Mark S. Blackburn,  Veteran USA

September Editorial:              Better to ask WHY, than WHO!           September 11, 2001

The shocking, tragic events of last week are awful and violent!  But, now I fear some of our leaders'  responses may be equally so.  Was this a terrorist act?  Or was this merely an 'eye for an eye' response for much more damaging acts the USA has carried out against other countries?

For instance, Madelyn Albright, former Secretary of State, admitted that the USA has killed 500,000 Iraqi children since 1991.

Aren't Americans peculiar people?  They don't like it when 6800 Americans are bombed (as happened last week), but they think Iraqis like it when we bomb 1.25 MILLION of them!   This is utterly amazing!  Or are we all so 'dumbed down' and poorly informed by our government-controlled media, that we are unaware of our wide scale warfare against much of the world?  

September 11, 2001    appx. 9:00am

Thanks to Presidents  Clinton,  Bush (Sr.), and Reagan and their massive bomb-dropping campaigns, they have achieved for the USA "Most Hated Nation" status among much of the world who have tired of detonating the many missiles we send to them.

Our misguided leaders are vote-buyers and deceivers.  And, with their war-machine  government they ignore the advice of our first President and Statesman, George Washington, who in his farewell address  said,  "Observe good faith and justice towards all nations..."

Instead, our  violent leaders have fomented assassinations, wars, insurgencies, revolutions, corruption, murder and mayhem in nearly every corner of the globe.  I personally witnessed this while ostensibly 'defending democracy' in Central America in the late 1970s.  The carnage and suffering we caused in Central America during the 1980s is an international disgrace!  The perverse actions of violent US leaders in the Mid-East, Africa, SE Asia, and Eastern Europe are indefensible to hundreds of millions of people around the world.   

The IRS brutalizes our paychecks every week depriving many Americans of the money necessary to clothe, house and educate their families.  Then, with the money they steal, they pay for bombs to murder innocent victims.

They point the finger at other countries for violations of human rights but cannot recognize the greater violation which occurs when they steal your money and mine to kill innocent people we would NEVER want killed.  I consider this a great violation of my human rights, and would suggest that peace-loving nations place embargoes and sanctions against the leaders of the US government.  And, we as citizens must become more vocal in opposition to our misguided leaders.

We do not have to be the world's bully!  They would get along fine if we quit bombing them. 

It is no wonder that the USA is a target for revenge.  This compromise of your national security was caused directly by the irresponsibility & unwarranted aggression of the professional politicians who pretend to lead this once great nation.

Those who live by the sword must die by the sword.  The unseemly aggression of our violent leaders has brought a curse on our Country.  I pray that Americans will wake up and seek peace.  I pray that our violent leaders will admit their wrongdoing, and stop their aggression so that our children might know peace!

I challenge each peace-loving American to contact your elected officials and demand that they stop the madness.  Let's be voices for peace, not of escalation of a war that everyone will lose.  

"I am against war, since war means destruction, hurt and ruin. Nobody should like war especially when all the great powers of the world gang up against one country in an unequal war and try to destroy all signs of progress and make the country go back to the middle ages. People are starving to death and inflation is murder. Missiles and bombs do not think, they hit and explode-whether you are military or civilian, sick or well, old or young, men or women, you die. Where do you go to hide?"

-- Iraqi woman over 50 years old

The WhiteHouse  http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Your Congressperson:  http://www.berkshire.net/~ifas/activist/index2.html

Matthew 5:

"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' ⁴⁴ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Romans 12:

¹⁴ Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not. ¹⁵ Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. ¹⁶ Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. ¹⁷ Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. ¹⁸ If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.

¹⁹ Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.  ²⁰ Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. ²¹ Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

What do I think is the appropriate response for the USA to take?

I would like to see the US Government admit to the world that it has been a dominant terrorist organization and repent for it's shameful global terrorism which has included the 3rd largest atrocity of genocide in the last 100 years:  the murdering of 1.25 MILLION innocent Iraqi citizens since our incessant bombing raids began in 1991.  (Madelyn Albright has admitted that we have killed at least 1/2 MILLION children in Iraq alone).  She even said it was "worth the collateral cost."  What, on God's Earth was worth the cost?  What has been accomplished, other than to make us the most despised and hated nation on the planet?    

I would like to see current human needs met as expeditiously as possible.  I would like to see a memorial built near the former site of the world trade center, the bulk of it being returned to the Native Americans who years ago said it would be very bad luck to build there as it was a Native America burial ground.  I would suggest that doing nothing whatever to retaliate is the best & safest response we could make.   

This would amaze the world much more than the latest weaponry show as we enjoyed raining down on Iraq in 1991 where we murdered 250,000 citizens in just 60 days.  

If the USA showed the greater leadership of contrition and a willingness to live in peace using diplomacy not bombs, it would make the world a much more secure, peaceful place.  I believe it would put an end to the desire for full [or further] revenge for the heinous genocidal crimes Presidents Reagan, Bush, and Clinton have committed against innocent civilian populations around the globe in the past 2 decades.  Further, doing nothing will not mortgage the future of my (and your) children with more war debt.

Clearly dropping ever more bombs will only cause others to predictably HATE the USA even more, if such a thing were possible.  Following a peaceful path I think will signal even to the nations which hate us for good reason to look on us with [some] pity and sympathy.  Now they simply see us as terrorists--Much worse terrorists than the ones which killed 6800 Americans on September 11.

-A Veteran name Mark

Have you forgotten what WAR is?

Mark Blackburn

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Mark S. Blackburn, MBA

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