REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Mandela - Rest in Peace

POSTED BY: SHINYGOODGUY
UPDATED: Sunday, December 15, 2013 13:16
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Friday, December 6, 2013 4:03 AM

SHINYGOODGUY


What this man went through in his life, I could only dream of being such a man.......................

Rest in Peace Nelson Mandela


SGG

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Friday, December 6, 2013 9:05 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


Oh damn. Well, we knew it was coming. Amazing person. My heart goes out to his family.


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Friday, December 6, 2013 10:56 AM

BYTEMITE


While I can respect what he did to end apartheid, the guy was responsible for the death and torture of about a hundred civilians and set a precedence for violent groups in South Africa and neighboring nations. Lotsa warlords and gangs in that region, very rape happy.

I don't really believe in heroes, just people, who can do both right and wrong.

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Friday, December 6, 2013 11:23 AM

NEWOLDBROWNCOAT




free at last. R I P...

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Friday, December 6, 2013 6:10 PM

MAGONSDAUGHTER


I think without Mandela, there would have been a violent and terrible civil war in South Africa. The world needs role models like him.

Vale

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Friday, December 6, 2013 6:40 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!


Quote:

Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
I think without Mandela, there would have been a violent and terrible civil war in South Africa. The world needs role models like him.

Vale



Of course, had he not been part of the terrorism which lead him into jail into the first place...

Meh. He came out preaching peace and unity. So that's cool, I guess.

Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen

I'm just a red pill guy in a room full of blue pill addicts.

" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall

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Friday, December 6, 2013 9:48 PM

SHINYGOODGUY


Such kind words....................you didn't hurt yourself I hope.


SGG

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Friday, December 6, 2013 9:58 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!


Quote:

Originally posted by SHINYGOODGUY:
Such kind words....................you didn't hurt yourself I hope.


SGG



Moi ? No problem, what so ever.

I appreciate him not going Mugabe like on S. Africa.

Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen

I'm just a red pill guy in a room full of blue pill addicts.

" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall

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Saturday, December 7, 2013 6:13 AM

MAGONSDAUGHTER


Quote:

Originally posted by AURaptor:


Of course, had he not been part of the terrorism which lead him into jail into the first place...

Meh. He came out preaching peace and unity. So that's cool, I guess.




He's a true example of how the definition of 'terrorism' depends on where you stand - and who eventually comes out on top. The French Resistance used terrorist tactics, as have the Irish, Zionists pre Israel, in fact if you look at any situation where people have tried to overcome tyranny, then terrorism has probably been used.

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Saturday, December 7, 2013 10:10 PM

KPO

Sometimes you own the libs. Sometimes, the libs own you.


Quote:

Of course, had he not been part of the terrorism which lead him into jail into the first place...

What's the evidence for this, out of interest? Interested in what you consider to be 'terrorist'.

It's not personal. It's just war.

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Sunday, December 8, 2013 9:31 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


Quote:

He's a true example of how the definition of 'terrorism' depends on where you stand - and who eventually comes out on top.


Magons is correct, and our country has tossed that label about--or that of "freedom fighter"--numerous times.

I'll repeat here what I wrote in http://www.fireflyfans.net/medit.aspx?mid=956062:
Quote:

From Reagan's address to the nation regarding the Contras: "more than 20,000 freedom fighters struggling to bring democracy to their country and eliminate this Communist menace at its source." http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/31686a.htm
Reagan called the Contras "Freedom Fighters" and supported them financially, remember? He said of them, "These gentlemen are the moral equivalent of the founding fathers." http://www.businessinsider.com/reagan-freedom-fighters-taliban-foreign
-policy-2013-2#ixzz2mtGWY6wH
That quote is frequently accompanied by the photo (below) of Reagan with the Taliban leaders, but he actually said it about the Contras.

But let's not forget the Taliban "Freedom Fighters", with whom he met:


...of whom he said, "We have with us six of the Afghanistan freedom fighters..." at that meeting, and to whom he dedicated the Space Shuttle Columbia: http://socioecohistory.wordpress.com/2011/11/28/flashback-1980s-presid
ent-reagan-praises-taliban-afghan-freedom-fighters-dedicates-space-shuttle-colombia-to-them-now-us-govt-calls-them-terrorists
/

You can Google "Reagan Freedom Fighters Taliban" or "Reagan Freedom Fighters Nicaraguan Contras" and get all the quotes and information you want. The simple fact is we (our government) toss around "freedom fighter" or "terrorist", depending on our beliefs at the moment. Any intelligent, HONEST person, being able to look back at history, should be willing to at the very least acknowledge that we got it wrong from time to time, and Mandela and apartheid is a case where we got it very wrong.

Although we understand, given Rap's inability to ever think for himself, that he probably still considers the Taliban and Contras as heroes--after all, Reagan said they were.



