We inhabit a world in which those who have been victimized wind up being treated worse than the people who did the abuse. Most probably, when all is said and done concerning those who are at a detention center, the words of “terrorism” will be uttered to justify mistreatment. About 400 women are currently detained at Yarl’s Wood in Bedfordshire in England, and in desperation at least 50 have gone on a four day hunger strike in order to attract attention to their plight. Several women who got out through a window were then locked out in the cold as punishment for asserting their rights.

It is estimated about 70% of the women at this facility are the victims of rape or abuse. Does anyone care if these women have been oppressed? Does anyone care that a woman who has been raped is in need of tender care? According to the Home Office, all are being treated with respect for their dignity. That’s why 50 are on a hunger strike and several already have dropped from exhaustion.

Ambassadors to other nations ordinarily keep their mouth shut when it comes to commenting about internal affairs, but US Ambassador James Jeffrey apparently believes the people of Turkey need to know what he thinks about their country. Jeffrey told an interviewer back in 1983 when he first came to the country he believed a military rule was best to keep stability and law and order. However, since the coming to power of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) there is less need for the military to assert power. “Turkey has now become a more stable country. There is no widespread violence in the country.” He refused to speculate on the current investigation into whether or not members of the military were or are planning any overthrow of the civilian government.

Jeffrey, on occasion, has a loose mouth such as comments he made urging Turkey to send troops to Afghanistan. Perhaps, if in 2003, George Bush had actually consulted Turkish leaders and sought their advice on the proposed ridiculous invasion of Iraq, world events would be different today. It is time for Americans to ASK other nations rather than demanding from other nations.

At this point, there is a war of words between leaders of Syria and Israel which hopefully will not escalate into a war of fire and destruction. On one hand, the Israel Cabinet contains irrational demagogues such as Avigdor Lieberman who delight in bombast and hate while, on the other hand, President Bashar Assad insists there can be no retreat from his nation’s securing return of the Golan Heights. Syrian Minister of Information, Moshen Bilal told a seminar group his nation would stand up to any Israel threat to Lebanon, and insisted there must be return of the Golan Heights.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyau, who all too often, refuses to recognize the import of his words and actions on the West Bank as they impact Palestinians, tried to calm the situation. He noted “Israel aspires to reach peace with all its neighbors” and pointed out peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan. He openly stated, “we are open to new talks with Syrians as well.” Netanyahu still does not grasp the importance of an “action” on his part that can serve as a catalyst for negotiations. One such action would be a freeze on settlements in Jerusalem and on the West Bank. At this point, words simply are not enough to overcome distrust on the part of Palestinians and Syrians.

We undoubtedly live in strange times when a simple error of signature can unleash a torrent of anger and confusion. Last year a Danish policewoman inadvertently sent her digital signature out into cyberspace where pirates who roam the outer world of the Internet picked it up and decided to have some fun and games. Since that time two emails have been sent warning about dangerous virus laden emails entitled, POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK and urge anyone reading the email not to open it. The emails contain the policewoman’s signature. Naturally, there are always people on cyberspace who when told NO regard the warning as a challenge and open the email to encounter a virus.

The poor constable’s phone has been deluged with angry remarks from the openers. The Danish police now refer any phone call to an automated response. Ah, the joys of life in the 21st century!

It is always amusing when Muslim nations become infuriated at the use of words by Western countries on matters of concern to them. Pick up newspapers at newstands in any Muslim nation and there are bound to be several publications which refer to Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocide” or words to that effect. The United States Congress is considering a resolution which calls on President Obama to ensure US policy makers refer to the murder of Armenians during the World War I era as an example of genocide. It calls upon him using the expression in speeches, something he has not done in the past.

The Turkish government has made clear to the Obama administration that any such resolution would cause a major and lasting deterioration of relations between the countries. Obama has been careful on his use of words in order to avoid damaging Turkish — Armenian efforts at reconciliation.

OK, Turkey, what would be your reaction if the US Congress insisted from now on Turkey could not make insulting remarks about Israel? Tit for tat?

Russia is still in the era of former KGB agent Putin despite the presence of President Medvedev. A group of former United Russia political operatives in the Saratov region of the country have admitted responsibility for organizing a smear campaign against political enemies of State Duma Deputy Vyacheslav Volodin. The editors and writers for the web site, Conspirology.com, told a news conference they were hired to organize the smear campaign and stage incidents with any officials who indicated they did not support the Duma Deputy.

