My right-wing friend wrote this. I disagree with most of what he said...just wondering what you all think of it and would like to get some healthy discussion going...
Lately, I have witnessed, seen, and listened to anti-war sentiment. I, like every sane person am against war as a philosophy. War is the failing of politics. However, I believe that there are some wars that need to be fought. I believe in the words of Plato: “Only the dead have seen the end of wars.” Subsequently, I am for a war against Saddam and Iraq in order to deter future conflicts (possibly of a larger scale). A war to end wars, if you like. Anyways, I noticed that most of the voiced opinions of anti-war sentiment were, in reality, rather more anti-American than peace-promoting. I attended an American Department of Defence school in Izmir, Turkey from “day one” to graduation day. Therefore who and what I am today is largely due, with many thanks, to the American people and their nation. Therefore, I feel it as my duty to thank them for what they gave me, a sort of returning what I am in debt to this great nation. What follows is my obligation…
Over two years ago, a day that will live in infamy, the world witnessed a unique -kind of broadcasting – the mass-murder of thousands, LIVE on television. The events of September 11 were right up there with Pol Pot’s mountain of skulls in Cambodia, or the skeletal bodies stacked like garbage in the Nazi concentration camps. Chances are, people from my generation will be asked by their children, what exactly happened this particular event – where we were, what changed, did we change? September 11 was an act so cruel, so calculated, and so utterly merciless that SURELY, the world would have to agree on one thing: nobody deserves this fate. One thought that SURELY, there would be consensus: the victims were truly innocent, the perpetrators truly evil. But no… to the world’s eternal shame, 9/11 is increasingly seen as America’s fault. Some say that it was something waiting to happen; America had asked for a “wake-up call”; that they had brought it upon themselves. Incredibly, anti-Americanism has increased over the last year, with the possibility of war with Iraq. I have to say that there was resentment towards the USA even in my country, the UK. About a week ago, there was a million-person demonstration in the streets of London. It churned my stomach. However, I found some comfort in seeing the people at this day of protest. The people who rallied against - the US had for the most part, sported full-grown beards which my father would have been proud of and spoke tongues of Middle-Eastern origin, or they had berets with red stars, or symbols of pixels and hammers, these were probably the same people who took to the streets in the 70s in favour of the Soviet Union. Also, may I add, I saw several hippy leftovers who probably stuff themselves with every drug known to man, think that this world is one big happy family, and go by the philosophy of: “can’t we just all get along.” I completely ignore these types, because they protest everything and anything. They would protest against breathing if it was an American idea. "Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy, forget in time that men have died to win them"... I wonder if these hippies know where their right of protest came from. Did you know that people actually protested against Allied intervention against Nazi-Germany before World War II? There was a million-strong petition against the war. It makes one think… It goes to say that what these people think and want is not always right… probably never right, if you ask me.
I must admit, the US does have its faults as a nation, as we have ours, as does everyone. It is only human. And yes, the US has made mistakes in her foreign policy in the past, such as bombing what was then left of Yugoslavia. However, we cannot discard the US in this issue simply because it happened to make a mistake or two prior to this event. If we protest against the US, we are supporting the opposite cause, and frankly I believe the US is the lesser of two evils. Morever, what twists my stomach more than anything else is when people say the US is in this for national benefits (ie: oil). Ok smartpants, if the US were in it for oil, what in the Virgin Mary’s name where they doing in Somalia, Yugoslavia, or even Vietnam to that matter? Somalia, a country ridden of any natural resources, but still the US was involved and paid with the lives of 18 of her brave sons. Furthermore, oil prices after the Gulf War went up three-fold. And as it has been, the US economy has plunged into recession after each and every war since the Second World War. Where are the benefits in that? People are quick to criticize the ones who are better off – they are easy to label out the US as a "Great Satan". But I think of the US born out of the defeat of slavery. I think of its constitution, with its inalienable rights granted to each and every one of its citizen, STILL a model for the world. I think of a black man, born in poverty, who became chief of their armed forces and is now Secretary of State Colin Powell, and I WONDER, frankly, whether such a thing could have happened anywhere else on the globe. I think of the Statue of Liberty, and how many refugees, migrants and the impoverished people have passed under its shadow and felt that if at least not for themselves, then at least for their children, a new world could indeed BE THEIRS. I think of a country where people do not have questions asked about their accent, their class, their colour, their religion, or their beginnings, but have admiration for what they have done and the success they have achieved. This is perhaps, in my opinion, why the US and Americans are so great.