And obviously, since back in Cheney's heyday Mandela was labeled "terrorist", not "freedom fighter", he will remain so forever for Rap and his ilk--after all, Reagan said they were.

But the FACT is:
Quote:

Times change, and, as the saying goes, one person’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter. What’s taken for granted in one era — the flatness of the earth, the inferiority of certain groups in society, the identities of the good guys and the bad guys — may seem bizarre or repellant in another. And it should be said that Mandela came to support armed struggle against the apartheid regime before his imprisonment, although he never backed terrorism or assassinations.

But another lesson from Mandela’s evolution in the official lexicon may be the ease with which ordinary words take on political overtones.

Even before Reagan’s presidency, terrorism “had become so politicized that it had lost any objective meaning” in the national discourse, said Stephen Zunes, a University of San Francisco professor of politics and international studies and a left-leaning critic of U.S. foreign policy.

He observed that the rightist Contra rebels in Nicaragua, whose targets frequently included schools and health clinics, were described by an admiring Reagan as “the moral equivalent of our founding fathers.”

Mandela the terrorist and Mandela the hero were the same person. It was the world around him that changed. http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2013/12/06/what-does-mandelas-one
time-terrorist-label-tell-us/




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Sunday, December 8, 2013 10:12 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!


Quote:

Originally posted by kpo:
Quote:

Of course, had he not been part of the terrorism which lead him into jail into the first place...


What's the evidence for this, out of interest? Interested in what you consider to be 'terrorist'.





Seriously ? You think Mandela was just snatched off the side of the sidewalk and tossed into jail, for merely talking out against apartheid ?

The late SA president PW Botha told Mandela in 1985 that he could be a free man as long as he did just one thing: ‘publicly renounce violence’. Mandela refused.”


The man went to jail for supporting violence. His call for peace, later on, is what distinguishes him.

Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen

I'm just a red pill guy in a room full of blue pill addicts.

" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall

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Sunday, December 8, 2013 12:00 PM

KPO

Sometimes you own the libs. Sometimes, the libs own you.


Taking up arms against a government, no matter how oppressive, is terrorism?

It's not personal. It's just war.

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Sunday, December 8, 2013 12:33 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!


Targeting and attacking innocent civilians isn't exactly " taking up arms against an oppressive govt ", now is it ?



Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen

I'm just a red pill guy in a room full of blue pill addicts.

" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall

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Sunday, December 8, 2013 12:53 PM

KPO

Sometimes you own the libs. Sometimes, the libs own you.


Good, so 'violence' doesn't equate to terrorism. So back to my first question: what's the evidence for Mandela being a terrorist?

It's not personal. It's just war.

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Sunday, December 8, 2013 12:57 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!


Quote:

Originally posted by kpo:
Good, so 'violence' doesn't equate to terrorism. So back to my first question: what's the evidence for Mandela being a terrorist?

It's not personal. It's just war.



He supported violence. That's what got him into jail in the first place.

Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen

I'm just a red pill guy in a room full of blue pill addicts.

" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall

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Sunday, December 8, 2013 1:06 PM

KPO

Sometimes you own the libs. Sometimes, the libs own you.


Quote:

Originally posted by AURaptor:
Quote:

Originally posted by kpo:
Good, so 'violence' doesn't equate to terrorism. So back to my first question: what's the evidence for Mandela being a terrorist?



He supported violence.


LOL!

Quote:

That's what got him into jail in the first place.

All I'm asking for is examples.

It's not personal. It's just war.

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Sunday, December 8, 2013 1:23 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!


Posted this once already, but you seem to need more.

Quote:

On 31 January 1985 State President P W Botha offers Nelson Mandela, leader of the banned African National Congress (ANC), conditional release from the prison sentence he had been serving since the conclusion of the Rivonia Trial in 1964. The condition of his release is that he renounces violence, and violent protest, as a means to bring about change in South Africa.

Mandela communicates his refusal of the offer through his daughter, Zinzi Mandela, who reads his statement to this effect at a rally in Soweto on 10 February 1985. He states that the ANC's only adopted violence as a means of protest " when other forms of resistance were no longer open to us ". Mandela had refused previous offers of conditional release where the condition was that he be confined to the Transkei.

The offer was also extended to prisoners serving long jail terms for sabotage. 18 accepted, including Dennis Goldberg, the only White found guilty at the Rivonia Trial, and 4 Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) members. Goldberg left South Africa for Israel on 28 February 1985 and the PAC members were released on 15 February.

Mandela had called for the unbanning of the ANC in January 1985 during an interview with Lord Bethell. He asked government to negotiate with the liberatory organisation as a political party. The interview was published in the Mail on Sunday, a British publication, in the same month. In response a South African government spokesperson stated that the apartheid regime would be prepared to negotiate with the ANC if the organisation renounced violence.

http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/president-p-w-botha-offers-nel
son-mandela-conditional-release-prison





Mandela didn't just turn a blind eye to violence, he endorsed it.

Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen

I'm just a red pill guy in a room full of blue pill addicts.

" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall

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Sunday, December 8, 2013 1:40 PM

KPO

Sometimes you own the libs. Sometimes, the libs own you.


I'm not suggesting that Mandela was non-violent (he wasn't), I'm questioning whether that makes him a 'terrorist'.

For the last time, what are some examples of Mandela's 'terrorism' that 'got him put in prison in the first place'?

It's not personal. It's just war.

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Sunday, December 8, 2013 1:47 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!


Shown you twice already. You're just not wanting to accept any counter to the narrative that Mandela was the next Gandhi or MLK Jr.

He wasn't.

Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen

I'm just a red pill guy in a room full of blue pill addicts.

" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall

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Sunday, December 8, 2013 1:58 PM

BYTEMITE


Quote:

Originally posted by kpo:
Quote:

Originally posted by AURaptor:
Quote:

Originally posted by kpo:
Good, so 'violence' doesn't equate to terrorism. So back to my first question: what's the evidence for Mandela being a terrorist?



He supported violence.


LOL!

Quote:

That's what got him into jail in the first place.

All I'm asking for is examples.




Nelson Mandela was a great revolutionary and his cause was admirable. His imprisonment was a terrible ordeal, and we were wrong in not giving support to those trying to break apartheid. But you also have to realize that his history has also been cleaned up and repackaged in recent years for public consumption - like all "heroes."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umkhonto_we_Sizwe

Quote:

Umkhonto we Sizwe (abbreviated as MK, translated as "Spear of the Nation") was the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC), co-founded by Nelson Mandela


Quote:

Bombings

Landmark events in MK's military activity inside South Africa consisted of actions designed to intimidate the ruling power. In 1983, the Church Street bomb was detonated in Pretoria near the South African Air Force Headquarters, resulting in 19 deaths and 217 injuries. During the next 10 years, a series of bombings occurred in South Africa, conducted mainly by the military wing of the African National Congress.

In the 1985 Amanzimtoti bomb on the Natal South Coast, five civilians were killed and 40 were injured when MK cadre Andrew Sibusiso Zondo detonated an explosive in a rubbish bin at a shopping centre shortly before Christmas. In a submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), the ANC stated that Zondo acted on orders after a recent SADF raid in Lesotho.[9]

In the 1986 Durban beach-front bombing, a bomb was detonated in a bar, killing three civilians and injuring 69. Robert McBride received the death penalty for this bombing which became known as the "Magoo's Bar bombing". Although the subsequent Truth and Reconciliation Committee called the bombing a "gross violation of human rights",[10] McBride received amnesty and became a senior police officer.

In 1987, an explosion outside a Johannesburg court killed three people and injured 10; a court in Newcastle had been attacked in a similar way the previous year, injuring 24. In 1987, a bomb exploded at a military command centre in Johannesburg, killing one person and injuring 68 personnel.

The bombing campaign continued with attacks on a series of soft targets, including a bank in Roodepoort in 1988, in which four civilians were killed and 18 injured. Also in 1988, in a bomb detonation outside a magistrate's court killed three. At the Ellis Park rugby stadium in Johannesburg, a car bomb killed two and injured 37 civilians. A multitude[citation needed] of bombs in "Wimpy Bar" fast food outlets and supermarkets occurred during the late 1980s, killing and wounding many people. Wimpy were specifically targeted because of their perceived rigid enforcements of many Apartheid-era laws, including excluding people of colour from their restaurants. Several other bombings occurred, with smaller numbers of casualties.

Landmine campaign

From 1985 to 1987, there also was a campaign to place anti-tank mines in rural roads in what was then the Northern Transvaal. This tactic was abandoned due to the high rate of civilian casualties—especially amongst black labourers. The ANC estimated 30 landmine explosions resulting in 23 deaths, while the government submitted a figure of 57 explosions resulting in 25 deaths.[11]

Torture and executions

The TRC found that torture was "routine" and was official policy – as were executions "without due process" at ANC detention camps particularly in the period of 1979–1989.



Nelson Mandela often spoke against civilian casualties, and said that they would countenance no loss of life. But the reality did not always live up to the ideals.

Remember his achievements, but remember also his shortcomings. I object to how there is a tendency to turn people into something superhuman, an almost religious fervor to their legend. To forget they were human and could lose, could fail, could do wrong.

I just don't think a person should put any face on a struggle except their own. South Africa practically worships Mandela, yet so many of them went through similar times and troubles, without killing civilians. THEY changed their nation while Mandela was in prison and could not.

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Sunday, December 8, 2013 2:07 PM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


Rap needs to check his facts.
Quote:

In August of 1988, the State Department said the ANC "disavows a strategy that deliberately targets civilians,” but noted that civilians had “been victims of incidents claimed by or attributed to the ANC.”

