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misscamUS anger at UN remarks
US holds minors in Guantanamo
"That the US sees nothing wrong with holding children at Guantanamo and interrogating them is a shocking indicator of how cavalier the Bush administration has become about respecting human rights," spokesman Alistair Hodgett told the Associated Press news agency.
Human rights certainly have had a beating of late, with the proposed ASIO bill here in Australia, anti-terrorism laws in several countries... How much will this new fear cost us, I wonder?
I wrote this after September 11th:
(...) Unbelievable. It was a word that was repeated a lot that day and seen in the faces of the broadcasters. Unbelievable. To use a plane as a flying bomb, slamming it into one of the foremost symbols of New York is unbelievable.
Americans called it evil. It’s easier to think of it as evil, to cling onto that perception of the world as black and white. With so much else seeming to change for them, I cannot really fault Americans for thinking that way. But that too, as much as the events themselves, fills me with fear.
When George Bush speaks of the fight between good and evil and that good will prevail, I fear for the US.
The US is not good. It has done many horrific things, intentionally or not. Osama bin Laden is not good either. But he shares something with the US; faith. Faith that his belief is right, that his actions are justified. Faith is perhaps the most dangerous quality in humans.
We kill for faith, we die for faith. It brings out the best and the worst in us. Faith scares me, yet I do have a faith of some kind.
I fear that perhaps the biggest enemy of the US is not Osama bin Laden, but the US itself.
I fear for Australia. I fear for Norway. I fear that this new fear will inhabit us all for a long, long time and slowly change us.
One day we might think it has always been this way. Perhaps it has. Perhaps we have always been scared, but now our fears are realised.
And I wonder where faith ends and fear begins.
They call it “war on terrorism.” It’s not. It’s war against Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. Terrorism is very much in the eye of the beholder. To Osama bin Laden, the US are the terrorists. To the West, bin Laden is the terrorist.
To Israelis, Palestinians are terrorists. To the Palestinians, the Israelis are terrorists.
And in any case, you cannot fight terrorism with bombs. You must fight terrorism with courage. As long as there is faith and fear, there will be terrorism.
But as long as there is courage, there is hope, and the sun will rise tomorrow too. Even over New York and what once was the World Trade Centre Towers.
If anything, the events of this last year has increased my fears. There is something seriously wrong with the world, and it's not just the Middle east. It is in America, it is in Europe, it is Australia, it is in Africa, and yes, it is in Iraq. I don't think it is good and evil. If anything, I think divinding the world in good and evil is a symptom of this wrongness. The problem with making everything black and white is that sooner or later, you yourself will end up in the black part. No human is wholly good. No country is wholly good.
I wonder... Where do we go from here? Unfortunately, I do not trust the US government as a guide, yet there is no doubt it is the strongest power shaping the world. I don't even trust myself to know what is best for the world. Honestly, are humans even what is good for the world?
And yet, I have hope. What else can I do? I have this life, I can only live it.
US holds minors in Guantanamo
"That the US sees nothing wrong with holding children at Guantanamo and interrogating them is a shocking indicator of how cavalier the Bush administration has become about respecting human rights," spokesman Alistair Hodgett told the Associated Press news agency.
Human rights certainly have had a beating of late, with the proposed ASIO bill here in Australia, anti-terrorism laws in several countries... How much will this new fear cost us, I wonder?
I wrote this after September 11th:
(...) Unbelievable. It was a word that was repeated a lot that day and seen in the faces of the broadcasters. Unbelievable. To use a plane as a flying bomb, slamming it into one of the foremost symbols of New York is unbelievable.
Americans called it evil. It’s easier to think of it as evil, to cling onto that perception of the world as black and white. With so much else seeming to change for them, I cannot really fault Americans for thinking that way. But that too, as much as the events themselves, fills me with fear.
When George Bush speaks of the fight between good and evil and that good will prevail, I fear for the US.
The US is not good. It has done many horrific things, intentionally or not. Osama bin Laden is not good either. But he shares something with the US; faith. Faith that his belief is right, that his actions are justified. Faith is perhaps the most dangerous quality in humans.
We kill for faith, we die for faith. It brings out the best and the worst in us. Faith scares me, yet I do have a faith of some kind.
I fear that perhaps the biggest enemy of the US is not Osama bin Laden, but the US itself.
I fear for Australia. I fear for Norway. I fear that this new fear will inhabit us all for a long, long time and slowly change us.