You know, there are certain people who will only look at certain aspects of a matter. They will only see a partial truth. These are people who have come out and said that while Europeans still lived in caves, they, in their own lands, were living in houses. Might be the case, I agree, but in our caves we made cave art. What do you have to show for yourself? These same people are those who cannot stand America’s greatness, and attempt to degrade Americans as one-language speaking “country hicks.” However, they are quick to forget that Americans speak all the languages of the world and form an astonishing mixture of civilizations. The US has every language, every religion, every race and creed represented within its borders.
For those who probably missed it, there was a piece of news last year about someone in Pakistan who had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American. So I stopped to think about this... AN AMERICAN? An American can be English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian, or Greek. An American may also be Mexican, Brazilian, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Australian, Persian, Asian, or Arab, or Afghani, or ironically, even Pakistani. An American may also be Cherokee, Hopi, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, or one of the many other tribes known as Native Americans. An American is Christian. Or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in the US than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in the US, people are free to worship as each of them choose. An American is also free not to believe in a religion. For that, he will only answer to God the Almighty, and not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government or God himself. An American is from the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God-given right of each man and woman to the pursuit of happiness. The US welcomes everyone, from every background into their country. The Statue of Liberty welcomes the tired… the poor… the homeless… and the unlucky… These in fact are the people who built the US. Some of them were working in the Twin Towers in the morning of September 11, earning a better life for their families. So you can try to kill an American, but, in doing so you would just be killing your own people, and probably yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place; they are the EMBODIMENT of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, EVERYWHERE, IS AN AMERICAN. So look around you… You may find more Americans than you thought were there. As for the Pakistani man who placed the ad… one day, the Americans in his land will rise up and overthrow the old, ignorant, tired people that trouble them. Nevertheless, the US will still welcome him and his old, and ignorant, and tired…
The September 11 tragedy turned three hundred million people into a hand put on a heart. Nobody rushed to accuse the White House, the military, or the secret service that they were insignificant. Nobody rushed to empty his or her bank accounts. Nobody rushed on the streets nearby to gape about. If not American, think of your country, and SERIOUSLY try to imagine a similar scene. I do not think you honestly can… and even if you do, you are probably wishful thinking - you can fool yourself, but not others. The Americans volunteered to donate blood and to give a helping hand. After the first moments of panic and shock, they raised their flag on the smoking ruins, putting on t-shirts, caps, and ties in their national colours. It was as if they were saying: THESE COLOURS DON’T RUN! They placed flags on buildings and cars as if in every place and on every car, a minister or president was passing by. On every occasion they were singing their national anthem.
Silent as a rock, I watched the charity concert broadcast a year on to the day of September 11. Once, twice, three times, on different TV channels. There was Clint Eastwood, Willie Nelson, Robert de Niro, Julia Roberts, Cassius Clay, Jack Nicholson, Bruce Springsteen, Silvester Stallone, James Wood, and many others whom no film or producers could ever bring together. The American solidarity spirit turned them into one huge choir. Actually, choir is not the word I was looking for. No, rather, what you could hear was the heavy artillery of the American will and soul. What neither George W. Bush, nor Bill Clinton, nor Colin Powell could say without facing the risk of stumbling over words, was being heard in a great and unmistakable way in this charity concert. I do not know how it happened that all this obsessive singing of America did not sound croaky or nationalistic! It made you green with envy because you could not sing for your country in the same way, no matter how hard you tried. I watched the live broadcast and the rerun of its rerun of its rerun for hours… listening to the story of the guy who went down one hundred floors with a woman in a wheelchair without knowing who she was, or for the Californian hockey player, who fought with the terrorists and prevented the plane from hitting another target that would have killed other thousands of people – it instead crashed into an open field. HOW on earth were they able to do this? WHAT on earth did they do this for? And with every phone call, millions and millions of dollars were put in a collection aimed at rewarding not a man or a family, but a spirit, which NOTHING CAN BUY.
What on earth can unite the Americans in such a way? Their land? Their great history? Their economic power? Military power? I tried for hours to find an answer… I was awake in my bed when the answer struck me like lightening on a clear day. It was four in the morning, I had thought for hours, and only finally reached a conclusion… Only freedom – AMERICAN FREEDOM, can work such miracles! And this freedom is not America’s gift to the world… but God’s gift to humanity.
