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"Quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi"

Reader comment on item: Qaddafi's Ignominious End
in response to reader comment: Don't Forget

Submitted by Ianus (Poland), Nov 30, 2011 at 14:13

BB King wrote :

> Hi Ianus,How are you? Long time no see.<

Thanks for asking.On the whole I am fine but I wish I had more time to answer adequately opinions I see here.

> Still bashing my country I see.<

Let me clarify one little point. Some of the finest people I have ever met are Americans. Some of the best books I have read were written by Americans. One thing I have learned from them is to distinguish between the US government and Americans.

Hence I will never buy the suggestion that it is fair to can identify America's government with American patriotism or with working for the interests of the nation. I maybe wrong but you seem to do precisely that. Now I prefer to think that your country deserves a much better form of government that today's greedy and egoistic oligarchy that amasses the country's wealth in fewer and fewer hands, ruins the middle class and shamelessly sells American interests and prestige abroad in dubious dealings with every possible despot and gangster, be he a Saudi or a Turk.

> I have just two things to say. First Serbs committed genocide against the Bosnians and the Kosovians. That is why Clinton intervened, because he wanted to save innocent civilians. Are you saying that what the Serbs did was right?<

What I have to say is that first the government of a country that has repeatedly refused to recognize the Armenian genocide mustn't utter the word "genocide" at all as in its mouth it's an insult for the rest of mankind. Second, if still this government were so eager to prevent genocides from happening, why didn't it intervene in Rwanda or South Sudan ? Why is it so selective about which genocides to recognize and which to deny and which to avert ? As to Kosovo why didn't it intervene when the real genocide started with the NATO occupation and mass killings and expulsion of Serbs and destruction of churches and monasteries under the NATO eyes ?

> Second don't forget who liberated your country by helping defeat the Nazis. It was not solely the USSR but the U.S. <

The total German casualties on the Eastern front, up to Dec 31, 1944 were 2,742,909. During the same period of time Germany suffered 339,957 casualties on the western front, i.e. c. 15 %. ( R. Overmans , The German military losses in WWII) . Now how much of these losses can you logically ascribe exclusively to the US army , subtracting those inflicted by the British Empire , De Gaul's French etc ? 10% ? 5% ? Are you really serious about making me believe that 15-10% comes close to 85%?

I wouldn't like to be rude towards you but what you say is very arrogant and unfair, not to call it stealing someone else's victory and distorting clear historical record. As someone on YouTube put it correctly : " The fact is that combined Commonwealth & US forces only ever faced 20% of the Wehrmachts forces, and that was a tough fight they nearly lost. Over 80% of German forces were committed to the Eastern Front at any one time, tied up fighting the Red Army. Think yourselves lucky that you did not have to face the remaining 80% as you would have been wiped out period. These are the facts. The USA was not even in the equation when compared to the Red Army."

> So, why are you being an apologist for the USSR when Stalin invaded Poland along with Hitler and killed innocent Poles?,

The Polish-Russian ( including the Polish-Soviet) relations have a long, twisted c. 1000 year-old history. We happened to invade Russian territories very often, loot Kiev and even captured Moscow imposing a puppet tsarist government there. The Russians did exactly the same later. And yet we Poles have remained Poles, our frontiers are Stalin's frontiers. If we were to follow your logic, we should change the frontiers as well as long as we are sincere in the will to de-Stalinize everything in our country, shouldn't we? The land reform that Stalin carried out has been successfully reversed by the regime imposed here in 1989 and the results -believe me- are disastrous. But we should continue to please our American "liberators" , shouldn't we ?

> Have you forgotten the Katyn Massacre? <

The Russians have recognized the crime and did their best to disclose it. Isn't it enough for you? Those who did it are no longer alive, so whom will you blame and for how long still ? A century? A millenium? And frankly, compared to the deadly ordeals the tsarist officer corps had been through with its almost total extermination after 1917 , the Polish military losses in Katyn look like a minor tragedy.

What is so painful and embarrassing about it is, though, that it all was publicized by the Nazis with a very specific objective in mind and looking at how it is being used now it appears to me that the objective is the same as in April 1943, even though the forces behind it are no longer operating from Berlin.

> If I am not mistaken Lech Wałęsa organized his movement "Solidarity" against the Soviets not the U.S.<

It is hard to say for whom Walesa organized his movement and who gave money for it. One prime minister and his cabinet fell here when they tried to publish the secret documents of the Security Office on him. Walesa's codename was "Bolek" and he was registered as a Security Office's agent recruited years before in connection with a minor theft he had committed. The whole scandal was duly hushed up as it would have revealed also the identities of some 1000 or more Polish priests and bishops who were regulars informers of the Security Office. Then that the CIA were active around him is obvious as well and I think that being a corrupt man through and through chose the side that paid more. Isn't it how his today's vast fortune originated ?

