When in Europe we had to get rid of Hitler and
Mussolini, we had the Americans and the British coming
in our aid and operating effectively towards the
liberation and salvation of our oppressed nations. We
had American and British soldiers entering our
countries, helping the civilians and the partisans in
the strenuous task of vanquishing the two criminal
governments and their collaborators, responsible for
the massacre of the Jews in Germany , the
unprecedented persecution of the civilian Jews people,
in Italy, and the economic and civic destruction of
cities, industries, monuments, etc.
Kundera was right in his 'The unbearable lightness of
the being', when he brought into play Nietzsche’s idea
of the eternal return, to prospect, in a dramatically
pessimistic way, the possible recurrence of the evil
among civilized people, of other Hitler-s, other
Mussolini-s, other holocausts.
The law under which the Nazi criminals were persecuted
was not a barbaric one, since it implied a trial with
evidence given and in some cases these Nazi officers
ended by dying in their homes of natural causes, but
to free a country is another think, and in order to
liberate Italy and Germany the allies had also to
intervene on the hosting country, entering the
territories.
Now it is America concretely being attacked at its
very core, and the attack, being a warfare attack as
it was, did not respect the basic ethic rules of every
war, which although wicked, still imply the
application of international conventions to defend the
civilians as much as possible. The fact that the USA
is a super-power does not make it immune from the
unfortunate possibility of being targeted. I am sure
that in the States, nobody ever wished to deny the
possibility that America, as any other country, could
become the target of warfare attacks, and not to be
subjected to declaration of war, after the equilibrium
created by the cold war ceased to exist . But how one
defends oneself when one finds its country attacked
beyond any rational scheme?
The problem of these two blocks of the world is too
ancient and radical to be solved now, and it consists,
I think, in the division that occurred centuries ago,
and which was created by the fact that out of the
Middle Age obscurantism, in the West, in our Western
countries, we had artists and thinkers, as well as
illuminated politicians, who introduced the
methodology and attitude of the DOUBT, of disbelief,
of analytic thinking. The downcast bewilderment on the
suffering faces of the American people and witnesses
originates just in that, in doubt, in this mentality
of ours, reluctant to any rooted ideas of belonging,
estranged by any factual thought of vengeance. So, in
the face of these emotions and because of this
mentality, we no longer know which is the right way to
react and even if we are told what it is the best, we
still need endless talking and confrontation, like
Hamlet. And with all the negativeness that this may
cause to our daily and present lives, I think this is
ultimate a quality.
How can we ever reconcile these opposite cultural
blocks, where one had to face globally the
consequences of “Enlightenment” and the other did not
and probably never will?
But enough with philosophical speculation, it is my
belief that the entire situation is due, as in the
case of Nazism, not to a mentality caused by religion
alone, but to ethnic anger, economic hegemony. We are
assisting to a manipulation and abuse of human lives
which is so fanatical, appalling and unspeakable as to
imply also the sacrifice of their own people and
country, their own domestic victims.
Eppi
--- "david.bircumshaw" <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> Yes, yes and yes, Frederick.
>
> Best
>
> Dave
>
>
>
>
> David Bircumshaw
>
> Leicester, England
>
> A Chide's Alphabet
> www.chidesplay.8m.com
>
> Painting Without Numbers
> www.paintstuff.20m.com/default.htm
>
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/default.htm
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Frederick Pollack" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Saturday, September 15, 2001 2:26 AM
> Subject: 9/11/01
>
>
> > It might be worth considering that multinational
> capitalism, though
> > considerably, is not exclusively American; it
> involves Shell and Sony as
> > well as IBM, Lloyds as well as Aetna, the Bourse
> as well as Wall Street.
> >
> > It might be worth considering that the Arab
> countries are governed by
> > variously corrupt oligarchs who are more concerned
> with their own wealth
> > than the welfare of their people, and who in
> time-honored fashion feed
> > the latter on nationalism and scapegoats.
> >
> > It might be worth considering that amidst the
> images of violent
> > stupidity that Western popular culture offers the
> Third World are images
> > of free individuals, independent women, and
> self-creating youth, which
> > are intolerable to authoritarian fanatics.
> >
> > It might be worth considering that for Osama bin
> Laden and his ilk
> > Israel and the Palestinians are merely a pretext.
> They see themselves
> > as involved in a war of civilizations, sworn to
> purge the Dar al-Islam
> > from corrupt Western influences and to return it
> to purity - which bin
> > Laden has explicitly equated with the code of the
> Taliban.
> >
> > Let me make it clear that I condemn all bigotry
> and scapegoating - most
> > immediately, that of Arab-Americans. That I
> oppose Sharon's
> > provocations, and Israeli settlers seizing
> Palestinian land. But I also
> > oppose maniacs blowing up themselves and 20 or 40
> or 50 - or 5000 -
> > innocent people. America could take a stronger
> position against the
> > settlements. But if there were genuine goodwill
> and desire for peace on
> > the part of Arab governments, instead of the
> convenient scapegoating I
> > mentioned, they would long since have worked out a
> peace that would have
> > satisfied and benefited all parties.
> >
> > Let me add two things. One: I regard all
> fundamentalism - whether that
> > of bin Laden, the ayatollahs, Orthodox xenophobes,
> or Jerry Falwell and
> > Pat Robertson - as a sickness. Two: I oppose
> George W. Bush and all
> > his beliefs and policies. Yet I have to agree
> with him that the events
> > of Tuesday are an attack on civilization itself.
> >
__________________________________________________
Terrorist Attacks on U.S. - How can you help?
Donate cash, emergency relief information
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/fc/US/Emergency_Information/
|