Here are a few thoughts for you

Pacifists like our current Government and the Greens, are far from being the "moral choice" of say refusing to fight for the Nazi's in WW2 would have been are actually hurting the cause of freedom by siding with the perpetrators of terror and whether by accident or design pro totalitarian.

Peace cannot be achieved by developing an understanding with its enemies, as Chamberlain tried with Hitler.

Opposing whatever action is necessary is not scared, nor courageous, its sometimes dangerous. So where are our illustrious "peace lovers" why have they not yet announced New Zealand to be "A Terrorist Free Zone"

I've been waiting for this to happen , where is Helen declaring our abhorrence of Terrorist Action and our Terrorist Free New Zealand.

During the Cold War when NZ went Nuclear Free what was supposed to happen was that the Soviets - who were the primary enemy back then...Like Leonid Brezhnev and Yuri Andropov, were supposed to say "Okay Comrades ! We can't bomb New Zealand because they have declared themselves a nuclear free zone!''

So it only stands to reason that New Zealand must declare itself a Terrorist free zone so as to make sure that the terrorists of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein exempted New Zealanders should there be any future terrorist activity.

HAS ANYBODY SEEN THIS ! I HAVE NOT!! Frankly I would be surprised if I did see it.

What do you think?

Logan Barraclough

I fear your naive politics more than I fear the hatred of the terrorists.

It is absurd to say that the US is persuing a war. We did not choose to go to war.

War came to us. What would you do? Have you even really tried to imagine what it is like to be attacked in this way? It is so selfish and shallow to politicize this.

These attacks were not political, they were evil and insane. Bombs have not been dropped, to the apparent disappointment of those who love to criticize the US, those who now love to kick us when we're down (eg. YOU). Investigations are being persued, and the response we choose to make will be measured and appropriate.

There is no desire to carpet-bomb the innocent citizens of Afghanistan, only your sick desire to project such evil intent on us so you can enjoy your self-riteous indignation.

And the response we choose to make is our choice and our business and our right.

You would feel the same way if you were attacked.

Enjoy your isolated location and mind your own business.

Sincerely,

Michael Kepler

Dear Editor,

I really feel you should take the word news of the top of your pages. Very few of your articles are unvarnished news. What you have are mainly opinion pieces, often by people who appear to be reasonably well informed and able to present both sides of an issue. You also have some articles which are just polemical pieces written as propaganda for their particular viewpoint. To lump these together with the implication they are all equally news seems wrong to me and at best, devaluing the better writers.

S Manning's piece reads as if it might be news but it is no more than a particularly biased opinion piece masquerading as news.

Sharon is presented as manipulating the situation so that a meeting between Arafat and Peres will not take place. The Palesinians are apparently no more than innocent bystanders. Sharon said that a meeting would happen after 48 hours of non-violence. The two English online newspapers that I read daily, Jerusalem Post and Ha Aretz are not very friendly towards Sharon. They record the violence used over Friday-Saturday-Sunday as the nonfulfilment of Sharon' condition as: 5 mortars fired at Jewish Gaza communities,shots fired at a Israeli Defence Force in Rafah,scores of grenades thrown at an IDF post in Rafah, the same at Nevah Dekalin, grenades at Karni-Netzarim, firing at Abu-Sneineh,and another 8 similar incidents. What was regarded as a particularly serious event was that the killer of a 26 year old mother of three in a driveby shooting was arrested by Palestinian police but released by Arafat. There was also a bomb exploded in Samaria and an attempt to take a motorbike loaded with explosives into a coastal town in Israeli territory.A 24 year old woman was killed today in a driveby shooting.

In the face of such acts and the stated condition of no incidents for 48 hours, how could Sharon agree to the Arafat - Peres meeting?

Manning also refers to "slaughter occurring since Israel reoccupied the West Bank and Gaza in recent weeks". The number of Palestinian dead has been a relative handful in recent weeks and mostly in shooting exchanges.

The Israeli dead in the same period have been about the same number and nearly all young women and farmers in driveby shootings.

If Arafat really wanted a meeting he could have shut down the violence.

I am not Jewish but for various reasons have made three trips to Israel to a total of 14 weeks since the present uprising began last year.Although I stayed in Jerusalem, I was within 800 meters of three carbombs and have listened to gunfire several times. The at least weekly driveby shootings, always of farmers and teachers with a high proportion of young women keep the Israelis in a constant state of anger.Add the suicide bombers,especially the big ones at Tel Aviv where the bomber walked into a crowd of young Russian immigrants killing 20 girls,ages 14 to 21, the coastaltown railway station bombing and the Jerusalem pizza house you can see why liberal Israelis who were in a majority a year ago have all but disappeared.While I was there, two 14 year old boys were caught in the desert by Palestinians,were tortured, their eyes gouged out and killed by having their heads crushed with rocks. Somewhere I have a newspaper clipping advising that no more volunteers were needed to help fing skull fragments for burial.

The Israeli - Palestinian problem is very complicated, has old historical roots, hardly anyone in New Zealand knows anything much about its development over the last 150 years and will not be solved inless the palestinians get their stated wish of driving out or killing every Israeli or somre Palestinian leader arises who will negotiate in good faith.

Apparently there are such leaders of a youger generation who might fill that role waiting in the wings for Arafat to die of old age.

About Manning, I think you can see why I dislike his disguised "news".You have some more like him among the sludge set but at least there , there is a warning of bias.

Yours

Paul Judd

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