Revealmap comments

Learn Japanese! you don't expect signs to be in english in france or germany why Japan?

Haha, Imagine that you visit an Arab city, Dubai for example, you ask someone a question like where is the exit and he answers to you Learn Arabic!

And hasn't the Syrian government admitted to having them? That's true, in 2012 July, Syria admitted that they have chemical weapons but said they were for external ennemies. Also please remember that President Esad threatened international community to use chemical weapons (against them) if an multi-national military intervention would be carried out. So yes they have chemical weapons.

'Political' Islam does not want to participate in the political system, it wants to dominate it and steamroll over any opposition it faces, silencing it's opponents with blood

How do you know? The thing is that, you mustn’t enough experience to support this claim. Because the only political Islamic party, -that was democratically elected - in the region is in Tunisia now. They came to power after the revolution. On the other hand Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood was toppled after one-year of ruling. Just one year. The military has committed a coup and simply didn’t give them the chance to be represented legally.

We see many examples of military and religious dictatorships in Arab world. They are all failures. We know very well that these non-democratic environments produce terrorist entities constantly.

My point is that you cannot say that, because current status-quo, simply doesn’t allow any political Islamic parties to come into power.

Mubarak, Qddafi and Assad were a lot better than the al-Quaeda factions in power now.

No you are so wrong; Al Quaeda still exists because of these people. Their existences contribute Al Quaeda. All political views including political Islam, must be allowed to be represented on the political scene legally.

But since these dictators forbid any possible opposition, people cannot find a legal alternative to express themselves peacefully. Al Quaeda terrorists cannot survive without oppression, poverty and injustice. Unfortunately there are plenty of those, in the Arab dictatorships.

This is nothing but an attempt by the American and Arab League supporters of the rebels against the legitimate Syrian Government to show the latter in bad light. If chemical weapons had truly been used there would have been large scale and higher deaths than reported. Obviously these same people plotted to use chemical weapons selectively to get the most publicity. After Iraq, whoever believes in what America says and does with any other bands of people or countries are either totally blind or choose to be ignorant.

Where does Syrian Government's legitimacy come from? It is a dictatorship; President Esad holds his position, simply because his father was president once. So called elections in Syria are jokes, there are any candidate against Esad and he always wins with a landslide such as 98 or 99 percent, that is illogical.

The scale of the destruction can be adjusted according to the amount used, moreover who says that this is not large scale attack, more than 1.000 people have been allegedly killed. Look at the videos, many people were killed with no apparent wound or blood trace. They seem to suffocate to death, how did they suffocate?

UN inspectors are already in the country; they should go to the spot and make inspections immediately. If chemical weapons use, is proven independently, we had better talk about international military intervention.

There are shocking and very convincing videos on Youtube that chemical weapons were used. Many corps including children, lying on the floor and there are no apparent wounds on their bodies. They seemed to be suffocated. If chemical weapon use is medically confirmed, this attack will be a war crime.

Given that they are all under 18 years old, is it possible to execute these criminals (I mean capital punishment) according to US laws. I am asking seriously.

I found Japanese girls with straight bangs, truly beautiful. I think they seem Asian-look angels with this particular hairstyle.(especially if they have big eyes) I agree with short hair cut.

I had posted a comment, on another article regarding same issue, that Fukushima NPP should be restored because Japan needs huge energy for its developed industry. Now after reading this article and relevant comments, I changed my mind. It is now obvious that Tepco has covered crucial facts, misled the community and the crisis is about to turn into (or maybe already did) a global catastrophe.

The most convenient thing to do now is to shut down this power plant permanently and immediately check out other NPPs states. I am not sure about international laws to which Japan subjects, but it is fairly expectable that neighbor countries file suits against Japan and request compensation for their economic and social losses caused by environmental damage.

Conventional war is made against military power of another country. But if you decide to use your weapon power to kill civilians (To me, civilian means anyone who isn’t a member of army and don’t actively join the fight) for any reason, then you commit war crime.

