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Well, if you want to get into raw numbers, the United States is responsible for at least a few million deaths worldwide since the end of WWII. If you count our proxy wars and the wars we helped arrange, such as the Iran-Iraq War, the Soviet-Afghan conflict, various central American death squads, etc, then it is upwards of 20-30 million dead in the last sixty years or so.

(Here's a weak source, but discussing our empire isn't exactly acceptable conversation in regular media outlets. The basic facts are undeniable, even if you'd like to discount our role in arranging, funding, and supplying arms for war that are in our own interest.)

We're not above watching people die of starvation either:

As many as 576,000 Iraqi children may have died since the end of the Persian Gulf war because of economic sanctions imposed by the Security Council. ...
The sanctions were imposed by the Security Council after Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990. Led by the United States, the Council has rejected many Iraqi appeals to lift the restrictions, which have crippled the economy, until Iraq accounts for all its weapons of mass destruction and United Nations inspectors can certify that they have been destroyed in accordance with several Council resolutions.

I think we all remember how many WMDs were found after we spilled the blood of our own and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, along with emptying our treasury of five trillion dollars.

In any case, what is undeniable is that the United States of today and the Stalinist era of the USSR both share one common feature: the respective governments of both nations are hiding their decisions to have people killed and imprisoned from a transparent judicial process. Our government has now openly declared that the political elite are above the law.

But instead of talking about those hard realities, you have backpedaled to the position that we are not as bad as Stalin.

Well, that's a load off my mind! I hope Obama spends the 4th helping military doctors force feed hunger striking prisoners at Guantanamo while they celebrate spending the rest of their lives without the right to a trial. I even have an idea of what we can write on the cake:

"NOT AS BAD AS STALIN!"
"USA! USA! USA!"

Given the poor quality of falsehoods and propaganda from the BBC and like-minded western media, it is good news. E.g. http://www.countercurrents.org/vltchek170313.htm It is a good thing that the BBC account got hacked. It would be better if the BBC shuts down completely.

and what's your position on those Muslims who decide to convert to Christianity or become atheists then?

Also, you do realise that those Muslim countries that had women leaders are reverting to male theocracies? That proper democracy will become dead there...

http://www.countercurrents.org/hoodhoy160309.htm

http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_61719.shtml

As for their shelter....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3689104.stm

BBC mainstream enough for you?

http://www.countercurrents.org/pappe280108.htm

P.S:

Here's a selection of Bible quotes advocating the killing of non-Christians, or those who are perceived to violate Christian tenets.

And some articles about contemporary Christians advocating the deaths of non-believers and sinners, sometimes taking efforts to cause those deaths.

Oh please. The BBC is hardly impartial. It's been accused (with evidence) of being pro-Palestinian and well as anti-Israel. It's not neutral. Is the BBC as a concept wonderful? Yeah. Is it objective? No.

Africa, on the other hand, has provided us with endemic disease, lecherous political problems, and pretty much nothing of positive consequence (other than solutions forged elsewhere for their problems).

And all this despite the huge amounts payed back as a compensation for slavery and exploitation.

Sheesh.

CC.

http://www.countercurrents.org/arora190808.htm

Sure it's not homosexual -- in the same way that Bill Clinton did not have sexual relations with that woman.

But they haven't been so stupid as to say Hindi bankers and Jews planned it.

They do say these things. Amaresh Misra, a major ideologue for the Communist Party, even published this ludicrously anti-Indian/antisemitic conspiracy theory in Communist party mouthpiece:

http://www.countercurrents.org/misra031208.htm

The website quoted here, countercurrents.org, is a far-left extremely anti-India hate site full of racist conspiracy theories and assorted bullshit

Some examples:

1.Recent Mumbai attacks were a "Hindu-Jewish false flag operation" (Pakistani media propaganda)
http://www.countercurrents.org/misra031208.htm

2. The holocaust never happened and 9/11 was "an Israeli onspiracy" - by American neo-Nazi Wendy Campbell

http://www.countercurrents.org/campbell060108.htm
http://www.countercurrents.org/campbell240108.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_Campbell

I would not take such websites seriously if I were you. It's disgusting that this vile trash even made it through to a page here. Slashdot's standards are slipping.

If this were any other country or ethnic group other than India or Indians, this would have been caught out.

The website quoted here, countercurrents.org, is a far-left extremely anti-India hate site full of racist conspiracy theories and assorted bullshit

Some examples:

1.Recent Mumbai attacks were a "Hindu-Jewish false flag operation" (Pakistani media propaganda)
http://www.countercurrents.org/misra031208.htm

2. The holocaust never happened and 9/11 was "an Israeli onspiracy" - by American neo-Nazi Wendy Campbell

http://www.countercurrents.org/campbell060108.htm
http://www.countercurrents.org/campbell240108.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_Campbell

I would not take such websites seriously if I were you. It's disgusting that this vile trash even made it through to a page here. Slashdot's standards are slipping.

If this were any other country or ethnic group other than India or Indians, this would have been caught out.

The website quoted here, countercurrents.org, is a far-left extremely anti-India hate site full of racist conspiracy theories and assorted bullshit

Some examples:

1.Recent Mumbai attacks were a "Hindu-Jewish false flag operation" (Pakistani media propaganda)
http://www.countercurrents.org/misra031208.htm

2. The holocaust never happened and 9/11 was "an Israeli onspiracy" - by American neo-Nazi Wendy Campbell

http://www.countercurrents.org/campbell060108.htm
http://www.countercurrents.org/campbell240108.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_Campbell

I would not take such websites seriously if I were you. It's disgusting that this vile trash even made it through to a page here. Slashdot's standards are slipping.

