Monday, March 17, 2008

Response to Reverend Wright: Fear and Cheer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tMvS5Ny2E4
Your attack on Hillary: too easy. Your tone: perpetuating mistrust = not good! The way you use the word "enemy" = scary!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9HUdF9OZa8

Hell yes, it's about time somebody said something about this.

“in a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act” George Orwell

Reverend Wright’s mistrust of “rich, white people” is kind of scary because he’s formed a dichotomy between the blacks and the rich, white people. The “enemy” is really within our hearts and minds; some black people and some white people become the enemy when they commit harm and racist injustices, and some black people and some white people are also fighting constantly for fellowship and give to the needy.

But I will say that Reverend Wright’s blaming 9/11 on the United States was not unfounded. First of all, yes, a lot of innocent people died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II; a lot more than 9/11. We owe an apology for that. But that should have nothing to do with the September 11th attacks. If Wright is trying to say that the two are related, he doesn't really have a point, except to say that America kills innocents the same way al-Qaeda kills innocents.

But we did have our own role to play in 9/11. Osama didn't want to bomb us “because he hates our freedom,” as the neo-cons say. Many third-world countries are probably both jealous and resentfully angry at the American way of life. But Osama was pissed for other reasons- like globalization and how it imposes Western ideals on other countries.

I am in no way justifying the September 11th attacks- violence should be used as a last resort, and killing innocents is never justifiable. The thing is, though, the United States has been meddling on foreign shores. We still are. NAFTA and World Trade are making it harder for other countries to get along economically. Poverty in Latin America and Africa has a lot to do with our foreign policy on the global market. Drug testing on poor people worldwide from the hands of U.S. based pharmaceuticals is bypassing the FDA standards by using CRO’s and outsourcing to India, Africa and Latin America, to name a few. The total of America's military bases in other people's countries in 2005, according to official sources, was 737. The United States has supported Iran against the communists in the 70’s and then Saddam against Iran in the 80’s. We even supported Osama.

“In the war against Hitler, the United States found common cause with Stalin. In the war against Japan, America aided Vietnamese rebel Ho Chi Minh. In Third World struggles, America helped Manuel Noriega and Saddam Hussein.”
Yes- we helped Saddam- see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._support_for_Iraq_during_the_Iran-Iraq_war
http://www.juancole.com/2006/12/for-whom-bell-tolls-top-ten-ways-us.html
The article continues: As Afghan rebels fought Soviet invaders in the 1980s, the United States gave aid from afar while Saudi exile Osama bin Laden provided support from within Afghanistan.”
http://archive.capecodonline.com/special/terror/binladen17b.htm

Maybe I should be more clear and say "the United States INDIRECTLY caused 9/11, and by caused I do not mean deserved". There, if I have to spell it out for you, that's what I meant to say. But I'm not going to sugar-coat it, I'm going to be real about it, and show the cause-effect relationship that lead from American foreign policy to show how we supported Osama and Saddam in their wars against Russia and Iran with cash, arms and training.

Robin Cook, former leader of the British House of Commons and Foreign Secretary from 1997-2001, wrote in The Guardian on Friday, July 8, 2005,

“Bin Laden was, though, a product of a monumental miscalculation by western security agencies. Throughout the 80s he was armed by the CIA and funded by the Saudis to wage jihad against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/jul/08/july7.development

"Pakistani investigative journalist Ahmed Rashid reported recently that the CIA funded an underground arms depot, training facility and medical center that bin Laden helped build in 1986 near the Pakistan border. There bin Laden set up his first training camp."
http://archive.capecodonline.com/special/terror/binladen17b.htm

In 1998, American businessmen from U.S.-based companies were still doing business with the Taliban.

