War and peace

[Lucas Bleicher <lbleicher@yahoo.com>]

Adrian Brown wrote:

<< 3) Many people in other countries, based mainly on
their experiences with the stereotypical loud-mouthed,
overbearing and constantly complaining middle-aged US
tourists, have a certain resentment towards many
things
American, especially the "we won the war" attitude
that many Americans (including some on this list) seem
to have. They also perceive Americans to be much
richer than they are, and this leads to some feelings
of envy
among those in the lower-paid branches of society.
This is especially true among the younger elements of
society, who see TV shows with American
twenty-somethings living in huge apartments, driving
fancy cars, working in glamorous jobs and earning lots
of money etc, and think that everyone
lives that way in the US. >>

I don't think this is true. In Latin America, for
example, the fact that lots of citizens don't love the
USA is because USA generated a handful of
dictatorships that killed or injured thousands (maybe
millions?) of innocent people. Anyone older than 30
years in those countries knows at least one person who
knows another one who was tortured or killed in those
dictatorships. The difference is that latin american
people are not so war-oriented as middle east or
american people. I was horrified to see everything on
TV last tuesday, but I'm also horrified to hear that
so many americans say that all arabians should be
killed. Violence creates more violence. Those who were
responsible for the latest acts should be exemplarly
punished, and terrorism as a whole should be punished.
But hate against other people, just like some
americans against innocent arabs (or protestants
against christian children, another fact that
horrified me recently), just can't happen too. I'm
forwarding an e-mail received in another list. It's
too much pessimistic, but, unfortunately, it's true...

------------
<<The worst of all didn't happened yet>>

I've received messages that show a crescent felling of
xenophoby and religious war. In the NYCHIQS forum, a
spanish member says that a new cruzade against the
Muslims should start (justifying the necessity with
the "lesson" taken from Iberian history in the first
centuries of the last millenium). Also, a "perfect
jerk" suggested the extermination of all the Arabian
people.

I received a simply incredible message yesterday. The
guy is "CEO" of a software enterprise and started an
e-mail chain saying the following words:

"This is Nicholas Longo, the CEO of CoffeeCup
Software.
As you may have heard the World Trade Center and
Pentagon were attacked about 45 minutes ago.

The Team at CoffeeCup would like to send our heart
felt
sorrow to those that perished in these attacks.

We would like to also say on record that if any
country
is found responsible for these attacks, we call for
that country's complete destruction and annihilation.

Do not let terrorism which is designed  to create fear
and stop production, halt your life or work.

Stay focused and do not stop what you are doing.

-May God bless us all and the decisions we must make."

It's frightening. Asking for the "complete destruction
and annihilation" of a whole country and end the
message invoking God's name to bless this request is,
at least, perfect cretinism. Of course I have already
replied him saying that God is not (probably) a fool,
and, so, he will never be more than "CEO" of a tiny
group of programmers.

What happened this tuesday was, surely, of an
incredible impiety and cruelty, showing an almost
unreal disrespect for human life, for the
life of innocent people, children... Nothing will
never justify this act, and this day will, among with
others, be written with blood types in the book of
shame that mankind has been written since its
evolution (?).

May the ones responsible for this act be punished,
that's what is asked. But nothing will bring back the
thousands that lost their lives, and vengeance for
vengeance is so condemnable as the act that caused its
origin.

Politically, we know who's responsible. All the
Occident and its supposed "superior" civilization,
that, since the day of the Cruzades, have been
affronting the rest of the world with its violence and
imposition of the most variable civilizational
patterns, using force if necessary.

Let's not talk about the Cruzades. Everybody knows
that, at first, Muslim religion was tolerant with
Christianism. They share the same origin, the same
divinity, including Jesus Christ. Yes, if you don't
know, Issa (Jesus), son of Mary, is cited 19 times in
the Alcoran, and one of the five prayers that the
arabs do every day is dedicated to Jesus.

The Jihad was an answer to the criminous prepotence of
the popes and liege lords of Medieval Europe. The
jihad of the XX and XXI centuries has the prepotence,
indiference, xenophoby and scorn of the Occident
as its target.

England slashed, divided and left alone the Middle
East. Iraq, Kuwait, Arabia. What are the causes of the
tension of today? Territory, the feeling of
hummiliation, nacionalism.

France and Spain did the same to North Africa.

How do these nations, toys in the hand of the mighty
ones, feel when they hear that their emigrants are
killed, beaten, thrashed, segregated, persecuted,
scorned, slaved by european bosses, living in
sub-human conditions?

So let's add to this the total irresposibility of the
United States, that treat the world as its property,
consider the other nations as subordinates, and,
calling themselves the Guards of Democracy and
Liberty, uses CIA to install some of the most
atrocious dictatorships in the world. Most
latin-american countries had torturers trained by USA
officials, and them killed and injured thousands of
innocent people, no matter if they were even children
or pregnant women.

And some americans know this. A friend of mine told me
yesterday:
"I am not, however, surprised. I love my country, but
its faults -- isolationist policies, bullying, spoiled
with wealth -- has made us ripe for such retaliations.
I am sad for everyone concerned. Somehow though, I
think it will get worse before it is better, and many
innocent people around the world will suffer and die
over this incident. I think we are in for war."

They will know who is bin Laden: a wealthy Saudi man,
that CIA chose to organize and command the Afghan
resistance to the Soviet invader. We all know that
this american action was crucial to the Afghan rebels:
This have caused the Talliban to acquire its power...
and now they're biting the hand that fed them. And now
they caused (or not, who knows) this tragedy.

The militar interventions of USA in the last years
are, at least, preposterous, prepotent, and
ridiculous. The USA army combat the enemies by
distance, so that human lives are not lost ("human
life" stands for an american soldier paid by american
taxpayers. Foreign men, women and children must not be
considered as "human life").

We plea for God that no nation (Iraq, Libia, Sudan) is
behind this attack. Or we will see another showing of
power and vengeance that the whole world hasn't seen
for a long time. This opinion is shared with a
north-american citizen that told me today:  "I do hope
that the U.S. does not find a way to "blame a nation".
 This would then provide a target, and, of course,
something to attack." We plea for God that the person
or group that caused this disaster (no matter who did
it, don't forget McVeigh...) should be punished...
This is the only thing that will make us relieved.

Nothing will be as before, and much more will come.
I'm afraid for the emigrants of this world. I'm afraid
for the babies and children that sleep. And for the
ones that were born in the wrong site of the world.
I'm afraid for our sons, and for the world that, with
less or more intervention, we are building for them.
I'm afraid, that, as an intelligent species, we are a
complete failure.

In this moment, the world and the society where we
live, are, sorry for the term, a pile of shit. And
mankind is, I don't know if naturally, a
pile of shit. Maybe the best option is really ending
everything. Fire the missles. Purge the planet. Mother
Nature will find away to recreate it. Maybe this is
mankind's mission: creating the conditions for planet
earth to accomplish its cosmic role... by other
species.

A recent message on the Net talks about babies being
set on fire alive on the "wars" of former Yugoslavia

And I didn't forget the images of the conflicts in
Africa that showed mutilated babies and children.

Should we go on?

Carlos
-------------

My opinion is: Terrorism must be fighted. No doubt on
it. But killing innocents in another nation will only
multiplicate hate, intolerance, and more wars.

Lucas Bleicher

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