There is so much confusion in the world today. There is so much hate and misunderstanding everywhere. Innocent lives are being lost everyday, and this instead of making us wiser has only led people even further away from the path of understanding and compassion for our fellow human.
The word TERROR comes to mind and we are left with the stinging feeling of having been cheated; the question of why ME? is never far from the back of our minds. And as far as we are concerned terror is terror, whether it's being carried out by individuals or governments. TERROR is TERROR.
Sharing that tiny space called earth means that there is NO escape for any of us and no single nation, society or individual should feel secure when evil is let loose. The saying of "those who live in glass houses should not throw stones" has never been more true , for aren't we all living in glass houses? The mighty and the weak alike?
If there is one thing we can learn from this tragedy it's that no one gets away with it, and that if one willfully makes someone else childless one must expect to face the music. Terror begets only terror and there are no winners here. All are at risk.
We are all flesh and blood. No one is immortal. And to the mortal on the streets of Mother earth a deadly weapon is a deadly weapon is a deadly weapon, whether it's hurled down from an Apache, a Black Hawk or from the back of an ass, the end result is the same: destruction for those who lose their lives, and pain and suffering for those left behind to nurse their pain, which yet again leads to yet another round of ? you guessed it...terror...
This is a depressing scenario for humanity and no amount of finger pointing will make it go away. What's needed here is for all of us earthlings to reflect and ponder and really try to understand what pushed us to this sad CORNER: this condition needs our full attention. I say a condition, because that's exactly what it is: an ailment that needs an instant REMEDY.
We need to eradicate this foolishness from the face of the earth, and though the task is daunting, it CAN be done.
And this is all we need:
love
justice
honesty
sincerity
freedom for all
end to all injustices
end to all land grabbing
end to bullying by all big boys
instant cessation of all foreign occupations and interferences.
If we do that, then it's bye bye to TERROR.
And it costs NOTHING.
Good luck earthlings!
(c) safi abdi 2003
Unfortunately for most, there's big money for a few by waging terrorism, especially state terrorism. American state terrorists are fleecing the pockets of American tax victims through corporate welfare programs to wage American-powered British Empire, and the corporation owners prosper. Congressman Ron Paul gave a speech before Congress recently exposing the crooks:
Borrowing Billions to Fund a Failed Policy in Iraq
by HON. RON PAUL OF TEXAS
BEFORE THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
October 17, 2003
Mr. Speaker: I rise in opposition to this request for nearly $87 billion to continue the occupation and rebuilding of Iraq and Afghanistan. This is money we do not have being shipped away on a foreign welfare program. The burden on our already weakened economy could well be crippling.
Those who argue that we must vote for this appropriation because “we must succeed” in Iraq are misguided. Those who say this have yet to define what it means - in concrete terms - to have “success” in Iraq. What is success in Iraq? How will we achieve success in Iraq? How will we know when we have succeeded in Iraq? About how long will “success” take to achieve and about how much will it cost? These are reasonable questions to have when we are asked to spend billions of taxpayers’ dollars, but thus far we have heard little more than nice-sounding platitudes.
We have established a troubling precedent that no matter how ill-conceived an intervention, we must continue to become more deeply involved because “we must succeed.” That is one reason we see unrelated funding in this supplemental for places like Liberia and Sudan.
Mr. Speaker this reconstruction of Iraq -- that we are making but a down-payment on today -- is at its core just another foreign policy boondoggle. The $20 billion plan to “rebuild” Iraq tilts heavily toward creating a statist economy and is filled with very liberal social-engineering programs. Much of the money in this reconstruction plan will be wasted - as foreign aid most often is. Much will be wasted as corporate welfare to politically connected corporations; much will be thrown away at all the various “non-government organizations” that aim to teach the Iraqis everything from the latest American political correctness to the “right” way to vote. The bill includes $900 million to import petroleum products into Iraq (a country with the second largest oil reserves in the world); $793 million for healthcare in Iraq when we're in the midst of our own crisis and about to raise Medicare premiums of our seniors; $10 million for "women's leadership programs" (more social engineering); $200 million in loan guarantees to Pakistan (a military dictatorship that likely is the home of Osama bin Laden); $245 million for the "U.S. share" of U.N. peacekeeping in Liberia and Sudan; $95 million for education in Afghanistan; $600 million for repair and modernization of roads and bridges in Iraq (while our own infrastructure crumbles).
There has been some discontent among conservatives about the $20 billion reconstruction price tag. They fail to realize that this is just the other side of the coin of military interventionism. It is the same coin, which is why I have consistently opposed foreign interventionism. There is a lesson here that those who call themselves fiscal conservatives seem to not have learned. There is no separation between the military intervention and the post-military intervention, otherwise known as “nation-building.” Fiscal conservatives are uneasy about nation building and foreign aid. The president himself swore off nation building as a candidate. But anyone concerned about sending American tax dollars to foreign countries must look directly at military interventionism abroad. If there is one thing the history of our interventionism teaches, it is that the best way for a foreign country to become a financial dependent of the United States is to first be attacked by the United States.
This request - which was not the first and will not be the last - demonstrates in the most concrete terms that there is a real and concrete cost of our policy of interventionism. The American taxpayer paid to bomb Baghdad and now will pay to rebuild Iraq -- its schools, hospitals, prisons, roads, and more. Many Americans cannot afford to send their own children to college, but with the money in this bill they will be sending Iraqi kids to college. Is this really what the American people want?
