Try to remember the kind of September
When life was slow and oh so mellow.
Try to remember the kind of September
When grass was green and grain was yellow.
Try to remember the kind of September
When you were a tender and callow fellow.
Try to remember and if you remember
then follow,
follow.
Try to remember when life was so tender
When noone wept except the willow.
Try to remember when life was so tender
When dreams were kept beside your pillow.
Try to remember when life was so tender
When love was an ember about to billow.
Try to remember and if you remember
then follow
follow.
Deep in December it’s nice to remember
Although you know the snow will follow.
Deep in December it’s nice to remember
Without a hurt the heart will hollow.
Deep in December
it’s nice to remember
The fire of September that made you mellow.
Deep in December our hearts should remember and follow
follow.
There are still heroes out there who need and deserve our support. I could really use your help in gathering items for the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those young men and women are risking their lives so that hopefully the events of three years ago will never be repeated. Please, send anything you can spare, from books to DVDs to CDs. Anything. They need a way to relax, they need to know that they’re appreciated, and they need to know we care. If you don’t have anything to donate, then donate your time – please, take a minute on today of all days to write a note to a soldier, tell them that you love them for their unfathomable sacrifice. You can email your notes here, or mail your donations to me care of the Daily Prophet, and I’ll forward them on to various units in both countries. Please, they need to remember that their efforts aren’t going unnoticed.
The Daily Prophet
PO Box 3114
Sterling, VA 20167-3114
Thank you. If you’d like to know more about how to donate, where the donations are going, and why, please visit The Daily Prophet.
It’s hard for me to understand how anyone believes that what is happening in Iraq right now will prevent what happened three years ago from happening again. What evidence do they see that the regime of Saddam somehow was a threat to the United States in terms of terror?
What caused 9/11 to happen was hatred. Hatred against the US. Have you seen that hatred diminish since the war started? The truth is that the hatred against the United States is greater than ever, and so the threat of terror.
And meanwhile the situation in Iraq is bordering on civil war with more than ten thousand Iraqis dead and more than a thousand US soldiers dead.
It seems to me that the Americans, at least those that support the direction that things are currently going in, have learned very little from 9/11.
Almost every week, when I go to Walter Reed Army Medical Center for physical therapy, I meet the men and women who have come back from Iraq who have lost limbs. I’ve been in constant email communication with soldiers who are still in Iraq and Afghanistan. I’ve seen pictures of what’s going on, direct from the soldiers themselves. How are they protecting us from terrorism? They’re fighting the terrorists in the Middle East, instead of on the streets of New York City.
Most of the “insurgents” you hear about in the news, that are starting a “civil war” in Iraq, are actually imports from other countries in the Middle East. Not all of them are “insurgents” – a good number of the people blowing up Iraqi citizens, shooting Iraqi police officers, and killing American soldiers, are terrorists. They know they can’t get anywhere trying to hurt us again in the United States, so they’re doing everything they can to undermine our efforts in the Middle East. What did you expect? That Iraq would be a walk in the park? Is it on the brink of civil war? No, because it does not meet the definition of civil war. Is it a warzone? Yes, that’s why it’s called a war. We know that, that’s why there are soldiers there from a whole group of nations working together to try to make it peaceful again.
Let’s not forget that before the United States did anything, everyone agreed that Saddam Hussein was a threat. Even France, Germany, and Russia all agreed he was up to something. No one doubted he had weapons and intended to use them. No one in their right mind thought he was a peace-loving, kind, benevolent leader. And, most importantly, everyone knew he was openly funding terrorism. During the Clinton administration, Hussein even publicly announced that he would give $25,000 to any family who would offer up their son as a suicide bomber to go to Israel or any other nation, with the express intent of killing Americans. He was a threat. He encouraged and harbored terrorists. He tortured his own people. He cut out the tongues of men and women who simply disagreed with him. He gassed children in the desert as a test, an experiment to see if such weapons would work on Americans, Europeans, and yes, even Danes.
You’re forgetting something very important, Simon. Terrorists don’t just hate Americans, they hate anyone who they see as Infidels. The recent horrific events in Russia prove that we’re not the only targets. Don’t you remember, three years ago, that there were suspected targets in Copenhagen? America’s not the only target for hatred, and any chance to get rid of a dictator who was harboring, encouraging, and funding terrorists is a chance worth taking.
