Thursday, November 11, 2004

Winning the battles and losing the war

A military victory for U.S. forces in Fallujah seems set to lead to a huge political loss for the U.S.-backed interim Iraqi government.

http://www.ipsnews.net/new_nota.asp?idnews=26237

Veteran's Day Thoughts

The beginning of thought is in disagreement - not only with others but also with ourselves. Eric Hoffer

I’m of the belief that violence is not the answer to oppression. I’m also of the belief that oppression should be resisted and that perhaps one should be willing to die for their beliefs. But there is, in my opinion, a difference between those willing to die for their beliefs and those willing to kill for their beliefs. In my opinion there is nothing right about the current war. It is draining our financial resources, it is killing and maiming thousands of people, it is detroying the infrastructure of a poor country, it is distracting our people from important work that needs to be done here at home, and it is alienating us in the eyes of the world.

The Iraqui people did not ask us in...we preemptively attacked them. The same is true in Afghanistan. At least one source, (http://iraqdeaths.notlong.com) are claiming that we have inflicted over 100,000 casualties in this war.

In honor of veterans day I have put together a page of quotes at my web site. The URL is: http://334578.com/Quotes.htm

Here are some of the quotes you can find there.

“No man is an island entire of itself... Any man’s death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”—John Donne

“We must in strength and humility meet hate with love. Maybe in some distant Utopia, you say, that idea will work, but not in the hard cold world in which we live. My friends, we have followed the so called practical way for too long a time now, and it has led inexorably to deeper confusion and chaos. Time is cluttered with the wreckage of communities which surrendered to hatred and violence. For the salvation of our nation and the salvation of mankind, we must follow another way. To our most bitter opponents we say: “We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.”—Martin Luther King Jr.

“When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or aEuropean, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why itis violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.”—J. Krishnamurti, Freedom from the Known “Our vision of interconnectedness resonates with new networks of world citizens in nongovernmental organizations linking from numberless centers of energy, expressing the emergence of a new organic whole, seeking unity within and across national lines... If governments and their leaders, bound by hierarchy and patriarchy, wedded to military might for legitimacy, fail to grasp the implications of an emerging world consciousness for cooperation, for peace and for sustainability, they may become irrelevant.”—Dennis Kucinich, US congressman, “Spirit and Stardust”

“If it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.

And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”—Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

“Every explicit duality is an implicit unity.”—Alan Watts

“The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.” Abraham Lincoln

“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubt. “ Bertrand Russell

“The enormous gap between what U.S. leaders do in the world and what Americans think their leaders are doing is one of the great propaganda accomplishments of the dominant political mythology.”—Michael Parenti

Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices. Voltaire, 1767

Patriots always talk of dying for their country, and never of killing for their country. Bertrand Russell

Show me who makes a profit from war, and I’ll show you how to stop the war. Henry Ford

We will never understand totalitarianism if we do not understand that people rarely have the strength to be uncommon. Eugene Ionesco

Those willing to give up a little liberty for a little security deserves neither security nor liberty. Benjamin Franklin

Man is the only Patriot. He sets himself apart in his own country, under his own flag, and sneers at the other nations, and keeps multitudinous uniformed assassins on hand at heavy expense to grab slices of other people’s countries, and keep them from grabbing slices of his. And in the intervals between campaigns he washes the blood off his hands and works for “the universal brotherhood of man” - with his mouth. Mark Twain

If democracy is so good, why do we have to go to other countries and try to jam it down their throats with a gun? Stay here and make democracy work. If it’s good you don’t have to force it on others, they’ll steal it. Dick Gregory

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate...Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of starts. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I wondered why somebody didn’t do something for peace...Then I realized that I am somebody. Anonymous

There are many more at my Quotes page.

May all those veterans of all wars who died in battle Rest in Peace. And may all those who lived through war Rest in Peace. And may all those who live on the planet with us Live in Peace.