Nalinaksha responds to Bishnu Dey

Re: My Thoughts on the War with Iraq

[Bishnu Dey]

I do not know why this war with Iraq is one I cannot come to grips with!  Why do I not feel happy, the way I did when the Taliban regime in  Afghanistan was being pounded? There was immense joy in watching the   Taliban mullahs being hog-tied and huddled in cages, where they  indeed  deserved to be! 

[Nalinaksha Bhattacharyya]

 

Let your joy continue to enhance when you consider the following points:

 

1. Taliban was built by US support. 

2. The estimate of people killed in Afghanistan by bombing is about 20,000. Osama has not been killed. Thus the victims of Taliban has been killed by bombs. 

3. The new found friends of US-the Northern Alliance are also equally cutthroat. 

4. US dropped cluster bombs over Afghanistan. These cluster bombs were coloured bright yellow- the same colour as those compassionate food drops ordered by George W. 

5.US treatment of Taliban prisoners violate Geneva Convention. One cannot claim to believe in due process, justice, equality, respect for law and such other lofty ideals unless one is prepared to grant them to the people with whose views we disagree. The people at Guantanamo bay has been kept there without any charges. Legally US govt. therefore has the same status as a kidnapper.

[BD]

Even as I  readily concede that Saddam Hussein is a despot and a cold blooded  murderer,  I still can't convince myself that these actions justify the untold....

[NB]

It will also be very wonderful to know your thoughts about the great leaders of your wonderful country who

a) had supplied Saddam with all kinds of chemical and biological weapons,

b) supported Saddam when he used gas against Iranians and also against Kurds,

c) had incited the Shia's in 1991 ro rise against Saddam and then coolly stepped aside as Saddam massacred them,

d) implemented a genocidal sanction against Iraq for the last 12 years and claimed that the price of half a million Iraqi babies were "worth it" (Madeline Albright),

e) had showed the green flag to Saddam for invading Kuwait and then used this as a pretext to launch the first gulf war where the US army buried alive Iraqi conscripts and also killed Iraqi soldiers who were returning home.

 

[BD]

I am a citizen of a free nation and I am also a proud citizen of this wonderful country, which I chose to be my adopted motherland.

[NB]

May your pride increase when you realise that

a) yours is the only country to have used a weapon of mass destruction, b) yours is the only country which has been indicted by the World court for terrorism (in the matter of Nicaragua vs. US)

and c) yours is a country that celebrates the genocidal Columbus.

[BD]

I breathed  the air upon arrival to this land many years ago and heaved a sigh of  relief; at last I am free! I am free! I was glad to escape from the  clutches of the oppressive political system in India run by the Congress  mafia, which offered nothing but corruption, despair and pain to its  thriving mass of uncounted millions. I was lucky, so I thought when I set  foot upon the land of the free and the home of the brave! Home of  the  brave, yes - but land of the free? I don't know. I am so confused!   I love this country, I love the wonderful people, but I am also saddened  that 70% of the people feel that the war is justified. I know how caring  the people of this land are, and how much they feel for the sanctity  of  human lives! But, I am saddened to see the apathy and the general  sense of  complacency in their display of nationalism at the expense of humanism.  Perhaps they are afraid to speak out, perhaps they are apprehensive  of  letting their feelings known, and perhaps they are like me fearful of  being  branded as unpatriotic, should they voice their opinion against this  mindless war. This war has torn me; this war has shaken me apart.

[NB]

 

If they are afraid to speak out their minds then the country is not free. And yes do tell me about their feeling of the sanctity of human lives. They devastated Vietnam and did not pay a single dollar in compensation. You might like to read Rogue state by William Blum.

 

[BD]

 Little did I imagine that all hopes, aspirations and the tranquility of the  21st century would soon come to a crushing halt as I remained transfixed to  the tube, watching the twin towers of human civilization go down in a rubble  of smoke and dust, the fateful morning of 9/11. The perpetrators of that  horrible crime probably envisioned this outcome and much worse, but  did they  really care for the untold misery that their brutal actions would...

[NB]

Read 9-11 by Noam Chomsky. Chomsky calls 9-11 a crime against humanity and a historic event because for the first time victims have used the method of large scale arbitrary violence against America. So far the method of large scale arbitrary violence has been used by Eurpoe and its offspring America.

 

 

[BD]

No, all Muslims are not terrorists, nor are they deserving of the scorn and  suspicion that many are subjected to. In fact, the Muslims are the biggest  victims of the scourge that befall upon them. This is what happens when  religion is used as a tool of governance and when people fail to perceive  the hidden dangers in allowing the clergy to decide the course of nations.  I wonder, how a mass of humanity comprising of a billion plus individuals be  so easily be brainwashed by the Kazis, Mullahs, and Imams to accept such degrading, hateful, and intolerant teachings to be the words of God!

[NB]

The Bible also says (inter alia) that someone who does not observe Sabbath should be killed. Read the genocidal passages in the Bible and then I hope you will also ask your genocidal, bible thumping President not to accept it as the word of god. I am not a Muslim, but the current hate mongering against muslims is motivated by racism and not by any informed skepticism about religious beliefs.

[BD]

In the end, I know that my country will be victorious in this endeavor, but  this be very costly and there is a hefty price that will accompany this  victory. The world is indeed "shocked and awed" by the display of might and  superiority of our airpower and technology, but at the same time there will  be a chilling effect on the rest of the world as to what this triumph really  establishes. Is this the "new world order" that we all talked about at the  turn of the last century following the demise of the Soviet empire? I am  afraid that now in the eyes of many my country will not appear as a beacon  of civility, nor will be perceived as a champion of freedom; rather a bully  whose mantra is "my way, or no way"!   In ending, I would like to state unequivocally that I am in full  support of   the lead my country has taken in eradicating this world of the  scourge of  Islamic fanaticism. I also support my country's drive in removing  Saddam  Hussein from power in Iraq. I hope that this war is over soon, and...

[NB]

Good. then of course you must condemn the Eishenhour doctrine which stated that US shall defend Saudi Arabia as if it is its own territory. US has of course been behind the Islamic fundamentalist and corrupt Saudi regime. You must also demand that the people who trained and introduced Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan -against a government which had women ministers- must be tried for crimes against humanity. And about Iraq- we can get some ideas about the future from what happened in Afghanistan. After all the chest beating about how they are going to bring "freedom" to Afghanistan, the Bush administration failed to provide a single dollar for Afghanistan in its budget.

Continue with your ostrich policy.

With best wishes.

Nalinaksha Bhattacharyya

Published in Mukto-mona Forum

Bishnu Responds to Nalinaksha