Friday, January 28, 2005
The Children of Iraq
Whatreallyhappened.com had a link to this site The Children of Iraq
Looking at those pictures makes me want to cry. Especially, the ones at the bottom.
Looking at those pictures makes me want to cry. Especially, the ones at the bottom.
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I have heard it said that the fall of Baghdad, when we "won" the war, was really just a strategic retreat by Iraqi troops whose leaders knew they could not win a confrontational war with the U.S. but they could win a guerrilla war, a war of attrition. I think that's what's happening (think: Vietnam) and, as always, women and children play a heavy price. And the reverberations go down the generations. We will reap decades of hatred and suspicion.
You are right. It is seriously disturbing. Those children must be in their school classrooms. But when one's country is occupied, nothing will go right and the lives of children are no exception.
Those who pay the price are seldom ask if they want what they are paying for. I suspect this is because the answer would be a resounding NO!Wanda ( Words on A Page )
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Yeah.
A lot os smug Republican idiots are thinking we're safe because nothing is happening in retaliation for the unprovoked attack on Iraq, and the slaughter there of over 100,000 innocent civilians, many of them women and children. They ignore the price our troops are paying, not only in the over 1,000 deaths, but in the tens of thousands of maimings, cripplings, blindings, and all the psychological damage of being unjust invaders in an unwelcoming country.
They also ignore the effect on the youngest Iraqis and other Middle Easterners, Arabs, and Muslims worldwide. This war is being televised in gruesome detail to every corner of the globe by satellite. As we have our pro-American Fox and MSNBC and CNN, 24/7, they have pro-Arab Al Jazeera. As we have grinning, confidant American military officers assuring us it's all good, just toys for tots, punctuated by the occaisional undeniable major American tragedy, they have wailing widows, wounded orphans, humiliated fathers, brutal Americans in Iraq, and Jews in Israel. The images are the same, coming out of Iraq and Israel, these days. Non-Arabs persecuting Arabs, in similar uniforms and machinery, holding similar weapons, doing the same things. Even to us, they are hard to distinguish between, Americans and Israelis, Iraqis and Paslestinians, on the TV news. Or in reality...
In 1948, the Palestinians had their own Holocaust: They were slaughtered en masse, put into camps, and driven into exile by their Jewish neighbours as they triumphantly declared the birth of a Jewish State, stealing their neighbours' money, goods and property to do so. It toook a full generation or more for the Palestinians to strike back in force. The shootings, bombings, kidnappings and hijackings of the 1960s and 70s were the result of the 1948 injustices. Ten, twenty, thirty years later.
It may not take quite so long, here. But look in the eyes of those fierce boys wielding the guns in those pictures. They have seen their fathers killed and their mothers humilated. They will never forgive or forget. Would you? They are coming.
The ultimate Israelification of America has only just begun: The racial profiling and unjust, unlawful, indefinite detention, sometimes with torture, of Arabs and Muslims. The ever-increasing security everywhere. The hatred towards an unknown people. The fear and sourceless dread stoked by vague government "alerts." The betrayal of our own ethics and beliefs. How long before the suicide bombings begin? A full generation? Or less?
There are already more Arabs and other Muslims in this country than Jews. A new wave will undoubtedly have to be accomodated after this war, if it ever ends. Most will be peacable folk, just looking for a better life. But some may not be so passive. How long before that first bomb goes off on a crowded bus? On what day will the person standing next to you at the busy pizzeria suddenly explode, killing or wounding everyone within a few hundred feet? When will you start carrying an automatic weapon, just for protection?
This is your future. Bushco is making sure of it. The neocons have long been admirers of the Isaraeli Security State, and their endless state of war. Now they are bringing it here. It gives them unquestioned power, unlimited budgets, and immunity from all our laws. It's an authoritarian dream. Or a nightmare, if you're not among the elite who control it without reference to the opinions of the rest of us, who pay for it all. And we will pay for it. Not just in gold, but in tears, and blood. This is the future the Republicans are building. Unless we stop it.
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Yeah.
A lot os smug Republican idiots are thinking we're safe because nothing is happening in retaliation for the unprovoked attack on Iraq, and the slaughter there of over 100,000 innocent civilians, many of them women and children. They ignore the price our troops are paying, not only in the over 1,000 deaths, but in the tens of thousands of maimings, cripplings, blindings, and all the psychological damage of being unjust invaders in an unwelcoming country.
They also ignore the effect on the youngest Iraqis and other Middle Easterners, Arabs, and Muslims worldwide. This war is being televised in gruesome detail to every corner of the globe by satellite. As we have our pro-American Fox and MSNBC and CNN, 24/7, they have pro-Arab Al Jazeera. As we have grinning, confidant American military officers assuring us it's all good, just toys for tots, punctuated by the occaisional undeniable major American tragedy, they have wailing widows, wounded orphans, humiliated fathers, brutal Americans in Iraq, and Jews in Israel. The images are the same, coming out of Iraq and Israel, these days. Non-Arabs persecuting Arabs, in similar uniforms and machinery, holding similar weapons, doing the same things. Even to us, they are hard to distinguish between, Americans and Israelis, Iraqis and Paslestinians, on the TV news. Or in reality...
In 1948, the Palestinians had their own Holocaust: They were slaughtered en masse, put into camps, and driven into exile by their Jewish neighbours as they triumphantly declared the birth of a Jewish State, stealing their neighbours' money, goods and property to do so. It toook a full generation or more for the Palestinians to strike back in force. The shootings, bombings, kidnappings and hijackings of the 1960s and 70s were the result of the 1948 injustices. Ten, twenty, thirty years later.
