Rhetoric of Fear Speech
To the entirety of America, do not be mislead by the rhetoric of fear.
We here in America are free. We believe in the right to think for ourselves. We believe that to corrupt that right is something akin to taxation without representation. We believe that fear is a primary detriment to action. We believe that to suggest that a terrorist organization is going to attack is furthering the cause of those terrorists you hate. We believe that something new must be tried and it is in this declaration that we must win.
I didn’t support the Iraq war on September 11, 2001. I knew it was coming and I knew it would fail. I had thought one important concept – one does not go somewhere where the basic religious ideal is a dislike of the western way of life. I didn’t phrase it that well. “You don’t go where people hate you.”
In war, everyone is taught to “hate” their enemy. I cannot say myself. I am fascinated by the subject. I used to think, when I was on the streets, that homelessness was second only in the current Geo-political reality, to being a war veteran. There are things in the middle. A starving Rwandan. A political prisoner in Russia. But, in America, I don’t think there is a middle. I believe that I experienced the second worst a resident of the United States can be. But there is one worse. To be a casualty of war. In the sense of physical wounds and psychological strife. There is nothing, from my limited experience, that even comes close.
And here we are, America, fighting a war we should never have gone to. Saddam Hussein could be gone at the price of a 50 cal sniper round and the salary of a CIA paramilitary expert. It might have taken time but he would be dead. His sons would be dead and hopefully some equally horrible people. But it wouldn’t cost hundreds of billions of dollars.
It was a vendetta. Bush wanted to make up where Bush failed. “Gotta fix papa’s failures.” And so nearly 2000 troops dead for an Oedipal Syndrome. Over 13,000 wounded. Not counting contractors. Not counting them. Really, people. People who are almost an exact genetic match as you. They’re just pissed off at as. We won the industrial revolution. They have lost their caliphate, their homeland.
During the American Civil War, a southern soldier was asked, “So why you fighten’ us” “Cause youse down hear.” Why does a member of the nation of Islam fight America? Because we are there. Even in our best case for Imperialism, we cannot modernize these people.
WHY WOULD WE WANT TO? Sorry to shout but to me it seems too very self-evident. We shouldn’t. We are a land of free people. Why would we not want another people to be free? Why, hell, Christians, Jews, and Muslims all believe in the same God. Why not let them practice their religion the way they want to?
Because American needs gas. In large quantities. To me, to force your religious will upon a people because they have gas is utterly wrong. The right will make every excuse in order to say otherwise, but the war on terror, the Afghanistan war, the Iraq war; these are wars of ideology. GWB used the term “crusade” when referring to the Iraq war. Have no doubt that in the cognizance of the leaders of this nation, it is believed that this is, to some degree, a crusade.
GW, listen to your father. “…a kinder, gentler, world.” Though I did not adore your father, I would so very much love to have him my leader that you, a Christian despot. A creator of morality based on the ideals of the bible. Members of all five major faiths live in your nation Mr. President. In the country, hundreds of spiritual beliefs are expressed. Why only one? Has the melting pot gone away? Are there only to be Christian baby’s born in the grand ol’ US? Our great forefather, some believe the best, Thomas Jefferson laid down upon paper some of the most eloquent words scribed. “…and to assume, among the power of nature, and nature’s God…” THIS is the edict of America. We are a land of nearly absolute religious freedom. In the written into our first amendment. And Mr. President, most of America does not think that the first amendment should be revised.
We do not need to keep Terri Shaivo alive at the cost of hours of our governing body’s time. We do not need to deprive our scientists of the ability to keep up in the global race for stem cell discoveries. We do not need your influence of the social right into everything we experience. Soon there is to be prayer in school. Little Jews praising Jesus. When I was 11, I decided I didn’t want to salute the flag during the pledge of allegiance. That was my right. That might not be my right soon. This nation is under God, indivisible (cept once) with liberty and justice for all. Unless you’re an Islamic terrorist in Guantanamo Bay.
If America is to carry on its traditions of freedom, liberty, and acceptance, we must; we very must; realize what is going on. We are losing the ideology of America while stifling the ideology of other God-fearing groups. We are losing the culture war. Ideology is presented, primarily, by the party in power. The Democrats in congress, bless their heart, are trying to slow down anything that is just wrong. But Bush is gunning for anything left of the New Deal. And he’s gunning for some perceived idea that America is pussy. And he’s gunning for the emergence of the religious right’s god given right to control the minds of Americans.
The resolution to the war in Iraq isn’t about sending more American troops or getting the Iraqi troops to pick up garrison duty. It’s not about turning on the electricity. It’s not about stopping the looters at the very beginning. It’s about letting the Muslims have their Muslim state. Saddam was crap. It’s good, no matter how he was got rid of but he was got rid of. I say, not at the price of 15,000 families changed. But maybe Islam likes Despots. It would not be the first time America had a hand in a totalitarian régime. Maybe the rights of women are different than here. But maybe we should just accept that. To each their own.
We had many choices in 2003 when we went in.