AMERICA, WHAT IF IT WERE YOU?
57A DREAM OF WAR
Try Being a Human Being First Instead of Just an American
If America were invaded and occupied by another nation that wished to steal our resources while proclaiming to be "liberators" bringing the gift of communism, Islam, Buddhism' socialism or whatever ism, what would you do?
If these benevolent souls had been strangling your country with sanctions for years, bringing death to thousands of your children, what would you do?
If these invaders had used false accusations as a pretense to invade and occupy your country and lay waste to your very way of life, destroying priceless artifacts and archaeological sites from the world's oldest known civilization, what would you do?
If these "liberators" wantonly and needlessly destroyed the entire infrastructure you need for your survival while proclaiming to the rest of the world that they were there as your saviors, what would you do?
If they murdered your wives, husbands, children and friends while swearing all of them were TERRORISTS who hated them because of their freedom, what would you do?
If they stripped you of your rights, your ability to work and provide for your family, treated you like an animal and raped your daughter in your own home, what would you do?
If they mocked your traditions, religions, appearance, language and all that you hold sacred, what would you do?
The only real terrorists in Iraq were sent there by the United States and, sadly, most of them do not even know what they are. They kill under the delusion that they are fighting for truth, justice and the American way when, in fact, they murder for greed, profit and empire.
There are always extreme, radical fringes in any society. The ones in America are now ruling the country. Most of the resistance in Iraq does not fit that description. They are, just as you would be if in their position, patriots fighting for their country, their freedom and their entire civilization, which is by the way, vastly older than yours. They are killing only those who have attacked them. America kills indiscriminately. The Iraqis are killing to preserve their culture, nation, history, religion and all that they believe to be good and true, as would you were you in their position. America kills for the "free" market, global hegemony, profit and the New World Order.
I could go on like this for several pages.
Don't give me any crap about 9/11! No one in Iraq had ANYTHING to do with it. The same terrorists that are behind the slaughter in Iraq were the enablers of the Trade Center Treason and plot.
Now, watch this video and tell me the speaker is a terrorist.
- A message from the Iraqi resistance
The images may not be the best but the message is in the words.
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Comments
Thanks for reading CJ. I'm increasingly on the edge these days. I appreciate your comments.
That video is intense but what is surprising to me is that I think more than half of all Americans at this point agree with all of it. What I find astonishing is that people aren't rioting in the streets over it--but you know why not, it's because there is no draft, and corporations control the media. If all of us were losing children and husbands it would be completely different, but the Bush administration has been careful to only feed the bodies of the very poor to Iraq while lying to everyone else. Awhile back NY Senator Charlie Rangel was pushing for a draft, because he knew that would end it right now, right this minute.
Last month's New Yorker featured a short story by novelist Annie Proulx (she also wrote "The Shipping News") about a woman from Wyoming who volunteers to serve in Iraq and comes home maimed. It's called "Tits Up in a Ditch." It's well written but very hard to read because it's about people most of us try not to care about, and it shows them with all their warts and unlikable qualities, but at the end of the story, when she comes back, it brings it home so hard. I was bawling like a baby after I read it--it still stings just thinking about it. If more people in the US read things like that, we would hear more noise about it. Right now, we are carefully shielded from the truth. Remember when they wouldn't even allow photos of coffins of the military dead? Insane.
pgrundy, a couple of days ago I read a barley legible PDF image of a draft for a speech allegedly leaked from the office of the White House press secretary. It was a near duplicate of one that dubya gave announcing that we had attacked Iraq. In this version, substitute Iran for Iraq and that’s the new speech yet to be given. The one other difference in version two was the announcement that the draft had been re-activated. The plot thickens. I’ll see if I can track down that PDF again and put up a Hub with it.
Well, I would get a gun and try to wreak vengence, that's what I'd do, so I guess I can't blame anyone in Iraq for feeling the same way.
However, most of us would just die because we couldn't go three days in 110 degree weather without our A/C, and we'd fall down dead because we'd have to (Yikes!) walk to the store to buy whatever little bit of food is left on the shelves.
We are a spoiled people, and we are only a small portion of the 6 billion souls that inhabit this planet. Yes, I like my comfort as well as anyone, but I know deep down inside that there are better ways to making a good life for ourselves without raping theplanet.
In truth, I have had the strange experience of meeting people who really believe that becasue of the nation of our birth, we have the right to do whatever we want to anyone else in the world!
I've actually met people who still believe that Saddam Hussein had a nuclear bomb sitting on a launch pad, and it was only George Bush, and Jesus, who saved us from "nukular aniolayshun".
Aren't we supposed to be the greatest, most sophisticated, best educated nation ever? Sometimes I think we believe our own propaganda. Once the Romans thought themselves to be so far above everyone else, and look what lesson they learned!
When the inmates run the asylum, be careful - be very careful!