The publication referred to Mandela, who had once led the ANC’s military wing, as part of the "leadership," though by then he had spent more than a quarter century in prison. It also accepted the apartheid regime's claim that "ANC's operations -- which heretofore had sought to avoid civilian casualties -- abruptly changed. Attacks became more indiscriminate, resulting in both black and white civilian victims." Five months before the report was issued, the ANC had taken responsibility for some attacks that resulted in civilian deaths but had pledged to prevent a recurrence.

The report cited 13 attacks during the 1980s, many of which targeted government facilities, including a military command headquarters, an unfinished nuclear plant, a courthouse and SASOL, the government-owned coal-to-oil conversion facility.

When the Defense Department’s report was issued, State quickly distanced itself from the harsh, Cold War rhetoric. Despite its own earlier dire characterization of the ANC, it called the group "a politically diverse organization, representing a range of views. It is the oldest black nationalist movement in South Africa." But the Defense Department stood by its language. http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/07/21794290-us-governm
ent-considered-nelson-mandela-a-terrorist-until-2008
]


Mandela saw violence as the only course open to ending the brutal regime of apartheid--Rap's quote states so clearly. Remember apartheid? Does anyone need to be reminded of the government-sponsored terrorism of that, how many suffered, how many died? Nonetheless, that was in his early years, and changed after 1963, the beginning of his 27-year imprisonment.
Quote:

Whilst in prison, Mandela continued to be a symbol for armed conflict against the white South African government. He was fighting for what he saw was a war of freedom for his people. However, the Mandela that left Robben Island was not the man that entered.

As time in prison continued, Mandela began studying the teachings of another disfranchised man — Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi's teachings of pacifism helped reshape Mandela's political views and the man that left prison was no longer a young man consumed by hate, but a man with a mission to unify people for the greater good of all. He knew that if South Africa were to survive we all needed to come together as a people, or we’d risk destroying everything. This is the Mandela that the world has come to love as a leader of peace, the Mandela that I too love for saving South Africa from itself, appeasing the fears of the white minority that despite the atrocities committed under apartheid there was room for forgiveness on both sides.

After decades of shame and embarrassment Mandela has made it OK to be proud to be South African again. However, just like the white apartheid leaders, we must never forget that Mandela too has the blood of innocents on his hands, that he is not a god, but a man, flawed and imperfect, but a man who had the strength to walk away from a path of violence and not be consumed by it like so many others. To me this is Mandela's greatest legacy. Not the one-dimensional view that he was a man immune to humanities baser instincts, but something far more powerful, something very human that we should all strive to achieve in ourselves. The power to change and the strength of forgiveness from those we have wronged and for those that have wronged us. http://www.policymic.com/articles/53277/how-nelson-mandela-walked-away
-from-violence-and-hate



Just as long as one stays locked in a belief of someone as they were sixty years ago, one can go on claiming that's all they ever were. But it's a stupid, simplistic, CONVENIENT viewpoint, and nothing more.

The day Rap wakes up (if ever) to the fact that the world is not simply black and white, that a President labeling people "freedom fighter" or "terrorist" doesn't make them that, or make them that forever, is the day he might begin to grow as a human being.

ETA: Note that Rap even quotes Mandela stating the "ANC's only adopted violence as a means of protest "when other forms of resistance were no longer open to us." Would he care to talk about the violence perpetuated by the apartheid regime of South Africa, and what THEIR rationale was for it?

What's really amusing is that the right wing is so quick to scream "revolution!!" and "time to spill some blood!" over governmental policies they don't like, which haven't done anything to them which comes even CLOSE to the horrors perpetuated by apartheid, yet views an ACTUALLY OPPRESSED people fighting for their very lives as "terrorists". Double standard, much?


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Sunday, December 8, 2013 2:31 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!



Quote:

...we were wrong in not giving support to those trying to break apartheid.


Thus the irony, as Cheney in fact fully DID support ending apartheid, just not through violent means. The US always supported ending it, there was just disagreement as to HOW.

Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen

I'm just a red pill guy in a room full of blue pill addicts.

" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall

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Sunday, December 8, 2013 3:46 PM

MAGONSDAUGHTER


The irony is, that aparteid DID end without the violent civil war predicted, precisely because Mandela both negotiated and embraced conciliation, rather than retribution.

Yes, the ANC had a military wing. How do you passively stand up to such a brutal regime? Are you suggesting that passive resistance is the only option ever? Do you think passive resistance would have overthrown Hitler?

The aparteid regime was as oppressive. Opponents were targeted, tortured and killed with impunity by security forces. Sometimes, non violence is just not going to change a brutal system, and I'm basically a pacifist and I can see that.


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Sunday, December 8, 2013 4:18 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!


Quote:

Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
The irony is, that aparteid DID end without the violent civil war predicted, precisely because Mandela both negotiated and embraced conciliation, rather than retribution.

