So after what quite simply is the world’s most expensive, and deadly, game of “Where’s Waldo?”, and killing the target – a lowly religion hijacking sociopath – but what did it cost?
It took billions of dollars, thousands of American and local civilian lives in four countries, side-lining many of our freedoms for a bit of perceived safety. It took expanding domestic spying to a level not seen in decades. It cost us our diplomatic status in the world, and made our country an embarrassment. It greatly expanded our national debt. It cost us our privacy when flying. It wrongly accused hundreds of being terrorists, preventing them from flying. It made us xenophobic and much more Islamophobic. It’s turned our country inside out.
And are we safer for it all?
No.
Where one dirty, cave dwelling, religion-hijacking sociopath becomes a greasy stain, there are many more ready to take his place. Islamic extremism isn’t one man. It’s the bastardization of a beautiful religion for political gain.
And we continue to help further it along.
For every civilian that our government killed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, and the Philippines by an American bomb or bullet, another terrorist was born.
For every illegal Israeli settlement built-in the West Bank, another terrorist is born.
And they will continue to feel justified.
Osama bin Laden is dead. Yet, Islamic Extremism is still alive and well. Am I arguing that he should not be dead? No. What I am saying is for the cost, we gained very little. We gained people dancing in the streets chanting “USA! USA!” (because that’s the only one we know). We gained celebration,but only for a moment.
But we lost sons and daughters. We lost brothers and sisters. We lost fathers and mothers and aunts and uncles. We lost best friends. We lost good people.
We committed atrocities that have left a swollen bruise on our national face.
The people in the countries we invaded lost faith in America, as their sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, best friends, all died from American shrapnel and lead.
Now is the time to grieve for all the lives lost, and now is the time to end the wars, and come home. Now is the time to change American Policy, once and for all, to no longer use the bullet and the bomb to stop Islamic extremism. We must start at home by shedding our incessant xenophobia and Islamophobia. We must do it abroad by cutting off funding to Israel until they stop the illegal settlements and sit down and come up with a two-state solution. We must get real about the sources of the problem, instead of just treating the symptoms with violence.
Because each time we do so, we lose more than we win.
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He’s dead… now what?
So after what quite simply is the world’s most expensive, and deadly, game of “Where’s Waldo?”, and killing the target – a lowly religion hijacking sociopath – but what did it cost?
It took billions of dollars, thousands of American and local civilian lives in four countries, side-lining many of our freedoms for a bit of perceived safety. It took expanding domestic spying to a level not seen in decades. It cost us our diplomatic status in the world, and made our country an embarrassment. It greatly expanded our national debt. It cost us our privacy when flying. It wrongly accused hundreds of being terrorists, preventing them from flying. It made us xenophobic and much more Islamophobic. It’s turned our country inside out.
And are we safer for it all?
No.
Where one dirty, cave dwelling, religion-hijacking sociopath becomes a greasy stain, there are many more ready to take his place. Islamic extremism isn’t one man. It’s the bastardization of a beautiful religion for political gain.
And we continue to help further it along.
For every civilian that our government killed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, and the Philippines by an American bomb or bullet, another terrorist was born.
For every illegal Israeli settlement built-in the West Bank, another terrorist is born.
And they will continue to feel justified.
Osama bin Laden is dead. Yet, Islamic Extremism is still alive and well. Am I arguing that he should not be dead? No. What I am saying is for the cost, we gained very little. We gained people dancing in the streets chanting “USA! USA!” (because that’s the only one we know). We gained celebration,but only for a moment.
But we lost sons and daughters. We lost brothers and sisters. We lost fathers and mothers and aunts and uncles. We lost best friends. We lost good people.
We committed atrocities that have left a swollen bruise on our national face.
The people in the countries we invaded lost faith in America, as their sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, best friends, all died from American shrapnel and lead.
Now is the time to grieve for all the lives lost, and now is the time to end the wars, and come home. Now is the time to change American Policy, once and for all, to no longer use the bullet and the bomb to stop Islamic extremism. We must start at home by shedding our incessant xenophobia and Islamophobia. We must do it abroad by cutting off funding to Israel until they stop the illegal settlements and sit down and come up with a two-state solution. We must get real about the sources of the problem, instead of just treating the symptoms with violence.
Because each time we do so, we lose more than we win.
This entry was posted by Brad on May 2, 2011 at 10:41 am, and is filed under Commentary. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.