Knight440
03-07-2003, 09:24 AM
Message from England
No matter what your views on President Bush's statement of upcoming war,
this, from an English journalist, is very interesting. Just a word of
background, for those of you who aren't familiar with the UK's Daily Mirror. This is a
notoriously left-wing daily that is normally not supportive of the
"Colonials" across the Atlantic. ************************************************** **********************
Tony Parsons Daily Mirror September 11, 2002
One year ago, the world witnessed a unique kind of broadcasting-
the mass murder of thousands, live on television. As a lesson in the
pitiless cruelty of the human race, September 11 was up there with Pol
Pot's Mountain of Skulls in Cambodia, or the skeletal bodies stacked like
garbage in the Nazi concentration camps.
An unspeakable act so cruel, so calculated and so utterly merciless
that surely the world could agree on one thing - nobody deserves this
fate.
Surely there could be consensus: The victims were truly innocent, the
perpetrators truly evil.
But to the world's eternal shame, 9/11 is increasingly seen as
America's comeuppance. Incredibly, anti-Americanism has increased over
the last year. There has always been a simmering resentment to the USA in
this country; too loud, too rich, too full of themselves, and so much happier
than Europeans - but it has become an epidemic. That resentment seems
incredible to me. More than that, it turns my stomach.
America is this country's greatest friend and our staunchest ally.
We are bonded to the US by culture, language and blood. A little over
half a century ago, around half a million Americans died for our
freedoms, as well as their own. Have we forgotten so soon? And exactly a year ago,
thousands of ordinary men, women and children - not just Americans, but from
dozens of countries, were butchered by a small group of religious fanatics.
Are we so quick to betray them?
What touched the heart about those who died in the Twin Towers and
on the planes, was that we recognized them. Young fathers and mothers,
somebody's son and somebody's daughter, husbands, wives, and children,
some yet unborn. And these people brought it on themselves? Their
nation is to blame for their meticulously planned slaughter?
These days you don't have to be some dust-encrusted nut job in Kabul
or Karachi or Finsbury Park to see America as the Great Satan. The
anti-American alliance is made up of self-loathing liberals who blame
the Americans for every ill in the Third World, and conservatives suffering
from power-envy, bitter that the world's only superpower can do what it likes
without having to ask permission.
The truth is that America has behaved with enormous restraint since
September 11.
Remember, remember -
Remember the gut-wrenching tapes of weeping men phoning their wives
to say, "I love you," before they were burned alive.
Remember those people leaping to their deaths from the top of
burning skyscrapers.
Remember the hundreds of firemen buried alive.
Remember the smiling face of that beautiful little girl who was on
one of the planes with her mum.
Remember, remember -
And realize that America has never retaliated for 9/11 in anything
like the way it could have.
So a few al-Qaeda tourists got locked without a trial in Camp X-ray?
Pass the Kleenex...
So some Afghan wedding receptions were shot up after they merrily
fired their semi-automatics in a sky full of American planes? A shame,
but maybe next time they should stick to confetti.
AMERICA could have turned a large chunk of the world into a parking
lot. That it didn't is a sign of strength. American voices are already
being raised against attacking Iraq - that's what a democracy is for.
How many in the Islamic world will have a minute's silence for the
slaughtered innocents of 9/11? How many Islamic leaders will have the guts to say
that the mass murder of 9/11 was an abomination?
When the news of 9/11 broke on the West Bank, those freedom-loving
Palestinians were dancing in the street. America watched all of that -
and didn't push the button. We should thank the stars that America is the
most powerful nation in the world. I still find it incredible that 9/11 did
not provoke all-out war. Not a "war on terrorism." A real war.
The fundamentalist dudes are talking about "opening the gates of
hell," if America attacks Iraq. Well, America could have opened the
gates of hell like you wouldn't believe!
The US is the most militarily powerful nation that ever strode the
face of the earth. The campaign in Afghanistan may have been less than
perfect and the planned war on Iraq may be misconceived.
But don't blame America for not bringing peace and light to these
wretched countries. How many democracies are there in the Middle East,
or in the Muslim world? You can count them on the fingers of one hand -
assuming you haven't had any chopped off for minor shoplifting.
I love America, yet America is hated. I guess that makes me Bush's
poodle. But I would rather be a dog in New York City than a Prince in
Riyadh. Above all, America is hated because it is what every country
wants to be - rich, free, strong, open, optimistic. Not ground down by the
past, or religion, or some caste system. America is the best friend this
country ever had and we should start remembering that.
Or do you really think the USA is the root of all evil? Tell it to
the loved ones of the men and women who leaped to their death from the
burning towers.
Tell it to the nursing mothers whose husbands died on one of the
hijacked planes, or were ripped apart in a collapsing skyscraper. And
tell it to the hundreds of young widows whose husbands worked for the New
York Fire Department.
To our shame, George Bush gets a worse press than Saddam Hussein.
Once we were told that Saddam gassed the Kurds, tortured his own people
and set up rape-camps in Kuwait. Now we are told he likes Quality Street.
Save me the orange center, Oh Mighty One!
Remember, remember, September 11 -One of the greatest atrocities in
human history was committed against America. No. Do more than remember; never
forget!