Yes, the ANC had a military wing. How do you passively stand up to such a brutal regime? Are you suggesting that passive resistance is the only option ever? Do you think passive resistance would have overthrown Hitler?

The aparteid regime was as oppressive. Opponents were targeted, tortured and killed with impunity by security forces. Sometimes, non violence is just not going to change a brutal system, and I'm basically a pacifist and I can see that.




So, you start off by admitting violence didn't end apartheid, but then seem to suggest that, at some point, you DO need violence.

Seems we agree that when a nation starts gassing citizens by the train car load and invading neighboring countries, it's time to use violence, huh?

Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen

I'm just a red pill guy in a room full of blue pill addicts.

" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall

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Sunday, December 8, 2013 4:38 PM

KPO

Sometimes you own the libs. Sometimes, the libs own you.


Quote:

But you also have to realize that his history has also been cleaned up and repackaged in recent years for public consumption - like all "heroes."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umkhonto_we_Sizwe



Thanks Byte. I read that Wiki page earlier, before I even asked Auraptor the question (the first time). I wanted to know what he might come back with.

Quote:

In 1983, the Church Street bomb was detonated in Pretoria near the South African Air Force Headquarters, resulting in 19 deaths and 217 injuries.

This is the earliest of the attacks you provided - and it took place in 1983. Mandela was imprisoned in 1962. So all of the attacks that are listed in that Wikipedia article, in the mid to late 1980s, occurred over 20 years after Mandela had been imprisoned.

Quote:

Nelson Mandela often spoke against civilian casualties, and said that they would countenance no loss of life.

That's what I've read as well. It seems that a long time after Mandela was an active member the MK changed its ideals and grew more indiscriminately violent.

As for the 'terrorist' acts Mandela was doing before he was arrested, Wiki has this:

Quote:

Operating through a cell structure, the MK agreed to acts of sabotage to exert maximum pressure on the government with minimum casualties, bombing military installations, power plants, telephone lines and transport links at night, when civilians were not present.

Seems like standard sabotage/guerilla warfare tactics to me.

It's not personal. It's just war.

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Sunday, December 8, 2013 4:51 PM

KPO

Sometimes you own the libs. Sometimes, the libs own you.


Quote:

Originally posted by AURaptor:
Shown you twice already.



I asked for examples of Mandela's 'terrorism' and you come back with a line of him refusing to renounce 'violence'. That suggests you think violence and terrorism are the same thing, which is nonsensical.

Also, you said more than once: "That's what got him into jail in the first place." It was in response to THIS that I asked what exactly he did to get imprisoned. You keep responding with his refusal to renounce violence in 1985. As if that somehow caused him to be imprisoned in 1962...

In other words you can't answer the question.

It's not personal. It's just war.

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Sunday, December 8, 2013 4:52 PM

MAGONSDAUGHTER


Quote:

Originally posted by AURaptor:


So, you start off by admitting violence didn't end apartheid, but then seem to suggest that, at some point, you DO need violence.

Seems we agree that when a nation starts gassing citizens by the train car load and invading neighboring countries, it's time to use violence, huh?



So you think there wasn't enough reason in South Africa to take up arms? I thought that was an inherent human right enshrined by your constitution if there was tyranny? Perhaps black people do not have those rights in your view? Perhaps they need to just put up with living in a corrupt, violent, racist regime that denies them basic human rights.

It was a miracle that civil war did not erupt in South Africa, quite frankly. I believe largely because of international attention, particularly upon Mandela. I think he seized that opportunity, distanced himself (quite rightly) from some of the more excessive actions of the ANC, particularly orchestrated by his then wife Winnie, and went down the negotiation pathway. The pressure put on the Botha government by the international community was too great for them to do anything else than negotiate, but if that attention hadn't been on them, then no doubt Mandela would have never been released, or would have been exiled and killed later as was standard practise in the day. And there would have been a bloodbath.


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Sunday, December 8, 2013 6:51 PM

NEWOLDBROWNCOAT


So it seems that Mandela was convicted in 1962 of refusing to endorse non-violence in 1985? I find that a fascinating revelation. How did the court know? Who testified that he would do that? What were the names of the witnesses?
E-T-A: Aw, well, I see where KPO raised the same point. It is a valid question, though.

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Sunday, December 8, 2013 7:02 PM

KPO

Sometimes you own the libs. Sometimes, the libs own you.


LOL, you put it better.

It's not personal. It's just war.

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Sunday, December 8, 2013 10:42 PM

MAL4PREZ


Many parallels between threads tonight...

Those who are so eager to claim that Mandela is a terrorist are the same people who would be first to resort to terrorist acts if they ever felt their way of life was threatened.

Does Rappy consider the American Revolution a terrorist act? Of course not. That was "patriots" bucking an "unfair" system, he would say.

If the movie Red Dawn ever happened, would Rappy support the gang of kids who became guerrilla warriors in Colorado, fighting off the invading communists? Of course he would. Again: "Patriots" vs "Others."

