Looking Backward: 9-11 - and Beyond

"The main mistake continues to be the capacity to view one's own country, values and policies as righteous, innocent and well-intentioned, while viewing the enemy as evil and dangerous. We've seen this attitude among Arabs and Israelis, Americans and Islamic militants, Turks and Kurds, Syrians and Lebanese and other such pairs of foes. " (09/11/2007)
(http://www.ramikhouri.com/)

Rami Khouri, in his consistently insightful blog, captures the heart of USian blindness today as we've been for a long, long time!

Listening to NPR - I hear over and over again - how we poor, unappreciated benevolent USians just can't force those Heathen A-rabs to takeover the "good fight" for their country. The key issues now relate to Our Inability to Win the War (not the immorality of our cause) as well as the related cause of stopping the Horrific Al-Quaida (Iraq) - who evidently will be invading the golf courses and beaches of Hawaii and Florida and areas around Hollywood soon without the Good Fight continuing. (While there certainly are real threats today, they rarely come in the ways our leaders speak of them.)

Perhaps - some sane voices will prevail, though it seems more likely that they'll be a lot of posturing and 6 more months will be bought - for more continuation of the present craziness.

I wonder more and more if somehow something like bombings of Iran - will be the patriotic push in 2008 - to try to pull the elections in favor of the Republicans.

Rarely do forces of rationality prevail in showing how we readily build extremists with our policies and are so consistently backwards in seeing what we do abroad as well as unfortunately in the U.S.

It is sad - that we in the U.S. of A. - really do have the potential to do so much good in helping end poverty and needless deaths both within the U.S. and in the rest of the world. Why we hide our heads in the sand in Cuba, Venezuela as well as Iraq and Elsewhere in the Middle East. General P or Ambassador C - was talking of how Iraq was now starting to be a significant purchaser of U.S. Weapons yesterday- as if - fomenting the Arms Race - and helping our precious corporate entities - who help share the killing of others further and further around the World.

It is sad! I hope that we can and will do better! Thanks!