Now I would rather discourage you from mentioning Walesa in positive terms in discussions with Poles. Here he is generally despised and ridiculed as a corrupt and lying pig. His career started as a trade unions activist. The regime he headed disbanded and annihilated the trade unions in Poland. Now you get fired for even mentioning trade unions in a company. I myself had to sign a declaration that I wouldn't join any trade unions before I was employed. My brother wasn't so lucky. He was fired a few years ago because as a veteran of Walesa's "Solidarity" movement he believed he could do what he had done in the 80-ies. Poor and stupid guy !

Walesa started his career in the Gdansk shipyeard. Under his presidency the shipyard was ruined and closed down ! The cleptocratic system (the rule of thieves) initiated under him continues and not a single week passes by without some embezzlement scandals involving millions of zlotys while in the news you hear about more and more evicted families, more unemployed and more poverty and social and cultural degradation and injustice. This is our new brave world 22 years after the big lie called "Solidarity" came to power !

> If Muslims should be grateful to the U.S., for saving them, so should the Poles.<

Do with your Moslems whatever you like , but leave to us Poles the opportunity to choose whom we should be grateful to and whom we should consider liberators and oppressors. Our long historical experience teaches us that all our "liberators" turn out to the wrong ones and the latest candidate - America - alas only confirms this sad experience.

Let me give you one example to illustrate why I and most people here feel so.

On October 24th 2008 in Sopot the following incident took place. On that night some drunken US soldiers from the USS "Hawes" that was stayed in the nearby port of Gdynia, were loitering about the town, accosting passers-by, swearing and acting aggressively. Near the Grand Hotel they approached the taxi area and demanded to be driven to their ship. But nobody wanted to drive them, so they grew angry and started beating a Polish taxi driver they somehow disliked most. Seeing what was happening his colleagues called the police. But on their arrival the police panicked. Arresting American soldiers could bring about an international scandal and throw a false light on the "friendly" Polish-American relations. So they called back for instructions to the Ministry of the Interior and they came quickly. They say after consulting first the US ambassador in Warsaw. The police kindly drove the bandits to their ship for free and they disappeared soon together with their fregate. The taxi driver was taken to the hospital with brain concussion and other injuries while the Polish justice system together with our media hushed up the whole affair carefully not to to anger our 'liberator".The tax driver was officially informed that the investigation had ended for good because his "injuries were not serious enough and the incident was socially negligible".(!!!)

Now imagine what would have happened if the soldiers involved in the unprovoked drunken brawl had not been black US marines but some Russians ? Hell would have been out and it would have provoked a national and international hysteria and crisis. Do you know the Latin saying "Quod licet Iovi non licet bovi" ? I interpret it that being anybody's vassal is always humiliating and no safeguard in the least against getting raped, beaten and abused with impunity by your master or his servants. Or as one Polish commentator put it "We have swapped one occupier for another. So what do you expect ?"

Submitting....

