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The American administration is a bloodthirsty wild animal
Daily Telegraph (UK) ^ | 12 December 2002 | Harold Pinter

Posted on 12/14/2002 5:06:28 AM PST by tictoc

The American administration is a bloodthirsty wild animal

By Harold Pinter

Earlier this year, I had a major operation for cancer. The operation and its after effects were something of a nightmare. I felt I was a man unable to swim bobbing about under water in a deep dark endless ocean. But I did not drown and I am very glad to be alive.

However, I found that to emerge from a personal nightmare was to enter an infinitely more pervasive public nightmare - the nightmare of American hysteria, ignorance, arrogance, stupidity and belligerence; the most powerful nation the world has ever known effectively waging war against the rest of the world.

"If you are not with us, you are against us," President George W. Bush has said. He has also said: "We will not allow the world's worst weapons to remain in the hands of the world's worst leaders." Quite right. Look in the mirror, chum. That's you.

America is at this moment developing advanced systems of "weapons of mass destruction" and is prepared to use them where it sees fit. It has more of them than the rest of the world put together. It has walked away from international agreements on biological and chemical weapons, refusing to allow inspection of its own factories. The hypocrisy behind its public declarations and its own actions is almost a joke.

America believes that the 3,000 deaths in New York are the only deaths that count, the only deaths that matter. They are American deaths. Other deaths are unreal, abstract, of no consequence.

The 3,000 deaths in Afghanistan are never referred to. The hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children dead through American and British sanctions which have deprived them of essential medicines are never referred to.

The effect of depleted uranium, used by America in the Gulf war, is never referred to. Radiation levels in Iraq are appallingly high. Babies are born with no brain, no eyes, no genitals. Where they do have ears, mouths or rectums, all that issues from these orifices is blood.

The 200,000 deaths in East Timor in 1975 brought about by the Indonesian government but inspired and supported by America are never referred to. The 500,000 deaths in Guatemala, Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Uruguay, Argentina and Haiti, in actions supported and subsidised by America, are never referred to.

The millions of deaths in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia are no longer referred to. The desperate plight of the Palestinian people, the central factor in world unrest, is hardly referred to.

But what a misjudgment of the present and what a misreading of history this is. People do not forget. They do not forget the death of their fellows, they do not forget torture and mutilation, they do not forget injustice, they do not forget oppression, they do not forget the terrorism of mighty powers. They not only don't forget: they also strike back.

The atrocity in New York was predictable and inevitable. It was an act of retaliation against constant and systematic manifestations of state terrorism on the part of America over many years, in all parts of the world.

In Britain, the public is now being warned to be "vigilant" in preparation for potential terrorist acts. The language is in itself preposterous. How will - or can - public vigilance be embodied? Wearing a scarf over your mouth to keep out poison gas?

However, terrorist attacks are quite likely, the inevitable result of our Prime Minister's contemptible and shameful subservience to America. Apparently a terrorist poison gas attack on the London Underground system was recently prevented.

But such an act may indeed take place. Thousands of schoolchildren travel on the Underground every day. If there is a poison gas attack from which they die, the responsibility will rest entirely on the shoulders of our Prime Minister. Needless to say, the Prime Minister does not travel on the Underground himself.

The planned war against Iraq is in fact a plan for premeditated murder of thousands of civilians in order, apparently, to rescue them from their dictator.

America and Britain are pursuing a course that can lead only to an escalation of violence throughout the world and finally to catastrophe. It is obvious, however, that America is bursting at the seams to attack Iraq.

I believe that it will do this not only to take control of Iraqi oil, but also because the American administration is now a bloodthirsty wild animal. Bombs are its only vocabulary. Many Americans, we know, are horrified by the posture of their government, but seem to be helpless.

Unless Europe finds the solidarity, intelligence, courage and will to challenge and resist American power, Europe itself will deserve Alexander Herzen's declaration - "We are not the doctors. We are the disease".

The article is taken from an address given by Harold Pinter on receiving an honorary degree at the University of Turin
© Harold Pinter 2002



TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: fullblownlunacy; pinter; waronterror
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Did a search to see if this had been posted. Apologies if this is a duplicate.
1 posted on 12/14/2002 5:06:28 AM PST by tictoc
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To: tictoc
Mark Steyn's response
2 posted on 12/14/2002 5:09:20 AM PST by RippleFire
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To: tictoc
Are the Eurocowards crying again? Don't worry, the nice Islam people will dry your tears for you.
3 posted on 12/14/2002 5:10:55 AM PST by Skwidd
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To: tictoc
Nothing more than drivel from yet another bed-wetting, spineless Euro-trash writer.
4 posted on 12/14/2002 5:11:17 AM PST by Trust but Verify
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To: tictoc
tictoc = Newbie Arafat shill
5 posted on 12/14/2002 5:11:20 AM PST by ChadGore
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To: tictoc
The hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children dead through American and British sanctions which have deprived them of essential medicines are never referred to.

