A Brother Tim Op-Ed
*These opinions do not necessarily represent the opinions of And, yes, I DO take it personally.
"The ugly truth is this: American ideology is now based on barbarism."
Tim O'Donnell
I am both shamed and sickened by the blood-lust of my fellow Americans. Their love of war; shock and awe; death and destruction, saddens me. They are self-deluded cretins, living in a state of denial. Their greed and arrogance has culminated in mass mental retardation. They have an insatiable hunger for war, a hunger that will result in emaciation, and ultimately, their demise.
We love war so much, we use the word at every opportunity. The War on Drugs; the War on Poverty; the War on Terror; ad infinitum, ad nuaseam. Let's be honest and call it what it really is, the War on Peace.
Even Barack Obama, the man who, at one time, gave me a glimmer of hope, has resorted to using terms like 'good' wars and 'bad' wars. Let me give you a news-flash, Senator: War is war. There is no such thing as a 'good' war. The closest you can come to 'good', is a defensive war, which we haven't waged since the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941.
The call is now going out, for us to redeploy our troops from the 'bad' war in Iraq, to the 'good' war in Afghanistan. The Afghanistan war is just as illegal, if not more so, than the Iraq war. We were not attacked by the Afghans (15 of the 19 supposed hijackers were Saudi Nationals), nor was it mandated or approved by the United Nations. In fact, it was contrary to the UN Charter. But in the eyes of America, the UN Charter is just like the Hague Conventions, the Geneva Conventions and Protocols, or the Constitution of the United States; it's just a piece of ....... paper.
I guess I must have been out fishing, or studying my Bible, when I apparently missed the news cycle that reported when God had died, or retired, and relinquished His powers to the ruling class of America. We continue to live under the psychedelic delusion that we are the world's sole superpower, with the self-anointed/appointed authority to dictate policy and lifestyles to the world.
The sad fact is, we are but a schoolyard bully with the temperament of a two year old. We don't pick on people who are powerful enough to bitch-slap us back into reality. We only lord over, or invade, smaller, weaker nations. You don't see us illegally attacking China or Russia. Does anyone wonder why?
We have regressed to being barbaric, to accepting, and even embracing, the raping and pillaging, in a way, considering it to be somewhat noble. To the victor goes thespoils.
We refuse to listen to sage counsel, such as 'What goes around, comes around'; 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you'; or 'You reap what you sow'. When, not if, we suffer a devastating attack (the magnitude 9-11 was merely a slap on the cheek), Americans will claim victim status. We will be bombarded with all the pseudo-reasons like, 'they hate us for our freedoms', or 'they hate us for our religion', or 'they hate us for our prosperity'. Never will you hear the real reasons. They hate us for our arrogance, aggression, greed, and lack of human compassion and decency.
We like to self-identify ourselves as being a 'Christian' Nation; but where, in the New Testament, does it command, condone, or even allow the things we do? Torture; secret renditions; incinerating cities (Hiroshima and Nagasaki); destroying and decimating foreign lands; poisoning and polluting their soil and air with things like chemicals and depleted uranium? Dropping bombs, firing cruise missiles and the like, to totally level neighborhoods and cities, indiscriminately killing innocents, many of them women, children, and elderly.
Can anyone honestly believe God is smiling down on us, and saying, "Well done, my good and faithful servants"? Does anyone believe He's saying, "Heckuva job, Georgie"?
Unfortunately, what goes around, DOES come around. The chickens are already coming home to roost. The 'lucky' ones that do make it back from these senseless wars, are saddled with lifelong injuries and disfigurements. Many, with severe psychological problems, that we try to explain away as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The truth is, when normal people are trained and ordered to carry out inhumane atrocities, or to be eyeball-witnesses of them; it would be a 'disorder' if they WEREN'T traumatised. Add to that, the horrors of things yet to come. Things like the cancers, health problems, and birth-defects caused by our forces being exposed to, and inhaling the DU dust. It's not only the 'enemy' who will suffer. Did we learn absolutely nothing from things like Agent Orange in Viet Nam?
I am a firm believer in eschatology. We are living in precursory times, and I am but a harbinger of things to come. It may not happen next month, or next year; but America is in it's penultimate stage.
Can we change course? Can we right our wrongs? Can we repent? Do we have the intestinal fortitude? I doubt it.
America will be forced to take on the role of the Phoenix, and arise from it's ashes. How sad. The 'School of Hard Knocks' is an expensive and unnecessary education. Some learn from their mistakes; some learn from others' mistakes; and some never learn at all.
This my country too, and I resent that the obscenely wealthy elite are herding us onto the slippery slope of our demise. And weary, that the intellectually-challenged populace is saying, "Yeah, that's cool............. Honey, bring me another beer, American Idol is gettin' ready to start".
Get out your proverbial wallets, it's time to pay the Piper,
Brother Tim
**Cross-posted at the Blog of Revelation
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"The ugly truth is this: American ideology is now based on barbarism."
