFP dispatch from Kabul, dated today, March 9, reveals, "Last year was the most lethal for civilians in the nine-year war between the Taliban and international forces in Afghanistan, with almost 2,800 deaths, 15% more than in 2009, a United Nations report indicated on Wednesday, underlining the human cost of the conflict for the population.
"… The Taliban insurrection has intensified and gained ground in these last few years, with guerrilla actions beyond its traditional bastions in the South and East.
"At exactly 2,777, the number of civilian deaths in 2010 increased by 15% as compared to 2009," the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan annual report indicated.
"On March 3, President Barack Obama expressed his profound c
...
[Message clipped]
--Brenya
San Anonio, Texas / Accra, Ghana
(210) 410-4103 / 011233 - 3803066
--
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Debate and dialogue to make leadership in Ghana more effective and responsive to human needs and contribute to a better world. A creation of Dr.K.Danso
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Debate and dialogue to make leadership in Ghana more effective and responsive to human needs and contribute to a better world. A creation of Dr.K.Danso
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Debate and dialogue to make leadership in Ghana more effective and responsive to human needs and contribute to a better world. A creation of Dr.K.Danso
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Groups "GLU-Ghana Leadership Forum" group.
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