Yesterday my father-in-law Ralph sent me this email about an essay online. As it was sent to 82 people, I wrote a response and sent it to those 82 people.
An email that thinks it's a forum? A forum disguised as an email?
Anyhow here's the email and below is my response. Let me know what you think. Disagree with me if you must as well, but let's remember we're all friends here.
I'm posting just to share.... (gooey feeling radiates)
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This is an interesting piece, not the stuff heard on CNN. Its from the
>lead singer of the band "System Of A Down". They have recently cancelled
>or postponed their "Pledge of Allegiance" tour in light of the WTC bombing.
>
>System Of A Down singer Serj Tankian posted a controversial essay on the
>band's web site, systemofadown.com, regarding the recent tragedies in
>American and past events in the Middle East. The essay has since been taken
>off the band's web site, no official reason for the decision has been
>announced. It is currently unknown whether the band's record label,
>Columbia Records, or the band decided to take down the piece. Here is
>Serj's essay in its entirety:
>
>Understanding Oil By Serj Tankian
>
>The brutal attacks/bombings this week in New York, and Washington D.C.,
>along with threats of attacks there and elsewhere in the country have
>changed our times forever. While the mass media concentrates on the details
>of the destruction, and the blanketed words of politicians, I will attempt
>to understand and explain the events from the fence.
>
>BOMBING AND BEING BOMBED ARE THE SAME THINGS ON DIFFERENT SIDES OF THE
>FENCE.
>
>Terror is not a spontaneous human action without credence. People just
>don't hijack planes and commit harikari (suicide) without any weight of
>thought to the action. No one in the media seems to ask WHY DID THESE
>PEOPLE DO THIS HORRIFIC ACT OF VIOLENCE AND DESTRUCTION?
>
>To be able to understand the answer to this, we must first look at our U.S.
>Mideast Policy. During most of the 20th century, U.S. businesses have
>worked on attaining oil rights and concessions from countries in the Middle
>East and Eastern Europe. After WWI, secret back door deals by our State
>Dept. yielded oil rights from then defeated Turkey to fields in what is now
>Iraq and Saudi Arabia, in return for looking the other way at a crime
>against humanity, the Genocide of the Armenians by the Turks. Oil profits
>have been the motivating factors behind many attempts at counterinsurgency
>of democratic regimes by the CIA and the U.S in the Middle East (such as
>Iran in the 1950s, where the Shah replaced the Prime Minister who refused
>to give up oil rights to the U.S., and since the people couldn't deal with
>the Shah, an extremist government headed by the Ayatollah Khomeini
>ultimately prevailed).
>
>During the Iran-Iraq war, America supplied both sides with weapons and
>advice. These are not the actions of a rich superpower wanting peace.
>Let's not forget that Saddam Hussein, before being America's vision of the
>Anti-Christ, was a close ally of the U.S., and the CIA. So what was the
>firm belief system of consecutive American administrations that caused all
>this to occur ? PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST WILL LEAD TO HIGHER OIL AND
>GASOLINE PRICES.
>
>Let's not also forget the power of the Arms industry, disguised as defense,
>that still sells billions of dollars of weapons to the area. Therefore it
>has not been in the short-term economic interest of the U.S. to foster
>Peace in the Middle East. Using the above reasoning, the U.S. has
>encouraged extremist governments, toppled democracies, as in the case of
>Iran to replace it with a monarchy, rigged elections, and many more
>unspeakable political crimes for U.S. businesses abroad. Let's not also
>forget the Red Scare. During the war between the then Soviet Union and
>Afghanistan, the U.S. armed and supported the Taliban, a fundamentalist
>Muslim organization, and allowed them to export opium and heroin out of
>their country to pay for those weapons. Therefore the Taliban rose to
>power and control with the help of the U.S.A. Today, the bombing of Iraq
>still continues, no longer covered by the media, the economic embargo still
>remains, killing millions of children, and recently, while the world and
>the U.N. General Assembly have cried out to bring in peacekeeping forces
>into Israel and Palestine, to end the escalated war and recent
>assassinations, the U.S. has vetoed the rest of the Security Council ! and
>has halted the possibility of peace, there, in the most volatile place in
>the world.
>
>People in Serbia, Lebanon, Iraq, Sudan, and Afghanistan to name a few have
>seen bombs fall, not always at military targets and kill innocent
>civilians, as the scene in New York city yesterday. The wars waged by our
>government in our names has landed smack in the middle of our living
>room. The half hour of destruction closed down all world financial
>markets, struck the central headquarters of our military, and had our
>leaders running into bunkers, and our citizens into fear and frenzy. What
>scares me more than what has occurred is what our reactions to the
>occurrences may cause. President Bush belongs to a long generation of
>Republican Presidents who love war economies. The media has only
>concentrated on the bombings, if you will, and what type of retaliations
>are looming for the perpetrators. What everyone fails to realize is that
>the bombings are a reaction to existing injustices around the world,
>generally unseen to most Americans. To react to a reaction would be to
>further sponsor the reaction. In other words, my belief is that the terror
>will multiply if concrete steps are not taken to sponsor peace in the
>middle east, NOW.
