Gość: Cody
IP: *.dynamic.ziplink.net
27.09.01, 04:00
...I was surprised to see so many in less than 24 hours, and I appreciate
them. I think that most of you have a clearer view of the situation than
many of my fellow Americans. Yes, we're awake now, but are we aware?
We are afraid. I think the whole world may be. But for us, it's a kind of fear
we've never known: our illusions of invinceability and impermeability have
been removed. This has challenged America's very identity - some very
fundamental beliefs have been rocked - and much of what I see here now
is a terrible, desperate grappling to hold on to the illusion of certainty that
nothing like this could ever happen to us. Because it has happened.
We in America have always believed that the government could and would
protect us. We have believed that all the wars we have fought, all the
bombs we have dropped have been in the interest of ourselves and of
freedom and democracy in the world. We need desperately to believe this
now...and yet we are confronted by hard truths.
It is almost forbidden now, here, to even question whether America's
policies and actions in the Middle East may have something to do with
what has happened. You cannot talk about it with your neighbors (or most
of them) - they'll tell you you're un-American, that you have no compassion
for those who died, or fury toward the attackers. To suggest that there has
been a long history of American activities in the Middle East, and that
America has not always been right, except in its own eyes, is heresy. No
one wants to hear it. It would make it too hard to maintain the illusion of
America as the benefactor of the world.
This illusion is what has allowed America to go shopping, confident that
the government was forging a path of justice all over the world. If there
was some nasty little skirmish, we'd watch it on TV and forget about it. I
am afraid that many Americans could only find Afghanistan on a map with
some effort. But many say they'd like to bomb it.
Venom, (great name) you really have got it right in your assessment of the
petro-powered vehicle situation. It is absurd - no, deranged - for us to be
using a 19th century transportation technology in the 21st century. We've
gone to the MOON, for God's sake! But yes, as long as no other vehicle is
produced, America's pursuits will be toward safeguarding the oil supply.
There was never another reason for America's persistence in the Middle
East. And for this we're on the brink of a war that endangers, possibly, all
life on this planet. But this is a most unpopular viewpoint here at home.
I'm going to cut this short now because my computer keeps crashing
when I write too much about America - I honestly don't think it's any kind of
censorship, but it is kind of wierd. So I'll send this now before I lose it -
already lost two today - and I hope you'll want to continue the discussion.
-Cody