ol3Dies:Not.In.My.Name:Doublec

And, this being the last one (at least for a while), I thought I could finish with a bang.

I won't tell you when I realized this image. Because, sadly, it's not an "oldie" at all... some things keep on happening.

I titled it "Not in my name" because my government (Italy) is an active NATO member, and supported or participated in many aggressions against other sovereign countries. I want to say it out loud: NOT. IN. MY. NAME.

The following are the reasons why I post this image. If you'll read it 'til the end... well, thank you. This comment is obnoxiously long.

Here we go:

From the end of WWII to present day:

1950-1953: Korean War
1958: Lebanon
1961: Invasion of the Bay of Pigs
1965: Military intervention in Santo Domingo
1957-1975: Vietnam War
1979: Hostage Rescue Operation in Iran
1983: Invasion of Grenada
1983-1984: Military intervention in Lebanon
1989: Invasion of Panama
1991-1993: First Gulf War against Iraq
1993-1994: Occupation of Somalia
1999: Massive bombing on Belgrade (77 days without pause) during the Kosovo War
2001: Invasion of Afghanistan
2002: Military intervention in Philippines
2003: Deployment of "peacekeeping" [sic] troops in Lyberia
2003-?: Invasion and occupation of Iraq

Then, it should be better to not forget that only one year ago, in august 2006, Lebanon was again attacked and bombed. The deployment of cluster bombs and the consequences of this devastation are still taking a heavy toll on the lebanese population, as explained in the following article:

Source [link]

<< Israel dropped at least 15 thousand cluster bombs, each carrying anywhere from 80 to 600 small bomblets, [of softball size] on hundreds of villages in southern Lebanon during its recent war against Hizballah. These cluster bombs have a dud rate [not exploding on contact] of about 30% to 40%. The bomblets that failed to explode are now a deadly trap for civilians.

UN officials estimate that southern Lebanon is littered with more than a million cluster-bomb bomblets dropped by Israel in the waning days of the war. The deadly bombs are stuck in the branches of olive trees and the broad leaves of banana trees. They are on rooftops, mixed in with rubble, littered across fields, farms, driveways, roads and outside schools.

At least eighteen people were recently, killed and 109 others wounded from these unexploded bomblets. The removal of cluster bombs will take over a year to complete. In addition to this new danger it is estimated that there are still some 2,500 minefields containing 800,000 landmines.

According to UNIFIL officials, at the current rate of clearance, it will take approximately 37 years to clear Lebanese land of mines. The cleanup cost of this hazard has been estimated at a billion US dollars.

Israél has refused to hand over maps of landmines planted in southern Lebanon during and after the occupation as a ploy to prevent the movement of Hizballah – essentially, creating a buffer zone inside Lebanon. It’s a particularly, cruel form of strategy for those who aren’t guerillas and who also happen to be its major victims.

The vast majority of the mines were laid by Israéli forces in the last two decades. The Israéli Defense Force (IDF), breached U.N. peace-keeping lines to plant booby-traps close to the Litani River, an area consisting in part of arable land and farmland.

Around every artillery position or military outpost previously, occupied by the IDF, or their SLA collaborators, lie acres of dormant ordinance waiting to explode at the slightest misstep. This problem is not confined to the south. In the Bekaa Valley, the Lebanese Army (LA), estimates approximately eleven tons of mines and unexploded ordinance (UXO), are scattered in a forty four square mile area inhabited by 40,000 people. That area, much of which is farmland, is highly contaminated with cluster bombs and UXO.

The social impact of this threat is devastating. Farmland can not be used safely, and convincing villagers of the danger and keeping them off farmland is a tremendous challenge. In a country as small as Lebanon, the civilian dependence on farmland for subsistence is critical. The vast amount of UXO in effect creates no-go zones, which depolutates vast areas.>>
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