Abington First/Newsletter/Issue2

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/saintmaggot/Abington2.png Abington First!
Price: 5 coppers	"...above all else, we hold Abington First!"	Issue 2

Enemies Show Their Honour: Lies, Manipulation, Hypocrisy

The honour of Abington is often slandered by her enemies; this is a matter of public record. But what is not often heard is the fact that her enemies have created a web of lies and hypocrisy based on meaningless platitudes and outright propaganda in order to justify their aggression and lust for land and power. Never is this more clear than in the "black market" style of complaints. For months, the likes of ASI's judge Moses have exagerrated and emphasized Abington's dependency on food imports, for example at the ASI tournament, or in Minas Ithil's propaganda pages. Yet, for months, realms such as those now invading Abington have denied any trade deals, despite their often massive surpluses of food; furthermore, Abington's traders have been harassed, tortured, imprisoned, slandered, and assassinated by contract infiltrators. So on the one hand, Abington is blamed for not having quite enough food to support its population; on the other hand, Abington is blamed for taking steps to feed its people! Damned if you do, damned if you don't. An example of the now-obvious hypocrisy of ASI's foreign policy is clearly shown in how, when in the first war the Federation attacked Ash'rily with three armies at once, Abington was slandered as "weak" or "getting your allies to do your dirty work for you." This despite the fact that Ash'rily was the most heavily defended city in all history! And yet, today, Abington is invaded by a greedy Minas Ithil, Talerium, ASI, and of course is at war with ASI's allies the Cagilan Empire and the Tara Tyranny. But then, ASI is not overly concerned with being "right," "just," or even "honourable" at this point. When one has such forces to hide behind, Doc's Revenge clearly believes in a policy of Might Makes Right; nothing more.

Even Among Enemies, Reasonability Exists

It should be noted that, even though such realms as Minas Ithil are clearly out for an opportunistic landgrab, they are not wholly without honour. Today a Justice Agreement was reached between the Arch Priests of Abington and MI, in which both torture and theft of imprisoned nobles was forbidden. This goes to show it is unfair to make definitive generalizations about the honour of every noble within a realm; perhaps there are even reasonable nobles living in the Ash Sea Islands as well. However, if that is so, Duke and Arch-Priest Moses cannot be said to be one; when in negotiations for a prisoner agreement with Abington, Moses rejected any motion to forbid either torture or theft of prisoners, stating, "I like gold."