No matter what your views on President Bush's statement of upcoming war,
this, from an English journalist, is very interesting. Just a word of
background, for those of you who aren't familiar with the UK's Daily Mirror. This is a
notoriously left-wing daily that is normally not supportive of the
"Colonials" across the Atlantic. ************************************************** **********************
Tony Parsons Daily Mirror September 11, 2002
One year ago, the world witnessed a unique kind of broadcasting-
the mass murder of thousands, live on television. As a lesson in the
pitiless cruelty of the human race, September 11 was up there with Pol
Pot's Mountain of Skulls in Cambodia, or the skeletal bodies stacked like
garbage in the Nazi concentration camps.
An unspeakable act so cruel, so calculated and so utterly merciless
that surely the world could agree on one thing - nobody deserves this
fate.
Surely there could be consensus: The victims were truly innocent, the
perpetrators truly evil.
But to the world's eternal shame, 9/11 is increasingly seen as
America's comeuppance. Incredibly, anti-Americanism has increased over
the last year. There has always been a simmering resentment to the USA in
this country; too loud, too rich, too full of themselves, and so much happier
than Europeans - but it has become an epidemic. That resentment seems
incredible to me. More than that, it turns my stomach.
America is this country's greatest friend and our staunchest ally.
We are bonded to the US by culture, language and blood. A little over
half a century ago, around half a million Americans died for our
freedoms, as well as their own. Have we forgotten so soon? And exactly a year ago,
thousands of ordinary men, women and children - not just Americans, but from
dozens of countries, were butchered by a small group of religious fanatics.
Are we so quick to betray them?
What touched the heart about those who died in the Twin Towers and
on the planes, was that we recognized them. Young fathers and mothers,
somebody's son and somebody's daughter, husbands, wives, and children,
some yet unborn. And these people brought it on themselves? Their
nation is to blame for their meticulously planned slaughter?
These days you don't have to be some dust-encrusted nut job in Kabul
or Karachi or Finsbury Park to see America as the Great Satan. The
anti-American alliance is made up of self-loathing liberals who blame
the Americans for every ill in the Third World, and conservatives suffering
from power-envy, bitter that the world's only superpower can do what it likes
without having to ask permission.
The truth is that America has behaved with enormous restraint since
September 11.
Remember, remember -
Remember the gut-wrenching tapes of weeping men phoning their wives
to say, "I love you," before they were burned alive.
Remember those people leaping to their deaths from the top of
burning skyscrapers.
Remember the hundreds of firemen buried alive.
Remember the smiling face of that beautiful little girl who was on
one of the planes with her mum.
Remember, remember -
And realize that America has never retaliated for 9/11 in anything
like the way it could have.
So a few al-Qaeda tourists got locked without a trial in Camp X-ray?
Pass the Kleenex...
So some Afghan wedding receptions were shot up after they merrily
fired their semi-automatics in a sky full of American planes? A shame,
but maybe next time they should stick to confetti.
AMERICA could have turned a large chunk of the world into a parking
lot. That it didn't is a sign of strength. American voices are already
being raised against attacking Iraq - that's what a democracy is for.
How many in the Islamic world will have a minute's silence for the
slaughtered innocents of 9/11? How many Islamic leaders will have the guts to say
that the mass murder of 9/11 was an abomination?
When the news of 9/11 broke on the West Bank, those freedom-loving
Palestinians were dancing in the street. America watched all of that -
and didn't push the button. We should thank the stars that America is the
most powerful nation in the world. I still find it incredible that 9/11 did
not provoke all-out war. Not a "war on terrorism." A real war.
The fundamentalist dudes are talking about "opening the gates of
hell," if America attacks Iraq. Well, America could have opened the
gates of hell like you wouldn't believe!
The US is the most militarily powerful nation that ever strode the
face of the earth. The campaign in Afghanistan may have been less than
perfect and the planned war on Iraq may be misconceived.
But don't blame America for not bringing peace and light to these
wretched countries. How many democracies are there in the Middle East,
or in the Muslim world? You can count them on the fingers of one hand -
assuming you haven't had any chopped off for minor shoplifting.
I love America, yet America is hated. I guess that makes me Bush's
poodle. But I would rather be a dog in New York City than a Prince in
Riyadh. Above all, America is hated because it is what every country
wants to be - rich, free, strong, open, optimistic. Not ground down by the
past, or religion, or some caste system. America is the best friend this
country ever had and we should start remembering that.
Or do you really think the USA is the root of all evil? Tell it to
the loved ones of the men and women who leaped to their death from the
burning towers.
Tell it to the nursing mothers whose husbands died on one of the
hijacked planes, or were ripped apart in a collapsing skyscraper. And
tell it to the hundreds of young widows whose husbands worked for the New
York Fire Department.
To our shame, George Bush gets a worse press than Saddam Hussein.
Once we were told that Saddam gassed the Kurds, tortured his own people
and set up rape-camps in Kuwait. Now we are told he likes Quality Street.
Save me the orange center, Oh Mighty One!
Remember, remember, September 11 -One of the greatest atrocities in
human history was committed against America. No. Do more than remember; never
forget!