There is nothing surprising about their admission since it would be naive to actually believe political campaigns in Putin, Russia are ever honest or respect the views of those in opposition. Hopefully, at some point, President Medvedev will begin acting as leader of the nation and establish the principle of law and order in Russia.

Writer and polemicist Christopher Hitchens is on the war path after famous American writer Gore Vidal, for his writings about 9/11 which trot out the old line of a vast conspiracy by the American government to plan the attack in order to give President Bush sudden popularity. According to Hitchens, Gore’s writings consist of a “small anthology of half argued and half written shock pieces(which) either insinuated or asserted that the administration(Bush) had known in advance of the attacks.” These charges have been circulating since September, 2001 in one form or another in order to prove Bush was an evil man who deliberately planned the attack in order to salvage his dwindling popularity in the nation.

After every surprise attack this argument eventually emerges. In December, 1941, similar charges were made that President Roosevelt deliberately allowed the Japanese attack to occur as a way of getting America into war. The Pearl Harbor attack has been thoroughly studied and there is a vast body of information which makes clear American intelligence never spotted the attack and it was a SURPRISE.

Oh well, conspiracy theories sell well in the marketplace of fantasy.

It is always fascinating when anyone connected to the Tea Party group makes a speech which refers to American history how invariably they commit one historical error after another. Sarah Palin told enthusiastic Tea Party ranters they represent the “future of politics in America” and longed for the day when to win a war, we have “a commander-in-chief not a professor of law standing at the lectern.” An interesting metaphor, but hardly consistent with the history of the United States which consistently has had civilians in the role of commander-in-chief during war.

Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe who had never actually participated in the Revolution led the nation during the war against Barbary pirates and the War of 1812. Polk, who had not military experience was in charge during the war with Mexico. I assume the ignorant woman from Alaska has heard of Abraham Lincoln who did listen to military advice, but after reading books on military history, consistently expressed his military ideas to generals. As our story proceeds, there is McKinley who did have some military experience in leading the nation during the Spanish American war and Wilson who had none in WWI. Of course, Franklin Roosevelt had spent his life as one of those “politicians” and was a Harvard graduate and lawyer.

We could go on and on. The history of America is having civilians in charge of the military. Ms. Palin simply does not grasp a foundation of this nation is civilians in charge of the military, not the other way around.

The fruits of the devastating recession which has impacted nations throughout the world most probably impacts migrants in devastating ways because their lack of citizenship prevents obtaining economic support from government agencies. The United Kingdom under the National Reconnection Service is offering these migrants a special one way airline ticket back to the nation of their origin. A high percent of these migrants are from eastern Europe and came to Great Britain to pick food on farms and do the jobs native born people thought beneath their abilities.

The migrant lacks access to unemployment benefits, to medical care, to assistance for a place to live and their children sometimes can not get into schools. The world has responded with care and concern to Haitian refugees, perhaps, the same spirit can be shown in east European refugees who are broke and alone in a strange land that wanted and then, did not want their labor.

The Bush administration was notorious for its callous disregard of counseling, job, and medical needs of veterans, but apparently a change in leadership has not resulted in significant changes in the manner in which those who served get screwed when they leave the service. A report by the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans,(IAVA) reports a systematic process of delay and obstruction of veterans seeking assistance from the Veterans Administration. Drew Brown asked five times over sixteen months for counseling and was finally told the only times were 8:30 a.m. or 4:00 p.m. Aimee Sheerrod, suffered from PTSD and finally accepted a 10% disability. Several years later when she was suffering during pregnancy the VA told her to quit college and just relax.

Army veteran Matthew Hamilton has been waiting 200 days to have his college bills handled because of a dispute on how to pay for graduate credits. The list goes on and on of delay and procrastination for those who risked their lives while the other 99% of Americans remained home to make money and enjoy the good life. Paul Rieckhoff of IAVA says, “Right now, thousands of veterans are unemployed, more than 100,000 are homeless and hundreds of thousands are desperately waiting months–sometime years– for their well-earned benefits.”

Has anyone heard TEA PARTY loud mouths ranting about veterans?