| Webmaster |
Iraq
Religion and the war in Iraq
Hank Levin writes: "Why is it no surprise that Christopher Jones' discussion
of enemies always ends with "Jews", the same religious group that
voted heavily against Bush and will continue to do so. I haven't seen any religion
polls on opposing the Iraq conflagration, but I suspect that the percentage
of Jews opposed to it are higher than whatever religious or ethnic group Christopher
Jones belongs to. This is an interesting challenge".
Hank Levin wondered to what religious group Christopher Jones belongs. He replies:
"As a lapsed Catholic and a strong follower of Friederich Nietzsche, I
don't think we show up on the polls. As a product of a Cuban and a Virginian
whose family in that state goes back to the late 17th century, I have to admit,
I am not represented by any powerful lobby. I detest the presidency of George
W Bush for a simple reason: he lied to me. There were no WMD. I consider his
foreign policy a disaster. He has played into the hands of Osamah bin Laden
and promoted terrorism through his mindless following of the criminal Sharon.
As for Bush, I admit that socialist Jews (who founded Bolshevism) have always
voted heavily Democratic as was the case since FDR. However, Bush picked up
the conservative Zionist vote -- a group at home with Likud. So, whoever wins
the election, the monolithic Jewish stranglehold of the United States will continue
-- look at the figures John Heelan gave for the big lobbies: only the Jews are
not forced to fully report (AIPAC). Yet again, I am forced to say that all Jews
are not supportive of the colonisation by the US; there are some wonderful individuals
who have kept their heads and denounced these crazy, dangerous policies based
on the suffering of the Arabs and the colonisation of territory".
Bert Westbrook recalled from the Vietnam war "a very famous picture, which
may have been the cover of Time magazine, of a girl fleeing a napalm attack.
She survived, moved to the U.S., and went to college" RH:.That picture
went around the world, but the treatment she got in the US and her going to
college here received little notice. Where is she now? Forgotten. This is the
nature of photography, which seeks dramatic scenes but is little interested
in quiet, prosaic, constructive work.
David Krieger objects: "What are these comments meant to imply? That the
US is a compassionate nation because we on occasion provide aid to some of our
victims? I would say that the fact that we used napalm on the Vietnamese people
says more about who we are than any “quiet, prosaic constructive work”
that occurs in the aftermath of our illegal warfare. That photograph of the
young girl reflected the horror of what we were doing to the Vietnamese people
with our high altitude bombing in general and napalm attacks in particular.
These are images that our war-making leaders would prefer to keep from the American
people, so it is very important that they reach the public.
Today our cowardly leaders have prohibitions on photographing the flagged-draped
coffins of our dead soldiers returning from Iraq. Michael Moore’s new
film has some images that everyone in America should see, particularly those
of grieving Iraqis after our bombings, of a grieving American mother after learning
of her son’s death in Iraq, of the eager corporate war profiteers, and
of the close business connections between the Bushes and the Saudis.
The image that best represents the Iraq War for me is that of Ali Ishmael Abaas,
the 12 year old Iraq boy who lost not only most of his family but both his arms
in a US bombing attack. Because he has been given prosthetics doesn’t
change the nature of this tragedy. It is very disturbing that there is no “quiet,
prosaic, constructive work” going on among leading figures in our country
to see that there are Nuremberg-like trials for Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice,
Powell and other top leaders who lied us into an illegal, aggressive war, resulting
in the deaths thus far of more than 10,000 Iraqi civilians and nearly 1,000
“coalition” forces".
RH: The fact remains that news photographers prefer dramatic scenes to quiet,
prosaic, constructive work. We are getting two versions of the Iraq war. The
media, especially TV, stress the atrocities. In the Senate, Bill Frist enumerated
all the good deeds of the US in Iraq: schools, hospitals, etc. are functioning.
Both versions are correct, but neither is complete.
| Webmaster |