Tuesday, November 17, 2015

War Waged by Superpowers is the Problem - Terrorism Waged by the Dispossessed is the Symptom


Yesterday I attended a presentation where a well-educated speaker stated that terrorism was emerging as a top social problem.

I wanted to respond that actually WAR was the top problem and that terrorism is a derivative of war.

I've spent time in Europe so I know that Europeans have never fully assimilated the migrant flows produced by over a hundred years of colonial manipulation across the globe. Those flows are now exacerbated by endless wars waged by superpowers.

The US neocon plan and military deployments aimed at replacing totalitarian governments in Middle East countries are, in my opinion, responsible for the current immigrant influx into Europe, which has the potential to unleash dangerous thanatopolitics for people trapped between wars and walls:

Glenn Greenwald.Wes Clark and the neocon dream. Salon. November 26, 2011. http://www.salon.com/2011/11/26/wes_clark_and_the_neocon_dream/
In 2007, the retired General described a necon "policy coup" aimed at toppling the governments of 7 countries [in 5 years] ....

The plan to replace 7 governments in 5 years is responsible for the waves of refugees and no doubt is increasing tensions among alienated immigrant communities in Europe.

War is the number one problem, not terrorism. Terrorism is "blow-back" as articulated so effectively by Chalmers Johnson.

I am ashamed that my state, Arizona, has shut its doors to refugees produced by American imperialism. These refugees are mostly women and children. We have a moral responsibility to embrace these people whose lives have been upended by our imperialist undertakings.

Over the years I've had the honor to work with refugees from Africa and the Middle East. They are among the most wonderful people I've met in my life. Their hearts are so big and their capacities for compassion and understanding so great.

I am reminded of the Question of German Guilt written by Karl Jaspers. We all have collective guilt for allowing our leaders to operate as tyrants, to drive us ever closer to collective annihilation.

Terrorism is a symptom of a sick system that could be healed by alternative realizations and value orientations.

Free will means that we can "choose to be otherwise."

Non-violence means we will not be corrupted by our means.

Stewardship means we see ourselves as responsible for the well-being of future generations and non-human life on planet earth.

Collaboration means full inclusion.

Which path do we take?






 





 



6 comments:

  1. Lets not have a war. Japan is too week for war in many ways now. On a side note. There sure a lot of pictures of blue tinted omnivpres and pigs on the internet. Gosh, I wonder where thats coming from? Cesium is blue. Dang.

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  2. It is good alledgedly apparent is back.

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  3. A deeply flawed foreign policy by people whose vested interests are not those of the average American citizen: we could trace this current situation back to the High Middle Ages and the Crusades. And later to colonialism. We can differentiate between taking in refugees, especially those our policies have created, and those who wish to come here for a better material life. Regarding the latter we need to be careful not to harm the nations they come from. Given the vast numbers of persons living in sub standard conditions ( about 5 billion ) the best solution would be to help those nations raise their standards of living. The problem with refugees is determining who is really a refugee and who might be a subversive. ISIS probably is hoping to send in a number of jihadists via Obama's 100,000 a year. What troubles me is the apparent almost complete lack of common sense in the WH and Congress. These people are the scions of a once very successful nation and like many heirs of a fortune are lacking in wits and character. I have noticed that if one puts a "not the case" qualification before whatever the president says one often gets the real facts and truth. For example, "ISIS is contained". Or your health insurance bill will go down! The EU might have considered setting up decent refugee camps in the poorer EU nations which it could pay for and which would bring employment to these nations. The EU is full of unemployed young people. Then take real steps to bring peace to the nations they have helped destroy. As it is they are merely aggravating their citizens and creating more prejudice against Muslims.

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  4. Not surprisingly with the backing of the mini-9/11 France is now bombing Syria. And somehow Assad is the cause of all these problems Europe is having with jihadists! It was too long ago that Obama kept asserting that Assad had to go and helped stir up a civil war. For the sake of his removal another nation has been almost destroyed. Who knows what kind of man Assad is. He certainly is intelligent as he became an ophthalmologist in the UK. If he were to go then Syria would become even more of a nightmare. Like Iraq indefinitely. Or Libya. Someone is not learning from experience?

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  5. Alawites like assad do the christian holiday in syria. Yet american christians are told to hate him. that he has to be deposed. that he is a terrorist. He has done some mean ruthless things. I know , i have talked to muslim refugees who were his victims. The problem is outside interveeners have turned syria into an anarchic shithole as iraq, libya, ukraine, afganistan even egypt are. Every country he evil, bastard neocons meddle is now a continuous bloodbathed shithole. Those wame vampyric neocons are still getting rich off the ill gotten gains of the murderous wars and conflictw the promote, arm, actively fund, propagandize about , and exploit. America is a radioactive shithole we are just in denial. Sure people can shot and the overall appearance is diluted by the sheer volume of the gluttony and self destruction but it is there. it is unstable. thousand people or more killed by cops last year. milions of homeless millions in prison. force keeps turning into an anarchic shithole like iraq but we are close to it. deception lets us slide closer to it. hundreds were killed in a similar bombing incident in beirut a day or so before the paris massacre yet the press did not cover it. are the people from beiruts lives any less valuable than the parisians? japan like syria and iraq has been declared one of the most dangerous places in the world to visit. not because of violence but because of radioactivity. doew any american seriously think it is any different here with wipp, with fuku fallout, with the st louis municipal dump about to set fire to one of the largest nuclear nuclear waste dumps in the world afire that is right next to it? Wake the fuck up americans. pull your heads out of your asses. give up the damnable denial.

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