Havel Hits One Out Of The Park

Europe bears special responsibility for Nazism, communism

Europe bears special responsibility for Nazism and communism and their consequences as both totalitarian systems were first established in it, former Czech president Václav Havel told an international conference, The Conscience of Europe and Communism today.

Havel said Europe had special responsibility also for man's freedom worldwide.

The EU should more radically support those who fight for freedom in countries like Cuba, Belarus and Burma irrespective of any political and economic interests.

Havel warned against pacifism as a step towards appeasement policy.

Good luck! Old Europe is unclear on the concept. New Europe must lead the way.

The communist and Nazi regimes had many things in common, including similar ways of manipulation with the public, establishment of special non-military guards, extensive secret police structures, supervision of people, biased judiciary, executions and censorship, Havel said.

Not to mention that both were representative of Leftist ideology.

Under communism, everybody was somehow the system's victim and also one of its creators.

Ivonka Survilla, head of the Belarusian exiled government, said Russian communist propaganda had devastating effects on her country where many people continue to believe it.

Belarus has become a victim of the Soviet imperial politics, Survilla said.

Russian journalist Alexandr Podrabinek warned against the restoration of communist practices in Russia.

The two-day conference, opening in the Senate today, proposed that August 23 be declared the international day of totalitarian systems' victims.

Via ČeskéNoviny

Saying No To Pacifism

Radar is first chance for Czechs to accommodate USA - Havel

Prague- The planned U.S. radar base on Czech soil is the first chance for the Czech Republic to accommodate its ally - the United States, former Czech President Václav Havel said in the Questions of Václav Moravec programme on public Czech Television (CT) today.

He added that without the U.S. aid the independent Czechoslovakia would not be established in 1918 and the Iron Curtain would never fall.

"The Americans want something from us for the first time. Previously we always wanted something from them. They want such a little thing. And we have started shilly-shallying," Havel said.

The United States plans to build the radar base at the Brdy military district, some 90km southwest of Prague, along with a base with ten defence missiles in Poland, as elements of the missile defence shield that is to protect a big part of Europe and the United States against missiles that "rogue" countries like Iran might launch.

Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev told CT that the whole U.S. missile defence system was aimed against Russia and China and would make the Czech Republic a target of the Russian military plans.

"The U.S. radar is a serious matter and the Czech government is going to accept it without the citizens' mandate. Do you think the whole is being prepared against Iran? This is complete nonsense. Iran poses no threat. It is possible to deal with it by other means if necessary at all," Gorbachev added.

Sounds like Gorby's drinking out of the same bottle as Vladimir Paranoid.

"He [Gorbachev] has been all the time using the word 'aimed' as if it were an offensive weapon. Those are defence systems," Havel said in reaction to Gorbachev's words.

Havel also expressed disappointment that not a single voice was raised against the presence of the Soviet troops in the former Czechoslovakia in the past.

Havel said it makes him a bit angry that hundreds of thousands of people kept silent for dozens of years about thousands of Soviet tanks and soldiers on Czechoslovak territory.

"At the moment when we have got freedom, among others thanks to the Americans, and we are allowed to speak freely without risking punishment, we are hesitating all of a sudden. And we thereby demonstrate our alleged sovereignty," Havel told CT.

He added he considers it dubious, and he thinks that the radar opponents are doing something as dangerous as the pacifistic approach before the Munich Agreement in 1938, signed by Germany, Britain, France and Italy, that permitted the German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland.

Pacifism in the end leads to a higher number of victims than a firm stance, Havel concluded.

The sound you hear is moonbat heads exploding.

More than two thirds of Czechs are opposed to the planned U.S. radar base on Czech soil, according to polls.

The Czech government has negotiated with the United States since early last year on the project, and the talks are to be closed soon.

It will be interesting to see if the Left declares Havel a heretic.

And if Putie understands that Havel has told him, "Nasrat!"

Via ČeskéNoviny.cz

When You Reach The Bottom Of A Hole . . . .

Havel enrages Poland by proposing early elections
Former Czech president Vaclav Havel has angered Polish politicians as he said he was not carefully watching the latest developments in Poland, but early elections with international observers should be held there as soon as possible, the Polish daily Rzeczpospolita reported Tuesday.

WARNING: GENIUS AT WORK.

The idea has upset Polish politicians from all parties, the daily writes.

Havel defended the idea of the elections monitoring in today's statement for daily Gazeta Wyborcza, but he apologised to those who might interpret his words as an offence.

"I have the impression that free elections should be held as fast as possible," Havel said when launching the Polish edition of his latest book Strucne, prosim (Briefly please) in Cracow.

Nothing like having a writer with an impression.

"I believe it would be in the interest of all Poles and Polish democracy, if international observers were invited," Havel said, adding that early elections and the presence of observers were nothing shameful.

