ARMS RACE NEVER WENT AWAY (at least not in George Bush's U.S)

'Am trying really hard to convince myself that what I am reading in the papers from the U.S. is not what it says. Arms deal with Saudi Arabia, and compensatory arms deals with Egypt and Isreal, worth $13 billion to Egypt and $30 billion to Isreal. Great! A rerun of the cold war days. The question to ask is what is expected of these countries to do with the arms?

If I remember well the cause of all the warring going on in the Arab world and the middle east is the sale of arms by both the U.S. and the then U.S.S.R. The U.S. claimed it was in the interest of the world to arm the Iraqis against the Iranians, then she thought it was in her interest to arm the Talibans against the U.S.S.R incursion into Afganistan. And then it became necessary to arm the Isrealis against the threat from the Arab world. It has now become necessary to arm some Arabs against another set of Arabs. The underlying factor being that the arms will be used to kill fellow humans, most of them children, a good percentage of them women, another good percentage innocent men looking for means of livelihood for themselves and their family.

The motive? Monetary profit. And who is the biggest beneficiary? The U.S. Granted it is only a puny minority of the U.S. population, but a dangerous minority.

One little bit that bothers me is why the U.S. thinks she is in the best position to decide whether or not people should kill one another and who should be killed at a particular time and place. What if the U.S. seeing the perculiar advantage she has in having a strong say in world affairs took the other option of making friends and creating bridges of understanding among nations rather than arming them against each other? I understand there is little money in this peace option but I know as a fact that American citizens are also being killed by the weapons sold to these countries or given to them by way of grant or aid as she wants to describe it. You don't aid a man when you give him a gun. You're abetting the murder of one or more persons or even the person you've given the gun to.

Americans have a gun culture but why can't you see this as a barbaric culture? Look at what it does to the kids on the streets and elementary or grade schools in America. Wake up! the world is not as dangerous as you're making it look just for the sake of profit in money. It is possible you may never live long enough to spend the money. If there is peace the world over there is no limit to the money that can be made.

Let us for once drop the need for bullet proof vests and jeeps, the need to hire assassins or body guards. Let us explore the possiblity of making friends among nations, it surely will bring long lasting prosperity and all the talk about terrorism will be a forgotten issue. I believe the terrorists want a good life too and will readily give in their guns to have a good family with whom they could sit on the lawn outside their home on weekends.

I love my family and i have a very stong feeling every other person does as well.

The arms deals? let us put them away. They are killer contracts. Improve the lot of humans don't kill the human race. Roaches might inherit the planet. A nightmare of a thought but that is what we are encouraging.

Keep pressing for no arms among humans.

abbah r. agor-agalanga

THE US SENATE DEMOCRATS COMING TO LIFE

We in the other parts of the world have all along known what the problem with the American involvement in Iraqi affairs was about. Cheap oil and money. The democrats in the US Senate may have known it all along too because I believe some of the Senators have what it takes in them but may be never had the numbers necessary to overturn those steps taken that have made the average American appear like a war monger. When the American people finally spoke through their votes the senators certainly got the message.

Fine and good the bill was blocked but the mere fact that the effort was mad is commendable . And I am certain a little adjustment to the bill will see it sailing through at the next attempt. The basic fact is that most republicans have made serious money from the war. They are easily the biggest manufacturers of armaments. They are also in controll of the oil industry. So put these together and you will have a clearer picture of what I am saying. The down side of it is that innocent people on both sides had to lose their lives before the situation becomes clear to everyone except George Bush and his friends.

I have to look only through the window in my house to see what is being done wrong in far flung places like Iraq. Kids run around kicking a dusty football and teenagers acting funny in the nooks, ordinary things Iraqis don't dare. They are humans like you and I.

The real enemy is, if may say so, Al qaeda, and basically they do not have their base anywhere in Iraq. it is well known that they are in bed with good friends of America, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Pakistan is even better off in the scheme of things. She is making an effort to rid herself of them but the Saudis? Cosy as ever.

Bush, face your enemies and let innocent people get about their lives.

'am just going to see if my kids are okay. I would want them to live in a better world.

Have a nice weekend.

abbah r. agor-agalanga

TONY BLAIR STOPS BLARING

Not too long ago Mr. Blair bowed out of office. not with that much pomp as you would think the American president would or for that matter the Nigerian president. He went with a wimper so faint you could have missed it on the 9 o'clock news. But that is how it should go. Particularly for someone who staked his political carreer on the preempted decision of a president not known for soundness of mind.

Tony had it all. Or so it seemed and Baby Leo did not mind the idea either, you know all that smooshing and pampering at Downing Street, a street that probably has the highest number of bootlickers in Europe, sorry next to the equivalent street in Rome, Italy. But he, Tony threw it all away. Come to think of it getting the job of British prime minister is no easy task. It is actually easier to lose the job. In Britain all it takes to kick a prime minister out is the queen's ears (not her hubby's they are a little outsized), she then whispers to a few MPs who whisper to a few party big shots and you are either out on the street with your reviewed resume or the party loses her seat at elections. Clean and tidy. And the beat goes on.

In the U.S, kicking the president out? Boy! you sure have some home work. First you get the world press, no kidding. You have to whip up this sentiment about how glorified the white house is and has been for a couple of centuries. Then you go through the dance of educating the press who already know where you are heading, about the importance of the U.S in the committy of nations on the globe, such that if the president of the U.S should sneeze, France, Britain, Saudi Arabia (excluding al Kaida, they don't give a damn), Egypt, Nigeria, Japan, China (they really don't catch fright they are too many, strength in number), India (working hard on their numbers), and even down yonder Australia should catch cold. Never mind the strength of the blast of sneeze that might be required.

When you are certain that the world pressmen and women have gotten the message and are placed in a good enough mental state to deliver the message to the citizenry with enough venorm, then you drop your voice a little and get the press to crane their necks cocking their ears real hard to hear you, you drop the over-hiped scandal, the bombshell. Uhm, be sure it has to do with sex or it will not work. If it has to do with people's children getting killed for no reason it won't work. If it has to do with war it won't work. Remember war is money to some of the bigshots at the white house.

This is just day one. On day two, keep it alive the other networks have not caught on. move away from Washington at this time so that you can be accessed by other networks who do not have the means to send their reporters to Washington where you might have had your world press conference or what ever name you choose to call. The Sex Cluster Bomb Scandal might be a good name for the scandal. Catchy. Now you are set to give speaches on morality never mind that you have nine children from fifteen women without ever proposing to even one of them and not even knowing where the children are or how they are coping with life. You are hot. There are some movie deals on the line so don't tune off.

You can live the rest to the U.S senate and the House of Representatives. Go home and watch tv. Do not attempt to believe what the experts say of your disclosure, they will contradict themselves long before you know it. some one will show up claiming to have a phd in the scandal. Go and hire a solicitor, get a cheap one or you will be going back to Harlem more broke than you came out. Remeber this is the end of your role. Don't ever imagine anything more than you have gotten. Keep in mind that George Bush can't get impeached for killing people's children beause it has nothing to do with sex.

You are now famous, get to your bankers.

Have a nice day.

abbah r. agor-agalanga