Sunday, September 11, 2011

Remembering 9/11

Today we commemorate a terrible day in the lives of all Americans--a day thousands suffered and died and countless lives were changed. I note the news has been filled with programming that reveals more and more details of WHAT happened on that terrible day. The media is reflecting on and recounting those events in microscopic detail. It is touching. But in this great orgy of remembrance something screams at me by its absence. We know more and more about what happened, but programming is virtually silent on why it happened.

Who or what is to blame? Obviously, those who flew the planes make up the proximate cause and must bear much of the blame. But were these just evil men conspiring to do evil for evil's sake---psychotic mad-dogs attacking for attacking's sake--void of provocation? Was it just purposeless and senseless evil and violence they had in mind and nothing more? Some say yes. Others in the past, especially immediately after the initial attack, said otherwise. They said it was our fault; We the People--our lives and our freedoms drove them to seek to destroy us. Thus began the blame game, and few in Washington, either then or now, doubted that explanation. To repeat; We as a nation and a people did nothing to provoke these fanatics, BUT, if any one in America must bear any guilt of provocation it could only be We the People, our lives and our freedoms. Thus said the talking heads and government officials in lock step.

Let this sink into your ears. Here's the headline as it should have been written in the Washington Post on 9/12:
US GOVERNMENT BLAMES "WE THE PEOPLE" FOR MUSLIM ATTACKS.

We the people suffered and died on 9/11 because Muslim fanatics hated our life-styles and freedoms. But our brave government is doing all it can to protect us from the consequences of our folly.

Get the message: OUR GOVERNMENT blames us! We endure Muslim terrorist threats today because of how we live--there is no other reason. Muslims are simply jealous of our freedoms and they want to kill us.

Is this what the perpetrators of Islamic terrorism say?....Not exactly.

When asked, Muslim fanatics never mention the freedom or lives of Americans as the reason they attack us.

Let this sink into your ears: unlike our government and television talking heads, the terrorists don't blame us. They blame those who have blamed us: OUR GOVERNMENT and its aggressive, interventionist foreign policies in Muslim lands.

Who will we listen to? Our government which seeks to exculpate itself by pointing the finger at We the People? Or the attackers, who are in virtual unanimity about why they attacked and continue to attack America: Federal interventionist foreign policy in Muslim lands.

Don't misunderstand. I'm not saying the Muslim fanatics are completely blameless. What I am saying is the Federal government is, in some degree, clearly blameworthy. What I am saying is that it takes two to tango, and when you meddle, intervene, control and dictate policy to others, it is unreasonable to think they will continually take it and not try to strike back in some way.

In the past two months American planes have bombed targets in Libya, killing thousands there. Here is a place the CIA told Obama we have no strategic or economic interests--and yet we intervene and bomb in yet another shadow war--undeclared by congress. To the politicians and the media it is a "non-war." To the dead it must seem very real indeed.

Contrary to the Neocon's despot's-eye view of history, the collapse of the Soviet Union was not the sign that made us Kings of the World; it did not give us the right to use our military as a world police when ever and where ever the delusional Neocons see "American interests"---whatever that is.

Our non-interventionism in Syria and Somalia has had no effect on us as a nation or a people. In contrast, our government's needless intervention in Libya will see blow-back in the near future, and Libyans will be found among those Muslim fanatics who seek to attack us--NOT because of our freedoms, but because of the decision of the Federal government to bomb their lands and intervene in their domestic affairs.

Contrary to the Federal Government which points the finger at We the People as the reason for domestic Muslim terrorism, We the People are not the cause. But we are the solution.

We must stop electing those who make and maintain aggressive, interventionist foreign policy. We must elect those who support the Monroe Doctrine of domestic defense and reject the Bush interventionist policy of aggression and pre-emption; we must choose those who seek a peaceful foreign policy, who are willing to negotiate and end sanctions that harm the citizens of Muslim lands, starving their children (while having virtually no effect on the rulers). We must seek to elect those who are desirous of establishing peaceful trade with all who are willing to do so. THAT, not aggressive interventionism driven by the Military/Industrial complex and promoted by "manifest destiny" Neocon talking head progressives, THAT is the path to the restoration of American peace and prosperity.

Remember, peace and prosperity come together or not at all. And those who desire prosperity must seek and PRACTICE a policy of peace.

No comments:

Post a Comment