Famous Walls Throughout History

from PolMach Forums
Recently the world court based in The Hague has ruled against Israel’s security fence that attempts to separate the Israelis from the Palestinians. I suppose we need to forget about the world court’s ludicrous rulings in the past (Telling America the Death Penalty isn’t right) to focus correctly on this ruling which is just as ludicrous.

First, what is the purpose of a wall? Is it to divide peoples? Consider Robert Frost’s Poem “Mending Wall”. In this poem the narrator thinks that walls are not natural because nature destroys them and therefore they shouldn’t be there. However the man’s neighbor thinks that, “Good fences make good neighbors.” The narrator thinks that walls are a barrier to friendship. Well, if they are a barrier to friendship aren’t they a barrier for enemies too?
politics
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Reply #1 from PolMach Forums Top
Let’s look at some famous walls throughout history:

Berlin Wall: In the 28 years (1961-1989) it stood as a grim barrier between East and West Berlin, this wall was the Cold war’s boldest symbol. The East German government that erected it claimed it was a protective barrier shielding its subjects from western agents and provocateurs. The West said the wall was a prison barrier, designed to keep people in. By 1989, the West’s view was vindicated: Once the wall came down, East Germany could no longer control its vassals and ceased to exist within little more than a year.

Great Wall of China – No, it’s an urban myth that you can see the Great Wall from outer space. Built or restored over a 2,000-year period by several ruling dynasties, the wall was an ambitious attempt to keep raiders and nomads out of the Chinese heartland. When it succeeded, it had worldwide repercussions: The Huns, resisted and harassed on their east by tribes that had been unable to push through the Great Wall into China, turned west instead, with disastrous consequences for Rome. When it failed, it failed spectacularly: The Mongols simply swept over and around it and seized China – en route to conquering a Eurasian empire four times the size of Australia.

Walls of the Kremlin – For years the high walls of this combination fortress, palace and cathedral hid the activities of Russia’s Soviet masters from the world. From here Stalin plotted his purges and mass murders, and his successors wrestled with the long Cold War that began under his reign. For all the terrible majesty and secretiveness that the Kremlin’s walls projected, they provided an ironic occasion of post-mortem humiliation for Stalin. Originally interred after his death in 1953 next to the demigod Lenin in the hulking mausoleum at the Kremlin’s heart, Stalin was unceremoniously demoted to a niche in the Kremlin wall in 1961 after Nikita Khrushchev repudiated his predecessor’s nasty ways.

Now, would the World Court have demanded that the Great Wall of China or Hadrian’s Wall be torn down? No! Why? Because they protected inhabitants. But what about the Kremlin and Berlin Wall? I would think they would. Why? Because they imprison people.

But wait, isn’t the world court suppose to prosecute crimes against humanity? How this wall is a crime against humanity I’m not sure. I suppose it’s the interpretation of what the wall does.