the Colonials across the Atlantic

[johnboy52003]

(pardon if this has been posted already)

No matter what your views on President Bush's statement of upcoming war,
this, from an English journalist, is very interesting. Just a word of
background, for those of you who aren't familiar with the UK's Daily
Mirror. This is a notoriously left-wing newspaper 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 n 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 ncredible 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 chocolates.
Save me the orange center, oh mighty one!
Remember, remember, September 11. One of the greatest atrocities in human
history was committed against America. Now do more than remember. Never
forget.