A lie

The effect of depleted uranium, used by America in the Gulf war, is never referred to. Radiation levels in Iraq are appallingly high. Babies are born with no brain, no eyes, no genitals. Where they do have ears, mouths or rectums, all that issues from these orifices is blood.

A lie

6 posted on 12/14/2002 5:14:04 AM PST by dennisw
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To: ChadGore
tictoc = Newbie Arafat shill

Gee thanks!

Coming from a genius like you, high praise indeed.

7 posted on 12/14/2002 5:14:40 AM PST by tictoc
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To: tictoc
Earlier this year, I had a major operation for cancer.

I wonder if this a-hole would have survived his bout with cancer if he had chosen to get treatment in an Islamic hospital. (BWAHAHAHAHA!!!) I'll be damned if it wasn't AMERICAN medical technology that gave him a new lease on life. What a wretched POS.

8 posted on 12/14/2002 5:19:15 AM PST by rickmichaels
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To: tictoc
because the American administration is now a bloodthirsty wild animal.

Yup.

We just can't take a JOKE.

So while we are calling names, how about this article, written by a twit flack rabid Americanophobic rabid weasle.

Probably too young to remember a certain other adminstration that was a bloodthirsty wild animal after people bombed its citizens.

You, Sir, are no Churchill.

Take your Midol and get over it.

9 posted on 12/14/2002 5:20:57 AM PST by Gorzaloon
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To: RippleFire
Mark Steyn's response

Yes. That Mark Steyn column is the reason that I posted the Pinter piece in the first place. I was hoping to perform a service for Steyn readers who were wondering where he was coming from this time.

I refuse to add "Barf Alerts" to titles because I believe Freepers are smart, mature people who don't need their information to be pre-digested for them.

Of course, there's always a few who disprove my thesis... :-)

10 posted on 12/14/2002 5:24:05 AM PST by tictoc
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To: dennisw
Best response that I've seen so far, with a point by point takedown of Pinter's lies, came from Steven Den Beste (no surprise there).
11 posted on 12/14/2002 5:27:22 AM PST by tictoc
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To: tictoc
Some 5 billion people have such an ignorant or distorted world view that they believe Pax Americana is equivalent to small pax.

The 2 century American experiment in liberty may yet fail, overwhelmed by conspiring tyrants aided by foolish billions of lost souls with no memory and no future.

12 posted on 12/14/2002 5:29:38 AM PST by SevenDaysInMay
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To: tictoc
What a moron. Like cancer, if the terrorists are not
completely absolutely eliminated, they will recur and metastasize.


13 posted on 12/14/2002 5:29:56 AM PST by Diogenesis
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To: dennisw
The effect of depleted uranium, used by America in the Gulf war, is never referred to. Radiation levels in Iraq are appallingly high. Babies are born with no brain, no eyes, no genitals. Where they do have ears, mouths or rectums, all that issues from these orifices is blood.

A lie

Of course. It could even be that he read somewhere about the after-effects of Saddam's gassing of Kurdish civilians and is citing that. After all, as he says elsewhere, terrorist attacks are completely the fault of Blair and Bush rather than the terrorists themselves. So it must be that when Saddam massacres the civilian inhabitants of villages suspected of disloyalty, America is the real killer.

I can't understand why a nominally conservative newspaper like the Telegraph printed this. Were they trying to expose Pinter, or is this their idea of presenting all sides of an issue?

14 posted on 12/14/2002 5:36:09 AM PST by Steve Eisenberg
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To: tictoc
Harold, m'boy, when the Islamists declare Sharia in the UK, and they line your Occidental ass up against a wall and prepare to behead you because you're a kaffir, I certainly hope that you will remember who it was that could've stopped the Islamists and saved your life. But, you probably won't.

}:-)4
15 posted on 12/14/2002 5:39:00 AM PST by Moose4
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To: tictoc
Hey Harold, you aren't the only one that has had cancer; and I like Bush just fine. Your problem is you want to have your cake and eat it too. And, you don't want to understand that Bush is a leader and his own man.
16 posted on 12/14/2002 5:42:08 AM PST by freekitty
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To: tictoc
Earlier this year, I had a major operation for cancer

It must have been brain cancer, poor fellow. As reduced mental capacity is the only reason I can think of that could account for so must tripe in one article.

17 posted on 12/14/2002 5:46:37 AM PST by Fzob
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To: tictoc
Harold Pinter - he probably would have loved it if the West had lost the cold war. Would he rather someone other than the USA have these weapons - if so would he please name them? Remember, someone will have these weapons, which someone is your preference -- of course, you would probably say they should be all under the control of the UN -- is that what you think Mr. Pinter?

I think your answer will evidence which side you are on - where you stand? Here in the States, as for now, I think you are out voted!

18 posted on 12/14/2002 5:47:03 AM PST by RAY
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To: Diogenesis
Thanks for a statement much strong than any words!
19 posted on 12/14/2002 5:48:29 AM PST by RAY
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To: tictoc
Excellent article. Thanks for the link.
20 posted on 12/14/2002 5:49:42 AM PST by Mr Ducklips
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