2001:September:14
2001
If I thought killing every Arab in the world would turn back time and let us have our loved ones back, I would do it. If I thought bombing every nation surrounding Afghanistan would reverse this tragedy, I would support it.
The answer, however, is not hate. The best mature memorial we could give to this shocking tragedy would be to collectively turn our lives around. Since the beginning of inter-tribal relations, we have lived in a world where violence rules and the entity that can kill the most people and make the most money wins. Why? It's not working in Northern Ireland. Let's "fight" it from another angle. For instance, the use of alternative energy sources. FOR ONCE, perhaps we will heed this need and terminate our tangled dependence on the Arab world's oil deposits (and thus cease indirectly funneling money to these fiends).
As Russia can attest, this particular terrorism does not seem able to be fought in our traditional way. Many of these people have nothing else besides their faith and hate. Rather, let's give these people a choice other than either starving and being killed in their dusty, impoverished lands OR supporting a holy, militant group that gives them a reason to awake in the morning - and puts their miserable lives instant (although insanely perverted) "meaning". Think about it. Your city gets bombed every day. Your cousins, brothers, aunts, and children get killed every day. The world doesn't seem to care. You have been told since birth that the United States is your enemy and that they not only defiled your holy sites, but took them away from you and gave them to your enemies. You've been told the United States supplies the guns, the bombs, the money to your enemies. You have no reason not to believe this. You don't really have time to think about philosophy as every day you are angrily struggling to survive. You have a religious belief that no other region in the world shares. You think they are all infidels. You have been told they are. You see on the television that your religious leader has that the United States doesn't care about you. Finally someone gives you a gun. Finally someone gives you a hope for a better afterlife. They tell you that misery you live in means nothing. They tell you that the afterlife is a blessed land with nectar and glory and water. They put a gun in your hand. They tell you that the more non-believers you kill, the better your place in this mythical place would be. Instead of going home and breathing dust and eating rats forever, you have a reason to live. What would you do? I'm not at all saying that we deserve to get killed. God no. I'm saying that war is not the answer. Hate begats hate begats hate.
But then of course. I'm just guessing. I sure as shit don't know the answers. I'm just scared that my way of life and liberty may be disappearing. I'm afraid.
