[SpamCop-Social] Re: Remember

[Nilla]

"Borgholio" <borgholio> skrev i meddelandet
news:b2i6n5$f8i$1
> No matter what your views on President Bush's statement of upcoming war,
> this, from an English journalist, is very interesting. Just a word of
> background, for those of you who aren't familiar with the UK's Daily
Mirror.
> This is a notoriously left-wing daily that is normally not supportive of
the
> Colonials across the Atlantic.
>
> *************************************************************************
>
> Tony Parsons, Daily Mirror September 11, 2002
>
> One year ago, the world witnessed a unique kind of broadcasting -- the
mass
> murder of thousands, live on television. As a lesson in the pitiless
cruelty
> of the human race, September 11 was up there with Pol Pot's Mountain of
> Skulls in Cambodia, or the skeletal bodies stacked like garbage in the
Nazi
> concentration camps.
>
> An unspeakable act so cruel, so calculated and so utterly merciless that
> surely the world could agree on one thing - nobody deserves this fate.
>
> Surely there could be consensus: The victims were truly innocent, the
> perpetrators truly evil.
>
> But to the world's eternal shame, 9/11 is increasingly seen as America's
> comeuppance. Incredibly, anti-Americanism has increased over the last
year.
>
> There has always been a simmering resentment to the USA in this country;
too
> loud, too rich, too full of themselves, and so much happier than
Europeans -
> but it has become an epidemic. And it seems incredible to me. More than
> that, it turns my stomach.
>
> America is this country's greatest friend and our staunchest ally. We are
> bonded to the US by culture, language and blood. A little over half a
> century ago, around half a million Americans died for our freedoms, as
well
> as their own. Have we forgotten so soon? And exactly a year ago, thousands
> of ordinary men, women and children - not just Americans, but from dozens
of
> countries, were butchered by a small group of religious fanatics.
>
> Are we so quick to betray them?
>
> What touched the heart about those who died in the Twin Towers and on the
> planes, was that we recognized them. Young fathers and mothers, somebody's
> son and somebody's daughter, husbands, wives, and children, some unborn.
>
> And these people brought it on themselves? Their nation is to blame for
> their meticulously planned slaughter?
>
> These days you don't have to be some dust-encrusted nut job in Kabul or
> Karachi or Finsbury Park to see America as the Great Satan. The
> anti-American alliance is made up of self-loathing liberals who blame the
> Americans for every ill in the Third World, and conservatives suffering
from
> power-envy, bitter that the world's only superpower can do what it likes
> without having to ask permission.
>
> The truth is that America has behaved with enormous restraint since
> September 11.
>
> Remember,----- remember -
>
> Remember the gut-wrenching tapes of weeping men phoning their wives to
say,
> "I love you," before they were burned alive.
>
> Remember those people leaping to their deaths from the top of burning
> skyscrapers.
>
> Remember the hundreds of firemen buried alive.
>
> Remember the smiling face of that beautiful little girl who was on one of
> the planes with her mum.
>
> Remember,------ remember -
>
> And realize that America has never retaliated for 9/11 in anything like
the
> way it could have.
>
> So a few al-Qaeda tourists got locked without a trial in Camp X-ray? Pass
> the Kleenex...
>
> So some Afghan wedding receptions were shot up after they merrily fired
> their semi-automatics in a sky full of American planes? A shame, but maybe
> next time they should stick to confetti.
>
> AMERICA could have turned a large chunk of the world into a parking lot.
> That it didn't is a sign of strength. American voices are already being
> raised against attacking Iraq - that's what a democracy is for. How many
in
> the Islamic world will have a minute's silence for the slaughtered
innocents
> of 9/11? How many Islamic leaders will have the guts to say that the mass
> murder of 9/11 was an abomination?
>
> When the news of 9/11 broke on the West Bank, those freedom-loving
> Palestinians were dancing in the street. America watched all of that - and
> didn't push the button. We should thank the stars that America is the most
> powerful nation in the world. I still find it incredible that 9/11 did not
> provoke all-out war. Not a "war on terrorism." A real war.
>
> The fundamentalist dudes are talking about "opening the gates of hell," if
> America attacks Iraq. Well, America could have opened the gates of hell
like
> you wouldn't believe.
>
> The US is the most militarily powerful nation that ever strode the face of
> the earth. The campaign in Afghanistan may have been less than perfect and
> the planned war on Iraq may be misconceived.
>
> But don't blame America for not bringing peace and light to these wretched
> countries.
>
> How many democracies are there in the Middle East, or in the Muslim world?
> You can count them on the fingers of one hand -
> assuming you haven't had any chopped off for minor shoplifting.
>
> I love America, yet America is hated. I guess that makes me Bush's poodle.
> But I would rather be a dog in New York City than a Prince in Riyadh.
>
> Above all, America is hated because it is what every country wants to be -
> rich, free, strong, open, optimistic. Not ground down by the past, or
> religion, or some caste system. America is the best friend this country
ever
> had and we should start remembering that.
>
> Or do you really think the USA is the root of all evil? Tell it to the
loved
> ones of the men and women who leaped to their death from the burning
towers.
>
> Tell it to the nursing mothers whose husbands died on one of the hijacked
> planes, or were ripped apart in a collapsing skyscraper. And tell it to
the
> hundreds of young widows whose husbands worked for the New York Fire
> Department.
>
> To our shame, George Bush gets a worse press than Saddam Hussein. Once we
> were told that Saddam gassed the Kurds, tortured his own people and set up
> rape-camps in Kuwait. Now we are told he likes Quality Street. Save me the
> orange center, Oh Mighty One!
>
> Remember, remember, September 11 - One of the greatest atrocities in human
> history was committed against
> America.
>
> No, do more than remember. Never forget.
>

