Big difference is that the American public in general is not anti Iran, where the Iranian public hates America, condones and encourages attacks on the US.
Harry Montrose New York -----Original Message----- From: M. Johnson <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Mon, Apr 26, 2010 8:08 am Subject: What If? What If? by Gary D. Barnett What if it happened here in America? This seems to be aquestion that begs an answer, so why is it so ignored? Why is it ignoredby government? Why is it ignored by the mass media? And why is itseemingly ignored by the American people at large? What if? What if a small group of extremist Americans high-jacked passenger planesin another country and flew them into skyscrapers in a major foreign citykilling thousands of innocent people? Would it then be proper and moralfor that country, and with the full use of its military, to attack andoccupy the entire United States? Would it then be right for that invadingarmy to take over and demand that all U.S. citizens bow to their command?Would it be right for that country’s forces to kill and maim all whorefused to comply with their demands? And would it be right for thatforeign invading entity to destroy the entire infrastructure ofAmerica? What if in this process any so-called American insurgents wereincarcerated and held indefinitely? What if their rights were suspendedor eliminated and no charges were forthcoming and no trial was allowed?What if they were held and psychologically and physically torturedwithout end? What if innocent Americans overseas were captured by thisinvading force and subjected to rendition where this same or even worsebrutal torture was prosecuted against them? What if these foreigninvaders promised thousands of dollars in bounty to any who would turn intheir American neighbor for being a suspected terrorist? What if this invader chose to use American resources for its own benefit?What if they captured all of our natural resource facilities and issuedoil contracts to their own country’s oil industry? What if the profitsfrom these ventures were kept by those invaders? And what if while thiswas happening, American families were displaced and without propershelter and starving? What if huge bases were built on American soil, and then these bases weremanned by soldiers bent on controlling every move made by the legitimatecitizens of that region? What if these bases were permanent, and all hereknew that the invaders would never leave? What if entire towns weredestroyed and outposts were scattered across America so that themonitoring of all could be achieved? What if this invading force decided to hire private contractors to patroland kill innocents? What if these same contractors took over all themilitary service industries here so as to gain massive profits? What ifbecause of these massive profits, these same contractors supportedmonetarily the invading country’s politicians in order to help them stayin power? What if this invader demanded that elections take place and theycontrolled these elections by force? What if they excluded large parts ofthe population so as to get the desired result? What if they put a puppetgovernment into power that was meant to be sympathetic only to theircause? What if they then placed brutal sanctions on our neighbors to the northand south that were meant to stop them from gaining the necessities oflife? This of course would be a direct act of war, so what if ourneighbors also decided to defend themselves? What if an even larger andmore dangerous war was the result? What if this escalation of war causedthe deaths of many more thousands of innocents? What if things were in fact done properly and morally? What if a criminalact was treated as a criminal act instead of an act of war? What ifinstead of warring and occupying other countries, everyone workedtogether to solve the problems instead of murdering hundreds of thousandsof innocents? What if the United States government minded its ownbusiness instead of attempting to control others around theglobe? In my example above, the assumption was that certain Americanindividuals, not the country itself, committed heinous acts againstanother country. That scenario would dictate a criminal response but notan aggressive and violent one. In the case of Afghanistan and Iraq, theactual perpetrators blamed were not even from those countries. Inaddition, the countries themselves apparently had nothing to do withthose acts. So given this, how can these aggressive wars prosecuted bythe U.S. government be justified? I can tell you; they can’t! What if the people of the United States simply had a reversal ofcircumstances? Would they be willing to bow to an aggressive invader andbecome serfs in the process? Of course they wouldn’t – they wouldrightfully fight for their freedom, their families and friends, and theirproperty. This is no different than most of those fighting back againstAmerican forces in the Middle East. I was taught at a very early age the Golden Rule, and I was also taughtthat before I passed judgment on anyone, I should walk in their shoes.I’m sure there are several reasons that Americans cannot and will notplace themselves in a reversed position, but the worst reason in myopinion is the absurd attitude called American exceptionalism. Thisthinking is not only an extreme example of arrogance, but is unwarrantedin every regard. The most aggressive and most warring nation on earth isour own country; this due to our imperialistic government and a verycomplacent American society. Should the people of this country choose to,they could stop this heinous and unnecessary assault by the U.S.government and its minions in the military industrial complex on othersaround the world. It has happened before during another war of aggressionin Vietnam, so why not this time? Obviously, there are far fewer American body bags this go around, andthat is certainly a determining factor, but what a poor excuse tocontinue to allow the slaughter of innocents abroad; this simply tosatisfy the imperialistic desires of this dictatorial and totalitariangovernment. We as a people can do better and have to do better if we areto survive this onslaught of tyranny and murder. Another unconstitutional, unwarranted, aggressive, and unnecessary war isnow being threatened against Iran. If we as a people allow this tohappen, what will be the consequences of our unwillingness to stop it?How many more innocent Americans and Middle Easterners will have to dieso that this government can gain more power and can continue to supportits war-profiting cronies? How many more of your sons and daughters areyou willing to sacrifice for the state apparatus? How many? Freedom can only return when wars cease! What if we said no morewar? What if? http://www.lewrockwell.com/barnett/barnett22.1.html -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
