CRUEL EXECUTIONS OF CHILDREN IN IRAN & SOMALIA

I tend to object to the Bush/Cheney attempt to demonize Iran and make it an "enemy." However, I certainly view Iran's use of the death penalty as egregiously wrong as I find it severely objectionable when carried out in the United States.

For a state, any state, to take the life of a person, even though that person has been adjudged to have committed some heinous act, is morally wrong and an immoral overreaching of a state's powers.

I refer to reports of the latest execution of a juvenile in Iran. The BBC reports:

"The New York-based Human Rights Watch said the Afghan man, identified as Gholamreza H, was hanged in Isfahan province on 30 October. He was 19 when the execution was carried out, but had been convicted for a murder he committed in November 2006 as a 17-year-old. .. . .

"Human Rights Watch says 26 juvenile offenders have been executed in Iran since January 2005, out of a worldwide total of 32 known executions."

Furthermore, I want to strenuously protest the stoning of a 13-year old girl in Somalia after being gang raped by three adult males.

Here is the BBC's account of the gruesome and cruel happening.

For this resurgence in primitive fundamentalist Islamic morality, I place the blame squarely on Bush and Cheney. It was these American leaders who overturned the government of the Islamic Courts in Mogadishu several years ago by egging the Ethiopians, centuries old enemies of Somalians, to invade and occupy much of Somalia. Just at the time when a moderate Islamic government was restoring commerce and a normal course of living to Somalia, Bush and Cheney upset the whole equilibrium by their misplaced zeal against any Islamic form of government.

The result has been two years of armed conflict, shelling of civilians, disintegration of any civilized life, destruction of the city of Mogadishu, and total lawlessness. What then happens are outrages like this one where fundamentalist militants impose their savage morality on some unfortunate 13-year old child.

BUSH'S MEDDLING IN SOMALIA RESULTS IN DESTRUCTION OF CAPITAL MOGADISHU

The BBC reports on the dire strait of residents of Mogadishu, capital of Somalia. Just today 12 civilians at a market were killed in a fire fight between the U.S. backed "government" and insurgents from Islamic Courts.

Reports the BBC:

"The world should be shocked at the systematic destruction of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, and its residents, says lobby group Human Rights Watch.

"The organisation told the BBC the city had become a zone of free-fire between government and insurgent forces.

"It said if such a situation was happening anywhere else in the world, like Georgia or Lebanon for example, it would be considered a travesty.

"Instead Somalia was the most ignored tragedy in the world today, HRW said."

And who is responsible for the carnage and destruction of the city? George W. Bush and Dick Cheney who so fear an Islamic government in northeast Africa that they would try to overthrow a legitimate government and install their own non-Islamic friends. Bush and Cheney also persuaded Ethiopia, an enemy of Somalia, to invade and occupy Mogadishu. In Bush's eyes, all Islamic peoples are terrorists.

The result is that Somalia is a burnt out shell where the poorest and the most vulnerable still reside because they have no place to go and don't have the wherewithall to get out.

The BBC's Mark Doyle reports on visiting Mogadishu:

"BBC World Affairs correspondent Mark Doyle recently visited Mogadishu and says the city on the Indian Ocean, which was previously one of Africa's trading hubs with the Middle East, is dying.

"Now whole swathes of it are rubble or skeletons of buildings without doors or windows or roofs, he says.

"He adds that the most shocking, eerie aspect of it is that in many parts of the capital all the people have fled."

REPORTS ON PEACE ACCORD IN SOMALIA - ETHIOPIANS MAY BE FORCED TO CEASE HATED OCCUPATION

The BBC is reporting that there has been a peace agreement signed by both the provisional government and the insurgents in Somalia. Part of the accord is that Ethiopia must withdraw its troops within 120 days.

If this peace report is true, it will end the most recent bloody fighting that has consumed Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, and left it a ruined ghost town.

Somalis hate the invading and occupying Ethiopian army that illegally came into Somalia at the behest of Ethiopia's patron, George Bush and the United States. Bush so hated the government of the Islamic Courts that, notwithstanding the peace which the Islamic Courts brought to Mogadishu and all of Somalia in 2006, he egged on the Ethiopians to invade Somalia. Bush also stationed U.S. war ships off Somalia's coast so that the U.S. could fire hundred-pound shells into small Somalian villages, with the goal of killing Islamic insurgents, but which actually killed and maimed far more innocent civilians, including women and children.

So a peace breakthrough is most welcome. Somalians will look forward to the withdrawal of Ethiopian marauders. However, part of the deal should be the forced withdrawal of U.S. war ships. The U.S. and its president George Bush must also promise to cease interfering in Somalia or disturbing its chosen government.

