Baxxter, watched around 200 Swiss 18 year olds, all ‘soldiered out’, being taught how to handle and fire assault weapons. Looked pretty good. Not much fat on them. Contrast with our ‘soldiers’? Got my laugh today.

This phrase is an accurate definition of PL’s foreign policy. It was certainly applied in the past too: When Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici was the PM of Malta and the obscene war between Iraq and Iran (Saddam vs. Khomeini) was raging, Malta assisted both belligerent parts. How?

It provided Iraq with parts for chemical warheads which were used against Iranian soldiers and civilians while at the same time had signed an agreement with Iran so that Iranian victims of Iraqi chemical warfare attacks could be treated in Malta’s hospital.

An truly effective way of assisting those who are fighting. Purely diabolical.

The only reason Switzerland’s neutrality ‘worked’ in WWII is because Hitler needed its neutrality.
Their neutrality was in a way similar to our neutrality in favour of Gaddafi, but perhaps an order of magnitude or two worse.

Britain should be celebrating ‘Jum il-Helsien’. Britain got rid of a pain in the a*se having let Britain off the hook for contractual payments but instead he took the road to China, N. Korea, Yugoslavia and of course, Libya, with tin can in hand begging for alms and secret arms deals.

But all that fades in comparison to how Mintoff safeguarded democracy, freedom of speech and expression, and the impartiality of our courts. His example was such that his unelected successor even surpassed Mintoff’s ideals.

But it makes sense (in the LP’s mind) to assist those who are fighting on either side.

This type of reasoning had been the LP’s dogma for decades. Fan the fire, let the two (assisted) sides fight it out while the LP sits smugly unable to decide which side they really are with. Not a word of condemnation for Gaddafi (the person) just in case, they have to face the murderer on the outside chance of him succeeding in dividing Libya in two with him still heading the Western half.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/71994

The Chia Report responds to those who are against intervention in Libya on the grounds that this would most likely create a chaotic power vacuum in Libya:

‘I have been asking myself why many oppressors across the world, including miscreants like Gaddafi and Paul Biya of Cameroon, invariably get sympathies from the very ones they oppress. This concern is more often than not encapsulated in the following question: who will fill the vacuum (after Biya/Gaddafi…)? My all time favorite is “what next”?

‘It is pitiful to look at the almighty Gaddafi ranting that “my people all love me”. There are certainly many Libyans who would die for Colonel Gaddafi. But can Gaddafi and the Biyas of the world understand that it is not about love? Better still, can they grasp that love is not a one way street? Can they grasp that walking away from power and having others give a shot at leading is the greatest love there is to share with their kids and other fellow citizens?…
‘It is a false premise to think and act as if every democratic nation on earth was born on the same day. But there is the expectation that younger democratic nations, even as they forge their own democratic cultures, will not slide even further back in excuse and mockery of time-tested universal values of freedom, liberty, and respect of human rights. The biggest democracy of our time (USA) was stretched thin as the Supreme Court stepped in to decide whether it was Al Gore or George Bush. Budding democracies will go through chaotic patches. It is essential that a people go through these times together. Lasting bonds are formed from common struggles. Better yet, from these common struggles, a people emerge with a common vision and purpose. African countries seem to have only one purpose – producing consumers.

‘We are better than that. After the coalition bombs the hell out of Gaddafi’s Libya, (and hopefully take him out) a leader will emerge. It is bound to happen.’

Funny you should mention Switzerland. If you tried their strategy in Malta you wouldn’t find enough able-bodied men to form an understrength platoon. You could, however, get the pie-scoffers to lie on top of each other and use them as sandbags.

There never was any morality to begin with.

When making a song and dance (literally) of Jum il-Helsien, their guest of honour was Muammar Gaddafi who announced that Malta would depend on money from Libya.

Make that no sense of irony, either.

It’s not like we fought tooth and nail for it either. Their lease was up and they didn’t want to renew it at the new high price Mintoff wanted them to pay. Perhaps that’s why we don’t want to take sides when it comes to Libya. We’ve never actually fought for our ‘liberation’ or even suffered.

I find today’s celebrations so unbearably hypocritical it makes me sick.

We don’t value freedom. If we did, we wouldn’t be so blasé about our stance on Libya. Here we are celebrating the day the English left as “Freedom Day” while we let other people who are desperate for freedom suffer and die. How dare we.

At least we know that he is not one of those 17% who are poor, according to deputy leader Toni Abela. So first we talk about the poor during ceremony speeches and immediately afterwards we are off to eat in the best restaurants. They do lead by example.