I've encountered those righteous folks myself Jeff. Always keep them at arms length.
I think, if you look up the stats, you'll find that America doesn't top many lists of positive accomplishments any more. We're down on education, health care, infant mortality and more.
I think the glory days are long gone. All we are now is the slovenly school yard bully.
Ancient Rome seldom created anything new. When they did it was usually in the realm of either politics or the military. Most of the other ideas they simply took from captured people they ruled over.
I have the feeling that while we are still the most potent military power on Earth, (and even that is fading fast!), that will not be enough to keep us afloat. Our education system is a shambles, and we settle for "everyone wins" in order to stiffle competition.
Without a candle to win, the race seems rather pointless to me.
We have no real basis for coming to a common solution for common troubles, and we are constantly belittling anyone who doesn't agree with our political positions. Democrats and republicans are the mindless tools of people who seem to want us to be in turmoil, who want us at each other's throats, so we can't unite and make ourselves powerful.
Furthermore, the extreme views of so many people seem to dominate the nation, and fools like us, meaning ALL of us, fall into the trap. Czar Nicholas II once said that by keeping the people of the city arguing against the people of the countryside, he maintained power. By keeping the merchants forever at odds with the industrialists, he disallowed either group from becoming pollitically supreme.
I see that here, as well. And yet, while we also are perhaps the most stubbornly political people in the world, insisting that only we have the solution to every other nation's problem, and that somehow Democracy will be the answer. Heck, we don't even practice Democracy here!
Still, I am betting that the Chinese will win out for now, simply because they are hungry for power, they have the necessary resources, and they can marshal their population forward on a single, nationalistic cause much easier than any of us could agree on the time of day.
I believe they will become the newest version of the Roman Empire, which of course was merely built upon the ruins of previous empires. They will create very little but will borrow freely.
This is so much bigger than just America and I think more than 1/2 the US agrees with this position CWB, at least more than half the folks I know. There is a protest here every Thursday and has been for over a year, but the news crews stay clear of it - absolutely NO coverage.
As for a rebirth of Rome - look closely at the worlds major religions. Islam, Hindu (Buddhism is an offshoot), Catholic - they're all the same. The "gods" names are different but they use basically the same symbols and rituals. Which one came first would seem to indicate who spawned whom...
Thanks Jeff. Your comments are always piquant and, therefore, welcome.
I haven’t reached any conclusions about China yet. Things are moving too quickly to make much sense of the landscape. I most recently read some comments by; I forget which Chinese official persona, regarding their commitment to developing alternative energy sources. Now if they are truly heading in that direction, and it would be in their best interest to do so, they could, in fact, quickly become the new leading force of the world. Can you imagine what would happen if they started putting up wind farms and solar arrays as quickly as they’ve been doing coal fired plants?
I wonder what will happen when we realize that windmills are decimating native bird populations and that solar arrays are destroying worm habitat....
Thanks for stopping by dlarson.
I think it’s true that more and more Americans are realizing that what’s going on in Iraq is nothing more than a slaughter for control of oil. Of course the media doesn’t cover you. If you’re not covered, you don’t exist. Haven’t you heard? No one is protesting in America. Everyone knows that dubya is the decider!
As to Rome and religion, some folks believe Rome never died and, in the sense that the quest for hegemony of the known world has never stopped, I suppose it’s true. I agree, essentially, with what you’re saying about various religions being essentially the same. K.I.S.S. definition of religious mandate: be good, don’t be bad. That’s really all any of them boils down to. By the way, though it’s true that Buddhism is an offshoot of Hindu, it’s not actually a religion at all. It’s more appropriately described as a philosophy or code of conduct.
Thanks for the comments.
As to your comments re windmills and solar arrays, I can only imagine you're joking.
Actually, CWB, I agree that the idea of and power behind what Rome was did not die. It merely morphed into the system we see in place in Europe today. I would add that the U.S. has also adopted and incorporated many of the symbols, ideas and structure of ancient Rome.
Our version originally captured the materialistic and legal portion, while in Europe I believe they took some of the religious dogma (modernized to make it sound less religious) and the political aspects. Of course, these things have changed over time, and what I see today here in the U.S. seems more like Europe, and what I see today in Europe looks more America, as if the two halves are slowly combining without any of us seeing what is happening beneath our noses.
What this new Rome has planned I can only guess at, but it will use religion(s) to promote its ideas and keep its people at bay. When there is hatred between one group and another, both groups are easier to keep under the proverbial thumb.
Still, what I see in the near future is the effective combining of the collective fears of Europeans and U.S. Americans in an "Us vs Them" mindset.
Same as it ever was.
Thanks for you cogent observations Jeff.
There is no way to Peace. Peace us the Way.
working
CJStone says:
3 months ago
Phew! That was like being washed-over in a torrent of emotion. Very powerful.