HOME | DD

ChrisJaeckle In reply to opiumtraum [2008-06-24 19:32:23 +0000 UTC]

Oh I know- I can barely handle having these drawings in my gallery really, but I felt like maybe this could help get it out of my system.

Funny thing about the word terrorist by the way- such a nifty word, much simpler than Weapons of Mass Destruction and much less abstract than Axis of Evil. It conjours up visions of hairy devils with belts of dynamite strapped to their torsos, feverishly ready to die for their mindless insanity. I think in truth there has never been anyone on any side of a conflict who has thought as themselves as the evil ones- everyone fights for their version of justice. Terrorism is not something that springs up spontaniously, it is a side effect. Take 9-11 for example. America picked up it's guns right away to bring justice to the perpetrators, and the questions were WHO did it and WHERE can we find/kill them!!!! The questions WHY and HOW this could have happened never came up. I would agree with you that there is a great deal of deep abiding hate for the West, for the U.S. in particular, and I hope no one makes the mistake of interpreting this as taking sides or condoning any kind of violence, but if you look at how many Muslims have died by American hands, and how many Americans have died by Muslim hands...well, I think the U.S. missed it's chance to do some introspection after the WTC fell. Instead of trying to figure out what was really behind all this, we picked up our guns and our gas cans and made sure the fire never went out. 7 years later and we're still adding logs.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

opiumtraum In reply to ChrisJaeckle [2008-06-24 20:17:37 +0000 UTC]

Frankly, I have no problem with us/US gathering our guns & going after the perpetrators of 9/11, only we seem to have gone after him with the majority of our forces in the wrong country. Obviously, Bush's arrogance is not offset by his map reading skills (No, MR Bush, that's Iraq, Afghanistan is over there).
Last I heard/read, the bug up Bin Laden's ass was western influence. Western culture was nipping at the heals of the medieval interpretation Islam that he'd like to see in control. Yeah...we need to bring back stonings. All that demonstrates to me is that instead of a strong belief system, he in fact believes his faith to be so vulnerable as to be threatened by that anything that dares to question it (Allah forbid, spoofs it), & that the only response is jihad. Hate, to me, is an extension of some sort of fear. I think the weird thing is remembering that Bin Laden is a convert...he was born into privilege, so his disaffection is something he sought out (or did it seek him?) & embraced.
Sadly, 9/11 was all the fodder Bush Jr needed to embark on his, in my opinion, Oedipal journey to out-do his Dad. No question Saddam and all his brood were sick freakin puppies, but George Sr recognised that that sick dictator actually provided a measure of stability to that country. It was actually the kind of Westernized, sectarian Muslim country that Bin Laden also despised...so...how welcome would he/could he have been? It's all astoundingly stupid, compounded by the fact that Americans voted Bush into office for a second term to continue the insanity. At what point did America receive its mass lobotomy? Inquiring minds want to know.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

ChrisJaeckle In reply to opiumtraum [2008-06-25 10:39:33 +0000 UTC]

Well that's just the thing- you'd be "anti-american" and "unpatriotic" to not jump on the boat to the land of revenge after seeing those buildings fall and feeling the sting of having been hit right in the heart. That's why this whole campaign has been so easy to perpetrate-- it feeds on the fear and uses the American's ingrained need to see the bad guys brought to justice so we can be safe and happy again. And we love our bad guys- can't live without them. It was a piece of cake to enlist this feeling in the American's heart and go after blood, so easy that no one cared about evidence, about what happened and who did it and why, no one cared that the promised investigations never unfolded. Even though the original mission was long since buried under political rhetoric and lusty press releases of new insurgencies and grand terroristic networks, no one seems to notice that none of the missions amounted to anything. No Osama. No Weapons of Mass Destruction. Yeah we suddenly "found" Sadam, a tired old haggard Sadam who looked as though he'd been locked up in a dungeon for months, but that had nothing to do with 9-11 and everything to do with the Bush regime. What appears to be the real motive behind it all?- regaining a stranglehold on the middle east. I don't think Bush misread the map. I think he is following a very well thought out strategy (which pretty much rules it out as being his idea), and I'm convinced that it is not to outdo his father's legacy but to continue it. This legacy has so much power and momentum behind it that it carried Bush into his second term whether the voters liked it or not. Plus it was easy to convince America that danger was at their doorstep, and military might and homeland security were the only way to sleep well at night. Fear is so effective. This is also what makes people think maybe torture is ok sometimes, just as long as it's used on the bad guys, just as long as it's making the world a safer place. The problem with fear is it shuts down the brain, hence the lobotomized state of the masses.

.... holy crap, ok sorry about all that. This is one of those endless rant subjects! Anyway, it's all on the cusp of change it seems. It will be interesting to see where we go from here.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

opiumtraum In reply to ChrisJaeckle [2008-06-25 13:44:39 +0000 UTC]

Yup...definitely fodder for rants. I'd have been all for going into Afghanistan for Bin Laden if that's where he was hiding & there'd been decent intelligence to back the move up. 9/11 was mass murder. I'd be happy to see justice done for that. Weapons of mass destruction was a joke. They'd already been sought out & not found. Bush wanted to go in anyway. He wanted the UN's blessing & they said no, so he said (essentially) screw them & went anyway, backed by a few allies. When the dust had settled & the Iraq was totally destabilized, he went back to the UN & said (essentially) it was their duty to step in & help stabilize the government there (sort of forgetting to mention it was our action that destabilized everything in the first place- Urkel politics- "Did I do that?")Bush says we're not here for the oil. Then says...well since it was primarily the US & Britain that went in, uh, we'll control the oil. I have no doubt this was Bush Jr's plan. Nothing he's said or done really makes sense. He says the soldiers there are the best equipped Army in the world & have all they need. His generals say otherwise until they're gagged. Meanwhile, troops continue to get sliced & diced in their vehicles by bombs that are more & more lethal. The government creates a bill to give more money & compensation to the troops. Bush tries to veto it. The government tries to come up with a solution for the record breaking foreclosures in the US. Bush says he'll veto it. Bush goes to the midwest to see the flood damage...hehe...Don't worry. You'll come back stronger. No mention of help. Hurricane Katrina victims can tell you about help under the Bush administration. I can't wait for him to be gone. I pity whoever becomes the next President- he'll be up to his chin in the shit that is Bush's legacy (war, trillion plus dollar debt, record foreclosures, economy in the crapper, human rights violations, America's standing with the world). We used to be the "good" guys. Now are are our own worst enemy- behaving pretty much like all the countries we sought to protect the world from. Clinton was impeached for a blow job. Bush misled the American people into a war that's cost thousands of American lives (how many times that in Iraqi lives?) & still struts around as if everything he's done was justified. It really concerns me that American priorities can be so fucked up.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

ChrisJaeckle In reply to opiumtraum [2008-07-12 08:44:19 +0000 UTC]

Sorry it took me so long to get back to this...
I agree with you, the Bush regime is among the worst of the self serving power mongers who have lead the country. I don't understand how anyone could believe that any of his actions have been for the benefit of anyone but himself and his administration. It will be very interesting to see what happens to America in the years to come. No matter what it seems things are on the cusp of change, one way or another. I really hope that we as Americans can begin to understand that we are part of the rest of the world, as the "us and them" mentality is what has it possible for Bush and his buddies to sell his BS.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0