Is this war costing too much? Is it not worth it? Tell that to the Kurdish children who died face down in the dirt after bleeding out of every oriface thanks to Saddam. Tell that to the children who are still alive today who cheer every time they see an American soldier, follow them down the street on their patrols and dance and sing to keep them company. Tell them it’s not worth it to us, despite the fact women are now free, that children are attending school, that new opportunities for jobs and freedom are opening up. Tell them it’s not worth it that finally, if they have a different opinion than that of their “harmless” dictator, they don’t have to fear for their lives.
We know Iraq isn’t the only source of terrorism. We know our presence there isn’t exactly going to make a lot of terrorists happy. But how is it logical to address foreign policy with our only objective being making terrorists happy? If that were our chosen course of action, then our only option would be mass suicide. Terrorists want westerners – infidels – dead. That’s all there is to it. A stable Iraq will show a closed, imprisoned middle eastern society that peace is possible, that growth is possible, outside the horrible realms of oppresive dictators. It will take time, it will not happen overnight. You’re expecting a society based on tribal warfare and ancient living conditions to suddenly understand and accept democracy in an instant. It can’t happen that quickly with so many people. It’s taking time, but there is progress, and it will happen.
Our presence in Iraq has done a lot for the region already, despite what you claim to be such dismal circumstances. Other nations have ceased development of dangerous weapons programs, talks are beginning with countries that were once entirely standoffish, and terrorists are being snuffed out one by one by one. It’s a long process. You’re expecting too much too fast.
Let’s put those thousand American soldiers into perspective, maybe then their sacrifice will make sense:
– In the past five years, 400,000 Iraqi children under the age of five have died of preventable malnutrition and disease.
– Between June 2000 and April 2001, at least 130 Iraqi women were beheaded.
– 1997-1999: 2,500 prisoners were executed during a “prison cleansing campaign.”
– Documented chemical attacks between 1983 and 1988 resulted in some 30,000 Iraqi and Iranian deaths.
– Between 1987 and 1988, Saddam Hussein led a campaign against 2,000 Kurdish villages, resulting in the deaths of between 50,000 and 100,000 Kurdish men, women, and children.
– More than 200,000 Iraqis continue to live as refugees in Iran due to Saddam’s religious persecution of the Kurdish people. These same oppressive policies have led to the internal displacement of 900,000 Iraqis who flee to the harsh north to escape Saddam’s ‘Arabization’ campaigns.
– Saddam committed his first murder at the age of nine, killing his school teacher simply because she was female, and his step-father had convinced him that women should not be allowed to be educated.
I have no doubt that Saddam Hussein has committed terrible crimes. I think very few people do. What I’m saying is that the US is not on the road to peace, whether that’s the intention or not.
I’m seeing is history repeating itself. What created the situation in the Middle East? In Northern Ireland? What has created the situation in Iraq? Violence. War. Killings. It’s a spiral of violence.
And we’re seeing the same thing in Besland now. The people are furious and are demanding revenge. What will happen if these people attack and kill Chechenians? Will they just sit back and say, “Oh, they’re just having their revenge”. No, they will fight back, and yet another spiral of killings will have begun.
There are so many questions surrounding the war in Iraq that we could possibly discuss endlessly, but my fundamental question for you is, will war lead the world to peace? Will war end terror?
I believe forgiveness will lead the world to peace, not war.
Americans and the Allied Forces brought peace to your country through their war efforts during World War II. War has ended Nazism, Fascism, Communism, oppression, slavery, abuse, hunger, suffering, pain. Freedom is not free, nor has it ever been. Sometimes peace is worth fighting for.
Forgiveness? True forgiveness can only be granted when the offending party wants forgiveness. In the case of the terrorists, they don’t want forgiveness, they want us dead. If we just smile, nod, and say, “I’m sorry you hurt me,” do you really think they’ll stop?
