This morning was one of the most depressing mornings ever in news history. Let me say first...I was watching the Indian news channel at work. Watching the news is something i try to avoid in the early morning because of the tendency to get depressed but when i turned on the TV hoping to find the B4U music channel, it was set on the pakistani news. The first thing i saw was the remains of a street after being blasted. I decided that i might as well watch the news and when i did, i saw repeat episodes of the bombings in Mumbai, the bombings in Lebanon and the attack on a palestinian truck driver and a passenger.
After about an hour, i turned off the TV only to hear the same news on the local radio station. i did not read the newspaper article from beginning to end because of the obvious American bias for the Israelis. In fact, the only country mentioned was Israel and all the Israeli deaths that had occurred....as if the Lebanese and palestinians who died were not people as well. I feel sorry for the Earth that it bears the burden of hatred and what happens when men get bored and claim what is not theirs. This world was here before them and when they die, it will still be here...unless they blow themselves to oblivion with some nuclear weapon.
Before i really start this blog, i must say that I am going to be as unbiased as i possibly could. These are my opinions and however insignificant they may be, they are still mine and I was bothered by what is happening so i am scribbling tonight.
In college, Ami studied Political Science with a special focus on the Middle East. He knows about all these offshoot groups and whilst it may be hazy to many, he can tell the differences amongst them right away. There was a teacher in FAU at the time called Walid Phares. Today, he discusses the Middle East conflict on MSNBC. I was fortunate enough to sit in a few of his classes and even take a class with him right before he left FAU for good---Even got a book from him for getting a full 100% on his midterm. Needless to say, the Middle East has become a topic of special interest in my little circle of friends, acquaintances, and family.
While many are avoiding the topic, I still find that there are those who are tired and are saying exactly what is on their minds. I spoke with many people today in the store. Hezbollah has declared "open war" on Israel. Israel broke a treaty with Lebanon yesterday and directly attacked several key locations in the country. I suppose every time you breathe too hard in the Middle East, the price of oil soars...How i wish for the day that we would not depend on Arab oil! Now today, I saw on the Indian news channel that Israel had fired at a truck with Palestinian passengers.
This takes us to Preemptive Strike. It is something we know too well...living in the US and all. Younger Bush has made Preemptive Strike his middle name!...along with the W...Whatever it stands for! I know we are vulnerable to terrorist attacks and so is every other country that is not muslim...and even some predominantly muslim countries but if we went around attacking everyone as a perceived threat, we may very well do the opposite of what we really want to achieve.
I understand Israel is threatened....No sh*t! Israel has been threatened since the end of WWII...but Israel's preemptive strike could be more risky than the US making a preemptive strike. The US is a little bit isolated when it comes to being surrounded by a host of enemies who are told in their scriptures that their duty is to "rid the world of Jews...to upturn every stone and find them, to find them hiding behind trees, etc." Israel cannot afford actions like these. This is a country sitting in the middle of a bunch of other countries who do not agree with the whole concept of Israel being the chosen land of the Jews.
Now, several of my customers today spoke out against the US position in this whole matter. Some of them refuse to be fooled and believe that the US interest lies elsewhere....like in Iran. There were some of them who did not support the Israeli side and there were some of them who were still reeling from September 11th. Today, for the first time, i heard a German guy speak of World War II. i listened while he spoke of the german point of view. I heard things that were never mentioned in history books. I will not say anything else on this topic though. nothing justifies genocide..but i realized that people carry grudges through generations and speak as if they are physically hurt because of some harm done to their ancestors. Some people never rise above these and they end up fighting for generations upon generations until they forget about what they are really fighting for and it becomes just something that is incorporated in their culture. See, in Trinidad, we were a little sheltered. yes, there are racial problems with the Indians and the Blacks but that does not lead to crazy violence. Trinidad is a very unique country in that way. When there are elections, the racial tensions are at their peak and yet, riots never occur. It is probably one of the only countries where Muslims and Hindus live together with little conflict...except maybe about a tree branch hanging over in the neighbor's yard. A hindu marrying a muslim is common and often times, there are no problems. there are the occasional anomalies but trinis shy away from blood feuds. i guess in that way, i do not understand violence or the need for it. I will never understand why Arabs and Israelis fight....Seems as if it is something that everyone will get used to...a war that was going on before we were born and may very well go on after we are gone. I once had a Jewish customer who also happened to be a professor tell me: "We can choose our friends but not our family...and I don't like my family." he was referring to the Jews and Arabs being cousins.
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