Posts by Che Tibby
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craig, still think you're on a long bow. germany had a decade of fascism imposed on it, and then returned to it's former democratic state. germany was highly liberal before fascism, but history overtook it in the form of the depression.
deborah's point holds. the grounds for democracy were there before the occupation. why do you think that the east germans have embraced democracy? after all, they were not democratised during 50 years of soviet domination.
further, democracy already existed in SAf. the sanctions were there to encourage the whites to extend franchise to others.
the only place your point holds is japan. but the japanese were very seriously defeated, and accepted the political systems of the conquers.
are you suggesting that the US should more vigorously impose their systems in iraq?
furthermore, how does your assertion relate to democratisation of dictatorships like chile?
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craig, with all respect that argument is a red herring. the US didn't fight japan or germany because they wanted to democratise either country.
it fought them because it had to. iraq presented no credible threat to anyone in 2003.
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pretty long bow craig.
wonder what they'd say about that in Tokyo and Berlin.
you may care to note that hitler was a democratically elected leader, for one.
you might also care to note that the japanese were nuked into submission. the subsequent occupation was by hostile powers. not by powers purporting to be friendly, but actually locking up and torturing their citizens. let's not forget that turning point in the 'liberation' of iraq.
note the second turning point, the demolition of falluja while the world watched some delightful sports in greece.
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all commercial deliveries other than couriers to be done before 9am and after 6pm
sorry man, that's impossible.
when i worked delivering pheonix drinks to downtown the only time of day you could deliver was between 9-11 and 2-4. any other time and the retailers were either closed or too busy to receive their supplies.
i suspect industries other than service have similar sorts of constraints.
you also need to ensure that suppliers can access some of the 'pedestrian-only' areas.
swanston walk in melbourne is a good example. you just stop all private vehicle traffic and leave the road open to PT, cabs and some suppliers. cuts a huge amount of traffic out.
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Imposing a democracy is an incoherent concept.
indeed. especially when your 'tutors' in democracy are saying, "you're free to make any choice you want! [...that agrees with our janus-faced foreign policy]"
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neil, using loaded language won't make your POV more correct.
iran's meddling
and the ethnic militia line are simply ways to detract from the collosal screw up that is the invasion of iraq.
i believe the counterpoint to "iranian meddling" is "US guidance".
frankly, if iranian democracy was installed in iraq, as flawed and human-rights-dodgy as i've heard it is, then it's a damn sight better than the completely useless and corrupt efforts of the americans.
and if it means that "the civil war we always knew was going to happen" is halted before it escalates further, then that is also a good result.
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neil, democracy isn't the only or most effective method of governance in the world. this dogmatic preoccupation with 'democracy at any cost' is getting ordinary people brutally killed.
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doh. resemble* propaganda... you get the picture.
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they also represent propaganda about 'the treatment of the marsh arabs' publicised in 2002. lots of meaningless satellite photos of "sand where happy arabs used to pont".
even my 2nd year uni students at monash were picking holes in that particular bullshit.
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i think we might have the core of a public transport movement right here.
who else should we be talking to?
(and, i used to live just down the road from that ikea. i used to sit in my window and look out at that little park next door on Victoria Street and write my thesis.)