One day we might think it has always been this way. Perhaps it has. Perhaps we have always been scared, but now our fears are realised.
And I wonder where faith ends and fear begins.
They call it “war on terrorism.” It’s not. It’s war against Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. Terrorism is very much in the eye of the beholder. To Osama bin Laden, the US are the terrorists. To the West, bin Laden is the terrorist.
To Israelis, Palestinians are terrorists. To the Palestinians, the Israelis are terrorists.
And in any case, you cannot fight terrorism with bombs. You must fight terrorism with courage. As long as there is faith and fear, there will be terrorism.
But as long as there is courage, there is hope, and the sun will rise tomorrow too. Even over New York and what once was the World Trade Centre Towers.
If anything, the events of this last year has increased my fears. There is something seriously wrong with the world, and it's not just the Middle east. It is in America, it is in Europe, it is Australia, it is in Africa, and yes, it is in Iraq. I don't think it is good and evil. If anything, I think divinding the world in good and evil is a symptom of this wrongness. The problem with making everything black and white is that sooner or later, you yourself will end up in the black part. No human is wholly good. No country is wholly good.
I wonder... Where do we go from here? Unfortunately, I do not trust the US government as a guide, yet there is no doubt it is the strongest power shaping the world. I don't even trust myself to know what is best for the world. Honestly, are humans even what is good for the world?
And yet, I have hope. What else can I do? I have this life, I can only live it.
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no subject
Date: 2003-04-24 07:44 pm (UTC)Please get out of my head -- there isn't room in here for two of us. ;)
Thank you once again for voicing my fears better than I'm able to. At least by naming them I feel that it gives me a fighting chance to ... do ... something with them.
For Mr. Hodgett...
Date: 2003-04-25 12:51 am (UTC)Yet these people trying to harm US troops is perfectly alright, Mr. Hodgett? I would beg to differ.
I don't care who you are; if you do the crime, well, you have to do the time, as they say. I have a cousin that committed numerous crimes (drug dealing to theft to domestic violence), yet he used his age to get off, or at least to try to get off. As one who has seen age matter more than those that were hurt or whose lives were lost/could have been lost, the very idea disgusts me. The cousin in question was seventeen, by the way, and only months from becoming a legal adult. (Or an illegal adult, if you ask me.)
I just don't understand people like Alistair Hodgett. *sigh* Human rights, sure! But you have to fight for the rights of all the humans involved, not just the ones you think deserve it.
Bah.
Am moody. Don't mind me, Miss Cam. A.H. didn't help any. :P Wish I could talk to him personally! :P
Re: For Mr. Hodgett...
Date: 2003-04-25 11:02 pm (UTC)Since when are teenagers children?
Honestly, when you use the term "children," I imagine the age as being 10 and under. Apparently these "children" are 13 and up. Teens are old enough to be able to choose whether or not to join the muhajideen of their own accord, especially over there (I think 12 is when you technically come of age in most Middle Eastern societies, but I could be wrong). In the US, teens might get slightly lessened sentences because of being juveniles, but they don't normally get off with no punishment at all (unless, like Jean's cousin, they happen to be really slick). In fact, in some states, teens who commit capital murder can be tried as adults.
If that's the standard we apply to our own youth, why should we be less strict toward enemy combatants who happen to be teens?
But then, as I've said elsewhere, I'm hopelessly old-fashioned and conservative.
Rose
no subject
Date: 2003-04-26 11:14 am (UTC)"It’s war against Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. Terrorism is very much in the eye of the beholder. To Osama bin Laden, the US are the terrorists. To the West, bin Laden is the terrorist."
That is very true. I'm getting sick of everything being slapped as 'Terrorisim'.
Terrorisim is merely the act of trying to instill fear in others. While Bin Laden wanted to instill fear in the US on 9/11, I doubt that America's intent was to instill fear in the countries they were fighiting in. But that was back then- I would say now one of the primary purposes of invading Iraq was to instill fear. To instill fear into the corrupt, sadistic, and repressive governments that rule those regions of the world.
Perhaps it was for oil, too. That seems a common cry among protesters. Still, I agree with it. Even greedy Americans are better for the people of Iraq than Saddam and Uday the Sadists.
I don't particularly like America or stand for 'Freedom toast' and the like. I think America is quite pushy and fatheaded, to put it bluntly.
But they are- what can I say- the lesser of two evils?