The source of conflict in world news

From an AP Press release 12/2/10
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff tried to play down Won's [South Korean spy chief Won Sei-hoon] comments, saying the intelligence was that North Korea ordered its troops to prepare to return fire should South Korea conduct artillery drills [which it did].
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From a respondent
I meet so few people in my daily life who are willing to fight to save this country from total madness. I believe 95% of the American people are willing to be led into a gas chamber. Some may have strong feelings about the difference between right and wrong, but they choose to do nothing to save their own lives. They have great political conversations at parties and Starbucks, but they do not put their feet on the street.
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W.H. Auden wrote:
Faces along the bar
Cling to their average day:
The lights must never go out,
The music must always play,
All the conventions conspire
To make this fort assume
The furniture of home;
Lest we should see where we are,
Lost in a haunted wood,
Children afraid of the night
Who have never been happy or good.
The powerful do not understand hope. Hope is not part of their vocabulary. They speak in the cold, dead words of national security, global markets, electoral strategy, staying on message, image and money. The powerful protect their own. They divide the world into the damned and the blessed, the patriots and the enemy, the rich and the poor. They insist that extinguishing lives in foreign wars or in our prison complexes is a form of human progress. They cannot see that the suffering of a child in Gaza or a child in the blighted pockets of Washington, D.C., diminishes and impoverishes us all. They are deaf, dumb and blind to hope. Those addicted to power, blinded by self-exaltation, cannot decipher the words of hope any more than most of us can decipher hieroglyphics. Hope to Wall Street bankers and politicians, to the masters of war and commerce, is not practical. It is gibberish. It means nothing.
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Hope has two beautiful daughters;
Their names are Anger and
Courage.
Anger at the way things are,
and Courage to see they do not
remain as they are.
~ St. Augustine
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WikiLeaks and Democracy
Outraged politicians are claiming that the release of government information is the criminal equivalent of terrorism and puts innocent people's lives at risk. Many of those same politicians authorized the modern equivalent of carpet bombing of Baghdad and other Iraqi cities, the sacrifice of thousands of lives of soldiers and civilians and drone assaults on civilian areas in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen. Their anger at a document dump, no matter how extensive, is more than a little suspect.
Wikileaks has the potential to make transparency and accountability more robust in the U.S.
That is good for democracy
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The absurdity of justice
Assange told Time magazine that Clinton should resign "if it can be shown that she was responsible for ordering U.S. diplomatic figures to engage in espionage in the United Nations" in violation of international agreements.
The White House said his statements "are both ridiculous and absurd" and U.S. diplomats do not engage in spying.
Assange is wanted on suspicion of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion. The exact nature of the allegations aren't completely clear because formal charges have not been filed.
Prosecutor Marianne Ny said that a European arrest warrant had been issued for Assange, but said that "for secrecy reasons, she cannot give more information concerning this matter at the moment.”
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Note from a respondent
A bit of irony from the quote of the day wouldn't you say?

"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." --Albert Einstein

I believe that Julian Assange is doing something.
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Note from another respondent
So he's up with Bin Ladin on the most wanted list for an alledged rape? Another lie from the American government, charge him with what you are really after, try being honest with everybody for a change!