Anyways, back to the protests in London… the US is Britain’s greatest friend and staunchest ally. To a certain point, I can understand the betrayments of France and Germany over the second UN resolution (or eighteenth depending on your viewpoint) concerning Iraq. Nevermind saving France in World War II, never mind all that. It is difficult to expect France to help get Saddam out of Iraq, when they did not even help get the Germans out of France! But if they can trade their rightful friends and allies in times of need for an Iraqi promise of $28 billion worth of crude oil, then they do not deserve to stand in our ranks – we will not risk our lives in their presence. However, in Britain’s case, we are bonded to the US by culture, language, and blood. We call the American’s our “cousins ac**** the sea.” And 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 FOR WHAT WE ALL STAND FOR: whether you call it freedom, capitalism, democracy, Christianity, westernism, Americansim, etc. Are we so quick to betray them? Last time I checked, it did not say FRENCH CITIZEN on my passport. My blood runs thicker than water! Oh, and I here is an idea… next time there is a war in Europe, the loser HAS to keep France.
What touched the hearts of millions about those who died in the Twin Towers and on the planes was that we recognized them. They were us. Just as I explained in the Pakistani newspaper advertisement. Young fathers and mothers, somebody’s son and somebody’s daughter, husbands and wives. And children. Some yet unborn. And to say that these people brought it onto themselves? And their nation is to blame for their slaughter? These days you do not have to be some guy named Abu in Kabul or Karachi or even Finsbury Park in North London to see the US as the Great Satan, but to say this is stupid. The anti-American alliance is made up of self-loathing Muslim fanatics who blame the US for every bad thing in the world, and communists suffering from power-envy, bitter that the world’s only super-power can do what it likes, when it likes, and without having to ask permission or answer questions. The truth is that the US has behaved with enormous restraint since September 11. REMEMBER, REMEMBER, REMEMBER… the gut-wrenching tapes of weeping men phoning their wives to say a last “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, REMEMBER – and REALISE that the US has never really retaliated for 9/11 in anything like the way it could have. So a few al-Qaeda terrorists got locked in a small cage without trial in Guantanamo Bay? Pass the Kleenex. So some Afghan wedding reception was bombed after they merrily fired their semi-automatics towards American planes? A shame, but maybe next time they should just stick to confetti. And they do have confetti in Afghanistan so do not even play that card. The US could have turned a large chunk of the world into a parking lot. That it did not is a sign of strength – American strength… unmatchable in this world. Try to imagine if it had happened this way: North Korea had done the same to Japan, Pakistan had flown its planes into buildings in India, Kurds had caused the loss of 3,000 Turkish lives, or even, yes even if Ireland’s IRA had attacked Britain. Could they have shown that same strength? I thought we would see eye-to-eye on this issue…
American voices are already being raised against attacking Iraq – that’s what a democracy is for. How many in the Islamic world could criticize their leaders? How many Islamic leaders will have the guts to say that the mass-murder of 9/11 was an abomination and give full, complete support to track down Islamic fundamentalists in their own countries? When the news of 9/11 broke on the West Bank, those freedom-loving Palestinian hypocrites were dancing in the streets. I distinctly remember a covered woman rolling her tongue and screaming Arab-style. I watched all of that… the US watched all of that… We should thank GOD that the US is the most powerful nation in the world. Imagine if an Arab country was the world’s sole super-power… Those who criticize America’s supreme power and hegemony over the world, just imagine that?! Where would you be then?! I still find it incredible that 9/11 did not provoke an all-out war. Not a lame war like the “war on terrorism”… A REAL WAR. The fundamentalists are talking about “opening the gates of hell” if American attacks Iraq. Well my friends, I would highly recommend you pick your words carefully, because Americans could open the gates of hell like you would not believe! The US is militarily, the most powerful nation that ever strode the face of the earth. It has surpassed the Roman, French, Spanish, British, Soviet, and Ottoman Empires – ALL PUT TOGETHER!
Recently, Tony Blair, Britain’s Prime Minister has been branded George Bush’s dog, for following similar foreign policy in Afghanistan and Iraq. The campaign in Afghanistan may have been less than perfect and the planned war on Iraq may be a bit late. But do not blame the US 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 have not had any chopped off for minor shoplifting offences. I love the US, yet the US is hated. I guess that makes me Bush’s poodle as well… But I would rather be a dog in New York City, than a Prince in Baghdad!
