Letter to a Texan Bushite with Skull & Bones Family Links (just before the launch of GULF WAR II)
Outrage cannot be mitigated by a massive heap of fresh outrages. Brutality, cruelty, violence and injustice cannot be attacked from without, they can only be healed and transmuted from within through spiritual awakening and ethical maturity.
We may be greatly distressed by shrill screams emanating from our neighbor's house. Upon investigation, we discover the father is an alcoholic who makes a habit of terrorizing his wife and beating his kids senseless. It is our moral duty to muster the courage to speak quietly to the man when he's sober, in an attempt to help him resolve his own emotional problems instead of venting his rage and frustration on the wife and kids. However, if the neighbor proves recalcitrant and persists in battering his wife and kids, are we doing anyone a favor by charging in with a bazooka and blowing the entire household to bits?
The best recourse would be to convene a council of the whole neighborhood and appoint a delegation to rescue the drunkard's wife and kids from their predicament. The community could set the wife and kids up in their own house and help them financially and emotionally. Finding himself suddenly without a family to hit on, the drunkard will most likely suffer a breakdown and open himself to counseling and therapy.
On any given day, it would be difficult to differentiate between the fanatical viciousness of a Saddam Hussein and an Ariel Sharon. They share a common disease - that of the heavily-armed, self-righteous, patriarchal warlord who's convinced that might is right, and that "God" has ordained that they convert all infidels at swordpoint. So why isn't Bush the self-appointed moral policeman issuing an ultimatum to Tel Aviv to disarm and desist from massacring the Palestinians (along with well-intentioned and courageous international peaceworkers)?
Because of the rabid warmongering from the White House, there has been an enormous amount of geopolitical history circulating on the Internet. Information that has long been forgotten or suppressed has come to light, indicating that US interference with the Middle East has been going on for decades, even as far back as the JFK era. Indeed, the ultra-rightwing Ba'athist party was installed after a military coup aided and abetted by the US. Saddam Hussein was involved in a bloodbath that saw a bloody pogrom against leftwing intellectuals and professionals in Iraq. Why did the US fail to intervene then in the interest of justice and human rights?
Why did the US endorse the despotic rule of the Shah of Iran - until he began to have ideas of his own and decided to modernize his country. Declassified information from the CIA files indicates that the US helped install Ayatollah Khomeini in the Shah's place. Another bad move, which led to the CIA-sponsored Iran-Iraq war that destroyed several million lives on both sides.
I cannot believe that any intelligent person can have such a shallow grasp of geopolitical history. Unless one is genetically bound to stay loyal to the ruling elite from which one emerged. In which event, your arguments cannot possibly be impartial or valid.
It is a very sad moment indeed for not only the US - but the entire human race. The coldblooded, premeditated, imperialistic war hypocritically initiated to extend American hegemony - while testing a new generation of lethal weapons - will have unforeseeable karmic consequences.
I view this is as the beginning of the end of America as a superpower. You cannot rule the entire planet at gunpoint. Although I'm happy to report that 99% of the Americans I know are totally against Bush and his cynical, murderous war, it's the odd 1% represented by diehard rightwingers that must ultimately bear responsibility for the barbaric rape of all the lofty humanitarian values you claim on America's behalf.
Liberty, Justice, and Truth are dead! Long live Liberty, Justice, and Truth! May this final outrage against human evolutionary potential signal the swift demise of militarism on Earth - and throughout the Waveform Universe!
Antares
March 2003