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Hicks on Channel Nine

well I'd enjoy having a conversational beer with the man - try to discover the man behind the myth.

ask him what it was like fighting in Kosovo - was that before or after the West realised there was a problem, etc.

In the same type of western bar full of infidels that Hicks and associates would have blown sky high ( with you in it ) some years ago before he was captured...
 
 

Chopper Reid didn't kill women for wearing jeans or talking to someone when alone etc etc... didn't fly plane into buildings or want to end the way we live our lives in the west....
 

"Should have given him"... why should he have been given anything other what he has been.... Hicks has his freedom in the west now, Hicks was caught !!! Hicks did NOT surrender, he was in with the Taliban and Hicks should think himself lucky...very lucky...

Wonder if Hicks had been held by Russia or China if the same interest would be happening......

Is this more about having a go at the US..... hmmmmmmmm
 

Agree 100%...
 
 
 
Superfly,

I don't think it is so much "anti-Americanism", as disappointment with them.

As someone who was raised an American, this is what I feel.

WE don't expect anything else from non-western countries, because they don't make any representations to the contrary; they are what they say they are.

However, what America says it represents, and what is represents according to its actions, are two quite different things. People are not so stupid as to not notice these things.

You would never have gotten anyone more pro-American than me at one time, based on what it said were its ideals. Since then I have discovered that America speaks with forked tongue.

I still have great faith in a great portion of the American people, but I'm sorry, the beaurocracy(?) and that proportion that support political chauvinism can go to hell. It isn't anti Americanism at all, it is recognition of American duplicity.

There is nothing more representative of American duplicity than Guantanamo Bay. That's it.
 
 
Superfly,

Are you David Hicks? Is this why you know so much of what you have been written to be total truth.

Just for the record, Superfly (Hicksy) I was hoping you would have had a fair trial. Does that make me an infidel, still?

cheers,
 
I'd love to chat to the guy and hear his side as I don't think we'll ever know what really went on there. Personally I think whatever the U.S wants to call these people, they were captured during a war and should be treated as POW's.
 


I'm not an American citizen but this is very well put and reflects my view of the situation. I believe that there are a lot of thinking Americans that are also dissappointed and ashamed at some of the behaviour of the government and military. And I'm optimistic that there will be change after the forthcoming elections.

Superfly you are using the term 'Anti-American' liberally in place of presenting sound argument - in the same way people like to use 'Un-Australian' in place of sound argument.

The destruction of rights and values within/by America is as much a threat to our 'way of life' as terrorism is. If we throw out our basic civil lilberties and human rights in order to 'win' against the terrorists then they have already won. You speak emotively of the actions of the taliban whilst at war - well unfortunately the US is guilty of similarly abhorrent acts at Abu Graib but I'll avoid an emotive illustration of those acts. The other inconsistent reality is that those members of the military that were involved in that situation - which would constitute war crimes in anybody's language - were not subject to the same punishment as as Hicks. (who as far as we know didn't commit such acts). This is the unfortunate hypocrisy of the situation and does not do the US any favours on the international stage.


I also agree that an interview with Hicks won't tell us the truth - but that doesn't change my point that it is naive to think that the US government has been full and frank in their own disclosure in relation to the situation.

I take on board some of your comments and agree that we shouldn't canonise Hicks because he was subjected to failings of the US legal system - but the reality is I don't feel any of us can know for certain (and ever know) what his actual war crimes and actual motivations were at the time - because the only side of the story we have heard is US spin. And that isn't good enough for a country that holds itself to the moral high ground as its justification for its military activities.
 
You speak emotively of the actions of the taliban whilst at war - well unfortunately the US is guilty of similarly abhorrent acts at Abu Graib.

Really... so strpping insurgents ( most with western blood on their hands ) naked with hoods on, or having dogs bark at them or keeping them awake to get life saving infomation or playing heavy metal music in the prison is the same as the torture rooms being discovered in most over run insurgent held area's... remember that in Basra that has now been mostly cleared the insurgents caught have been raping girls, shooting women for wearing jeans and for living alone, one guy was involed in up to 16 rapes some of the girls were 12 yrs old, rape is normal, torture is normal and do not tell me that the western forces are just as bad... take your head out of the sand...
 

I was always taught that two wrongs don't make one right. Has that changed?
 
I was always taught that two wrongs don't make one right. Has that changed?

Watching US foreign policy unfold over the past 7 years would seem to indicate yes, that rule has changed - it in fact takes 100+ wrongs to make the original one wrong right

Beej
 
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