Using Lessons Learned Elsewhere

February 25, 2006

B’Tselem’s investigation indicates that the roads subject to the regime may be classified into three categories based on the severity of the restrictions on Palestinian travel on these roads: completely prohibited, partially prohibited, and restricted use roads.

Completely prohibited roads – The first category consists of roads for the exclusive use of Israeli citizens. ..

Partially prohibited roads – The second category includes roads on which Palestinians are allowed to travel only if they have special permits issued by the Civil Administration ..

Restricted use roads – The third category includes roads on which Palestinian vehicles are allowed to travel without a special permit, but access to the roads is restricted by concrete blocks and other obstacles. ..

The forbidden roads regime has forced West Bank Palestinians to use long and winding routes rather than roads that lead directly from one town or district to another. Travel on these alternate roads disrupts all aspects of daily life in the West Bank, in such areas as the economy, health, and education, and gravely affects social and family life. In addition, Palestinians suffer the insult and humiliation that are part and parcel of the measures used by Israeli security forces to enforce the discriminatory roads regime.
Forbidden Roads: The Discriminatory West Bank Road Regime

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The Defense Department is considering a new, low-tech approach to countering roadside bombs that are the scourge of U.S. forces in Iraq — construct new roads for supply convoys that simply bypass densely populated, high-threat areas.

The Army is seeking $167 million in military construction funds as part of the Pentagon’s soon-to-be detailed $65.3 billion supplemental spending request for fiscal year 2006 to pave roads capable of supporting two-way traffic, complete with shoulders, drainage structures and interchanges to connect with existing supply routes, according to a draft version of the request.

Rather than trying to defeat improvised explosive devices (IEDs) head-on with new technologies and tactics, the Defense Department is looking to reduce risk to convoys by charting routes around danger zones.
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DoD Plans New Roads to Avoid Iraqi IEDs

Posted by b on February 25, 2006 at 10:26 UTC | Permalink

Comments

So we are helping rebuild Iraq’s infrastructure, not for the benefit of the Iraqis, but for the safety of the occupying forces. Some day I will stop trying to see the logic of these actions and accept them on faith.

Posted by: ralphieboy | Feb 25 2006 11:01 utc | 1

Stopping Bush and Blair in Iraq, stopping those warmongers from proceeding to Iran and Syria, is necessary. If history shapes the future, we need to liberate our perspective of the past; rather than arresting revisionists, we need many more of them. We must let go; we must re-arrange the 20th century.
Talking about accepting things on faith, I think some of you might be interested to read this article.
Re-Arranging the 20th Century:
Allegro, non Troppo
by Gilad Atzmon

Gilad Atzmon (born June 20, 1963) is an Israeli jazz musician, author and leftwing anti-zionist activist.
Atzmon plays soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxophones. He also plays clarinet, sol, zurna and flute. His musical training was at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem.
Atzmon has also caused controversy with the political statements on his website, criticised by some as anti-Semitic. He has written, in his article entitled On Anti-Semitism: “… we must begin to take the accusation that the Jewish people are trying to control the world very seriously. … American Jews (in fact Zionist) do try to control the world, by proxy.”
His performance at the Socialist Workers Party (UK) summerschool ‘Marxism 2005′ in July 2005 led to criticism from other left groups, such as the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty, which picketed the meeting. The SWP, however, defended their invitation of Atzmon and published a statement from him stating he was neither a Holocaust denier nor racist.
In addition to being a jazz musician and a philosopher Gilad Atzmon is also a novelist. His Guide to the Perplexed was published in 2001 and his My One and Only Love in 2005. Both novels explore Jewish and Zionist psychology.

Posted by: DM | Feb 25 2006 11:05 utc | 2

Great find DM, THANKS…
I was on a simular train of thought recently when reading the following, only I haven’t had time time to post it till now.
The Orthodox Jewish response to the criticism of the Iranian President

Orthodox Jews the world over, are saddened by the hysteria which has greeted the recent stated desire of the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to see a world free of Zionism. This desire is nothing more than a yearning for a better, more peaceful world. It is a hope that with the elimination of Zionism, Jews and Muslims will live in harmony as they have throughout the ages, in Palestine and throughout the world.
It is a dangerous distortion, to see the President’s words, as indicative of anti-Jewish sentiments. The President was simply re-stating the beliefs and statements of Ayatollah Khomeini, who always emphasized and practiced the respect and protection of Jews and Judaism. The political ideology of Zionism alone was rejected. President Ahmadinejad stressed this distinction by referring only to Zionism, not Judaism or the Jewish people, regardless of whether they reside in Palestine or else were.