Posted on 04/11/2003 12:31:48 PM PDT by WaveThatFlag
Some of the most enlightened, inspiring, brilliant, caring and truly exemplary humans have been and currently are Americans. Many of my friends, colleagues and family are American. I have lived in America, and my postgraduate degree is from an American university. I consider America as much my home as I do my country of birth, which is Canada.
America has accomplished some of the greatest technological and humanitarian efforts, and has often demanded that the rest of the world expand their own horizons and reach for greater, nobler heights. Also, the military power of America and the West is vitally important, and by its very presence often helps subdue potential aggression by tyrannical nations. However, with that awesome power comes even more responsibility, an essential truth that sadly seems to have been forgotten.
Despite all the wonderful things that can be said about America, the fact is that millions of Americans have lost their critical-thinking ability. They have become deluded by their own sense of infallible moral righteousness, and they have allowed themselves to be overpowered by greed and fear. I shall list just a few key examples of irrational assumptions and deluded ways of thinking that have become common place in America:
* Americans are currently being told that questioning authority means they are unpatriotic, but the conclusion that "you are unpatriotic" does not follow from the simple premise that "you question the motives of those in political power."
Were those who opposed slavery unpatriotic for questioning authority and the status quo?
* Americans are told that they need to kill for peace, yet those who use this oxymoronic slogan disdain and ignore those people who actually want peace to emerge peacefully. Americans tell other countries that they are not permitted to have weapons of mass destruction, yet they have more than any other country and they are the only ones to have used them -- twice.
How would they react if another country developed a sophisticated weapon that could bring them to their knees and then demanded that they completely disarm so that invaders could enter their country, hunt down their political leaders, and assimilate them into their foreign way of life? If several Americans defected to China and begged the Chinese government to kill the "evil" political regime in America, would China then be justified in attacking America?
Americans naively assume that they are always in the moral right, and it is the "others" who are always wrong, which would mean that they are perfect. Could they convince the American Indians of their flawless moral superiority? They also mindlessly accept the logical error that "can" entails "should," which allows them to impose the childish mentality of "I am going to kill you just because I can."
Americans ignore the fact that the word "target" refers to living humans. They are shocked to imagine anyone rejoicing over a terrorist attack against them, but they are happy to watch Persian Gulf War drama on TV as if it were another superfluously violent Hollywood movie. They accept killing anyone in order to "protect themselves and their freedom," yet how many Americans can sit down silently for even one minute and reflect upon who they really are, or what it means to be a human, to be alive, to be conscious? What kind of freedom do Americans have when a patron of a shopping mall is arrested simply for wearing a T-shirt that promotes peace?
Americans have approached the possibility of Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction in the same illogical way that they used to persecute women accused of practicing witchcraft: guilty until proven innocent, and either way an assured death sentence at the hands of a maniacal mob. Even if Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, so do numerous other aggressive nations. American leaders say that Iraq will use them, so then the general public panics and says "go get those evil monsters."
Well, perhaps the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have an appropriate reply to their fears.
Unfortunately, Americans, and in fact all of us across the globe, have ignored the stealthiest enemy: the one that resides within our hearts. All of us, no matter our nationality, faith, or race, have been guilty of this ignorance at some point.
All the greatest spiritual teachers and ancient philosophers have stressed the necessity for "cleaning our own house," or "pulling the log out of our own eye before blaming our brother for having a speck in his eye."
We blame our problems on our governments and other institutions. We blame our neighbors and even other nations. We blame anybody but ourselves. We refuse to accept personal responsibility, which means we will continue to be trapped by and repeat the same problems over and over. We worship money and ego-based power, but we arrogantly eschew the pursuit of wisdom.
The American dream, which has been readily adopted by numerous other nations, is to be materially successful, not to be wise or enlightened. Sadly, I would say many Americans have achieved that dream. American cleverness built atomic weapons, but their lack of wisdom allowed them to actually use them.
Of course, I do not want to live under an extremist Muslim regime, Nazi terror or communist tyranny, but I also do not want to live in a world where the lone superpower has become a hypocritical bully. Other, if not all, countries and religions have committed horrendous atrocities throughout history, and we can criticize many other nations much more harshly than we can judge America, but that cannot justify current American arrogance and whimsical aggression.
Other nations listen to (or obey) America not out of respect for its culture and great achievements, but out of fear. Americans must realize that being a world leader involves so much more than having the biggest missile.
Together let's reflect on our flawed thinking that has lead us into such a mess, and let's stop ignoring the enemy within.
Sorry Canuk, actually the opposite is true. We spent so many years playing the MAD game with the Soviet Union, that we forgot that our military can be used to acieve our national goals. Size does matter.
Well, our missiles are bigger than your missiles, so there. Take that fact, put it in a missile, and drop it on Canada.
Americans have no trouble with WMD's in the hands of morally good nations; like Britain and even ...shudder... France. Just like people don't freak out over cops having guns, and do when crimals possess them, our problem is with bad guys getting WMD's, not with WMD's themselves - a distinction frequently lost on pacifists who find all weapons inherently icky. The "peace through disarmament" theory was tried and failed miserably in the period between the two World Wars. In this area, Americans demonstrate a far greater capacity for critical reasoning than our critics.
And this contention that Americans are the only ones to have used WMD's seems to assume the only WMD's are nukes. They're not. Those are just the hardest to obtain. When we went to war with Iraq, the WMD's we expected to find were chemical and biological weapons. These have been used by many countries - and used with impunity by the late Iraqi regime.
Hmm, perhaps he missed the tales from his grandparents of the gas attacks launched by both sides in France in WWI, news stories about the chemical weapons used by Iraq and Iran in the first Gulf War, the chemical and biological weapons used by Soviet clients in countless proxy wars in Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Or even the somewhat specious history books about reported use of diseased blankets on Inuit indians by the Canadians in the 1800s.
Canada is such a pretty country, and I have travelled there many times and found the people I dealt with to be good folks. This mindless pap from the Canadian left is now being taught as the gospel truth by the current Canadian national government and media. I honestly cannot wait for the day that Canada dissolves and the western provinces shake off the 'yoke of stupidity' from the national government, and either forms a new nation or joins the USA.
If the weapon is terrorism, this a perfect definition of "islam".
A jet airliner is a WMD when it falls into the wrong hands. We killed many more people bombing Dresden with conventional weapons than we did in the two Japanese atomic bomb attacks combined.
We tried that for TWELVE years, pal. Or weren't you paying attention? No? That's what I thought. All you feel-gooders do is criticize those who are actually DOING something about the world's problems instead of TALKING ABOOOOOOT doing something about the world's problems. Holding hands around a campfire and singing Kumbaya and Puff the Magic Dragon doesn't impress murdererous dictators like So-Dumb Hussein.
And lastly, with all due respect, Mr. Spencer, you liberal Canucks are nothing but pacifistic whimperers who have shown your true colors by stabbing us in the back and your advice is worth about as much to us as were the troops you supplied.
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