In a 1998 article-
"Even worse, the United States lent and continues to lend its tacit blessing to the Taleban by doing nothing to stop them. In fact, American oil giant UNOCAL, closely tied to Saudi Arabia's Delta Oil, was hosting Taleban delegates to the U.S. and praising them in Washington at the same time the Taleban were murdering and terrorizing women in Afghanistan. And at the same time Osama bin Laden, who bombed our embassies in Africa, was living as a welcome guest of the Taleban and helping finance their takeover of Afghanistan-- a bit of incidental irony."
http://www.genders.org/g27/g27_afw.html

After al-Qeada bombed U.S. embassies in Africa, "the Clinton Administration was raining Tomahawk cruise missiles upon the Taliban and Al Qaeda, business was dealing. Whereas UNOCAL had withdrawn in December, other international investors were engaged in serious project negotiations. A New Jersey-based company, Telephone Systems International [TSI] announced in September a $240 million contract with the Taliban to set up a network of satellite-call centers in major Afghan cities, as well as a 30,000-line wireless system in Kabul. Eight percent of the profits were to go to TSI and 20 percent to the Taliban."
http://www.cursor.org/stories/karzai.htm

The Taliban was hiding al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at that time, and with one hand, Clinton was gunning for Osama, and on the other, TSI was funding the Taliban.


And we did betray Saddam. We supported him AND Iran-
Author George Crile, in his book Charlie Wilson's War, writes regarding CIA involvement in the Iran-Iraq War:[11]
As explained by Ed Juchniewicz[12] -- Avrakotos's patron and the number two man in the Operations Division at that time -- they were just leveling the playing field: "We didn't want either side to have the advantage. We just wanted them to kick the shit out of each other".
(George Crile, "Charlie Wilson's War", 2003, Grove Press, p. 275)

No one is saying the U.S. is directly to blame for the 9/11 attacks, but what I am pointing out- and what I chose to celebrate from Reverend Wright's sermon- is that the United States' support of terrorists in a policy of "the enemy of our enemy is our friend" has come back to bite us. Wright clearly says that (“the stuff we’re doing abroad has come back to bite us”), and I clearly say it because the facts clearly say it. I disagree with a lot of what he's saying, and I don't think we deserved to be attacked, like I said throughout my post, but I think it's time the truth came out about our involvement in inadvertently causing 9/11 by enabling the Taliban and giving Osama CIA training.

And we continue to support Israel, and it doesn't take an investigate journalist to figure that money isn't going to terrorism. I'm not anti-Zionist, but I am anti-going-too-far-and-fucking-up-Lebanon-in-2007. And let's not forget our indefinite commitment to the drug market in Afghanistan:

A 2003 Reuters article:
"The Taliban was cracking down on poppy production in the year before the US military drove the movement out of office in late 2001 in response to its friendship and cooperation with the al Qaeda organization of Osama bin Laden."
http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/11/28/afghanistan.drugs.reut/

And we continue to support the drug trade:
"Following the American invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 and subsequent removal of the Taliban from power, competing agencies within the US government set about to prove their worth (with some individuals intensely involved in lining their pockets with the drug money) by adopting policies to "short-cut" the process of Afghan reconstruction. One of these short-cuts involved a deal with the warlords. The deal was to allow the warlords to grow poppy, so that these warlords could buy arms and recruit militia to strengthen their ranks. In return, they would not only provide the Americans with the intelligence on where the al-Qaeda and the Taliban are hiding, but would also provide the Americans with fighters. "
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/EG15Ag01.html

William Irwin Thompson has this to say about the people who sent our troops being in Iraq:“So the neoconservatives of the Bush administration are the mirror-image of al Qaeda; they are also a noetic polity that seeks to deconstruct the modern middle class democratic nation-state and replace it with a metanational corporate cartel – a capitalist al Qaeda. Halliburton, Bechtel, Enron, the Carlyle Group, and Newmount Mining are postnational formations that really care little about the welfare of any particular people or nation. The American soldiers that died in Iraq did not die "defending their country"; they died defending Cheney and Bush's interests in Halliburton and the Carlyle Group. These neocon corporate managers, very much like the privateers and pirates that helped Queen Elizabeth create a postbaronial world of naval power, are offshore pirates that care as little for the entire nation, as Texan Enron cared for the state of California it plundered"