Above all, the US is hated because it is what every country wants to be: rich, free, strong, open, and optimistic. Not ground down by the past, or religion, or some caste system. The US is the best friend any person has ever had, and it is about time we start remembering that. Or do you really believe the US is the root of all evil? Tell it to the loved ones of the men and women who leaped to their deaths 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 the world’s eternal shame, George W. Bush receives 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. I remember when Saddam gassed 3,000 Kurds in the space of five minutes, killing them all instantly. I remember September 11… I REMEMBER! You too should remember. No… do more that just remember. NEVER FORGET!
Germany, Japan, and to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of these countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States. When the French franc was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up, and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris -- the “Stars and Stripes” was set ablaze. When earthquakes hit distant cities, it is the US that hurries to help. When Turkey was hit a couple of years back by a huge earthquake, it was the US who offered hospital ships and assistance from its military personnel based in Turkey. So far, this spring, 22 American communities were flattened by hurricanes. Nobody helped. The Marshall Plan and the Truman Policy pumped billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent, war*****ring Americans. I would like to see just one of those countries that is now gloating over the erosion of the US Dollar, survive and then even think of publishing a newspaper if it were not for the US. Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a man or woman on the moon or Mars? You talk about Japanese technology, and you get radios. You talk about German technology, and you get automobiles. You talk about American technology and you get radios and automobiles… But what is more is you find men and women on the moon – not once, but several times. When the railways of France, Germany, and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them a single rail track. I can name you 5,000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble. Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans when in need of help? I do not even think there was outside help after September 11 or the infamous San Francisco earthquake. Americans have faced it alone, and they are stronger for that. But I am one Englishman who is damned tired of hearing them get kicked around. They will come out of this thing with their flag flying high. And when they do, they are rightfully entitled to point fingers at the lands that have not stood by them at their time of need. I hope Britain is not one of those lands. I can sleep peacefully at night, knowing my loyalty lies in the right place. Can you?
I have mentioned on numerous accounts that I am an Englishman. And I began writing this paper as an Englishman. I am an Englishman by birth, yes… BUT I AM AN AMERICAN BY CHOICE.
Lately, I have witnessed, seen, and listened to anti-war sentiment. I, like every sane person am against war as a philosophy. War is the failing of politics. However, I believe that there are some wars that need to be fought. I believe in the words of Plato: “Only the dead have seen the end of wars.” Subsequently, I am for a war against Saddam and Iraq in order to deter future conflicts (possibly of a larger scale). A war to end wars, if you like. Anyways, I noticed that most of the voiced opinions of anti-war sentiment were, in reality, rather more anti-American than peace-promoting. I attended an American Department of Defence school in Izmir, Turkey from “day one” to graduation day. Therefore who and what I am today is largely due, with many thanks, to the American people and their nation. Therefore, I feel it as my duty to thank them for what they gave me, a sort of returning what I am in debt to this great nation. What follows is my obligation…
Over two years ago, a day that will live in infamy, the world witnessed a unique -kind of broadcasting – the mass-murder of thousands, LIVE on television. The events of September 11 were right up there with Pol Pot’s mountain of skulls in Cambodia, or the skeletal bodies stacked like garbage in the Nazi concentration camps. Chances are, people from my generation will be asked by their children, what exactly happened this particular event – where we were, what changed, did we change? September 11 was an act so cruel, so calculated, and so utterly merciless that SURELY, the world would have to agree on one thing: nobody deserves this fate. One thought that SURELY, there would be consensus: the victims were truly innocent, the perpetrators truly evil. But no… to the world’s eternal shame, 9/11 is increasingly seen as America’s fault. Some say that it was something waiting to happen; America had asked for a “wake-up call”; that they had brought it upon themselves. Incredibly, anti-Americanism has increased over the last year, with the possibility of war with Iraq. I have to say that there was resentment towards the USA even in my country, the UK. About a week ago, there was a million-person demonstration in the streets of London. It churned my stomach. However, I found some comfort in seeing the people at this day of protest. The people who rallied against - the US had for the most part, sported full-grown beards which my father would have been proud of and spoke tongues of Middle-Eastern origin, or they had berets with red stars, or symbols of pixels and hammers, these were probably the same people who took to the streets in the 70s in favour of the Soviet Union. Also, may I add, I saw several hippy leftovers who probably stuff themselves with every drug known to man, think that this world is one big happy family, and go by the philosophy of: “can’t we just all get along.” I completely ignore these types, because they protest everything and anything. They would protest against breathing if it was an American idea. "Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy, forget in time that men have died to win them"... I wonder if these hippies know where their right of protest came from. Did you know that people actually protested against Allied intervention against Nazi-Germany before World War II? There was a million-strong petition against the war. It makes one think… It goes to say that what these people think and want is not always right… probably never right, if you ask me.
