In our zeal to impose our will on others, our soldiers are being placed in a terrible situation.
Villages considered hostile to the government of Afghanistan, are shut out of assistance programs in the hope they will become more compliant, and that policy won’t change just because the Alizais are shouting “death to Canada” in the streets, said Lieutenant Derrick Farnham, a civilian-military liaison officer at Canadian headquarters in Kandahar.
Wouldn’t it be better to help these people instead of treating them in this way. Hardly a good strategy for winninghearts and minds.
Does this approach increase the prospect of more terror?
It’s always useful to put the great issues of our time into some sort of perspective. There are those who feel that history is a dry, dull subject, but had world leaders studied a little more of it, we might not be involved in so many nasty wars and bitter conflicts.
Those leaders who have the greatest need to study history are the ones at the head of the world’s most powerful governments. President Bush of the U.S. has spoken about
bringing "freedom" and "democracy" to the poor down-trodden nations of the world. But he wants to do it through the use of aggressive force and pre-emptive strikes. All of his policies during his presidency have been at odds with history – even the history of his own country. History shows that violence simply breeds more violence.
His belligerent and bellicose rhetoric has led only to war and has exacerbated violence and regional conflict around the world.
One of the few – perhaps the only modern U.S. President, who truly understood history
was John F. Kennedy. The story of his confrontation with The Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis shows his grasp of historic truth. His application of that truth shows a wise use of power, both in terms of tactics and strategy.
Had Bush studied the Kennedy years more carefully, the world might be a different place today.
In 1963, the renowned American journalist, Walter Lippman spoke in Paris.
Lippman pointed out that Kennedy prevailed in the confrontation with the Soviet Union, "…because,
having the power to achieve a limited objective, he had the wisdom to narrow his objective to what he had the power to achieve".
It was manifestly unthinkable to use nuclear weapons against Cuba. They had no relevance to the Cuban problem. It would have been an incalculable risk to invade and occupy Cuba at the risk of retaliatory military action against Berlin, action which could have escalated into nuclear war. The President adopted limited objectives which could be achieved by limited means. He demanded the removal of the Soviet strategic missiles. He did not demand the removal of the Castro regime or even of the Cuban defensive missiles".
Lippman pointed out that a major element in the successful resolution of the problem – which could have sparked a thermonuclear war, was this:
"…throughout the crisis, the two heads of government kept channels of personal and official communication open".
When the leader of a powerful nation sets out deliberately to provoke and humiliate another leader, the reactions of the humiliated one and his followers are likely to become uncontrollable. It is the business of wise, powerful leaders refrain from using the tactic of humiliation or the strategy of unnecessary provocation.
In the case of Iraq, Bush deliberately blocked all channels of communication. He used language that was both provocative and humiliating. And he allowed his belief in America’s vast military power to overcome his common sense.
As Lippman said in that Paris speech back in 1963,
"…prudence in seeking not to drive your opponent into a corner is not weakness and softness and appeasement. It is sanity and common sense and shows a due regard for human life."
The horror of war…the futility and tragedy of it has little meaning for those of us who live quiet and safe here in Canada.
The causes of war are usually the results of the actions of men who have little or no experience of war themselves.
Today we are all touched by the incomprehensible, animalistic nature of armed conflict. We are exposed to it daily in our media. But the men who could do something about it, do nothing.
They remain oblivious to the pain and suffering of the young men and women who die in their wars.
Unmoved by the pain and suffering of those who are left behind.
The words they speak in defense of their wars ring hollow, for by unleashing the dogs of war, they achieve no rational goal.
Quakers are opposed to all human cruelty. Perhaps especially war – because it is so deeply symbolic of humankind’s weakness and of our inability or unwillingness to solve problems by other means.
War is in such perfect opposition to everything that Jesus Christ stood and stands for, that Quakers have adopted the belief that all war is wrong.
Fundamentally and completely wrong.
Quakers have the courage and the determination to bring this message to the world; they live it in their daily lives. In the United States, The American Friends Service Committee has presented a great work of Remembrance. It shows the tragedy of war, the folly of it and pain of it in a graphic but silent way.
No one can observe this work without having tears of sympathy, frustration, anger and sadness well up.
Due to the growing number of US casualties, the Eyes Wide Open National Exhibit has become too large for the AFSC to tour. Instead, the AFSC will be splitting the exhibit into 50 state exhibits to continue the work of bringing Eyes Wide Open into smaller communities across the country. Working with AFSC offices, Quaker meetings and peace groups across the country, the Eyes Wide Open state exhibits feature the boots of the soldiers from their home states in addition to a memorial to the Iraqi civilian casualties.
I’ve known about Leonard Cohen since I was a young man. I read one of his first collections of poetry, called "A Spice Box of Earth". I followed his career through controversey and the search for truth, which he so ardently pursued.
I’ve been looking again - a lot - at his poetic songs and I am struck once more by the truly visionary nature of his writing.
He’s Canadian, but perhaps that’s precisely why his writing has such a strong and deeply meaningful application to modern America. Only a Canadian, who understands America by virtue of being in the same cultural bed, could write such prophetic words about a nation we Canadians identify with.
The terrible convergence of bad vibrations in the world, set off by an Imperial government that has spiralled out of control gets expression in Cohen’s words and music.
Who else but a poet/prophet could issue such a dire warning as he does in this particular piece of work -The Future- it ought to be sobering to us all. And especially to those who so mindlessly support the Bush America’s imperialistic policies.
I read this song as a desperate call, by a prophet-poet for George W. Bush to repent his arrogant desire to contol this world in which we live.
Cohen is the epitome of a good and true Human Being, who is at once, a true humanitarian…and who sees our planetary society clearly- in all its complexity.
