Subj : Re: BSG To : alt.tv.farscape From : weirdwolf Date : Tue Sep 27 2005 15:04:16 From Newsgroup: alt.tv.farscape Nick wrote in news:Xns96DE5ABBBD4C3ndtcm@ 204.153.244.170: > weirdwolf wrote: > >> Nick wrote: >>> weirdwolf wrote: >>> >>>> The military has got a long history of murder, torture and rape of >>>> civilians who have the unfortunate habit of either speaking up for >>>> a truly democratic state, are a member of the minority Kurdish >>>> ethnic group or just piss them off by there very existence. >>>> http://www.khrp.org/ http://www.mtcp.co.uk/campaigns.php?id=7 >>>> You'll like the Mark Thomas guy, think Moore but funnier and more >>>> politically astute. >>>> Of course the civilian goverment is also culpable but you have to >>>> remember that there were military coups in 60,71,80 and heavy >>>> military involvement in the 97 coup, but that one was ok because it >>>> got rid of the Islamic government. Of course this doesn't even >>>> begin to touch on Cyprus and the invasion by Turkish forces in 74. >>>> Hardly the secular liberal government model that you want to follow >>>> now is it? >>> >>> I would think that any military that acts on its own accord and is >>> not under the control of a civilian government is only one power >>> hungry guy away from siezing total control. >> >> However there has to be a level at which the military must be allowed >> to act autonomously. When politics gets mixed up in a military >> decision it never ends well. For example Churchill's sinking of the >> French fleet, while militarily the correct course to follow he has >> still not been forgiven for his actions by the French, WOCAB. > > > Does anyone care? I mean, what are they gonna do, surrender to you? > Well there is that, they eventually put up a statue of Churchill in Paris, of course it was 53 years after end of the war. If IIRC they had no end of trouble raising the money from public donations. Still you have to admire the French and their sense of irony, the plinth has the quote "we shall never surrender" on it. Ted -- Stare too long into the abyss and the abyss looks like a nifty place to hide the bodies .