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World war has begun, Malaysian leader says
DAVOS, SWITZERLAND -- As the Malaysian Prime Minister sees it, the Third World War has already begun between "the axis of evil and Satan."I guess that makes him Satan's little helper. In a provocative speech to delegates at the start of the annual World Economic Forum, Mahathir Mohamad painted a picture of the West, particularly the United States, facing an enemy it doesn't understand and doesn't seek to understand. "We fear terrorists. We fear flying. We fear night clubs. We fear parcels. We fear white powder. We fear shoes. We fear Muslims. We fear metal cutlery," he said. Actually, we only fear crazy Muslims, not inanimate objects, but I didn't want to interrupt the rant. "They fear starvation. They fear military invasion. They fear being rocketed. They fear being captured and detained." Again, Dr. Mahathir is being a tad inconsistent here: if you are starving, being captured and sent to Gitmo might not be such a bad thing. This new war is characterized above all by revenge, said Dr. Mahathir, Malaysia's Prime Minister for the past 22 years, who plans to retire at the end of 2003. Maybe he's auditioning for the Al Queda lecture circuit. Speaking can be a lucrative retirement gig for former heads of state. The Prime Minister said U.S. President George W. Bush was the first to say after Sept. 11 that the United States is at war. It may not be a conventional war fought on battlefields but, he added, "people are being killed and people are fighting back." Dr. Mahathir said that people do not strap explosives to themselves and then detonate them and they do not fly large planes into buildings on a whim. Not on a whim. They do it because they are crazy, consumed by hate and their culture leaves them susceptible to the most insane ideology yet to be invented. Posted by: JAB 2003-01-27 |
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