There has been a noticable lack of moral indignation over the bombing of civilians. Hardly any mention is given to it in the media. There is almost total support for a president who seems the least qualified of any previous president and liberalism is practically as dead as socialism. And there is no consensus on the left about Afghanistan or about Israel. Can we finally say with complete finality that the New Deal is also dead?
The distinction being made is between OUR soldiers and the soldiers of Allah who are willing to die for their cause and consider themselves "martyrs" who consider all of us their enemies, even civilians, whereas OUR soldiers wear uniforms and they try to avoid killing civilians.
That is the big difference between their soldiers and our soldiers and that is what makes the one our hero and makes the other "evil", according to George W. The morality of killing has boundaries and their soldiers exceed a boundary that is used to distinquish "good" killing from "bad" killing.
There is also the distinction of imposing our standards on other cultures and of replacing governments, which we call illegal by whatever justification we choose to use while supporting other governments by whatever justification we choose to use for our support. As the richest and most powerful country in the world we can do that and get away with it. Who is going to stop us?
Today George W was on the radio talking about going after terrorists everywhere. Everywhere there is dissent will most assuredly become a target for George W.
"The failed American Dream can give way to a new American fairness or a neofascist nightmare. It depends on whose pupulism triumphs. Progressive populism. Or the reactionary populism of the David Dukes." Holly Sklar wrote that in an essay called "Brave New World Order". He could have been writing it today about George Bush who has populist support for his neo-fascism.
He also wrote: "The United States must shed its military-industrial complex and convert to a socially and ecologically responsible economy. We should make rapid progress on comprehensive nuclear and conventional disarmament and demilitarize international affairs. We don't need Star Wars to shoot down nuclear missiles in space; we need nonproliferation and disarmament to dismantle them before they get off the ground." He could have been writing that today, but he wrote it after the Gulf War for in a compilation of articles for COLLATERAL DAMAGE, and nobody was listening to the left then and nobody is listening to the left now.
Not even the left is listening to the left and certainly NOT THE CHILDREN OF THE LEFT. They're turning to New Age and fundamentalist religions and one of them was John Walker Lindh.
John Walker Lindh received his combat training at an al-Qaeda camp in northern Afghanistan. John grew up in a LEFT-liberal family and like many children of the left, he wasn't listening and continued to search for something. When he turned to Islam, and became involved with al-Qaeda, his mother said "he must have been brainwashed." His parents said he was good boy, "a really sweet boy."
Lindh, a lawyer from San Rafael, California, said: "I never saw John being a terrorist or having any violent or military inclinations. He is a good-natured kid. I don't think he's done anything wrong."
[12-05-2001-The Mirror]
"Young Mr. Walker's parents, while he had them both, seem to have been
fabulously tolerant. They encouraged him to find, among other things,
his own religious faith (just as Mom, a sort of Buddhist, had found
hers). Whether or not the faith to be discovered was true was, I
gather, beside the point. That would be because truth, as attested to
by philosophers, theologians, poets and statesmen, seems to have
vanished from the planet. We simply don't acknowledge it. It's all
opinion or perspective now: Mine being no better than yours or yours
than mine. Everything is the same. (Except that maybe - maybe - the
American way of life, corrupted as it is by materialism - is a little
less worthy of respect than other, "purer" ways. The Margaret Mead
thing, you know.)" [12-13-2001; Publication: The Washington Times]
"Most teenagers, when they rebel, say they want more freedom. John
Walker Lindh rebelled against freedom. He did not demand to express
himself in different ways. Quite the opposite. He wanted to be told
precisely how to dress, to eat, to think, to pray. He wanted a value
system of absolutes, and he was willing to go to extreme lengths to
find it. Lindh, who grew up surrounded by upper-middle-class affluence
in California, was determined to fit in at the Islamic religious
school, an austere one-story building in a tiny village outside the
town of Bannu in the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan. Speaking
with Mufti Iltimas, Lindh was critical of America as a land that
exalted self above all else. Americans were so busy pursuing their
personal goals, he said, that they had no time for their families or
communities. In the Islamic world, by contrast, he felt cared for by
others. "In the U.S. I feel alone," he said. "Here I feel comfortable
and at home."" [Newsweek, 12-17-2001]
"The story of John Phillip Walker Lindh, a.k.a. Suleyman al-Faris,
a.k.a. Abdul Hamid (his Taliban nom de guerre), a.k.a. John Walker, is
one of the truly perplexing and intriguing mysteries of the post-
September 11 universe. He grew up in possibly the most liberal,
tolerant place in America, yet he was drawn to the most illiberal,
intolerant sect in Islam, the Taliban. He told his parents he was
converting to Islam partly because it was a gentle, peace-loving
religion, yet he became a self-described "jihadist," a holy warrior,
and told our reporter that he "supported" the September 11 terrorist
attacks. His parents say he's a "victim" who was "in the wrong place
at the wrong time." But how, if he was really such a "good boy," did
he get there?" [Newsweek, 12-17-2001]
John was a child of the left.
He could have been your son.
TheGolem http://pnews.org/
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ "The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy: that is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." -- John Kenneth Galbraith ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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