This is my site!

Hey guys, this is my site and my opinions – got it?

I am getting mad! And am starting to believe this is another Vietnam – I speak of Iraq. The beheading of Citizen of the United States of America working under contract to the government is yet another needle from an antagonist. Where will it lead? I know I am really mad right now & feel the agony! My heart goes to those loved ones who have lost beyond measure.

At one time in the past I was there, done that, and was safe under the protection of the military and USA flag. I felt safe & I was protected by the finest fighting force in the world. I can say no more but I can absolutely say, I was never abandoned by anyone in uniform.

What the Hades is happening? If this is a political event then heaven help us!

If this is a military event then realize some human beings rights are going to be violtated and this is the nature of humans and that a highly charged emotional event is going to cause a “reaction”. So where is the opposing reaction? I shudder to its coming. I would hate to be in Iraq! I would not want to be a loved one anywhere on the planet!

The other extreme is to pray extensively to the ONE god of all. Realizing that the creator is the same for all of us and originated in the exact same era in the same epoch and espoused the same philosophy of tolerance and humanity to ALL(ah). However, since the nature within us is primeval I think it is best to pray to the spirit of our ancestors and ask for their guidence.

The bottom line is for the real leaders of the world to step forth to take control and stop a insane, losing proposition. How can this be done? A simple word called “tolerance” would help. A phrase of “mind your own business” would also help. However, the real issue could, more or less, be solved by erasing the root cause. Clerics of all ilks should be tolerant, as per their directives of their focus, and really look after their children who are not dissidents or killers of humanity.
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Are you a cleric who has gone astray? What legacy will you leave to the world? As for me I am really ashamed.

The first permanent global war crimes court was inaugurated Tuesday.

==================Via CNN all credits due========================

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The first permanent global war crimes court was inaugurated Tuesday with the swearing in of its first 18 judges. But Washington — which opposes the tribunal — stayed away from the ceremony.

As U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands looked on, the judges promised to administer justice “impartially and conscientiously.”

The 11 men and seven women — elected last month by the court’s 89 member countries — then took their seats at a long table in the 13th-century “Knight’s Hall” of the Dutch parliament for the inauguration ceremony.

“By the solemn undertaking they have given here in open court, these eleven men and seven women, representing all regions of the world and many different cultures, have made themselves the embodiment of our collective consciences,” Annan said.

Human rights groups have hail the International Criminal Court (ICC) as the biggest step for world justice since the Nuremberg military tribunal tried Nazi leaders after World War II.

But Washington, fearing that American troops could face politically motivated prosecutions, strongly opposes the ICC.

U.S. President George W. Bush renounced the 1998 Rome Treaty creating the ICC, even though the administration of his predecessor, Bill Clinton, signed the agreement.

The U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands, Clifford Sobel, declined an invitation to join Annan and the hundreds of guests — including presidents, heads of government and foreign ministers — for Tuesday’s celebration.

“We won’t be attending the inaugural ceremony because we’re not a party to the ICC, and that’s basically it,” a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in The Hague told Reuters.

Instead, Washington has been busy securing 22 bilateral treaties with other countries exempting U.S. citizens from the court’s authority, including its power of arrest.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress has enacted legislation giving the president power to use “all means necessary” to free any Americans the court takes into custody. The new law is jokingly referred to as the “Invasion of The Hague Act.”

Tuesday’s ceremony wasn’t without an unofficial American presence, though.

The man who signed the treaty on behalf of the United States, former war crimes ambassador David Scheffer, was attending.

Scheffer told The Associated Press he was “very disappointed” Washington wasn’t participating and was forfeiting its chance to take a leadership role in world justice.

“It is extremely damaging to U.S. national interests,” said Scheffer, now vice president of the U.S. United Nations Association.

He dismissed fears in Washington that the court will be biased and anti-American, and said the judges — 11 men and seven women — were of the highest integrity and largely from countries allied to America.

Likewise, Benjamin Ferencz, a war crimes prosecutor for the United States at Nuremberg, was attending. Ferencz, 82, also has raised his voice against Washington’s stance.

“The current leadership in the United States seems to have forgotten the lessons we tried to teach the rest of the world,” Ferencz wrote on his Web site.

Richard Dicker, international justice expert at Human Rights Watch, said the inauguration of the first 18 judges would help to thwart U.S. efforts to undermine the court.

“The judges’ inauguration makes this court more unstoppable than ever,” Dicker told the AP.

It could be years before the court is able to hear its first case; although its skeleton staff has been filing the hundreds of allegations of war crimes already made, the tribunal is without a courtroom or prosecutor.

Member states have been unable to find a consensus candidate for prosecutor, who may be elected in April from among a handful of candidates.

The AP quoted sources speaking on condition of anonymity as saying the candidates include Reginald Blanch, chief judge at the New South Wales District Court in Australia, and Carla Del Ponte of Switzerland, now the chief prosecutor at Yugoslav war crimes tribunal.

Canadian, Gambian and Argentine candidates have also been named, the AP said.