[ST] Off topic: Message From England (a long read, but good)]

[Import Auto Works Honda / Acura <iawhonda@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Message From England
:
:
: I received this email from a friend and it is so true! I
am not a "War
: Monger", but facts are facts. It's also sad when Americans
themselves
: suffer from short memories.
:
: Message from England
:
: 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 daily 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
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, wives, and children,
: some unborn.
:
: And these people brought it on themselves? 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 up without
: trial in 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 incredible 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
: 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. Save me the orange center, Oh Mighty
: One!
:
: Remember .... remember ..... September 11. One of the
: greatest atrocities in human history was committed
: against America.
:
: No, do more than remember. Never forget.
:
:
:
:

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