FOOD RIOTS IN MOGADISHU - HOW BUSH HAS CAUSED DESTRUCTION OF SOMALIAN SOCIETY

To see how much chaos George Bush and his foreign policy have caused throughout the world, a good example is Somalia. Just yesterday, Somalis demonstrated on the streets of Mogadishu against the high food prices. Somali government forces, allied with the invading Ethiopians shot dead at least two, maybe more.

George Bush so hates the Islamic Courts, the previous government that for once brought peace and normalcy to Mogadishu that he urged the Ethiopian army to invade Somalia, shell markets in Mogadishu, force hundreds of thousands of Somalians to abandon their homes and head for rural areas away from the Ethiopian tanks and rockets.

So George Bush is responsible for the total disintegration of Somalian society and the abject course of life in the country.

First, the Ethiopians must withdraw.

Second, Bush and Cheney need to call back their war ships sailing off the Somalian coast that have fired rockets into small Somalian villages.

Third, the Somalians are the only ones to determine who will represent them in their government. It is not up to Bush, Rice or the rest of the Bush team.

ETHIOPIA & UNITED STATES WAGE WAR AGAINST SOMALIA

The BBC reports today that more people have been killed in Somalia in fighting between the invading Ethiopians and Somali insurgents.

"At least 13 people have been killed in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in fresh clashes between Islamists and Ethiopian troops backing the interim government.

"The deaths bring to at least 33 the number of people killed in two days of heavy fighting in the city.

"Four civilians were said to be among the latest victims."

The BBC World Service also is broadcasting a report from its reporter in Mogadishu detailing the results of the violence on the civilian population. At times, it is hard to listen to the graphic cries of the wounded in hospitals devoid of basic equipment and anesthetics.

The Ethiopians need to get out of Mogadishu and all of Somalia. It should be left up to the people of Somalia what type of government to adopt. It should not be up to Ethiopia to determine.

Furthermore, since the Ethiopians are merely the proxy for Bush and Cheney in waging war against the Islamic Courts, the last stable government of Ethiopia, the United States should cease interfering. We are talking about a country that is largely rural and agrarian. Yet it is the target of the powerful U.S. war machine fronted by the Ethiopian army.

Moreover, the U.S. Navy sails off the coast of Somalia shooting missiles into small Somalian villages, in an effort to kill "Qaeda" adherents. Together with Ethiopian tanks, the U.S. is destroying the fabric of Somalian society.

SOMALIA FACES CATASTROPHE AS ETHIOPIANS CONTINUE TO FIGHT IN MOGADISHU

Mohamed Olad Hassan reports for The BBC that things are growing desperate for the civilian population in Mogadishu. The Ethiopians shelled the city's major market several days ago, killing and wounding dozens. Food supplies are scarce and some are living out in the open in rudimentary shelters made of twigs and other detritus.

"The once-bustling streets of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, are now eerily empty. The southern neighbourhoods are littered with the scars of recent fighting between the insurgents and Ethiopian-backed forces of the transitional government. Ethiopian tanks have taken up positions outside the houses of the hundreds of thousands of residents who have fled the city - estimated to be 60% of the city's population."

Somalia needs Ethiopian soldiers to go back to Ethiopia. Somalians need to be able to dictate their own government. It should not be left to the Ethiopians, who, by the way, are merely fronts for the Americans and Bush who encouraged them to invade.

The United States needs to pull its navy warships out of Somali waters. The U.S. Navy needs to stop shooting cruise missiles into Somali homes and villages. Irrational fear of Islamic Courts caused Bush and Cheney to interfere in Somalia, and today the miserable state of Somali civilians is the result.

Writes Hassan about a Somali family:

"Every morning destitute Somalis line up in their thousands to receive a handout of corn, beans and oil. "We sometimes line up for food early in the morning and go back to our children at sunset empty-handed," complains Fadumo Khalif, a 26-year-old pregnant mother, with a baby strapped to her back. "Sometimes the food runs out and sometimes the agencies do not come."

ETHIOPIAN TROOPS SHELL MOGADISHU MARKET, KILLING AT LEAST 10

How could Ethiopian troops shell a Mogadishu market? This is outright genocide. The Ethiopians knew what they were firing at - civilians, children, people shopping for their daily provisions.

The BBC reports:

"At least 10 people have died and many have been hurt as Ethiopian forces backing the Somali government shelled Mogadishu's main market, witnesses say."

Several comments. One. The Ethiopians have no right to be in Somalia. They are clearly an invading army. The Somalis don't want them. They have no business being in Mogadishu.

Second. The only reason the Ethiopians are fighting local people in Mogadishu is because of Bush and Cheney. When the Islamic Courts took over in December 2006, Bush and Cheney could not tolerate that Somalia had an Islamic government. So they persuaded the Ethiopians to invade and re-take the government for the non-Islamic families. So we have Ethiopians fighting for George Bush and Dick Cheney. The result has been disaster and carnage for many hundreds of thousands Somalis living in Mogadishu.

