Post by Bret Walker on Apr 2, 2003 10:40:59 GMT -5
You know, even if the US wins the war in Iraq, we will still lose.
Why are we in this war in the first place? To protect ourselves from the threat of weapons of mass destruction? To topple a sadistic and tyranical regime? Partly. But we wouldn't even consider these threats to be real if it weren't for the WTC and Pentagon bombings of 2001. We do an awful lot in the name of the victims of September 11th these days. And who is the man responsible for that carnage? Osama Bin Laden is the self-proclaimed leader of Al-Qaida, the admitted architect of the suicide bombings that shook this nation to its foundations.
But what is it that drove the man to such violence? Islam does not teach violence, but peace. But what Islam does teach is an eye for an eye. Osama Bin Laden was a Saudi national during the time of the first Gulf War. He saw it as an affront to the Saudis that the US meddled in what he saw as an inter-arab affair. By action, the US - in Bin Laden's eyes - made the Saudis look weak and helpless, and brought shame and dishonor to his people by portraying them as defenseless, in need of aid to defend themselves. He saw the invasion of Kuwait as between the Iraqis and the Kuwaitis, and did not think that the US needed to meddle where it didn't belong. And he saw through the farce of the US saying it was acting on the good of the Kuwaiti people. He knew that the US was merely trying to protect its oil interests in the middle east.
It was Osama Bin Laden who took all this as a direct slap in the face for all Arabs. It was Osama Bin Laden who orchestrated the bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia (a place where I once stayed as a soldier in the first Gulf War). It was Osama Bin Laden, many suspect, who helped to plan the ambushing of the troops in Somalia, who funded the warlords in their quest to rid the African nation of yet another meddlesome force. It was Osama Bin Laden who took credit for the suicide bombing of the USS Cole in the Persian Gulf. All because we just HAD to defend Kuwait, at the cost of one man's pride in his Arab roots.
And it was Osama Bin Laden who got 19 arab men to hijack planes on September 11th, 2001, with the intent of crashing them into the WTC and the Pentagon, and who knows where else? If it hadn't been for the heroic actions of a few passengers, the fourth plane may have been headed toward the White House they say.
So here we are, meddling where we don't belong yet again, and pissing off even more Arabs. No matter what the outcome of the current war in Iraq, I fear that US-Arab relations will forever be dammaged even further by these actions. And I wonder how many Iraqi children will lose their parents at the point of our guns, and will grow into new Osama Bin Ladens with more rage and bloodlust toward Americans everywhere, whether they endorsed the war or not. I wonder how many new Osama Bin Ladens will be born everywhere in the Arab world, raised with a hatred for the US.
And each and every one of them will be the direct result of this war. And each and every one of them will be justified in their actions. And each and every one of them will be the creation of our own modern-day Dr. Frankenstein, George W. Bush, sitting in his White House laboratory, raising the hatred for America from the dead, playing God with Arab emotions.
And I'd like to thank George W. Bush right now for creating the world of fear and retribution that my children will grow up in.
Why are we in this war in the first place? To protect ourselves from the threat of weapons of mass destruction? To topple a sadistic and tyranical regime? Partly. But we wouldn't even consider these threats to be real if it weren't for the WTC and Pentagon bombings of 2001. We do an awful lot in the name of the victims of September 11th these days. And who is the man responsible for that carnage? Osama Bin Laden is the self-proclaimed leader of Al-Qaida, the admitted architect of the suicide bombings that shook this nation to its foundations.
But what is it that drove the man to such violence? Islam does not teach violence, but peace. But what Islam does teach is an eye for an eye. Osama Bin Laden was a Saudi national during the time of the first Gulf War. He saw it as an affront to the Saudis that the US meddled in what he saw as an inter-arab affair. By action, the US - in Bin Laden's eyes - made the Saudis look weak and helpless, and brought shame and dishonor to his people by portraying them as defenseless, in need of aid to defend themselves. He saw the invasion of Kuwait as between the Iraqis and the Kuwaitis, and did not think that the US needed to meddle where it didn't belong. And he saw through the farce of the US saying it was acting on the good of the Kuwaiti people. He knew that the US was merely trying to protect its oil interests in the middle east.
It was Osama Bin Laden who took all this as a direct slap in the face for all Arabs. It was Osama Bin Laden who orchestrated the bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia (a place where I once stayed as a soldier in the first Gulf War). It was Osama Bin Laden, many suspect, who helped to plan the ambushing of the troops in Somalia, who funded the warlords in their quest to rid the African nation of yet another meddlesome force. It was Osama Bin Laden who took credit for the suicide bombing of the USS Cole in the Persian Gulf. All because we just HAD to defend Kuwait, at the cost of one man's pride in his Arab roots.
And it was Osama Bin Laden who got 19 arab men to hijack planes on September 11th, 2001, with the intent of crashing them into the WTC and the Pentagon, and who knows where else? If it hadn't been for the heroic actions of a few passengers, the fourth plane may have been headed toward the White House they say.
So here we are, meddling where we don't belong yet again, and pissing off even more Arabs. No matter what the outcome of the current war in Iraq, I fear that US-Arab relations will forever be dammaged even further by these actions. And I wonder how many Iraqi children will lose their parents at the point of our guns, and will grow into new Osama Bin Ladens with more rage and bloodlust toward Americans everywhere, whether they endorsed the war or not. I wonder how many new Osama Bin Ladens will be born everywhere in the Arab world, raised with a hatred for the US.
And each and every one of them will be the direct result of this war. And each and every one of them will be justified in their actions. And each and every one of them will be the creation of our own modern-day Dr. Frankenstein, George W. Bush, sitting in his White House laboratory, raising the hatred for America from the dead, playing God with Arab emotions.
And I'd like to thank George W. Bush right now for creating the world of fear and retribution that my children will grow up in.