The real point is that the billions we are told we must spend to rebuild Iraq is indeed the natural outcome of our policy of pre-emptive military intervention. All those who voted for the resolution authorizing the president to attack Iraq have really already voted for this supplemental. There is no military intervention without a “Marshall Plan” afterward, regardless of our ability to pay. And the American people will be expected to pay for far more. This current request is only perhaps step four in what will likely be a 10 or more step program to remake Iraq and the rest of the Middle East in the image of Washington, D.C. social engineers and “global planners.” What will be steps five, six, seven, eight? Long-term occupation, micro-managing Iraq’s economy, organizing and managing elections, writing an Iraqi constitution. And so on. When will it end?
There is also much said about how we must support this supplemental because to do otherwise would mean not supporting the troops. I resent this dishonest accusation. It is nothing but a red herring. I wonder if an American currently serving an open-ended occupation in Iraq would think that bringing him home next week would be a good show of support for our troops. Maintaining an increasingly deadly occupation of Iraq and bankrupting many of our reservists and National Guard troops by unilaterally extending their contracts to serve in an active deployment is hardly “supporting the troops.” Perhaps that is why a Stars and Stripes newspaper survey of the troops in Iraq this week found that a majority had very low morale. And according to the same Stars and Stripes survey, an increasing number are not planning to re-enlist.
Conservatives often proclaim that they are opposed to providing American welfare to the rest of the world. I agree. The only way to do that, however, is to stop supporting a policy of military interventionism. You cannot have one without the other. If a military intervention against Syria and Iran are next, it will be the same thing: we will pay to bomb the country and we will pay even more to rebuild it - and as we see with the plan for Iraq, this rebuilding will not be done on the cheap. The key fallacy in the argument of the militarists is that there is some way to fight a war without associated costs - the costs of occupation, reconstruction, “institution-building,” “democracy programs.”
I opposed our action against Iraq for two main reasons. I sincerely believed that our national security was not threatened and I did not believe that Saddam Hussein’s regime was involved in the attack on the United States on 9/11. I believe what we have learned since the intervention has supported my view. Meanwhile, while our troops are trying to police the border between Syria and Iraq our own borders remain as porous as ever. Terrorists who entered our country could easily do so again through our largely un-patrolled borders. While we expend American blood and treasure occupying a country that was not involved in the attack on the US, those who were responsible for the attack most likely are hiding out in Pakistan - a military dictatorship we are now allied with and to which this supplemental sends some $200 million in loan guarantees.
Our continued occupation of Iraq is not producing the promised results, despite efforts to paint a brighter picture of the current situation. What once was a secular dictatorship appears to be moving toward being a fundamentalist Islamic regime -- not the democracy we were promised. As repulsive as Saddam’s regime was, the prospect of an Iraq run by Islamic clerics, aligned with Iranian radicals and hostile to the United States, is no more palatable. There are signs that this is the trend. The press reports regularly on attacks against Iraq’s one million Christians. Those hand-picked by the United States to run Iraq have found themselves targets for assassination. Clerics are forming their own militias. The thousands of non-combatants killed in the US intervention are seeking revenge against the unwanted American occupiers.
Mr. Speaker, throwing billions of dollars after a failed policy will not produce favorable results. We are heading full-speed toward bankruptcy, yet we continue to spend like there is no tomorrow. There will be a tomorrow, however. The money we are spending today is real. The bill will be paid, whether through raising taxes or printing more money. Either way, the American people will become poorer in pursuit of a policy that cannot and will not work. We cannot re-make the world in our own image. The stated aim was to remove Saddam Hussein. That mission is accomplished. The best policy now for Iraq is to declare victory and bring our troops home. We should let the people of Iraq rebuild their own country. I urge my colleagues to vote against this supplemental request.
http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2003/cr101703b.htm
This piece starts with an interesting premise and ends with a puerile and facile answer. The author would do better to choose his thoughts rahter than concetrating on his colours.
Some talk sweetly and endlessly -- saying nothing -- while engaging in blasphemy, sacrilege and terrible horrors out-of-sight of the rest of the world. Under the sands of their nations lie the rotting -- desecrated, violating the sacred scripture of the Qu'ran -- bodies of those who would do no more than voice their opinions or ask sincere questions.
Some talk of wanting a better life for the people they pretend to love and represent, while gathering money from all over the world to enrich their own coffers while "their" people go wanting. And then, there are those who claim to preach the truth, while denying their people an education and a chance to think upon things, by denying their people all communication with -- and knowledge of -- the world around them.
These are the persons who breed terror and use it not for freedom and liberation, but because they rejoice in the streets at the deaths of all around them. They bathe their bodies and souls in the unclean stench of death and exult at the unending swelling of hatred in their hearts. And they lie to their children and force their children to propagate their evil practices. Such are the despised of Allah and shall attain, by their own efforts, the fires of hell for aye...
Doc
~ Sara
Peace to all,
Safi
"O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another. Verily, the most honourable of you with Allâh is that (believer) who has At-Taqwa [i.e. one of the Muttaqûn (pious - see V.2:2)]. Verily, Allâh is All-Knowing, All-Aware."
Quran: 49:13
excellent article--until we humans learn to accept differences in race, culture, ability or disability, beliefs, and respect each other for whom we are: BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF THE HUMAN RACE, there shall be no peace. i'm not condemning one particular race: all races are guilty.
until we humans stop trying to oppress each other and flaunt our riches to those that have none, there will be no peace. all races are guilty of this, too (especially americans, sad to say).
let there be peace on earth--and let it begin with me.
profound, thought provoking piece, my friend. well done!
(((HUGS))) and love,
karla. :)
Excellent article, Safi: did note a few punctuation problems, could eliminate "that" in most places.
Love in Christ~~ Bonnie Q, editor :-)