So, A-bombings are clearly war crimes, carpet bombing of Tokyo and Dresden, Nazi death camps, Nanking massacre are war crimes as well. However D-day for example is not. Because this was a battle between two armies.

It is undeniable that war's itself is a crime

Yes. I suggest those who said no, to visit Hiroshima Peace Museum.

This is a first step of a process. One day they will send only smart robots -not humans- into the space.

Ok it looks like that I didn't see last phrase, sorry (and for the sake of grammar rules, I correct my previous message's beginning part as "how do you understand.."

Democratic transitions should be slowly, step by step, mainly through establishing a secular education system and developing strong middle-income class. Besides totalitarian governments and militarist actions must not be supported or tolerated by world powers (As we witnessed during recent coup d'etat in Egypt)

War environment works only to extremists' advantages.

How do you understood she's been murdered? Maybe suicide?

What a shame that this political party uses in its name, the word "liberal".

Liberalism has nothing to do with Japanese Liberal Democratic Party. LDP should change its name, it is an obvious deception.

In recent months, Istanbul had been gripped by anti-government protests

So what? It is a democratic and fast-developing country, it is very usual to see such demonstrations in that environment.

Besides, as far as I read over here, Japan is under nuclear missile threat from N. Korea, and constantly disputes with China. No need to say Tepco's incapability to stop the nuclear leakage yet. Tokyo is also very expensive place to stay and very far away for European people. How does Tokyo be more advantageous than Istanbul?

Definitely Istanbul should host 2020 Olympic Games. Tokyo has already carried out it once; Istanbul 2020 is a very good chance to achieve economic bounce not only for Turkey but also Balkan and Middle East countries. This is also a strong message to similar countries, that winning Olympics is not a privilege only for richs.

Istanbul currently also conducts many extensive transportation projects, a mega airport at the north of the city, a third bridge to Bosphorus Straits and high-speed train network covering İstanbul and Ankara. If Istanbul is not chosen for Olympics, this will be a shame indeed.

SuperLib, check out Iraqbodycount website to learn exact number of casualty since 2003. Please note that this figure only includes the deaths caused directly because of the war, not of the secondary reasons such as hunger or collapsed health services, so the real figure is much more higher than 113 thousand people, as stated on website. Desert storm is the first war against Iraq, so it is true that infrastructure has been destroyed due to war, you confirmed me, thank you.

As for northern Iraq issue, they became mainly autonomous following no-fly zone decision made after Desert storm war. Today they are independent in practice, they can even ratify energy agreement without approval of central Bagdat government.

Toshi, yes Iraqi id cards include information about the religion and the sect of the owner. Hence unfortunately it is very easy to identify.

I voted no because this is an impasse. This privilege is against the spirit of such an agreement. If japan is granted this exempt, other countries will impose their own, which will damage ultimately the functionality of the agreement.

In the long run, TPP must become a regional version of European Customs Unions, helping economic cooperation between member countries. We know very well that sustainable economic cooperation also means viable peace.

It's sad how Obama has squandered Bush's hard-won victory in Iraq.

No, on the contrary, this is exactly, the result of Mr. Bush's so-called victory. Kill hundreds of thousands of people, destroy entire infrastructure, separate northern part of the country as a de-facto independent state, so what do you expect? Iraq is trying to survive after a deadly occupation.

ebisen;

I think experimental fusion power can replace current nuclear energy plants in the near future. Fusion power is a safe and rmuch more reliable energy source. Japan can invest in this technology and may lead the world. As far as I know there is ongoing research in France on this field.

I agree that nuclear power is still indispensable for Japan and there is no serious alternative as powerful as it

What will Japan do if it gives up nuclear energy for good. Is there any other viable alternative energy source, for such a big economy? I understand concerns about nuclear safety but I think it is too late for Japan to seek another option, since its infrastructure has been already installed that way. Fukushima plant should be restored and start to produce energy as soon as possible.