Tim O'Donnell
I am both shamed and sickened by the blood-lust of my fellow Americans. Their love of war; shock and awe; death and destruction, saddens me. They are self-deluded cretins, living in a state of denial. Their greed and arrogance has culminated in mass mental retardation. They have an insatiable hunger for war, a hunger that will result in emaciation, and ultimately, their demise.
We love war so much, we use the word at every opportunity. The War on Drugs; the War on Poverty; the War on Terror; ad infinitum, ad nuaseam. Let's be honest and call it what it really is, the War on Peace.
Even Barack Obama, the man who, at one time, gave me a glimmer of hope, has resorted to using terms like 'good' wars and 'bad' wars. Let me give you a news-flash, Senator: War is war. There is no such thing as a 'good' war. The closest you can come to 'good', is a defensive war, which we haven't waged since the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941.
The call is now going out, for us to redeploy our troops from the 'bad' war in Iraq, to the 'good' war in Afghanistan. The Afghanistan war is just as illegal, if not more so, than the Iraq war. We were not attacked by the Afghans (15 of the 19 supposed hijackers were Saudi Nationals), nor was it mandated or approved by the United Nations. In fact, it was contrary to the UN Charter. But in the eyes of America, the UN Charter is just like the Hague Conventions, the Geneva Conventions and Protocols, or the Constitution of the United States; it's just a piece of ....... paper.
I guess I must have been out fishing, or studying my Bible, when I apparently missed the news cycle that reported when God had died, or retired, and relinquished His powers to the ruling class of America. We continue to live under the psychedelic delusion that we are the world's sole superpower, with the self-anointed/appointed authority to dictate policy and lifestyles to the world.
The sad fact is, we are but a schoolyard bully with the temperament of a two year old. We don't pick on people who are powerful enough to bitch-slap us back into reality. We only lord over, or invade, smaller, weaker nations. You don't see us illegally attacking China or Russia. Does anyone wonder why?
We have regressed to being barbaric, to accepting, and even embracing, the raping and pillaging, in a way, considering it to be somewhat noble. To the victor goes the
We refuse to listen to sage counsel, such as 'What goes around, comes around'; 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you'; or 'You reap what you sow'. When, not if, we suffer a devastating attack (the magnitude 9-11 was merely a slap on the cheek), Americans will claim victim status. We will be bombarded with all the pseudo-reasons like, 'they hate us for our freedoms', or 'they hate us for our religion', or 'they hate us for our prosperity'. Never will you hear the real reasons. They hate us for our arrogance, aggression, greed, and lack of human compassion and decency.
We like to self-identify ourselves as being a 'Christian' Nation; but where, in the New Testament, does it command, condone, or even allow the things we do? Torture; secret renditions; incinerating cities (Hiroshima and Nagasaki); destroying and decimating foreign lands; poisoning and polluting their soil and air with things like chemicals and depleted uranium? Dropping bombs, firing cruise missiles and the like, to totally level neighborhoods and cities, indiscriminately killing innocents, many of them women, children, and elderly.
Can anyone honestly believe God is smiling down on us, and saying, "Well done, my good and faithful servants"? Does anyone believe He's saying, "Heckuva job, Georgie"?
Unfortunately, what goes around, DOES come around. The chickens are already coming home to roost. The 'lucky' ones that do make it back from these senseless wars, are saddled with lifelong injuries and disfigurements. Many, with severe psychological problems, that we try to explain away as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The truth is, when normal people are trained and ordered to carry out inhumane atrocities, or to be eyeball-witnesses of them; it would be a 'disorder' if they WEREN'T traumatised. Add to that, the horrors of things yet to come. Things like the cancers, health problems, and birth-defects caused by our forces being exposed to, and inhaling the DU dust. It's not only the 'enemy' who will suffer. Did we learn absolutely nothing from things like Agent Orange in Viet Nam?
I am a firm believer in eschatology. We are living in precursory times, and I am but a harbinger of things to come. It may not happen next month, or next year; but America is in it's penultimate stage.
Can we change course? Can we right our wrongs? Can we repent? Do we have the intestinal fortitude? I doubt it.
America will be forced to take on the role of the Phoenix, and arise from it's ashes. How sad. The 'School of Hard Knocks' is an expensive and unnecessary education. Some learn from their mistakes; some learn from others' mistakes; and some never learn at all.
This my country too, and I resent that the obscenely wealthy elite are herding us onto the slippery slope of our demise. And weary, that the intellectually-challenged populace is saying, "Yeah, that's cool............. Honey, bring me another beer, American Idol is gettin' ready to start".
Get out your proverbial wallets, it's time to pay the Piper,
Brother Tim
**Cross-posted at the Blog of Revelation
Labels: Afghanistan, And yes I DO take it personally, Blog of Revelation, Brother Tim, Geneva Convention, Hague Conventions, Iraq, Pearl Harbor, U.S. Constitution, Vietnam
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posted by Anonymous at
8/02/2008