"If someone in Poland has comprehended my marginal remark as an attack on Polish democracy, an expression of doubts about Polish democracy or even an offence of the Poles, then I am naturally very sorry for it and I apologise very much," Havel said in his statement for Gazeta Wyborcza that Havel's offices provided for CTK.

Just what in Hell kind of reaction did you think they'd have?

"But I think that there really do not exist two types of democracies, the ones that are imperfect and that need observers, and the others that are perfect and that do not need them and that even consider the idea of being monitored offensive," Havel told Gazeta Wyborcza.

He said sending observers to elections is one of the good international habits and that every mutual check, if solid, without a bad motive and without a beforehand prepared conclusion "is in our common interest."

It would truly speak to the common interest if you'd STFU, fool.

Havel's spokesman Jakub Hladik told CTK he saw no reason to comment on the reactions by Polish politicians and Polish press to Havel's statement.

Of course not. Why should the man who was more interested in reaching an accomodation with the Communist regime, rather than Czech freedom, apologize for something so minor as pissing off the Czech's closest friend and ally?

Former Polish president and critic of the current government Lech Walesa said it was a good thing that a neighbour, a prominent politician, took interest in Polish events.

"However, I think we can manage our affairs without the advice. There is no threat here of what goes on in the Third World or in dictatorships," Walesa said.

Zbigniew Romaszewski, a Senator for the ruling Polish party Law and Justice, said Havel's statement was out of place.

"I regret it as I know Havel a bit. I have always held him in high esteem," Romaszewski said.

The daily said many Polish politicians were of the view that Havel had been misinformed on the current situation in Poland.

In diplomatic-speak, they view Havel as being merely piss-ignorant. Sad state of affairs for a man so involved with Charter 77.

A part of the Polish radical opposition wants to make the most of its past contacts, including Havel's poor knowledge, it said.

"Hatred for the government of the Kaczynski brothers has so much blinded its foes that instead of toppling them rapidly, they are willing to accept any help," Rzeczpospolita writes.

Czech Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra told the paper he saw no jeopardy to democracy in Poland.

Vondra said he saw no necessity to invite international observers to the Polish elections.

A similar position was voiced by other Czech politicians and experts.

"I think Havel has exaggerated this," Czech analyst Rudolf Kucera said.

What is going on in Poland, does not have the character of any dramatic political crisis, Kucera said.

Early elections started to be talked about in Poland after the summer collapse of the governing coalition. The decision may be made on Friday when a vote on the dissolution of parliament is to be taken.

Heh. And Havel just may have unified the Polish government.

But one question comes to mind: Will Havel have same or similar words about the 2008 Soviet Russian presidential election?

An Interview With Natan Sharansky

During the Democracy and Security Conference, Radio Prague interviewed former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, now a citizen of Israel.

The conference was partly organised by the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies at the Shalem Center, an Israeli think-tank based in Jerusalem. Among the speakers was the Institute's founding chairman Natan Sharansky, a former Soviet dissident, ardent Zionist and onetime Israeli deputy prime minister. Mr Sharansky's book "The Case for Democracy" is said to have had a major influence on Mr Bush and his foreign policy ideas. He told Radio Prague why the conference was important.

[....]

President Bush has spoken about plans to build a U.S. radar base in the Czech Republic as part of the U.S. missile defence shield. It's aimed at what the U.S. describes as "rogue states" such as Iran. Is Iran really a threat to Europe and the United States?

"As someone who was involved for ten years in the efforts of the Israeli government, to stop the leakage of Russian and western technology to Iran, I can say that as early as 1997 it has been clear that the number one threat to the free world is the development of nuclear weapons and missile systems in Iran. Our intelligence services were warning the free world in 1997 that we have ten years to stop it. It took three or four years for the CIA to agree with our estimations. It took even longer for intelligence services of the rest of the free world to agree. Today everybody knows, everybody who is in this field, knows how dangerous this threat is, and that is one more reason why it is important - urgently - to support the democratic opposition in Iran. Here at this conference we have some leaders of the student democratic movement in Iran and some others who were in prison, who fought for freedom and who know very well that the people of Iran want to live in freedom. Their main appeal to the free world is - understand that your real allies are the democratic opposition in Iran."

Right, but even if Iran does develop the capability to attack Europe or the United States, where's the motive? Why would Iran risk an attack which would mean the country's certain destruction?

"Well, the problem is not only in non-conventional weapons. The problem is in a non-conventional regime. The leaders of Iran today, it's not like communists in the Soviet Union, who wanted paradise in this world. They want paradise in the next world, and they're ready to take everyone with them to the next world - to their paradise."

audio

The Fat Drunk from Taxachusetts was unavailable for comment.