If this were any other country or ethnic group other than India or Indians, this would have been caught out.

GWB has already threatened Congress with martial law over the market crash. He may well be the last president as we know the office. It's treason.

http://www.countercurrents.org/lendman280507.htm

"In spite of their lawlessness, the Chavez government treated all five broadcasters gently opting not to prosecute them, but merely refusing to renew one of RCTV's operating licenses (its VHF one) when it expired May 27 (its cable and satellite operations are unaffected) - a mere slap on the wrist for a media enterprise's active role in trying to overthrow the democratically elected Venezuelan president and his government. The article explained if an individual or organization of any kind incited public hostility, violence and anti-government rebellion under Section 2384 of the US code, Title 18, they would be subject to fine and/or imprisonment for up to 20 years for the crime of sedition."

As the seas continue to swell, they will swallow whole island nations, from the Maldives to the Marshall Islands, inundate vast areas of countries from Bangladesh to Egypt, and submerge parts of scores of coastal cities.

It's the domino theory of island obliteration! As environmentalists always warned, once Lohachara falls, that's it for Egypt.

The disappearance of Lohachara, once home to 10,000 people, is unprecedented.

Got that right, Geoffrey. I can't remember Lohachara ever disappearing previously.

Until now the Carteret Islands off Papua New Guinea were expected to be the first populated ones to disappear, in about eight years' time, but Lohachara has beaten them to the dubious distinction.

By quite a margin, as it happens. Lean doesn't say so, but Lohachara apparently vanished two decades ago. So much for Lean's scoop; the event took place back when Lean had hair, and several years before he emerged from a coma. Some locals aren't buying that global warming line, by the way:

Atanu Raha, director of Sundarban Biosphere Reserve, said the islands were getting eroded by oceanic currents, not by rising sea levels.

"Erosion and accretion are natural phenomena. Across the world islands submerge and new ones emerge. This is natural," Raha said.

Not according to Lean, who evidently believes all weather change is due to Meddling Humans. And that's all change, whether towards cold or heat. In 2004, Lean reported that "Britain is likely to be plunged into an ice age within our lifetime by global warming". Two years later, he asked: "So where has all the snow gone?" There's no pleasing Geoffrey.

UPDATE. This nonsense was republished in the NZ Herald.

UPDATE II. Lean has previously been convicted of sins of omission and other crimes against journalism.

UPDATE III. Jackalope Pursuivant: "I've seen worse cases of journalistic malpractice, but not much worse."

The BBC has been unwelcome in China for years, the points in your post spell out why. OTOH: I not that confident the free press were welcome at events such as the seige of Fallujah.

No, it's not a "communist state". It's a state in India (with the same constitution and political system as the rest) whose democratically elected coalition government is led by a party called the "Communist Party of India (Marxist)". Look it up (say here) if you like.
The ban on Coca-Cola and Pepsi came after an NGO reported dangerously high levels of pesticide in them, although it is possible that there were other reasons.

When I asked for an explanation of this, it had to do with a corporate silent-treatment of sorts; because Paltel/Jawwal (the Palestinian telco) was suing Cellcom for licensing infringement and illegal operation, the Cellcom network decided to boycott the Palestinian phone carriers. This caused all sorts of problems for Palestinian society, and the effect was that everyone in Palestinian areas were ditching the local telco and getting Israeli Cellcom cell phones. Jawwal was facing dire times, after their offices were raided by Israeli military and tech imports were prevented because of blanket security concerns.

For folks on the ground, this was just one more manifestation of the intifada/occupation, even the corporations were going at it.

More background available here, here and here.

"Al Jazeera continues to grow unimpeeded by the west."

That is a provably false statement. Al-Jazeera has been continuously and massively harassed by both the U.S. military and the puppet interim Iraqi government during and since the Iraq invasion. Their offices were bombed, journalists killed by U.S. forces, their office in Iraq was closed for a time in 2004, and might still be, I'm not sure. Paul Wolfowitz in particular accused them of inciting violence and sought to shut them down.

Sometimes Al-Jazerra's reporting is a little over the top but to their credit they are one of very few new organizations with a big reach that tries to tell the whole story about what happened and is happening in Iraq and rest of the Middle East. The U.S. and its puppet government has throughout refused to count or report the number of civilian deaths their forces have caused, and they have actively suppressed pretty much all the video coverage of the carnage in Iraq during and after the invasion.

To their credit both Saddam's government and the U.S. were attacking their coverage as biased in the other sides favor during the war so they must have been doing something right.

I'm inclined to say Al-Jazeera certainly has some bias in it but its NOTHING compared to the bias in U.S. coverage of the Middle East or any of the government supported media outlets in Iraq.

Brazil, Peru (Special Bill 1609, )...

"Many other Latin American governments are of course keenly aware of the cost benefits of free software. In some countries, such as in Peru and Argentina, they have tried passing special procurement laws to more rapidly increase the adoption of free software in government. In Venezuela, the use of free software in public administration is now supported directly by President Hugo Chavez."

From here

... do you want something on Iraq as well? What the US has done in Afghanistan is a joke.