But the US killing thousands of innocent civilians in the Middle East? Mandela, using the only means available to him to fight an "unfair" system? Oh, well that's different...

To the RWA brain, it is not about the principle of right vs wrong of the actual action. It is about the authority figure being the one they identify with most. If Rappy is fighting a liberal or a communist or a socialist, then anything goes and he deems himself a heroic freedom fighter. If the uprising is against a Christian western capitalist society, especially if the upstarts are not white Christian capitalists, it is terrorism.

RWAs do not see right or wrong in actions. They see it only in terms of which side they identify with. That's all that matters to them.




*---------------------------------------*
The French Revolution would have never happened if Marie Antoinette had just given every peasant an iPhone.

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Sunday, December 8, 2013 11:57 PM

BYTEMITE


Quote:

This is the earliest of the attacks you provided - and it took place in 1983. Mandela was imprisoned in 1962 . So all of the attacks that are listed in that Wikipedia article, in the mid to late 1980s, occurred over 20 years after Mandela had been imprisoned.


I wish things I made that became screwed up twenty years later weren't my responsibility.

In short - the group existed because of him, so too their actions. If he were around to be involved, would they have been as violent in those periods? It is hard to say. But as the leader they all recognized, even in prison, he had a responsibility.

And the ends never justify the means.

Quote:

Seems like standard sabotage/guerilla warfare tactics to me.


Attacking facilities via explosive sabotage during the night shift in a densely urban part of Johannesburg is technically minimizing casualties, not no casualties. There are always people around.

He was not a hero. He was a freedom fighter. I can respect one of those, but that does not mean I emulate him or idolize him, or that I only see the bright spots among the grey.

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Monday, December 9, 2013 6:49 PM

FREMDFIRMA


Quote:

Originally posted by MAL4PREZ:
RWAs do not see right or wrong in actions. They see it only in terms of which side they identify with. That's all that matters to them.


That's what happens when "side" becomes more important than Right or Wrong.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlackAndWhiteInsanity

Mind you, this is why despite my ability to see the world in all it's glorious shades of grey, that I self-identify as a villain.
I know, to a nicety, how horrible some of the tactics I use are, and make no excuses for them, nor hide behind any pretense of the ends justifying the means cause if you do that eventually the means BECOME the ends, and I will not have it.

But when the thing(s) you are fighting are by far more evil, more vile, than anything you would ever stoop to, then one becomes hero-by-default no matter what their original nature or intentions are, and so it was with Mandela, who chose a gentler course (and here's the rub) WHEN THAT WAS AVAILABLE AS AN OPTION... which is not always the case.

Consider well the horrific fate of "peaceful" protest in the USA, where it accomplishes NOTHING but being mocked, humilated and ignored by the complicit mainstream media while enabling the jackboots of "law enforcement" to indulge their sadistic violence fantasies while demeaning it, as well as crippling and hamstringing it with criminal charges which in our rigged railroad so-called "justice" system allow the reduction of both ability and authority amongst those who've lead it ?
Fact: Ghandi would be shot dead, pissed on, and laughed at, in our society.

Mandela did what he thought he had to do, and I respect him for this but I do not honor him because in the end his efforts did more to shift the leash from one hand, to another, than they ever did to bring peace.

Something I firmly believe will only come once the last RWA is dead or properly locked up in an asylum for the criminally insane, and something I am willing to stoop to *any* level to accomplish, just so you know.
I didn't chose annihilation as the end point of this, they did, and to do less, to do ANY less, is to enable them, and allow them to continue and advance their evil - this one, Robespierre had right.

EVERY SINGLE TIME you forgive them, EVERY TIME you let it slide, looking for signs of humanity in an RWA, I want you to fucking remember what it is that you are enabling by that.



-Frem

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Monday, December 9, 2013 7:36 PM

BYTEMITE


Quote:

EVERY SINGLE TIME you forgive them, EVERY TIME you let it slide, looking for signs of humanity in an RWA, I want you to fucking remember what it is that you are enabling by that.


Hmm... You may have a point there.

I try to be a cynic, but sometimes I'm still naive.

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Monday, December 9, 2013 10:56 PM

MAGONSDAUGHTER


Quote:

Something I firmly believe will only come once the last RWA is dead or properly locked up in an asylum for the criminally insane, and something I am willing to stoop to *any* level to accomplish, just so you know.
I didn't chose annihilation as the end point of this, they did, and to do less, to do ANY less, is to enable them, and allow them to continue and advance their evil - this one, Robespierre had right.

EVERY SINGLE TIME you forgive them, EVERY TIME you let it slide, looking for signs of humanity in an RWA, I want you to fucking remember what it is that you are enabling by that.



when you dehumanise the other, and call for their extermination, you cross the line into being the problem

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Tuesday, December 10, 2013 12:17 AM

BYTEMITE


Quote:


when you dehumanise the other, and call for their extermination, you cross the line into being the problem



When we went to war against the Nazis, was this justified in your opinion? War is formalized commitment to extermination.