I must admit, the US does have its faults as a nation, as we have ours, as does everyone. It is only human. And yes, the US has made mistakes in her foreign policy in the past, such as bombing what was then left of Yugoslavia. However, we cannot discard the US in this issue simply because it happened to make a mistake or two prior to this event. If we protest against the US, we are supporting the opposite cause, and frankly I believe the US is the lesser of two evils. Morever, what twists my stomach more than anything else is when people say the US is in this for national benefits (ie: oil). Ok smartpants, if the US were in it for oil, what in the Virgin Mary’s name where they doing in Somalia, Yugoslavia, or even Vietnam to that matter? Somalia, a country ridden of any natural resources, but still the US was involved and paid with the lives of 18 of her brave sons. Furthermore, oil prices after the Gulf War went up three-fold. And as it has been, the US economy has plunged into recession after each and every war since the Second World War. Where are the benefits in that? People are quick to criticize the ones who are better off – they are easy to label out the US as a "Great Satan". But I think of the US born out of the defeat of slavery. I think of its constitution, with its inalienable rights granted to each and every one of its citizen, STILL a model for the world. I think of a black man, born in poverty, who became chief of their armed forces and is now Secretary of State Colin Powell, and I WONDER, frankly, whether such a thing could have happened anywhere else on the globe. I think of the Statue of Liberty, and how many refugees, migrants and the impoverished people have passed under its shadow and felt that if at least not for themselves, then at least for their children, a new world could indeed BE THEIRS. I think of a country where people do not have questions asked about their accent, their class, their colour, their religion, or their beginnings, but have admiration for what they have done and the success they have achieved. This is perhaps, in my opinion, why the US and Americans are so great.
You know, there are certain people who will only look at certain aspects of a matter. They will only see a partial truth. These are people who have come out and said that while Europeans still lived in caves, they, in their own lands, were living in houses. Might be the case, I agree, but in our caves we made cave art. What do you have to show for yourself? These same people are those who cannot stand America’s greatness, and attempt to degrade Americans as one-language speaking “country hicks.” However, they are quick to forget that Americans speak all the languages of the world and form an astonishing mixture of civilizations. The US has every language, every religion, every race and creed represented within its borders.
For those who probably missed it, there was a piece of news last year about someone in Pakistan who had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American. So I stopped to think about this... AN AMERICAN? An American can be English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian, or Greek. An American may also be Mexican, Brazilian, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Australian, Persian, Asian, or Arab, or Afghani, or ironically, even Pakistani. An American may also be Cherokee, Hopi, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, or one of the many other tribes known as Native Americans. An American is Christian. Or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in the US than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in the US, people are free to worship as each of them choose. An American is also free not to believe in a religion. For that, he will only answer to God the Almighty, and not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government or God himself. An American is from the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God-given right of each man and woman to the pursuit of happiness. The US welcomes everyone, from every background into their country. The Statue of Liberty welcomes the tired… the poor… the homeless… and the unlucky… These in fact are the people who built the US. Some of them were working in the Twin Towers in the morning of September 11, earning a better life for their families. So you can try to kill an American, but, in doing so you would just be killing your own people, and probably yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place; they are the EMBODIMENT of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, EVERYWHERE, IS AN AMERICAN. So look around you… You may find more Americans than you thought were there. As for the Pakistani man who placed the ad… one day, the Americans in his land will rise up and overthrow the old, ignorant, tired people that trouble them. Nevertheless, the US will still welcome him and his old, and ignorant, and tired…
The September 11 tragedy turned three hundred million people into a hand put on a heart. Nobody rushed to accuse the White House, the military, or the secret service that they were insignificant. Nobody rushed to empty his or her bank accounts. Nobody rushed on the streets nearby to gape about. If not American, think of your country, and SERIOUSLY try to imagine a similar scene. I do not think you honestly can… and even if you do, you are probably wishful thinking - you can fool yourself, but not others. The Americans volunteered to donate blood and to give a helping hand. After the first moments of panic and shock, they raised their flag on the smoking ruins, putting on t-shirts, caps, and ties in their national colours. It was as if they were saying: THESE COLOURS DON’T RUN! They placed flags on buildings and cars as if in every place and on every car, a minister or president was passing by. On every occasion they were singing their national anthem.
