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Shame on Us!
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From
Theodore Stagger
An American Citizen from Minnesota
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20/03/2003
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The
blatancy is shocking and the overt outrageousness makes one
genuinely fear the covert (what are they doing behind our backs?)
and thus they are successful at being more terrifying than the
terrorists. We let these politicians get in the driver’s seat. Now
they are threatening nuclear war (with all of them in their
undisclosed bunkers, of course).
Shame
on us!
We
let these corporate aristocrats threaten the future of our children
and the children of our friends around the world.
Shame
on us!
We
are a nation of laws, but we claim exemption from examination by
international courts.
Shame
on us!
We
will not sign the Kyoto agreement as our pollution creating
industries provide needed jobs and money for our ultra-wealthy.
Shame
on us!
“We
will strike preemptively wherever we feel we need to.” But the
only wars worth fighting are those against poverty and ignorance
(and the latter we need to fight most vigorously at home).
The only wars worth fighting are those against poverty and ignorance. |
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Terrorism
can only be stopped by fighting those good wars. Star Wars defense
systems and many new tanks will just create huge profits for those
who make them, but they will do nothing to stop terrorism. One or
two men with a rifle can take a major city to a standstill. Men with
box-cutters can take down the World Trade Center buildings. Cheney
should tell the truth - what he wants is to declare war on the poor
and kill them.
The
rest is rhetoric.
Do
we know we destroyed clean water supplies in Iraq?
Do
we know that our government supplied Iraq with the materials for
making WMD and that we encouraged them to use them?
If
we don’t change our regime at home they will lead us into World
War III and we will deserve the chaos that it will bring.
Shame
on us!
1.5
million are dead now as a result of the sanctions in Iraq. Will this
new war in Iraq justify the genocide or complete the job?
Bush
II declared that “The United States is the greatest country on the
earth.” Indeed.
Do we know we destroyed clean water supplies in Iraq? |
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We
do have more money, more guns and more weapons of mass destruction.
We do create more pollution and consume more food and natural
resources. We have more prisoners than any other country. We are
more selfish and more indifferent to the suffering of others. By
those criteria I guess the president is correct – we are the
greatest country on earth.
Shame
on us!
Capitalism
+ democracy + time = government of the rich, by the rich, for the
rich. The figures reported in the media don’t make sense to me –
70% approval rating for Bush II? If this is true then the American
model has failed and many of us find ourselves in this predicament
which, quite embarrassingly, adversely affects our good neighbors
around the world. The desire to apologize is constant and
overwhelming and the fact that this desire is labeled as cowardly
and treasonous is supremely frustrating for many Americans now.
Where
do we go from here, oligarchical empire building?
If
we can make pre-emptive strikes – if that is the new rule of war
– then our enemies can do the same. So we need a strong military
while education, foreign aid and the environment remain overlooked
until this endless war ends.
Do we know that our government supplied Iraq with the materials for WMD? |
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Our
leaders are not readers. No intellectuals involved – no
philosophers – and they make up the most powerful regime the world
has known.
Has
my country irretrievably lost the battle between good and evil? Is
world domination a good idea for America? For the rest of the world?
Does America care about the rest of the world?
My
grandfather came to America for the freedom and the opportunity
because Norway was not a good place to live. Two generations later I
am looking longingly at Norway. They say I can visit, but they
won’t let me stay. I will have to go back to America – a place I
am growing to fear, much as my grandfather did Norway.
Our
mainstream media has become an increasingly unsubtle disseminator of
propaganda. The big questions are off limits. Nobody questions the
obliteration of a carload of human beings in Yemen, by an aptly
named “hellfire” missile, launched from a drone plane, by a CIA
employee in Virginia USA. The guys in the car were suspected to be
bad guys. No need for proof or trials in this case. The Empire has
changed the rules and if you think that is wrong, “Hey,” says
the schoolyard bully, “are you with us or against us?”
Sanctions
against the Iraqi people don’t seem to be bothering Hussein, but
they kill 9,000 poor civilians a month. I guess you can stop a
kidnapper by killing his hostages, but that doesn’t seem to be the
best way – unless you do not value the hostages.
Has my country irretrievably lost the battle between good and evil? |
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Everything
did change on 9/11 and the world will never be the same again. We
now have a country that thoroughly dominates the world – headed by
right-wing extremists who pray and hear their God telling them to go
and get that oil so Americans can drive increasingly large
automobiles on their Sunday drives. They make their own rules –
like Dirty Harry and all the other loveably uncontrollable Hollywood
action heroes.
Shame
on all of us for letting this happen.
Yet
there is a positive side. The blatancy of the anti-environment
war-mongering policies (tax breaks for the rich, cutting programs
for the poor and anti-environmental legislation) from Washington is
waking people in America and around the world in unprecedented
numbers. Peace and non-violent movements, along with environmental
and sane religious organizations, are coming together – in an
international effort that grows stronger daily. A different kind of
outburst is on the horizon.
Koffi
Annan said once “…free to speak your mind, raise your children
and pursue your dreams…”
Suddenly
in America, we are losing the freedom to speak our minds. We are
looking to raise our children elsewhere, and if we dream we dream of
leaving.
We
are not allowed to draw parallels between this Washington regime and
Nazi Germany, so I won’t.
If
you visit Peace Park in Hiroshima, Japan, you will walk away ashamed
to be a human being. You experience nuclear war there and you lose
your nationality. As a justification for atrocities, patriotism is
exposed. A few hours later you get your anger back and you rejoin
your factions – but you never forget the shame.
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