I would like to say that harm is never justified, this was the basis of my objections to Mandela. But in truth, maybe I'm not a nice enough person to take that position. Or maybe I'm too idealistic and not realistic enough. I'm not sure.

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Tuesday, December 10, 2013 12:51 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!



Quote:

Those who are so eager to claim that Mandela is a terrorist are the same people who would be first to resort to terrorist acts if they ever felt their way of life was threatened




You're referring to the phony 99% Occubabies, right ? Of course you are. Vandalize private property, rape, do drugs, plot to blow up bridges, threaten to kill / eat the " rich ", etc...


No wonder they adore Mandela.

Quote:

Does Rappy consider the American Revolution a terrorist act? Of course not. That was "patriots" bucking an "unfair" system, he would say.

If the movie Red Dawn ever happened, would Rappy support the gang of kids who became guerrilla warriors in Colorado, fighting off the invading communists? Of course he would. Again: "Patriots" vs "Others."



So irrelevant and unconnected w/ what was taking place in S.Africa, it doesn't deserve further commentary.

Quote:

But the US killing thousands of innocent civilians in the Middle East? Mandela, using the only means available to him to fight an "unfair" system? Oh, well that's different...


The means which he CHOSE to use, you mean. Not the only means available.

See Gandhi, MLK Jr.


Also, I thought Red Dawn took place in Montana or N.Dakota,or some such place. Was the remake in Colorado ? I've not seen that version. I'm only going on memory from when I saw the original, an age or so ago.

Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen

I'm just a red pill guy in a room full of blue pill addicts.

" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall

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Tuesday, December 10, 2013 1:34 AM

BYTEMITE


Quote:

Vandalize private property... do drugs... plot to blow up bridges


Don't care, don't care, they thought household detergent was the same as chlorine gas...

The definition of civil disobedience is breaking laws, up to and including subversion and sabotage. If you and the other teapartiers really want a revolution, you're going to have to start cultivating a healthy disrespect for laws and authority and elitists of all stripes.

You might have to break some shit, honestly. Throw a little concrete around.

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Tuesday, December 10, 2013 7:38 AM

MAGONSDAUGHTER


Quote:

Originally posted by BYTEMITE:


I would like to say that harm is never justified, this was the basis of my objections to Mandela. But in truth, maybe I'm not a nice enough person to take that position. Or maybe I'm too idealistic and not realistic enough. I'm not sure.



I've been really clear on my views. Negotiate when possible, but sometimes there are situations that require the taking up of arms. Which is quite different to calling for the extermination of a particular group of people due to their views.

Not the same at all.

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Tuesday, December 10, 2013 9:31 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


Magons, I agree. So did Mandela.

Quote:

You're referring to the phony 99% Occubabies, right ? Of course you are. Vandalize private property, rape, do drugs, plot to blow up bridges, threaten to kill / eat the " rich ", etc...

No wonder they adore Mandela.



Sometimes the things Rap writes are so over-the-top disgusting, there just are no words...



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Tuesday, December 10, 2013 9:39 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!


Quote:

Originally posted by Niki2:

Sometimes the things Rap writes are so over-the-top disgusting, there just are no words...



You mean like " the truth " ?

Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen

I'm just a red pill guy in a room full of blue pill addicts.

" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall

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Tuesday, December 10, 2013 10:30 AM

BYTEMITE


Quote:

Which is quite different to calling for the extermination of a particular group of people due to their views.

Not the same at all.



I am not sure war IS a different thing than that. You are committing to kill people in a war. And some participants in that war will be shitheads who break the rules of engagement to harrass or kill civilians or political dissenters or marginalized groups for the lulz and eliminate witnesses, then hide behind the fog of war. Support for any war enables this.

I mean everyone decries the Nazis, and then conveniently forgets how America rounded up Japanese Americans. Or how Stalin was doing the same thing in his country.

I think maybe we're in transition. The old ways of revolution are still available, and can be useful in some circumstances, but the new way of fighting tyranny is actually probably through economics and the internet and technology and offering alternatives, instead of bombs and collateral damage.

It's still just as dangerous, of course, because TPTB hate subversives whether they're violent or not. And you will still need to act and dive into the thick of it - provide medics, extraction, and counter-measures to protestors getting stomped on, because the protestors don't realize that they're little more than a gnat to be swatted.

The old ways were flashy, and are still effective to a point, but new techniques are taking their place.

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Tuesday, December 10, 2013 1:01 PM

KPO

Sometimes you own the libs. Sometimes, the libs own you.


