Holy cow. Controversial is putting it lightly, this guy is an absolute manic. The moral equivalences that Galloway draws between Hezbullah, Israel and the USA are simply staggering.

I watched this first and then I came across a clip from his stint on the UK's "Celebrity Big Brother".

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1532509206579317476&sourceid=zeitgeist

Wikipedia:

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

Thousands? I heard there were only a few prisoners left. <shrug>

Interesting that his second wife is Palestinian.

Also interesting that while he calls bias on the British media in favour of Israel, I read about how some people consider the media against Israeli. Then again, this is Sky while I think I read that about the BBC. Ah, the PR war...

Quite a free-thinker/radical, though. I love how they say there was a big e-mail response before the 9 minutes are up.

Whoa - "Yes, I did support the Soviet Union, and I think the disappearance of the Soviet Union is the biggest catastrophe of my life. If there was a Soviet Union today, we would not be having this conversation about plunging into a new war in the Middle East, and the US would not be rampaging around the globe."

From wikipedia.

Awesome!! This is like Stewart on Crossfire!

"What a silly question, you are a silly person."

How is this guy a maniac? He's more reasonable than half the news you see on TV. Come on, every 'reporter' that trots out the Iran giving missles quote, should really, really think about why it never occurs to you how many missles and F-16s and tanks, and nukes, that US has given Israel, but somehow we shouldn't worry about those?!

All I know is if you watch these Apaches shooting rockets down on Lebanon, I paid for every single missle. It's like $500 per capita over the lifespan of Israel that US citizens have contributed. Heck the US only spends like $1,500 per capita (yearly) on its own military.

I agree with your last statement joedirt...America doesn't need to be giving THAT much foreign aid. However, Israel (to America) is a special country because of the amount of American citizens that are jewish. Also (and this is not steriotyping) many jewish people hold very important roles in America (for god sake find me a lawyer that isn't jewish).

Galloway is brilliant. And he was just as brilliant last year tearing those chickenhearted senators a new asshole. The US could do with a lot less Rupert Murdoch and a lot more people like angry old George.

What he said back then seems even more pertinent now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrdFFCnYtbk

The US lied. There are no WMDs in Iraq, there is no link between Iraq and the events of September 11, and the country is now heading for civil war with tens of thousands dead. It's just a pity the video above missed Galloway's most famous quote:

"As a matter of fact, I have met Saddam Hussein exactly the same number of times as Donald Rumsfeld met him. The difference is Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns."

andrew, re: Jewish pop (from 2005)

Rank____Country______Jews_______%Jewish_____%Total_Pop
1 US 5,914,682 2% 40.5%
2 Israel 5,021,506 80% 34.4%
3 Russia 717,101 0.5% 4.91%
(Muslim population for US 2005 is 6.00 million at 2.11%) (another source puts it at 3.5% / 9,732,061)

1995 ABA estimated 1,000,000 lawyers and 2005 US BLS says 529,190 employed (it is *possible* that 1/10 American jews are indeed lawyers, but doubtful)

If the support of Israel is a Jewish-only thing, then I think the charitable donations from individuals and Jewish organizations more than covers it. "Today, it is estimated that these tax-deductible donations exceed $1.5 billion per year." The US is adding on $3-5 billion more per year.

Anyways, I don't think the 'jewish' population of 2% is the reason for so much money to Israel. I'm not wholly against it, I just find it completely moronic to say, Iran is supplying these missiles that go 30 miles, versus the US opening up their nuclear arsenal. (Plus Abrahams, F-16, Apaches, UAVs, etc.)

a bit of a loony, but he does brings up alot of interesting points which the media usualy ignores completely

"How is this guy a maniac? He's more reasonable than half the news you see on TV. Come on, every 'reporter' that trots out the Iran giving missles quote, should really, really think about why it never occurs to you how many missles and F-16s and tanks, and nukes, that US has given Israel, but somehow we shouldn't worry about those?!"
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Two words: Moral Equivalence

Iran is not the moral equivalent to the United States.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_equivalence#Arab-Israeli_conflict
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110005100

George Galloway > you

Moral Equiva-what? You are talking about something that cites the following as it's factual source: ("Right to Exist: A Moral Defense of Israel's Wars", p.260)

War is war, death is death, people are people, missiles are missiles. People who blow themselves up are terrists, people who drive armored bulldozers through villages are terrirsts. People who kidnap foreign soldiers are asking for trouble. People who throw foreign citizens in jail indefinately without trials are asking for trouble.

I looked on wikipedia, and nowhere does it says Israelis or Jews have greater moral value.

You're making my point. What you just described is moral equivalence, you draw conclusions that say everything is the same be it war, weapons, terror, self-defence, everything is equal. It also frees you from the burden of having to make a moral judgement and choosing sides. Nothing is ever created equal.
You need to look beyond these superficial philosophies. War is war: One the surface, yes every war is the same, but when you examine the details they are all very different. People are people: yeah, but you don't have to look very far to see that each and every individual on this planet is different.

1. Galloway says that Iran giving weapons to Hezballah is the same as the U.S. giving weapons to Israel. On the surface, they are both supporting their own side in a conflict so yes, they are the same. But what he's not going to tell you is that the U.S. is going to be held accountable with what happens with those weapons, while Iran ultimately in the context of this conflict will not. Equal? I don't think so.

2. People who kidnap foreign soldiers are asking for trouble, yeah I'd say thats true. People who throw foreign citizens in jail indefinately without trials are asking for trouble, I'd say that's true too. But what Galloway is not going to tell you that those "thousands of citizens" are Hezballah and Hamas milita arrested because they either committed or were an accomplice to a terrorist act. Not exactly your most innocent of people. As for the 2 Israelis that were kidnapped, while they do represent Israel's military; as far as I know they were not directly complicit in any crimes against the Lebonese people, they were simply targets of opportunity. Again, not exactly equal.

It's time to pull your head out of the sand and see what is really happening and fully examine the details of your positions. Whatever side you think has the greater moral value is not my decision, but sooner or later you are going to have to make a moral judgement call on actual values. And the belief that everything is equal is going to cause some serious trouble someday.

After giving it more thought, the main problem with Galloway's comments is that he ignores the fact that Hiz' attacks from civilian areas - acting very much like the Brotherhood of Nod to Isreal's GDI, for those of you who have played C&C...

"But what he's not going to tell you is that the U.S. is going to be held accountable with what happens with those weapons"

Accountable how exactly? The US was never made "accountable" for the millions upon millions of dollars it sent the IRA.

Stop with the cut and paste rubbish from Wikipedia.

wow, they turned his volume down Fox News styley. he totally owned them here, i'd like to see him go against o'reilly, it'd be brilliant!

>> ^Johnald_Chaffinch:
wow, they turned his volume down Fox News styley. he totally owned them here, i'd like to see him go against o'reilly, it'd be brilliant!


LOL, they are much like peas on opposite ends of the pod.