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Reader comments (66) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
2Tragic event [30 words]LoraOct 27, 2011 08:43190446
3democracy in the arab world [57 words]swapnilOct 26, 2011 10:31190412
3the people's tyrant [176 words]RNOct 24, 2011 04:25190329
12Where are Libya's 144 tons of gold ? [186 words]IanusOct 23, 2011 16:40190316
Similarities between Qadhafi and Jugurtha [57 words]Debanjan BanerjeeOct 24, 2011 14:17190316
1To find something similar to Gaddafi in the western world, Debanjan has to go back 2000 years [99 words]JoshOct 25, 2011 02:09190316
8The Test of the Century [109 words]Michael Hanni MorcosOct 23, 2011 14:42190313
3Qaddafi's Ignominious End [187 words]Balarabe AbbaOct 22, 2011 09:11190276
Qaddafi's Ignominious End [63 words]Balarabe AbbaOct 21, 2011 14:01190250
3Qaddafi's Ignominious end [135 words]Nenette GrunbergOct 21, 2011 10:50190245
3Nothing to rejoice [115 words]car313Oct 21, 2011 05:01190238
8What about directing worldwide jihad against China ? [192 words]IanusOct 21, 2011 18:21190238
2China's "Muslim Problem" doesn't need US manipulation [542 words]Kepha HorOct 21, 2011 23:17190238
While I'm at it... [52 words]Kepha HorOct 21, 2011 23:19190238
1Democracy and Islam [110 words]JoshOct 22, 2011 00:39190238
1You have a point there [122 words]car313Oct 22, 2011 05:31190238
4Why another enemy? The old one is still there. [596 words]IanusOct 23, 2011 15:01190238
4Spectators,not actors [326 words]IanusOct 23, 2011 16:18190238
3How to profit from meddling with China's "Islamic problem" ? [716 words]IanusOct 23, 2011 18:46190238
1The next bogey is... [12 words]KeithOct 23, 2011 23:55190238
Communism was not a bogey [443 words]PrashantOct 24, 2011 00:05190238
Nice Litany, but... [71 words]Kepha HorOct 25, 2011 17:55190238
4Whose litany do you mean? [531 words]IanusOct 26, 2011 07:00190238
Re my Comments [439 words]Kepha HorOct 26, 2011 21:06190238
Re my Comments [136 words]Kepha HorOct 26, 2011 21:11190238
11Chechens were Christians. [644 words]IanusOct 29, 2011 12:38190238
3Ever heard a Moslem blame Islam for anything ? [889 words]IanusOct 29, 2011 19:26190238
3Islam -the biggest killer of Christianity [1120 words]IanusOct 30, 2011 08:27190238
1Have I ever heard a Muslim blame Islam for anything? [199 words]Kepha HorNov 3, 2011 21:43190238
1A quibble [83 words]Kepha HorNov 3, 2011 21:48190238
2What America will you fight for ? [855 words]IanusNov 6, 2011 19:32190238
1What Will You Fight For, Indeed, America? [580 words]M. ToveyNov 7, 2011 18:04190238
Ok, Ok, [485 words]Kepha HorNov 7, 2011 21:48190238
Maybe... [36 words]Garry LockwoodNov 17, 2011 18:30190238
3Maybe... [452 words]IanusNov 20, 2011 15:20190238
Don't Forget [134 words]BB KingNov 23, 2011 22:47190238
5"Quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi" [1639 words]IanusNov 30, 2011 14:13190238
3Qaddafi [66 words]Nelson D'SilvaOct 21, 2011 04:08190236
Seconding Nelson D' Silva's voice [197 words]JoshOct 22, 2011 15:37190236
4Canadian -Nato Factor [130 words]Michael Hanni MorcosOct 20, 2011 23:03190223
2QADAFFI'S END [45 words]samOct 20, 2011 22:27190222
1No Pluralism in Libya [86 words]jdOct 20, 2011 22:09190220
2Or ... [39 words]IanusOct 21, 2011 19:39190220
6I hope I'm wrong, but... [79 words]Peter HerzOct 20, 2011 20:25190212
3Peter Herz's hope is true [120 words]PrashantOct 20, 2011 22:18190212
7We all need to be pessimistic about Libya [63 words]JoshOct 21, 2011 00:43190212
6Theory of games and Qaddafi [774 words]IanusOct 21, 2011 17:54190212
2Are you aware that Lebanon is a democracy in the MiddleEast, not just Israel? [71 words]BB KingOct 21, 2011 22:46190212
4Mixing up form and content [285 words]IanusOct 23, 2011 14:09190212
2Disagree [83 words]BB KingOct 23, 2011 20:20190212
4What content does 'confessionalism form of government' convey in real life ? Theocratic pluralism ? [622 words]IanusOct 25, 2011 02:50190212
2Wrong Precedent to Establish Democracy [124 words]BB KingOct 25, 2011 20:47190212
4Not so wrong as you think [661 words]IanusOct 26, 2011 19:03190212
4Answer [66 words]BB KingOct 26, 2011 23:25190212
4Unsatisfactory answer [411 words]IanusOct 28, 2011 07:48190212
2Set in your mindset [175 words]BB KingOct 28, 2011 22:13190212
3... or perhaps in yours ? [1177 words]IanusOct 30, 2011 19:01190212
5A few observations [288 words]BB KingNov 1, 2011 00:46190212
2Paper democracy and the justice system of the United Arab Emirates "seven places avove the USA" [992 words]IanusNov 3, 2011 18:33190212
1Thanks, Prashant [33 words]Peter HerzNov 3, 2011 21:50190212
1Thanks for the moral support... [35 words]Peter HerzNov 3, 2011 21:54190212
2Freedom of Religion in Lebanon [240 words]BB KingNov 6, 2011 17:43190212
2Experience and governmental lies [543 words]IanusNov 6, 2011 20:15190212
2You're welcome [167 words]IanusNov 6, 2011 20:44190212
Last Dictator ? [44 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
nashoushOct 20, 2011 16:45190202
2Not to mention the pro-US dictators [38 words]Debanjan BanerjeeOct 24, 2011 14:19190202

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