I think I've found/stumbled across the article that Auraptor read, and where he got his 'facts' from:
http://www.southafricaproject.info/remembering_the_church_street_bombi
ng.html


Quote:

The Church Street attack on May 20, 1983 killed 19 and injured more than 200 people when a car with 40kg of explosives was detonated outside the SAAF headquarters. Two MK cadres, who were in the car at the time, were also killed because the bomb exploded two minutes early. A huge pall of smoke rose hundreds of feet into the air as debris and bodies were strewn around the scene of the explosion. It exploded at the height of the city's rush-hour as hundreds of people were leaving work for the weekend. Glass and metal were catapulted into the air as shop-fronts and windows were blown out. Many passers-by had limbs amputated by the flying debris. Others bled to death.

In his book "Long Walk to Freedom", Nelson Mandela wrote that as a leading member of the ANC’s executive committee, he had “personally signed off” in approving these acts of terrorism, the pictures and details of which follow below. This is the horror which Mandela had “signed off” for while he was in prison – convicted for other acts of terrorism after the Rivonia trial. The late SA president PW Botha told Mandela in 1985 that he could be a free man as long as he did just one thing : ‘publicly renounce violence’. Mandela refused. That is why Mandela remained in prison until the appeaser Pres FW de Klerk freed him unconditionally. The bottom line ? Nelson Mandela never publicly renounced the use of violence to further the ‘cause of freedom’. On 11 July 1963 the police raided the home of Arthur Goldreich in Rivonia near Johannesburg, where it captured, by surprise, the leadership cadre of the Umkonto we Sizwe underground. Seventeen people were arrested. Five of those arrested were Jews. They were : Arthur Goldreich, Lionel Bernstein, Hilliard Festenstein, Dennis Goldberg and Bob Hepple.



To compare it to what Mandela actually says in his book, Long Walk to Freedom, it's online here (p88): http://archive.org/stream/LongWalkToFreedom/PBI3231_djvu.txt

Quote:

K's first car bomb attack took place in May of 1983, and was aimed at an air force and military intelligence office in the heart of Pretoria. This was an effort to retaliate for the unprovoked attacks the military had launched on the ANC in Maseru and elsewhere and was a clear escalation of the armed struggle. Nineteen people were killed and more than two hundred injured.

The killing of civilians was a tragic accident, and I felt a profound horror at the death toll. But as disturbed as I was by these casualties, I knew that such accidents were the inevitable consequence of the decision to embark on a military struggle. Human fallibility is always a part of war, and the price for it is always high. It was precisely because we knew that such incidents would occur that our decision to take up arms had been so grave and reluctant. But as Oliver said at the time of the bombing, the armed struggle was imposed upon us by the violence of the apartheid regime.



It's not personal. It's just war.

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Tuesday, December 10, 2013 1:24 PM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


Yes, KPO. No surprise there; some people only believe what they want (need) to believe to keep the world black and white. Facts become irrelevant quite quickly.

"The truth" my ass. All that was debunked, repeatedly, at the time. But give Rap a bit of passage of time, and he'll re-write the facts any way he pleases to suit his "narrative". Not to mention the fact that there's nothing about Occupy loving Mandela, much less anything about anyone loving the violence Mandela was connected to, or any of the rest of the EXTREMELY over-the-top bullshit he posts. Sometimes it just sickens me, this need to reach for the absolute extreme so consistently.


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Tuesday, December 10, 2013 1:45 PM

STORYMARK


Quote:

Originally posted by AURaptor:
Quote:

Originally posted by Niki2:

Sometimes the things Rap writes are so over-the-top disgusting, there just are no words...



You mean like " the truth " ?

Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen

I'm just a red pill guy in a room full of blue pill addicts.

" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall



The truth is you are despicable, I think everyone here gets that.

Can't you go have a car wreck or something?




"Goram it kid, let's frak this thing and go home! Engage!"

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Tuesday, December 10, 2013 1:49 PM

BYTEMITE


What the hell.

Fireflyfans, you are a clusterfuck.

^ also guilty

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Tuesday, December 10, 2013 1:55 PM

STORYMARK


Quote:

Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
What the hell.

Fireflyfans, you are a clusterfuck.

<-- also guilty



Is there some context to this that we should understand for this post to make sense?




"Goram it kid, let's frak this thing and go home! Engage!"

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Tuesday, December 10, 2013 2:07 PM

BYTEMITE


Quote:

Is there some context to this that we should understand for this post to make sense?


Not really, beyond that I intend to post an apology to everyone.

Your post was sufficient to shock me out of this thing I got into where I was being an asshat to everyone.

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Tuesday, December 10, 2013 2:12 PM

STORYMARK


Okie dokie, Was feeling a touch lost.




"Goram it kid, let's frak this thing and go home! Engage!"

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Tuesday, December 10, 2013 2:15 PM

KPO

Sometimes you own the libs. Sometimes, the libs own you.


I don't get that car wreck line - even as a throwaway line. Leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

It's not personal. It's just war.

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