An interesting read from The Daily Mirror in England
Well, I told myself that I didn't want to throw politics into LiveJournal, but in this day and age, with me feeling so strongly about the way the world is so full of stupidity, hate, and ignorance, I had to put this in. It's an Excerpt from a normally left-wing paper in England, by an author who seems to have come to many of the same conclusions about the world as I. It's a good read, if a little long.
>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2003 6:12 PM
> Subject: From the London Daily Mirror : America (must read)
>
>
>
> Subject: FW: From the London Daily Mirror : America (must read)
>
>
> This says it all.
>
> From the London Daily Mirror :
>
> No matter what your views on President Bush's
> statement of upcoming war, this, from an English
> journalist, is very interesting. For those of you not
> 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. And it 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 and wives, and children,
> some unborn.
>
> And these people brought it on themselves? And 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.
>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2003 6:12 PM
> Subject: From the London Daily Mirror : America (must read)
>
>
>
> Subject: FW: From the London Daily Mirror : America (must read)
>
>
> This says it all.
>
> From the London Daily Mirror :
>
> No matter what your views on President Bush's
> statement of upcoming war, this, from an English
> journalist, is very interesting. For those of you not
> 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. And it 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 and wives, and children,
> some unborn.
>
> And these people brought it on themselves? And 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.