What we need to do is stop meddling in foreign affairs. Our dirty business in Israel and Afghanistan, as well as NAFTA’s effect on Latin America, is fueling anti-American hatred and supporting terrorism and drug wars.And we need to start calling the war on terror and the war on drugs what is really is- an endless waste of time and tax-payer's money. (see "Traffic" and read Under the Influence (ed. Preston Peet) to see what I mean)

“By 1999…world opium production had reached 7,000 tons. Of this, 4,700 tons, or 70%, was being grown in Afghanistan and trafficked by heirs of the mujahedin who in the 1980s had been financed, armed, and supported by the CIA.”- Peter Dale Scott (preface to his book Drugs, Oil, and War: The United States in Afghanistan, Colombia, and Indochina). It was to fight the communists- see the film Charlie Wilson’s War.
It was the heirs of the mujahedin, the Taliban, we went from friends to enemies with; and the Taliban didn't exist until the mid-90's

“If one recalls the various US wars on Central American countries during the 1980s, he or she will certainly remember the so-called Iran-Contra affair. In essence, this was a US operation that was run out of the Vice President’s office [sic: George Bush, Sr.] that traded guns for cocaine to the CIA proxy army in Nicaragua (the Contras) and in turn traded weapons parts and technology via Israel to the Khomeini government in Iran for cash. This cash came from the sales of the contra cocaine to various drug dealers in the United States—some of whom were enterprising enough to turn the coca paste and powder into a substance that would turn many of our country’s inner cities into cocaine-fueled war zones. The substance I am referring to became known as crack.” Ron Jacobs
http://www.counterpunch.org/jacobs01062004.html

"But I will say that Reverend Wright’s blaming 9/11 on the United States was not unfounded. "- that's what I said.

(in reference to the facebook debate)
Andres O is right, "I believe politics boils down to those who seek to solve the cause and those who seek to solve the effect. Brian wants to fix the effect, while Shep questions the causes. "

And Reverend Wright questioned the causes- that's what I was celebrating him for- speaking up where American politicians were silent!

Aaron McGruder and George Orwell argue this, and I agree-

We're living in a time where the presidential administration is secretive, unbalanced and full of lies. And you think that just by telling the truth, and I are labeled as being radical? What kind of time in the history of America is this where telling the truth becomes radical?

Reverend Wright is breaking a lot of ground by speaking out. But be wary- the enemy he talks about is not the enemy.

"Mind can be one's friend or enemy."- Bhagavad-Gita

Allow me to offer a parable.
"A lion was captured and placed in a large yard surrounded by a high fence. He soon became acquainted with the social life of the other lions who had been there a long time. The lions had divided themselves into several clubs, each with its own activities. One group met regularly to hate and slander the captors. Another group met to sing sentimentally about a future jungle having no fences. And a third group met to secretly plot violence against the other groups.Each group tried to pressure the newcomer into joining, but something held him back. His hesitation was caused by observing one particular lion who kept to himself and who seemed to be in deep thought. The newcomer shyly approached the solitary lion and requested an explanation of his apartness."Join nothing," replied the lion. "Those foolish creatures do everything but the necessary. I am doing what is essential, so one day I will be out of here. You are welcome to all the facts I have uncovered."
“But what is this necessary thing you are doing?"
"Listen carefully. I AM STUDYING THE NATURE OF THE FENCE."
-Vernon Howard

Now at times Wright seems like the first group of haters. Other times he seems to have been studying the nature of the fence- he knows what America’s been up to in other parts of the world. You see, people fluctuate- sometimes we rage, sometimes we sing songs of hope, sometimes we fall down to the level of perpetuating violence among our brothers and sisters, and if we are smart, sometimes we study the nature of our consciousness.

