Make love not …
Why is it that we always tell our children "don’t fight", "violence is not the solution", "might is not right" and so on and then go and do just the opposite? Are we out to prove besides the fact that we are spouting hot air, that we are a bunch of liars and that it is also OK to lie? I don’t know … This is how it seems to me from a simplistic point of view. I know that there are times when war is inevitable but we should do all that is humanly possible before we resort to war.
OK now you know I am going to talk about the US :p So let me put in a few disclaimers and set the stage first. I know that there are a lot of people in the US who feel the same way as I do and I also know that most people online are aware of the fact that there is a world outside the US and that the US is not always right – so when I say something about US people generally, it might not mean *you* even if you live in the US :p The second thing is that when I say "the US" most often than not, I mean the US government and not the people of the US itself – not the average Joe on the street. Incidentally, it’s a curious thing but I’ve noticed that quite a few people from the US support any action by the government just because it’s done *by the government*. Now just because it is a government of the people, by the people, for the people does not mean that we should lose sight of one important fact – it is also a government *of* people. I mean it’s a government made up of people – people with emotions, feelings, prejudices; things that may colour their actions and may not make them always objective. I can’t say that I have a wide experience of the world but I don’t see that particular mentality (the idea that it’s OK because your government does it) in other parts of the world – certainly not in Sri Lanka where people always analyze the actions of the president and the government and look at it – if not fairly – at least critically.
There are many things I don’t understand about the US government’s insistence on war with Iraq. How come they want to fight Iraq over nuclear capabilities that have not yet been discovered (but that the US government insists are there) when they are bending over backwards to accommodate North Korea which openly declares that they are going to resume nuclear testing? Wasn’t North Korea part of George Bush’s "axis of terror"? Or is the *real* reason for going to war with Iraq something else altogether? When I hear all this stubborn insistence that Iraq has nuclear capabilities (with no concrete evidence as far as I know) I begin to believe the stories that I hear about the US actually having provided Iraq with nuclear armament by the US twenty years ago during the time of the Iran-Iraq war – how else can the US know with such certainty that Iraq has nuclear capabilities? I wonder …
There are many things which don’t make sense to me about this looming war. I don’t understand why human lives (does not matter which race, creed or nationality it belongs to) should be lost for political reasons. I wonder if this is just another instance of "Wag the Dog" – which incidentally is a brilliant piece of political satire as far as I am concerned. I didn’t understand when the US government went to war in Afghanistan saying that they were going to bring back Osama Bin Laden to trial – many human lives have been lost (both Afghan and US) but Bin Laden still roams free. If I could see that Bin Laden couldn’t be captured even then (I said so in my blog at that time …), how is it that the US government with all it’s highly-trained and highly-paid analysts couldn’t? Could it be that it was not about bringing Bin Laden to justice but about making a point? Why do we waste human lives for the sake of such pettiness? Is it because human lives (each of which should be so utterly precious) have lost all meaning and value in the world of today? If so, then maybe we do deserve to be wiped out in one big nuclear conflagration …
Very well thought out and written Fahim, I couldn’t say it better myself.
Some day (hopefully soon) the rest of the world and maybe even the American public will awaken to the fact that the land of the free and home of the brave is a war mongering police state that exists only to serve it’s government. As a citizen of the U.S. I am ashamed that I bought that load of American Pride crap for so many years. And only by leaving the U.S. and looking back was I able to see just how “FREE” and “BRAVE” it really is. The more I look from the outside the more I can see how greed and self-service have decayed the possibilities of the ideals of freedom. In retrospect I’m not sure the U.S. ever was what it touts itself to be. It was conceived in greed and bloodshed as they robbed and killed the natives that originally inhabited the land. It has been a nation of political and social domination ever since then. At times it has been marveled at by some poorer nations due to the comparatively tremendous wealth of it’s population. However, that wealth has has at it’s roots corrupt political dealing and blind brute force. Now as the people of the world begin to share information more quickly the U.S. is being unmasked and seen for it’s truly deceptive nature. There are a multitude of good and great people in the U.S. just as in every other country. But the government of, by and for the people is and has been a load of propaganda possibly since it’s conception. I hope for my children that the people and governments of the world will some day see the futility in aggression and greed. I pray that some day the world will be free and everyone will live in peace. I don’t think it will happen in my life time but I do believe it’s a possibility.
Sheesh, I got on a rant there eh? 🙂
Woah, yeah definitely a good rant going there Darin :p I must say that I don’t agree with some of the stuff you mentioned though – you can’t blame the US for it’s antecedents or for the fact that the natives were killed to make the nation. That was accepted behaviour at that time (I will not say that it’s morally accepted but the strong always took what they wanted those days – not that that seems to have changed much today …). My problem with the US stems from the fact that it has great power but does not seem to realize that with great power comes great responsibility. It’s behaving like a spoilt child or a schoolyard bully instead. While this has always been the way humanity has behaved and is not the US’s fault alone, since it’s the most powerful nation on Earth at the moment, it becomes the US’s responsibilty to behave with responsibilty … At least, that’s how I see it …