It may not take quite so long, here. But look in the eyes of those fierce boys wielding the guns in those pictures. They have seen their fathers killed and their mothers humilated. They will never forgive or forget. Would you? They are coming.
The ultimate Israelification of America has only just begun: The racial profiling and unjust, unlawful, indefinite detention, sometimes with torture, of Arabs and Muslims. The ever-increasing security everywhere. The hatred towards an unknown people. The fear and sourceless dread stoked by vague government "alerts." The betrayal of our own ethics and beliefs. How long before the suicide bombings begin? A full generation? Or less?
There are already more Arabs and other Muslims in this country than Jews. A new wave will undoubtedly have to be accomodated after this war, if it ever ends. Most will be peacable folk, just looking for a better life. But some may not be so passive. How long before that first bomb goes off on a crowded bus? On what day will the person standing next to you at the busy pizzeria suddenly explode, killing or wounding everyone within a few hundred feet? When will you start carrying an automatic weapon, just for protection?
This is your future. Bushco is making sure of it. The neocons have long been admirers of the Isaraeli Security State, and their endless state of war. Now they are bringing it here. It gives them unquestioned power, unlimited budgets, and immunity from all our laws. It's an authoritarian dream. Or a nightmare, if you're not among the elite who control it without reference to the opinions of the rest of us, who pay for it all. And we will pay for it. Not just in gold, but in tears, and blood. This is the future the Republicans are building. Unless we stop it.
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And the big question for me is, how do we get the upper hand to stop it. The neo-cons, the Repub media-puppets, such as Limbaugh, Caulter, Savage, Bohanen, etc., push hatred to their listeners and readers. Unfortunately, these followers are many. Also, these followers have no leniency for anyone else. Their way is the right way. They are the entitled. It's certainly something to keep one up at night.
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Don't get sucked in: Most people don't listen to Rush or FoxNews: Their audiences are miniscule, compared to the population at large. The fact is, moderates, liberals, progessives and radicals of the Left are and always have been the majority in this country; The Right has always been the violent, extremist minority.
As to the Media, the tilt toward the Right is turning people away from traditional news sources en masse. The Internet and other new emerging mediums are more than taking up the slack: They are growing.
One good thing about the Fundies is that they have shown that a few people can make a difference: That grass-roots organizing and old-fashioned face-to-face networking WORK! Don't worry about the Macro, take care of the Micro, and the Macro will follow. That's what it's based on.
Do like the Fundies do: Keep or take control of your local church, social, business, labour and education organizations, political Parties, school boards, town councils, County governments, State governments. If you lose your controls and connections there, you'll never keep or get control, nationally.
This means getting up from your computer, meeting your neighbours, and actually DOING something in the real world. That's the hard part: Reconnecting with Reality. But, once you do that, the rest is a piece of cake.
You don't have to take on the whole world at once: Best to focus on one or two issues that really matter to you, where you feel you can make a difference. The important thing is to get out there and do something concrete. Let your voice be heard. It's so much more powerful, and credible than Bill O'Reilly's or that Savage asshole. Your neighbours will be more affected by your honest positive local involvement than by any strident negative voices on the radio or TV. You matter.
Don't ever forget that. The World Trade Center was built by thousands of people, working together. It was brought down by a few destructive individuals. Now it's being rebuilt by thousands of new people, people like you and me. You can't keep us down. Ever. People are powerful creatures. Individuals can change the world. Working together, we can do anything.
You matter. There's your bumper-sticker. There's your political button. Write it on your bathroom mirror. Say it to your friends. Drown out Rush and Hannity and all that noise, all those lies told to try and convince you that you DON'T matter. It isn't true. You matter.
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Don't get sucked in: Most people don't listen to Rush or FoxNews: Their audiences are miniscule, compared to the population at large. The fact is, moderates, liberals, progessives and radicals of the Left are and always have been the majority in this country; The Right has always been the violent, extremist minority.
As to the Media, the tilt toward the Right is turning people away from traditional news sources en masse. The Internet and other new emerging mediums are more than taking up the slack: They are growing.
One good thing about the Fundies is that they have shown that a few people can make a difference: That grass-roots organizing and old-fashioned face-to-face networking WORK! Don't worry about the Macro, take care of the Micro, and the Macro will follow. That's what it's based on.
Do like the Fundies do: Keep or take control of your local church, social, business, labour and education organizations, political Parties, school boards, town councils, County governments, State governments. If you lose your controls and connections there, you'll never keep or get control, nationally.
This means getting up from your computer, meeting your neighbours, and actually DOING something in the real world. That's the hard part: Reconnecting with Reality. But, once you do that, the rest is a piece of cake.
You don't have to take on the whole world at once: Best to focus on one or two issues that really matter to you, where you feel you can make a difference. The important thing is to get out there and do something concrete. Let your voice be heard. It's so much more powerful, and credible than Bill O'Reilly's or that Savage asshole. Your neighbours will be more affected by your honest positive local involvement than by any strident negative voices on the radio or TV. You matter.
Don't ever forget that. The World Trade Center was built by thousands of people, working together. It was brought down by a few destructive individuals. Now it's being rebuilt by thousands of new people, people like you and me. You can't keep us down. Ever. People are powerful creatures. Individuals can change the world. Working together, we can do anything.
You matter. There's your bumper-sticker. There's your political button. Write it on your bathroom mirror. Say it to your friends. Drown out Rush and Hannity and all that noise, all those lies told to try and convince you that you DON'T matter. It isn't true. You matter.
.
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