We fight ignorance, laziness, selfishness, lack of self-respect, violence, haste, indifference, arrogance, fear, hopelessness, egoistical thinking and boredom.

I won’t get into America’s involvement in the Israel-Palestine conflict right now- though I will say apologies need to be made on both parts, in fact, every organized religion should have their leaders apologize to one another for centuries of violence, which goes directly against God's Free Will.

Gandhi has a point: in 1938, he said
“Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. … What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct. … if they [the Jews] must look to the Palestine of geography as their national home, it is wrong to enter it under the shadow of the British gun. … A religious act cannot be performed with the aid of the bayonet or the bomb. … They can settle in Palestine only be the goodwill of the Arabs. …As it is, they are co-sharers with the British in despoiling a people who have done no wrong to them. …I am not defending the Arab excesses. … I wish they had chosen the way of non-violence in resisting what they rightly regard as an unacceptable encroachment upon their country. ..But according to the accepted canons of right and wrong, nothing can be said against the Arabs in resistance in the face of overwhelming odds.”
[originally published in Harijan, the weekly newspaper published by Gandhi, on November 26, 1938].

My perspective is, Zion is anywhere you lay your head. Displacement is sad, yes, but quit being so hung up on generations-old-tribal-blood-feuds; this whole religious war thing has gone on too long. The world is one big family- you’re only laying your brothers and sisters down into the ground, six-feet deep. Nobody should care that much about something man-made like a religious organization to want to blow themselves up over it. The injustices done in God's name, including the spread of atheism (wake up, organized religion, you're scaring people away with your dogmatic BS! Quit taking ancient texts literally! And WTF is up with rampant child-molestation??), Sharia (which goes against freedom of choice), the FLDS's tacit support for polygamy (people force young girls to marry their cousins! shame!) and FLDS "prophet" Rulon Jeff's decree against "heathens" (this is religious persecution on a political scale now in Phoenix) and Scientology (what a sorry excuse for a religion- this is a freedom-depriving, profit-driven cult that preys on the young and elderly, the spiritually confused and prisoners looking to be rehabiliated) will be recognized for what they are- blasphemous!

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe:

"Just the other day I was wondering:Is anyone willing to admit that people they loved have died fighting for something that is now unnecessary?

Can they learn that their loved ones did not die in vain, but in accordance to the inevitable fact that they didn't know any better, but now all must be forgiven and we need to admit that they fought for a cause that is now in the way of world peace?"

For more, see my blog:http://ageofmurdanstorm.blogspot.com/2008/03/soul-evolution-part-vi-liberation.html

3 comments:

Brannon said...

Well, I was gonna leave a brief comment on facebook, but considering there is a heated debate between you and one of your fellow classmates, I decided to stay away from the boxing ring for my own safety. I would be interested in knowing how you think his attack on Hillary is too easy? (If your busy please don't feel obligated to respond!) Now, its interesting to me that Rev. Wright would say such comments considering everything that is at stake for Obama, a Senator he supposedly supports. Have you ever considered that someone secretly paid off Rev. Wright to say those comments in hope of bringing out some controversy or he decided to say those comments to bring fame to himself. I'm not sure myself but I guess its possible. Rev. Wright seems like he's trying to divide the country more than it already is. Oh yes, and cheers to Andres' comment. He was right on the money.

Shep said...

When he said "Hillary ain't never had nobody call her a n___," I thought "Damn, if that disqualifies anyone from being president, or even from being passionate about the struggle of African-Americans, then I know a lot of really great people who can do neither". It is totally irrelavent to anything, whether or not someone has called her that. If this turns into a sympathy race, then shit..."I've been oppressed cause I'm a woman! They call me bitch!" "Well I've been oppressed more cause I'm black!" what kind of fucked up argument is that?

And I'm sure quite a number of black people have never been called a n___ either...wtf Reverend Wright?

Shep said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0wvQMqSzTM