Distant Echoes – ‘Began and Sharon you got blood on your hands’

11 Saturday Jan 2014

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Ariel Sharon, Menachem Begin, Palestine, Sabra and Shatila

ANALYSIS – The year was 1982, the dates September 16 to 18.

Over those three days, some three thousand defenceless civilians were massacred by Christian Phalange militia in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in Southern Lebanon.

The people who were killed in the most appalling way were the Palestinians, who were meant to be protected by the Israeli army who had just invaded Lebanon to destroy the Palestinian Liberation Organisation.

The Israeli army simply floodlight the camps at night so their allies could have a clearer view, as they pursued their murderous path.

A report commisioned by Israel following the largest demonstrations in the nation’s history, found the Defence Chief, one Ariel Sharon, personally responsible for the massacres at Sabra and Shatila, something the protesters who had chanted ‘Begin and Sharon – you got blood on your hands’ had always believed.

It is often said that the world changed after the events of 2001 – that is clearer the case.

But, things changed after Sabra and Shatila, also.

So, if there is a fitting epitaph to the architects to that murderous war – Menachem Begin and his defence minister, Ariel Sharon, whose death was announced today after eight years in a coma, then surely it is the events over those three days in the camps that are known as Sabra and Shatila.

Posted by The Template News, Current Affairs and Sport Website | Filed under Analysis 🙌, Comment, International News, Politics 💼 🗳 🪖

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England’s Ashes Whitewash was entirely predictable (and it’s not the fault of the players!)

06 Monday Jan 2014

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Ashes, Australia, cricket, England, The Ashes

TEMPLATE ANALYSIS

The warning signs were there a long time before last summer, that this English cricket side were living on borrowed time, that it would only take a highly focused thoroughly approach and this side would be taken apart.

Trouble was the cricket establishment that included the very dull opening batsmen that was Graham Gooch, was not listening, perhaps seduced by their superior coaching methods or even their own belief in their ability to spot up and coming talent.

Of course last summer was closer than the 3-0 result suggests, however that was not the point – in English conditions this side has as good a chance as any in world at winning a rubber. It’s when they move away from their familiar surroundings that they are found wanting. It was so against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi, in 2012, and it has proved in Australia in 2013/14.

England will be rebuilding the side, and looking to the future, but unless they start showing more creatvity to team selections, as well as bravery, they are always going to struggle against opposition that took the decisions they were afraid to do so long before they meet on a cricket field.

ASHES

FIRST TEST, BRISBANE

MITCHELL JOHNSON 4/61, 5/42

AUSTRALIA WON BY 381 RUNS

SECOND TEST, ADELAIDE

MITCHELL JOHNSON 7/40

AUSTRALIA WON BY 218 RUNS

THIRD TEST, PERTH

AUSTRALIA WON BY 150 RUNS

FOURTH TEST, MELBOURNE

AUSTRALIA WON BY 8 WICKETS

FIFTH TEST, SYDNEY

AUSTRALIA WON BY 281 RUNS

AUSTRALIA WIN SERIES 5 – 0

Posted by The Template News, Current Affairs and Sport Website | Filed under Analysis 🙌, Comment, Sport 🏏 🎾 ⚽️

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Will the Yasukuni shrine bring about a third world war?

03 Friday Jan 2014

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Asia 🌐, China 🇨🇳, Distant Echoes, Japan, Nayab Chohan, NayabChohan, NayabChohanLIVE, Politics 💼 🗳 🪖, Shinzo Abe, Template News, USA 🇺🇸, Yasukuni Shrine

ANALYSIS – Shinzo Abe’s visit to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo last week angered many – friends and foe alike.

Predictably, China for whom the men that are honoured as men that died for the sacred Japanese nation in the second world war are nothing more than war criminals.

The same is of course true for South Korea with whom Tokyo is allied with, in fear of the rise of China.

And on that score, there is also Vietnam.

So, what was America’s position, as the Japanese internal affairs minister made the trip to the house of the dead souls yesterday?

Well, the state department has urged calm and called for dialogue.

Those who are predicting future conflict in Asia between China and the US may point to such visits by senior Japanese ministers to the site denounced by the world – that includes China – as the starting point for a conflict that could embroil all the key powers of South Asia.

Posted by The Template News, Current Affairs and Sport Website | Filed under Analysis 🙌, Asia 🌐, China 🇨🇳, Comment, International News, Politics 💼 🗳 🪖, USA 🇺🇸

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👦 ‘Chechen boy is dragged from his home by Russian Soldiers TEMPLATE ANALYSIS ☪️

01 Wednesday Jan 2014

Tags

BBC, Chechnya, Dagestan, Putin and Russia, Russia 2018

DISTANT ECHOES – Reminders from The Template Website

TEMPLATE ANALYSIS

Last night’s BBC documentary Putin, Russia and The West contained perhaps the most powerful and disturbing footage broadcast on terrestrial television yet.

A boy from a village in Chechnya is dragged out of his home by Russian soldiers, he is heard screaming for his life – ‘hy-aa Allah’ – and the narrator tells us that his body was found much later buried in a Russian base.

The pictures which were shot before the Moscow Theatre siege, and of course much earlier than Beslan, are perhaps also the first hard proof of what Russia’s soldiers were doing as they attempted to reconquer Chechnya for their president, Vladimir Putin.

Russia’s military doctrine when it comes to conquering and reconquering its restive Muslim provinces has been simple – the harder you hit them, the less likely they are to come back again.

Russia’s soldiers were of course the original ethnic cleansers, a process that began under Ivan the Terrible is still ongoing to this day in the Caucasus republics of Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingush Settia.

Little wonder then that the West has found it hard to accommodate Russia as a part of Europe or Nato.