Silent as a rock, I watched the charity concert broadcast a year on to the day of September 11. Once, twice, three times, on different TV channels. There was Clint Eastwood, Willie Nelson, Robert de Niro, Julia Roberts, Cassius Clay, Jack Nicholson, Bruce Springsteen, Silvester Stallone, James Wood, and many others whom no film or producers could ever bring together. The American solidarity spirit turned them into one huge choir. Actually, choir is not the word I was looking for. No, rather, what you could hear was the heavy artillery of the American will and soul. What neither George W. Bush, nor Bill Clinton, nor Colin Powell could say without facing the risk of stumbling over words, was being heard in a great and unmistakable way in this charity concert. I do not know how it happened that all this obsessive singing of America did not sound croaky or nationalistic! It made you green with envy because you could not sing for your country in the same way, no matter how hard you tried. I watched the live broadcast and the rerun of its rerun of its rerun for hours… listening to the story of the guy who went down one hundred floors with a woman in a wheelchair without knowing who she was, or for the Californian hockey player, who fought with the terrorists and prevented the plane from hitting another target that would have killed other thousands of people – it instead crashed into an open field. HOW on earth were they able to do this? WHAT on earth did they do this for? And with every phone call, millions and millions of dollars were put in a collection aimed at rewarding not a man or a family, but a spirit, which NOTHING CAN BUY.
What on earth can unite the Americans in such a way? Their land? Their great history? Their economic power? Military power? I tried for hours to find an answer… I was awake in my bed when the answer struck me like lightening on a clear day. It was four in the morning, I had thought for hours, and only finally reached a conclusion… Only freedom – AMERICAN FREEDOM, can work such miracles! And this freedom is not America’s gift to the world… but God’s gift to humanity.
Anyways, back to the protests in London… the US is Britain’s greatest friend and staunchest ally. To a certain point, I can understand the betrayments of France and Germany over the second UN resolution (or eighteenth depending on your viewpoint) concerning Iraq. Nevermind saving France in World War II, never mind all that. It is difficult to expect France to help get Saddam out of Iraq, when they did not even help get the Germans out of France! But if they can trade their rightful friends and allies in times of need for an Iraqi promise of $28 billion worth of crude oil, then they do not deserve to stand in our ranks – we will not risk our lives in their presence. However, in Britain’s case, we are bonded to the US by culture, language, and blood. We call the American’s our “cousins ac**** the sea.” And 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 FOR WHAT WE ALL STAND FOR: whether you call it freedom, capitalism, democracy, Christianity, westernism, Americansim, etc. Are we so quick to betray them? Last time I checked, it did not say FRENCH CITIZEN on my passport. My blood runs thicker than water! Oh, and I here is an idea… next time there is a war in Europe, the loser HAS to keep France.
