Posted by Violent Rey at spider-mtc-th011.proxy.aol.com on September 17, 2001 at 15:14:29:
I will most likely get flamed to hell for all this, but I feel it needs to be said. What I see happening in this country is the same degree of nationalism and fundamentalism that leads to attacks like the one at the WTC. What's the call now? War? So, we're now to send more people to die what will probably be a very bloody battle. Why will it be bloody? These terrorists know their terrain inside and out, and we don't. These terrorists have been dying for their holy war for years now, and have already shown they can take out over a hundred times more of "the good guys" than they lose. They see themselves as doing something holy, and cleansing the world, and their reward is eternal bliss with Allah. This rings familiar of all the things I've heard about Vietnam, and all the reasons it was such a long and bloody battle for us. What's scarier to me, still, is the racism that's rearing its ugly head. I know someone - a Cherokee for god's sake - that was told that she should "go back to your own country" because some dick thought she looks Arab. If anything, she should be the one telling people to go back to their own country.
Please don't get me wrong - I agree with what Kev said. It's great that people are coming together, but I always look down the road while keeping an eye on my rearview. Look at Germany when they were in an economic depression where the cost of a meal would more than double while they were eating it. A man came along and brought the people together against an "enemy", and that bore the Holocaust, and then look at your history books and look at the Inquisition and the Crusades (not the same, but you see how the whole thing goes).
I'd hate to say it, but in a lot of ways, the United States tempted an attack. I don't agree with its severity or that it happened - I don't condone it at all - I'm stating a fact. We let our corporations cross any borders they want and exploit the people of foreign lands where they make less money in a year than some people reading this make in a week. We interfere in international affairs that don't affect us. To what, spread democracy? Then why does history show the US government helping to overthrow several democratically elected governments because the US "didn't like them" (which is all it boils down to)? Why does history show the US soldiers and operatives training terrorist cells to operate in other countries to place a government that will cooperate with the US? Look at Iraq. We haven't ousted Hussein because we helped place him in office.
What do I know? I'm just an ex-intelligence analyst from a Special Forces Battalion (1 year out of the service). I joined not for love of the country, or a sense of duty, but for some cash for college and to have some nice stuff to put on my resume, but I was smart enough to open my eyes and get out when I could.
As a New Yorker, I'm sad to see the WTC gone. As a person, I'm sad to hear the massive death toll, and I feel for those that have lost loved ones. As an ex-soldier, I wish I could volunteer to help, but they're turning people away now. I have never been proud to be an American. It's where my parents chose to have sex, and I had no control over it. If I did, I would've been born in Switzerland, which never gets attacked because it keeps itself out of these matters, or maybe I would've been born Canadian, since the UN has voted it the best place on earth to live. If it were a perfect universe, there'd be no such thing as government as it is, and individual sovereignty would exist (enter the works of one Lysander Spooner).
Kev, and anyone else this applies to, I'm glad you're ok. I'm sorry for anyone's that's lost someone during this whole mess. I just ask everyone to assess this whole situation in its historical context. It was a horrible thing that happened, and doesn't need to be made worse. Attacking "all terrorists and the nations that house them" will inevitably lead to innocent deaths, and those deaths will fan the fire of hate, and that hatred will grow into other attacks and terrorist cells forming. If anyone cares to flame me on this, go ahead, but I know I'm right. I say punish those responsible for this, but don't let intense emotions guide your actions. Where will the bloodlust for revenge be if/when they have to institute another draft and people's children die - not because some lunatics let their religious fundamentalism warp their perception of reality, but because we let our sense of fundamentalism get so warped that we set about become the very thing we seek to destroy? That's all for now, as I'm being rushed off the computer.