I cannot help but to have a few reactions to the news around me. After all, I do deal with propaganda on my site a lot, so I feel a responsibility to speak up.

I consider propaganda, brainwashing, fooling the people very dangerous. Posters that are on my site might seem funny or even cute to people that have never seen them in their native setting. But they frighten those that had to live with them and that saw further than the propaganda wanted them to. Those who suspected that there were many people killed in the name of the bright future of Russian or Chinese Communism, who were arrested or harrased, who seen people bent their spine and became informants, betrayed their neighbors, who saw how many people were mass-brainwashed. Am I a communist?

Prior to any war, propaganda increases drastically, it becomes a very essential part of any war.
This US-led "War On Terrorism" is no exception. I feel my responsibility to point at it.
I am offering some thoughts and articles of mine and lots of links to broaden the somewhat narrow perspective of the mainstream media.

April 10th, 2003:
Robert Fisk - About lying of the media
http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=394704

John Pilger - We see too much in this war - that is our best defence
http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=394406

March 26th, 2003:
Michael C. Dorf: Is the War on Iraq Lawful?
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dorf/20030319.html

The US government is complaining that Iraqis show pictures of american POWs on TV - which is in the breach of the Geneva Conventions. But isn't the bombing of Iraqi TV, a civilian target, also a breach of Geneva Conventions? That is the big problem with this war:
how do we want to instal more democratic, lawful and friendly government in Iraq if we suppress civil liberties at home, start the war in contempt of the Security Council of the UN, break the laws during the war and threaten Iraqis with "Shock and Awe"?

March 16th, 2003:
War with Iraq, Costs, Consequences, and Alternatives, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
http://www.amacad.org
(My recommendation: take the cost that will be spent on destruction, killing and renovation, and divide it within the population of the USA. How much is it. Thousand of dollars per capita? Would not it be better spent in our urban ghettos, or to build houses for the homeless and other people in need? We could build a whole city complete with parks and flowers for that much money. Or think of giving this money to the Iraqi people! Now that would translate to so much money per capita that it would surely cause the regime to collapse!

Cost of the previous wars:
http://www.cwc.lsu.edu/cwc/other/stats/warcost.htm

My opinion: to offer profit to the african countries if they would vote for a resolution in the UN is called a corruption.

March 13th, 2003:
USA want to have a global domination - and Iraq is the last piece in the puzzle.
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2003/10/ma_273_01.html 

March 10th, 2003:
U.S. buildup of highly potent bombs and missiles armed with depleted uranium in its preparation for a war with Iraq:  http://go.hotwired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,57959,00.html/wn_ascii

March 10, 2003:
My reaction to the collection of pro-war, anti-French jokes that I got in mail

Feb 22, 2003:
Will the Czech republic attack the USA? My article.

Jan 30th, 2003:
Gunter Grass, Nobel Prize laureate, on Iraq:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,884294,00.html

Robert Fisk: http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=373102

Jan 26th, 2003
there was an anti-war protest in Prague. Here is the petition the participants sent to George Bush.

TV reporter John Pilger is comparing Bush and Hitler, and describes his terrible experience from a village that was bombed: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12581179&method=full&siteid=50143

Jan. 22th, 2003:
Several articles and sites weighing the pros and cons of the war on Iraq

Nov. 13th, 2002:
Russia, too, loves to "Fight the Terrorists"!
http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=348030

Oct 9, 2002:
What the US President wants us to forget.
{From the content: Who gave Iraq germ seeds of Anthrax?
Can the consequencies of the new war make Bush a multi-billionaire?} -
http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=340836

09/29/02:
Iraq invasion could 'worsen terrorist threat'
http://www.newscientist.com/exc/enews.jsp?id=ns99992809

09/04/02:
FBI and espionage:
http://www.americanheritage.com/AMHER/2002/04/fbi.shtml

09/04/02:
Ebola virus could be synthesised:
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992555 

06/18/02:
Documentary of US 'war crimes' shocks Europe:
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=3&art_id=qw1023894901416B265&set_id=1 

03/15/02:
Pentagon will use propaganda, make fake news:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,653033,00.html

February 2002:
The bombing of Afghanistan goes on and people are still being killed.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,648759,00.html

January, 2002:
Are American Media Objective?
http://www.poynter.org/forum/war-coverage-centerpiece.htm

Americans think that they have the right to rule the world...
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,248-2002030983,00.html

Nov., 2001:
What have we done?
http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=107292

All links: the date means the day the link was added to this page; comments and some headings are mine...

Oct. 10th, 2001:
George Bush Jr. said something like: there is no middle ground. You are either with us or against us!
Well, this is exactly what Lenin and Stalin used to say! That is what the communist brainwashers used to repeat to their people over and over! "You are neutral? Too bad!"

George Bush was also angry when TV-stations aired a speech by Osama bin Ladin. You let speak The Terrorist!
Isn't it the first right of people - to hear both sides of a conflict? Does somebody really try to brainwash us here??
Oh, he can transmit secret messages to his people during his speech via his arm movements? Really funny argument in the Internet Era. He can just send his man to the nearest pakistani internet-cafe, let him make a page stuffed with porno-related keywords (so the page gets lots of hits from the general public), put the secret messages there (just use porno words for the military terms), upload the page to any free server or to freenet - and here we go.

