A good friend of mine, heck, my best friend, sent me an email the other day. Lately she must be in a patriotic mood because a lot of what she's sent has been anti-Islam/Muslim. But, then again, she's a devout Republican and has never been exorcised of that demon.
Usually I read what she has forwarded (along with all the other info from other forwards) and I get on with whatever else I have been doing. I roll my eyes and hit the delete button harder than usual but that's as far as I go.
What she has most recently sent me, I just cannot let it pass.
Basically, the message in the post was "I don't care." Here's a snippet.
"Are we fighting a war on terror or aren't we? Was it or was it not started by Islamic people who brought it to our shores on September 11, 2001?
Were people from all over the world, mostly Americans, not brutally murdered that day, in downtown Manhattan , across the Potomac from our nation's capitol and in a field in Pennsylvania?
Did nearly three thousand men, women and children die a horrible, burning or crushing death that day, or didn't they?
And I'm supposed to care that a copy of the Koran was "desecrated" when an overworked American soldier kicked it or got it wet?..Well, I don't. I don't care at all.
I'll start caring when Osama bin Laden turns himself in and repents for incinerating all those innocent people on 9/11.
I'll care about the Koran when the fanatics in the Middle East start caring about the Holy Bible, the mere possession of which is a crime in Saudi Arabia .
I'll care when these thugs tell the world they are sorry for hacking off Nick Berg's head while Berg screamed through his gurgling slashed throat.
I'll care when the cowardly so-called "insurgents" in Iraq come out and fight like men instead of disrespecting their own religion by hiding in mosques.
I'll care when the mindless zealots who blow themselves up in search of nirvana care about the innocent children within range of their suicide bombs.
I'll care when the American media stops pretending that their First Amendment liberties are somehow derived from international law instead of the United States Constitution's Bill of Rights.
In the meantime, when I hear a story about a brave marine roughing up an Iraqi terrorist to obtain information, know this: I don't care.
When I see a fuzzy photo of a pile of naked Iraqi prisoners who have been humiliated in what amounts to a college-hazing incident, rest assured: I don't care.
When I see a wounded terrorist get shot in the head when he is told not to move because he might be booby-trapped, you can take it to the bank: I don't care.
When I hear that a prisoner, who was issued a Koran and a prayer mat, and fed "special" food that is paid for by my tax dollars, is complaining that his holy book is being "mishandled," you can absolutely believe in your heart of hearts: I don't care.
Emotional terrorism is being used in this message. First off, the mess in Iran has very little to do with what happened in NYC, PA, and DC. Bush didn't send troops to Iran to stop terrorism. It has been proven that the reasons for the orders were falsified and had nothing to do with the terrorists responsible for the 9/11 tragedies. Anyone who understands these facts and dares to bring this up is labeled unpatriotic and uncaring. "Proof" of this happens later in the email letter:
If you don't agree, then by all means hit the delete button. Should you choose the latter, then please don't complain when more atrocities committed by radical Muslims happen here in our great Country!
I care! Hell, I care as much as everyone else! I just don't think their deaths justify the hatred of an entire religion and people! To say that Islam is to blame for 9/11 is saying that Christianity is to blame for the mess in Iran! Wasn't Hitler a Christian? Wasn't Mussolini a Catholic? Aren't the people who blow up abortion clinics and gay bars doing so based on their religious beliefs? Their Christian beliefs?
When we stop caring about those around us, we become no better than the worst of them. We are lower than the worst of them. Caring is what sets the winners apart. Caring is what keeps us alive. We cannot, should not, use the religion as a basis of war without first understanding our own.
Justifying one tragedy by causing another is wrong. Just plain wrong. We can't survive as a people by doing that. The U.S. is based on freedoms. This nation was started by folks who were tired of having freedoms taken away. They had enough of financial and emotional terrorism and fought back. Then they set up laws to protect the very freedoms they valued the most. Religious freedom and the freedom to be different were very, very important to them.
To say we don't care now about the rights of others, the freedoms of others, we spit in the founding fathers' faces. We step on the very reason so many died trying to gain. We should care, a LOT, about the behavior of our troops in Iran. We should care that they are overwhelmed, understaffed, over-worked, and under-paid. We should care that these factors create an atmosphere where torturing prisoners is an acceptable behavior. We should care that innocents are being killed by alleged "friendly fire". We should care that their rights to religious items while in prison is being ignored. We should care that their religious items are being desecrated. We cannot stand upon a platform of freedom while shoring up the foundation with the bodies of innocents, the humiliation of prisoners of war, lies and falsified documents, and hatred of religions not our own.
Are we no more than children on the playground? "Osama just beat me up but I can't reach him so I am going to beat you instead and tell everyone that I'm doing it because you kinda sorta maybe know Osama. But I'm really beating you up now because you beat me up a long time ago and got away with it because the teachers called us back into the classroom."
Our troops need to come home. They aren't there being brave Americans. They are stretched to their limit with inadequate equipment surrounded by citizens who didn't want them there to begin with. They are there doing their job because their boss is a bully in the global playground and told them to go.
Oh, and dear Patriotic zealots who write emails such as the one I quoted above, get your facts straight first. Islamics don't believe in nirvana, that's a Buddhism and Hinduism thing. College hazing, such as piling naked men together, is illegal in the US and therefor the same behavior should be illegal in the military.
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