>
>This does not mean that we should not find the guilty party(s), Bin Laden,
>or whoever they may be, and not try them. Put simply, as long as a major
>injustice remains, violence precipitates to the surface of life. Native
>American folklore, the Bible, Nostradamus, and many other major religious
>beliefs point to this era with the visuals of yesterday's disasters, and
>conditions of ecological disasters we experience daily in our lives today.
>War, rumors of war, famine, long burning fires, etc., are at our doorstep.
>We can prevail over this possible vision with the power of the human
>spirit, understanding, compassion, and peace. IT'S TIME TO PUT OUR NEEDS
>FOR SECURITY AND SURVIVAL, ACHIEVED ONLY THROUGH PEACE, ABOVE AND BEYOND
>PROFITS, ESPECIALLY IN THESE TIMES.
>
>SOLUTION: The U.S. should stop sidestepping the U.N. Security Council, and
>allow U.N. Peacekeeping troops and missions to the Middle East. Stop the
>violence first.
>
>Stop the bombing and patrol of Iraq. With today's gains in the use of
>alternative fuels, develop them to full usage with autos and other
>utilities, to make the country less dependant on an already depleting
>natural reserve, oil. By initiating peace, we would have already shaken
>the foundations of support for Bin Laden, and/or all those that sponsor
>activities like those we saw yesterday, and break the stronghold of
>extremists on the world of Islam. On the other hand, if we carry out
>bombings on Afghanistan or elsewhere to appease public demand, and very
>likely kill innocent civilians along the way, we'd be creating many more
>martyrs going to their deaths in retaliation against the retaliation. As
>shown from yesterday's events, you cannot stop a person who's ready to die.
>
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Ralph,
It was probably pulled off because it's in error. These U.S. policies explain hatred, rage and disdain, but hardly explain the willingness of humans to lay down their lives in following a man who has thus far not been willing to lay down his, and murder hundreds of people from Britain, India, Pakistan etc, as well as thousands of American citizens. Serj has a good call for peace in the middle east and finding lasting solutions to the problem of terrorism, but I personally get sick of hearing of arguments of this sort of tone. In Union Square Manhattan, we have these sort of debates going on, perpetuated by those often ignoring the sensativities of people going there to grieve lost loved ones, and find calm amidst internal storms. Strong words of internal criticism are not what's needed to heal the gaping spiritual and emotional wounds the devastation has left.
Thankfully most of us here are pulling together. An act of destruction has enabled expressions of love, comfort, brotherhood, unity, public praise to God and desires for peace as well as sharing a sense of community hitherto lacking or dormant within the city of New York.
America's policy did NOT cause this destruction. Those that commited it chose to react of their own volition. They chose to use the human spirit to achieve a destructive and dark end. By definition, enacting ones own agenda at the expense of anothers life is Evil. Islamics themselves need to look at why they allow such a terrible misuse of their faith to manipulate the minds of those under such as Bin Laden, the Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad. "Islam" of course means "The way of Peace". Ironic don't you think?
There is the saying that until the Palestinians love their children more than they hate Israelis there will be no peace.
Oh another error in this piece is that the US did NOT fund the Taliban as mentioned in by Serj. The US funded and supported the Mujahadeen in the war against the Soviet Union. The Taliban overthrew the Mujahadeen after the Soviets had left.
Also I disagree with the notion that peace in the Middle East would lead to higher oil prices due to the trends that have shown oil prices rising when war or threats of war occur. Oil prices rose in the US after word of the attacks, as they did during the Gulf War. How can he speculate a contrary trend? On what economic evidence is he basing his theory?
Also Serj fails to note that Iraq went to war with Kuwait over oil export policy. Does not Kuwait possess more oil than Iraq? I could be wrong...
In any case, Saudi Arabia and other oil rich Gulf states do not have the same negative relationship with the US as the states Serj mentioned. Serj's argument has the eiree ring of paranoia in my opinion. It relies on the pure speculation that the Republican "lovers of war economics" are heartless and disregarding of human life. I take the stand of innocent until proven guilty on that matter.
Anyhow, I hope you have a great day. I pray you notice the little things in this life that we can take for granted, and cherish every sinlge moment as a bonus. The ride could stop at any time, and I'm just glad to be on it. Praise God.
Cheers
Hugh
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I am the walrus!.... er, no hang on....
A fair dinkum laughing Hyena!