Our governments tell us that we are not in imminent danger. How do they know that? How can they know that. Nothing, really nothing can protect us from terrorist attacks! Have some imagination! It only requires one determined terrorist and no too special skills or resources to get nasty viruses/bacterias [e.g., plague is still common in marmots, that are abundant namely in Afghanistan], bring them to the USA [perhaps on a boat - who will notice a "rat" in the bilge?], multiply them in a simple lab made out of a kitchen, infect hundreds of mice and release them in a few cities ... I am not a bacteriologist so I am just guessing, but I can just imagine that terrorists will always find some way to harm if they want to. No police surveillance can ever stop them all. War On Terrorism is another war after War On Drugs that can never be won, not with repressions - it will only bring very unpleasant side-effects onto all of us.

There was an experiment done by the Great Britain during the World War II. (almost sixty years ago!) - they exploded a single grenade filled with Anthrax bacterial spores on an island in the North Sea. Then they brought a herd of sheep - all the sheep died. Next year, they brought another herd - and again, all of them died. Even today, sixty years later, the Anthrax kills all sheep and other animals brought to that island.
It is very likely that Taliban has Anthrax spores from the former Soviet Union. The spores can be stored at normal temperature and humidity for tens of years. Would it be a problem to bring those spores, concealed in a bag of tea for instance, to the USA on a sailboat?
Can anybody imagine what would happen if such a grenade was set off in some big city? It would not be habitable for at least fifty years. Human-to-human transmission of the disease is not know so far, so the terrorists won't have to fear that the Anthrax will eventually reach their own land.
One single person can do this whole task - which means that no government, no CIA, no extra police surveillance can prevent this.

Can there be a solution? This is a tough one. I do have a humble idea though - how about to do what the terrorists totally are not expecting, what would take all the justification and purpose from them? I mean trying to lessen the enemy - aura certain indoctrinated muslims see us in. Do you know how much money costs one missile that was fired on Afghanistan? How much cost all of them? How much we spend on all the soldiers, spies, special agents, ammunition, planes, submarines, fuel? What would happen if we would say: "we are sorry that you hate us so much", and gave the poor people all the money that we spend on war instead? Could they still hate us as much?
It is so tempting to retaliate, strike back, get rid of the "bad people - enemies". But is that smart? Is that - effective?? See lyrics to Universal Soldier by Donovan.

September, 2001:
The recent bombing of The World Trade Center in New York is certainly one of the most serious events in the history of mankind! The most serious consequences might come later on...

This kind of terrorism is extremely damnable.

We should be very careful though not to open ourselves to revenge. Revenge is very low feeling, its moral value is problematic. Besides, revenge will lead inevitably to even more blood, violence, suffering - on both sides of the divide. It can even trigger the World War III (I never knew why wars are written with capital letters...).

We should not allow terrorism. We should trace down the attacker and do all we can to prevent future attacks. But we should not do it for revenge. Don't we want to be the rational and ethical ones?

Another reflection is: Can such an attack be prevented? Yes, but maybe in some different way than we might think.Whenever people want to do something really badly, they will find a way to do it. No security is unbreakable, no people perfect. We might give more money and power to the spy agencies and the police, we might let them into our bedrooms, bathrooms, emails and brains. We might let them to issue identity cards, smart chips, archive our DNA, facial, voice and retina scans, we might help to build an orwellian Police State. But whenever terrorists will want to do something really badly, they will find a way to do it!

One should not negotiate with terrorists - but one should try to eliminate the reasons why people resorts to terrorism. Such a reason often is: Despair. No hope. Seeing, that somebody else is trying to rule them and they have no power to oppose it. Or, fanatism. No terroristic campaign was ever successful in the long term. Those people have to be either fanatical or desperate.
None of these categories of people can be intimidated - they simply don't care. They don't have fears. Revenge only adds oil to their fire. They cannot even be killed, unless you want to kill whole nations - killed terrorists will be quickly replaced by fresh ones, just like drug dealers are. They want us to be revengeful! If we kill Osama bin Ladin, we well create an unprecedented martyr to all Muslims. If we strike, their propaganda will have so much easier role to convict every citizen of their country that we are of course the bad ones.

Our only effective weapon is to soften the divide. Why do Afghans hate us Americans more than any other nation? We can try to understand others by looking at things thru their eyes. Don't assume we are unmistakable, perfect, always just. Don't be proud. Listen to them. Don't feel revengeful. We are so powerful that we have responsibility for this whole planet...

The Attack on America related books, videos and posters [warning: software-generated]:

Propaganda... is a terrible thing. It attempts to brainwash people, mold them into pliable, uniform mass. In many cases, it succeeds. Here is a very suggestive example: (Russian) Propaganda Posters:

Other posters: 100.000 posters     Vintage lithographs       Chagall       Bob Marley       Polish posters       Barewalls       Allwall       Allposters

Hippies' Catholic Peace Pilgrimage in Poland

More reading: Game Over: The End of Video Game Wars      Z-Magazine      Nostradamus prophecy
Who is Ousmane bin Laden? By Michel Chossudovsky, Professor of Economics, U. of Ottawa. Posted September 12th, 2001