Here's another point:
Nuha Al-Radi, Iraqi artist and writer:


REPLAY

It comes as a big shock that in this age of supposed democracy, a country
can be invaded, colonized and occupied in so blatant a manner -
daisy-cuttered and e-bombed, all in the name of peace. And that it's even
feasible to look on, like at a play unfolding or something live on T.V. Even
more extraordinary is the fact that this war on terror and all the so-called
'Islamic' terrorist activities that are taking place all over the world are
the work of every nationality except Iraqi. There is no logic to this
action, unless it is the logic of power and greed, hypocrisy and lies. These
are the virtues and morals of the U.S. - the country that rules the world.
It is morality driven by the black gold - oil.

I am a potter, sculptor, painter. I try to visualise things. Right now I am
in Pakistan preparing for an exhibition. One of the journalists interviewing
me asked me why my work did not depict Iraq - the million children dead, the
results of 12 years sanctions, the damage left behind with the depleted
uranium etc. During the first Gulf War I was in Baghdad and wrote a diary
that was published. It was just every day life under bombardment, which
later became just living and trying to mind one's own business. I wished
then that something could happen to the U.S., and now 12 years later a
repeat is about to take place, on a now weak and battered nation, 22 million
people trying to mind their business and live their lives.

A dictatorship within is to be replaced by a military occupation from
outside. We already know how much (and how little) care is given later to
helping put right the damage done. How can we hope for a different reality?

============

And here you can read more "fors" and "againsts" the forthcoming war:
http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article.jsp?id=2&debateId=88&articleId=
882#0

War is barbarism. War is the ultimate war crime. If this war will take place
thousands and thousands of innocent people will be torn apart by the bombs -
during the first two days Bush will drop twice as many as his father did for
40 days during the last war. 100 000 of thousands have died from the after
effects of that war. How many will die this time? And how many will die from
its effects in the future? I don't think the life of Saddam is worth that.
It is up to the Iraqi people to get rid of their leader. I can't believe any
country would sacrifice so many people and so much effort and money just to
kill one person.... there must be something else, too!

The first victim of a war is Truth. We have been fed with lies from the Bush
regime since he set out for this unholy war. He and his bushmen have misled
the American people and also turned the UN away from their basic aims - to
work for Peace and Security. It seems as if the UN is aware of this Shame.
Why else did they cover Guernica, that is hanging at the entrance of the
Security Council, with a black curtain?

You can read more about it here:

http://thunderbay.indymedia.org/news/2003/02/3472_comment.php

http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-et-christopher8feb08,0,53
66329.story?coll=cl-art-features

http://slate.msn.com/id/2078242/

Nilla