When you read the lyric along with his singing, think of what the Bush-Cheney-neo-conspiracy are doing to us.
Cohen has seen the future and says: It’s Murder.
There are prophets and then there are prophets. No one can say that the last one was Jesus or Mohammed…there is prophecy within us all. Cohen proves that, beyond all question.
This song is a warning; but it’s still not to late for repentance.
Give me back my broken night my mirrored room, my secret life it’s lonely here, there’s no one left to torture Give me absolute control over every living soul And lie beside me, baby, that’s an order! Give me crack and anal sex Take the only tree that’s left and stuff it up the hole in your culture Give me back the Berlin wall give me Stalin and St Paul I’ve seen the future, brother: it is murder.
Things are going to slide, slide in all directions Won’t be nothing Nothing you can measure anymore The blizzard, the blizzard of the world has crossed the threshold and it has overturned the order of the soul When they said REPENT REPENT I wonder what they meant When they said REPENT REPENT I wonder what they meant When they said REPENT REPENT I wonder what they meant
You don’t know me from the wind you never will, you never did I’m the little jew who wrote the Bible I’ve seen the nations rise and fall I’ve heard their stories, heard them all but love’s the only engine of survival Your servant here, he has been told to say it clear, to say it cold: It’s over, it ain’t going any further And now the wheels of heaven stop you feel the devil’s riding crop Get ready for the future: it is murder
Things are going to slide …
There’ll be the breaking of the ancient western code Your private life will suddenly explode There’ll be phantoms There’ll be fires on the road and the white man dancing You’ll see a woman hanging upside down her features covered by her fallen gown and all the lousy little poets coming round tryin’ to sound like Charlie Manson and the white man dancin’
Give me back the Berlin wall Give me Stalin and St Paul Give me Christ or give me Hiroshima Destroy another fetus now We don’t like children anyhow I’ve seen the future, baby: it is murder
Fright Wing: Two Imbeciles Face off While a Third Waits in the Wings
I am forced to interrupt my Ontario Canada election coverage for an urgent world bulletin.
U.S. "President" George W. Bush, a would-be Dictator and Iranian "President" Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a would-be Dictator, are playing a dangerous game of chicken poker with the rest of us as potential victims. Both are playing with different decks of cards and both decks are a few cards short. Neither understands the other’s language or religion and both are as inarticulate as sharks during a feeding frenzy on some hapless foreign tourist in Florida or on an Iranian beach.
Neither player has the confidence of the majority of his people…and each one invokes God as his protector and sponsor.
As I said in a previous post, Poor God. I would add here – poor People.
Bush won’t let Ahmadinejad lay a memorial wreath at Ground Zero, when the Iranian visits New York next week. And the Iranian insists on referring to Bush as the leader of a country he calls The Great Satan. Both men are insulting the vast majority of their own people with their thoughtless and reckless rhetoric. Both men seem to feed on and regurgitate an endless pondscum of insults and carefully crafted slogans, which one imagines are thought up by their syncophantic underlings.
Apparently neither leader has a clue about just how pathetic and empty they both appear.
Iranians know though. And so do Americans. And – are you listening Georgie? And you…Mahmoodie, are YOU listening?…the rest of the world knows too! In fact, Everybody knows – even your so-called "admirers".
Meanwhile the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehudi Olmerti, who just dropped a few bombs on Syria -(nobody seems to know exactly why yet), stands by – with his rather shaky finger on the trigger, ready to fire at any moment.
It’s transparently apparent that these three, who might be called "The Axis of Insanity", have no regard whatsoever for those of us commoners, who have no bomb shelters to hide in and no shields against their hubris.
Surely to Mohammed, Christ, Buddah and the rest – it’s time for decent citizens of the world to stand up and issue a trumpet call for this wicked trio to stand down.
The whole wide world is burning with a great and insatiable desire for peace for the protection of children and for some measure of ordinary love for one another; and yet these men speak only of war, of death, destruction and hatred.
If they only knew how naked they really are.
These men, (notice they’re all men), are – as Leonard Cohen sings, Natural Born Killers and what none of them realize is, that the rest of us all Know it.
Please read along with Leonard’s song: and think about the lyrics
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed Everybody knows that the war is over Everybody knows the good guys lost Everybody knows the fight was fixed The poor stay poor, the rich get rich That’s how it goes Everybody knows Everybody knows that the boat is leaking Everybody knows that the captain lied Everybody got this broken feeling Like their father or their dog just died
Everybody talking to their pockets Everybody wants a box of chocolates And a long stem rose Everybody knows
Everybody knows that you love me baby Everybody knows that you really do Everybody knows that you’ve been faithful Ah give or take a night or two Everybody knows you’ve been discreet But there were so many people you just had to meet Without your clothes And everybody knows
Everybody knows, everybody knows That’s how it goes Everybody knows
Everybody knows, everybody knows That’s how it goes Everybody knows
And everybody knows that it’s now or never Everybody knows that it’s me or you And everybody knows that you live forever Ah when you’ve done a line or two Everybody knows the deal is rotten Old Black Joe’s still pickin’ cotton For your ribbons and bows And everybody knows
And everybody knows that the Plague is coming Everybody knows that it’s moving fast Everybody knows that the naked man and woman Are just a shining artifact of the past Everybody knows the scene is dead But there’s gonna be a meter on your bed That will disclose What everybody knows
And everybody knows that you’re in trouble Everybody knows what you’ve been through From the bloody cross on top of Calvary To the beach of Malibu Everybody knows it’s coming apart Take one last look at this Sacred Heart Before it blows And everybody knows
Everybody knows, everybody knows That’s how it goes Everybody knows
Oh everybody knows, everybody knows That’s how it goes Everybody knows
