[MD] Barbarian attack

[Arlo J. Bensinger]

[Mike wrote]
Who's excusing him? Saddam was a bastard. ('But at least he was our bastard'...
back in the '80s!) And on what grounds do you lump him into your "barbarian"
category with the fundamentalist Muslims?

[Arlo]
Right on. And right on to Khaled too (this time it is I am who am with you,
amigo). Only one of the many reasons the Righteous Chest Thumping of the
right-wing fanatics is pure hypocrisy. Let's compound this by reminding the
Moral Army that the U.S. of A. blocked... that's right... blocked, a UN censure
of Iraq when Iraq, under good ol' Saddam, was using chemical agents against
Iranian targets. This was Father Reagan. The King of All Right Wing Chest
Thumpers. Funny how Saddam was not "evil and needed to be removed" back then,
isn't it? Funny how we supplied him with weapons when he wanted to kill
Iranians, isn't it? Funny how we then turned around and sold arms to Iranians.
All in the name of the God of Right-Wing Fanatics, The Dollar. Yep, that
indignant claim of riding the moral high-horse is funny every time I read it.
Ooooo... Saddam was evil. Yep, he was. Maybe we shouldn't have supported his
regime by allowing him to continue, uncensured, to use chemical weapons against
Iranians. I mean, geeee, do ya think that was smart? Do you wonder why maybe
some Iranians might think we suck? If Canada was using chemical weapons on the
US, and the UN moved to censure and Iceland blocked that censure because it was
supplying arms to Canada, do ya think some Americans might hate Iceland? Rocket
science, isn't it?

Here's another one. The Iranian Nuclear Program. Puhleaze. Hmm... how did Iran
get so far along with nuclear technology that they are close to being able to
build a bomb? Hmmm... oh yes, right-wing fanatics in the states in the 60s and
70s began a program of selling nuclear technology to a dictator who was
actively dismantling civil liberties in his country. But, hey, he was selling
us cheap oil. What's a little despotism and crushed civil liberties when he's a
friendly dictator? Let's sell him nuclear technology. Do ya think that maybe,
juuuuuuuuust maybe, if we listened to the hippies in the 60s and didn't sell an
Iranian dictator who was oppressing his people nuclear technology we just might
not be in this mess? I mean, is that rocket science?

So while the hippies were protesting nuclear power, the right-wing loonies sold
that technology to a despotic dictator to assure ourselves cheap oil. And now
that same right-wing blames the hippies. How sad and funny.

Oh, and then let's all like Mr. Morality and say we are champions of "liberty of
freedom". Do ya think that rings true with most Iranians who remember our
strong support of a dictator that did away with their civil liberties. Do ya
think that maybe, juuuuuuuust maybe, if we supported secular liberalism INSTEAD
OF the despotic ruler that the revolution may have put a pro-American liberal
government into place?

But of course, all this requires something other than simply masturbating one's
righteousness over "the enemy". Something right-wing fanatics here and there
are evidently quite incapable of doing. Lest you think I am being critical only
of the American Hypocrits, here's one for the other team. Do ya think that
maybe, juuuuuuuuuuust maybe, rioting, burning embassies, calling for
assassinations and killing people because your religion has been portrayed as
violent is kinda furthering that sentiment rather than stopping it? Want to
live up to your name (Islam means "peace") then follow Gandhi and stage
peaceful resistence. Go on hunger strikes, volunteer to read to kids, come over
to my house and cook me some  Kabab kubideh, but engaging in violence to
protest being portrayed as violent is only going to make people who were on the
fence become fearful.

You think the Palestinians would've figured that one out too. How much sympathy
do you think you'll get by blowing up a supermarket full of women and children?
What you'll do is fan the flames of right-wing fanaticism in other countries.
Such as here. But hey, the Israelis still haven't figured out that moving
people off their land, denying them citizenship in the "new state", denying
them use of certain roads, ummm... basically making them second class citizens,
is gonna create a lot of hate. God only can imagine what the Carolinian people
would do if China came over here and moved them all out of North and South
Caroline to make way for a new Cherokee Nation. And then denied them
citizenship in this new country. And Tennessee said, hell no, we don't want
'em. And so the American Carolian peoples would have to live in refugee camps
along the Tennessee/Cherokee border. Yeah, I think that would piss some of 'em
off. 

And so the pissing math continues. Both sides more eager to piss their
self-professed Righteousness than to actually stop and look in a mirror. I'm
with Khaled, I'm sick of it. It's obviously not going to change, just look at
the dialogue. Bring on Armageddon. Cry havoc, and let loose the dogs of war.
Mayhap you'll join us in the bunker? We could commit right-wing heresy and
listen to some ol' sixties hippie music. Here's one I've been listening to
lately. Although its about Lennon, it could easily be about the death of
hippiedom and the rise of militant right-wing fanaticism across the globe.

The Fall of the Peacemakers (Molly Hatchet)

A king without a sword
A land without a king
A truth without a voice
One song left to sing
One song to sing
A wise man told me there's something you should know
The way you judge a man is to look into his soul
And you'll soon see everything.
A voice from the past cried Give peace a chance
He paid our price now he's free at last
Imagine, we called him a dreamer!
How many times must good men die?
How many tears will the children cry?
'Til they suffer no more sadness
Stop the madness,
Oh, stop the madness.
If ashes are ashes and dust is dust
At our journey's end then return we must
To the sands of the shore
White doves in flight
Peace to all
But tell me why the peacemakers fall
Must we bury anymore?
The hush of the crowd as the horse rode by
A black lace veil hid the tears from her eyes
And we all wept in silence
How many times must good men die?
How many times will the children cry?
'Til they suffer no more sadness
Oh, stop the madness
Oh, stop all the madness.

There, that's a better thought to end this than my very obvious annoyance with
the right-wing pissing contest that is the coming war. Sorry for the rant. Now
I need a beer.

Arlo