What touched the hearts of millions about those who died in the Twin Towers and on the planes was that we recognized them. They were us. Just as I explained in the Pakistani newspaper advertisement. Young fathers and mothers, somebody’s son and somebody’s daughter, husbands and wives. And children. Some yet unborn. And to say that these people brought it onto themselves? And their nation is to blame for their slaughter? These days you do not have to be some guy named Abu in Kabul or Karachi or even Finsbury Park in North London to see the US as the Great Satan, but to say this is stupid. The anti-American alliance is made up of self-loathing Muslim fanatics who blame the US for every bad thing in the world, and communists suffering from power-envy, bitter that the world’s only super-power can do what it likes, when it likes, and without having to ask permission or answer questions. The truth is that the US has behaved with enormous restraint since September 11. REMEMBER, REMEMBER, REMEMBER… the gut-wrenching tapes of weeping men phoning their wives to say a last “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, REMEMBER – and REALISE that the US has never really retaliated for 9/11 in anything like the way it could have. So a few al-Qaeda terrorists got locked in a small cage without trial in Guantanamo Bay? Pass the Kleenex. So some Afghan wedding reception was bombed after they merrily fired their semi-automatics towards American planes? A shame, but maybe next time they should just stick to confetti. And they do have confetti in Afghanistan so do not even play that card. The US could have turned a large chunk of the world into a parking lot. That it did not is a sign of strength – American strength… unmatchable in this world. Try to imagine if it had happened this way: North Korea had done the same to Japan, Pakistan had flown its planes into buildings in India, Kurds had caused the loss of 3,000 Turkish lives, or even, yes even if Ireland’s IRA had attacked Britain. Could they have shown that same strength? I thought we would see eye-to-eye on this issue…
American voices are already being raised against attacking Iraq – that’s what a democracy is for. How many in the Islamic world could criticize their leaders? How many Islamic leaders will have the guts to say that the mass-murder of 9/11 was an abomination and give full, complete support to track down Islamic fundamentalists in their own countries? When the news of 9/11 broke on the West Bank, those freedom-loving Palestinian hypocrites were dancing in the streets. I distinctly remember a covered woman rolling her tongue and screaming Arab-style. I watched all of that… the US watched all of that… We should thank GOD that the US is the most powerful nation in the world. Imagine if an Arab country was the world’s sole super-power… Those who criticize America’s supreme power and hegemony over the world, just imagine that?! Where would you be then?! I still find it incredible that 9/11 did not provoke an all-out war. Not a lame war like the “war on terrorism”… A REAL WAR. The fundamentalists are talking about “opening the gates of hell” if American attacks Iraq. Well my friends, I would highly recommend you pick your words carefully, because Americans could open the gates of hell like you would not believe! The US is militarily, the most powerful nation that ever strode the face of the earth. It has surpassed the Roman, French, Spanish, British, Soviet, and Ottoman Empires – ALL PUT TOGETHER!
Recently, Tony Blair, Britain’s Prime Minister has been branded George Bush’s dog, for following similar foreign policy in Afghanistan and Iraq. The campaign in Afghanistan may have been less than perfect and the planned war on Iraq may be a bit late. But do not blame the US 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 have not had any chopped off for minor shoplifting offences. I love the US, yet the US is hated. I guess that makes me Bush’s poodle as well… But I would rather be a dog in New York City, than a Prince in Baghdad!
Above all, the US is hated because it is what every country wants to be: rich, free, strong, open, and optimistic. Not ground down by the past, or religion, or some caste system. The US is the best friend any person has ever had, and it is about time we start remembering that. Or do you really believe the US is the root of all evil? Tell it to the loved ones of the men and women who leaped to their deaths 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 the world’s eternal shame, George W. Bush receives 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. I remember when Saddam gassed 3,000 Kurds in the space of five minutes, killing them all instantly. I remember September 11… I REMEMBER! You too should remember. No… do more that just remember. NEVER FORGET!
Germany, Japan, and to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of these countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States. When the French franc was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up, and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris -- the “Stars and Stripes” was set ablaze. When earthquakes hit distant cities, it is the US that hurries to help. When Turkey was hit a couple of years back by a huge earthquake, it was the US who offered hospital ships and assistance from its military personnel based in Turkey. So far, this spring, 22 American communities were flattened by hurricanes. Nobody helped. The Marshall Plan and the Truman Policy pumped billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent, war*****ring Americans. I would like to see just one of those countries that is now gloating over the erosion of the US Dollar, survive and then even think of publishing a newspaper if it were not for the US. Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a man or woman on the moon or Mars? You talk about Japanese technology, and you get radios. You talk about German technology, and you get automobiles. You talk about American technology and you get radios and automobiles… But what is more is you find men and women on the moon – not once, but several times. When the railways of France, Germany, and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them a single rail track. I can name you 5,000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble. Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans when in need of help? I do not even think there was outside help after September 11 or the infamous San Francisco earthquake. Americans have faced it alone, and they are stronger for that. But I am one Englishman who is damned tired of hearing them get kicked around. They will come out of this thing with their flag flying high. And when they do, they are rightfully entitled to point fingers at the lands that have not stood by them at their time of need. I hope Britain is not one of those lands. I can sleep peacefully at night, knowing my loyalty lies in the right place. Can you?
I have mentioned on numerous accounts that I am an Englishman. And I began writing this paper as an Englishman. I am an Englishman by birth, yes… BUT I AM AN AMERICAN BY CHOICE.