What about if you were the one who wasn’t even free to say you disagreed? What if your idea of forgiveness had been practiced when Jews and other minorities were being rounded up in Europe and murdered in death camps by the Nazis? What if America had just turned its back to the world after Pearl Harbor and said to Japan, “We forgive you”? Would you be where you are today? Would Denmark be peaceful? Would you be free to speak your mind? No. Would Japan have stopped after Pearl Harbor? Would the bombings have continued along the California coastlines? Just how long do you think that borrowed peace would have lasted?
Peace is only peace when you are free from threat. Putting on a blindfold and merely pretending a threat doesn’t exist won’t make it go away. Sometimes sacrifices have to be made. Forgiveness is granted after the threat has been neutralized. Again, World War II is a fine example – after we subdued the Nazis, we didn’t destory Germany. Instead, we forgave the people, and rebuilt their nation. Now Germany is free to disagree with our policies. We did the same with Japan – we subdued the threat, we rebuilt them, we even guarded them for decades with our military at our expense. Why? Because the people couldn’t bear the idea of another dominant Japanese military. All of this, and neither Germany nor Japan have ever paid us back. Furthermore, we’ve never asked them to repay the billions of dollars we spent in forgiving them.
We’re trying to do the same in Iraq. Just like World War II, it won’t come cheap. But put it into perspective – more soldiers died in the first hour at Normandy than have died in a whole year in Iraq. This isn’t revenge, this is stabilization, this is eliminating a threat and rebuilding a region that so sorely needs it. This is American and Coalition soldiers paying the price for the peace that every person in the Western world enjoys.
I agree with you that there are times when war can’t be avoided the way things are now. And you are right, forgiveness also demands the other part to regret what he or she has done.
We are all God’s children – the victims of Besland, Saddam Hussein, George W. Bush, Osama bin Laden, the victims of 9/11, you, and I. We are all humans, and as humans we deserve love.
Never demonize humans, however evil they may seem to you. If you do so, you cut them off, you create barriers. How can anything be resolved if you demonize?
Humanity is in the midst of a crisis, some say greater than ever. That crisis will never be resolved through war, however needed it may seem.
We forgave Japan and Germany and they are leading nations today. Gandhi led his people through non-violence to victory, though violence once again took over and destroyed more lives and peace was lost. Black people forgave white people in South Africa, otherwise civil war would still be going on.
Yes, war has brought Saddam down. But the world is not one step closer to peace.
I came across an interesting article (by Juan Cole, Professor of History at the University of Michigan) that reminded of this thread of comments.
http://www.juancole.com/2004_09_01_juancole_archive.html#109487993311862124
Especially one paragraph stood out to me
“After the Iraq War, Bin Laden is more popular than George W. Bush even in a significantly secular Muslim country such as Turkey. This is a bizarre finding, a weird turn of events. Turks didn’t start out with such an attitude. It grew up in reaction against US policies.”
I definitely recommend reading this article.
A lot of Americans seem to believe they are in Iraq to save the Iraqis. That is perhaps their intention, but to most Iraqis they are occupied by the US. Saddam might be gone, but they are not free.
Simon – I wasn’t responding to your posts because I was trying to just drop it, this is distracting from what I was trying to do in the first place. I didn’t want to start a political debate, I was just trying to do something nice for some people who are sacrificing their time and in some cases their lives for something they believe in. And now I feel like you’re trying to turn it around to say they’re doing something horrible. You know what, if you believe that, that’s fine, but I’m not going to stop helping them, and I don’t think this is the time or the place to carry on this conversation. Has Juan Cole been to Iraq? Has he met with the soldiers? Has he met with the people there? Have you? Have I? It doesn’t matter, does it? Because it seems that no matter what my country does, or no matter what I do as an American, there will still be plenty of people in this world who will hate me and my country no matter what I do. There will always be someone out there to twist, spin, and revise the truth. There will always be someone out there who will despise my actions. There will also we people on this planet who hate Americans. There will always be people out there who hate what America stands for, religiously, socially, or whatever. And despite what you think about me
I’m sorry you feel like that. I never meant to question what you’re doing. I actually praised you for doing the Book Drive in a comment when you announced it.
I don’t hate America or Americas. Professor Cole is an American himself and says nothing hateful of the US. He just gives an analysis of the situation.
I only questioned your belief that war is leading to peace.
The debate has hereby ended.
Love,
Simon