WHERE EVER THERE IS CONFLICT IN WORLD, BUSH & CHENEY ARE INVOLVED

The Arab Summit scheduled to begin in Damascus faces the possibility that it will be deemed ineffective because the heads of Egypt and Saudi Arabia will not be attending. Apparently there is a disagreement among Arab leaders on Syria's role in Lebanon and its politics.

But permeating the whole disagreement is the suspicion that the United States and George Bush have been doing everything possible to sabotage the meeting. For one thing, Bush hates Syria and its leader. Secondly, Bush thinks Syria is in league with Iran, a country and people he hates even more. There is no end in imagining what Bush would do to create the impression that the Arab Summit is a failure.

These suspicions, I am sure, are rampant in the Arab world. After all, the trouble we see now in the world is due to Bush, Cheney and Rice and their machinations and interferences. Consider the carnage in Mogadishu where Bush sent in the Ethiopians to defeat the Islamic Courts in Somalia. Consider the fighting now raging in Basra where Bush goaded Al Maliki to send in the Iraqi troops to eliminate the Sadr forces Bush claims are allied with Teheran. Consider the cooling off of relations between North and South Korea where the U.S. forces of darkness surely have spurred the new South Korean conservative regime into taking a hard line on North Korea's policies. And don't forget about Colombia where Uribe's recent illegal raid into Ecuador to kill FARC members shows U.S. influence and support of Bush and Cheney.

Where ever there is fighting and conflict in the world, Bush surely has his fingerprints.

BUSH'S WAR IN SOMALIA THREATENS CALAMITY TO CIVILIAN POPULATION ESPECIALLY CHILDREN

The BBC reports on impending catastrophe in Mogadishu as a result of street fighting between Ethiopian troops and Somali Islamists.

""It continues to deteriorate by the day," the UN refugee agency's Guillermo Bettocchi told the BBC.

""There are no signs of improvement on the ground, and those who are suffering the brunt of the conflict are the civilians, who are being either killed or displaced, and are in the middle of suffering that is unacceptable," he said.

""In terms of child malnutrition, access to education, lack of access to clean water and sanitation facilities, indeed the situation in Somalia is the worst in the world . . . to be a child in Somalia today is something that means lots of suffering and a grim future.""

Once again we have American interference in the inner political workings of a country that has caused this catastrophe. George Bush and Dick Cheney were so fearful of an Islamic government in Somalia that they encouraged Ethiopia to illegally send in its army into Mogadishu. Ethiopia is predominantly Christian, Somalia predominantly Moslem. Ethiopia's actions are those of a Christian invader in an Islamic country. Besides ethnic differences, the religious chasm spawns hatred on both sides for the other.

Ethiopia should get out of Somalia, and leave residents of Mogadishu themselves to decide who they want as their political leaders. And George Bush and Dick Cheney should cease interfering and meddling in the internal affairs of another sovereign state.

ETHIOPIANS AND BUSH CAUSE HUMANITARIAN CATASTROPHE IN SOMALIA

I see where over 200,000 people are stranded outside Mogadishu after escaping the fighting between the Ethiopian Army and fighters of the Islamic Courts. These refugees have no shelter, are living out in the open, have scarce food resources, and are in dire condition.

How did this catastrophe happen? Last December the Ethiopians invaded Somalia as the surrogate for the Americans. The Ethiopians are still fighting in and around Mogadishu. And it is all because of George Bush and his militaristic foreign policy. Bush & Co. is so intent on waging war against Islamic states that he incited the Ethiopians, mainly Christians, to illegally invade Somalia, engage in street-to-street fighting in Mogadishu, and make life hell for many thousands of innocent Somalians.

ETHIOPIANS ATTACK CIVILIANS IN SOMALIA, GEORGE BUSH APPROVES

The BBC reports heavy fighting in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. And who is doing this fighting? Ethiopians. These are invaders and occupiers of Somalia, much like the United States is in Iraq.

The result is heavy casualties for residents of Mogadishu. Writes the BBC:

"Some of the heaviest fighting in months has broken out between Ethiopian forces and local insurgents in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu. Residents said that at least 10 people had been killed amid shell and machine-gun fire as the Ethiopian forces launched an offensive. Somalia has seen a surge in violence since Ethiopian-backed government troops ousted Islamists last December."

Ethiopians need to get out of Somalia. They need to stop firing upon civilians. They need to hold their fire and spare lives of Somalians.

And George Bush needs to stop inciting the Christian Ethiopians from attacking and killing Somalians. Since the Somalians are mainly muslim and the Ethiopians christian, Bush thinks it is morally justified to encourage the Ethiopians, notwithstanding the destruction and loss of innocent life the Ethiopians are causing.