las vegas

April 3rd, 2006

 

 

several people have emailed me and asked me why i have not spoken out on the war or what is my opinion on the war.  i have never thought my feelings were relevant to anyone other than me and my wife and friends.  in america it seems that too many people "care" about what a "celebrity" thinks or feels about a certain something or another.  conversely, too many "celebrities" spout their opinion about most everything under the sun.   however, since i was asked....

 

 

here goes:

 

since i am a follower of the teachings of jesus the christ i am against killing under all circumstances.  (spare me all the juvenile arguments that start with "what if")  so therefore i cannot condone nor participate any war, anywhere, for any reason. 

 

but:

 

as a citizen of this great country i also know that  we cannot let a 9-11 happen and then do nothing about it.

 

so

 

what would i have done about osama bin laden?  (well, a pacifist is NOT going to get elected in this country for quite some time so the question to me is asinine in as that i would never be in the position of determining a question such as that)  but what i do  wish our government had done is to declare an international MANHUNT FOR A COMMON CRIMINAL.   take the "war" out of the rhetoric.  it should be a hunt for criminals.  if you do something to us we will come get you.  there is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.  if found, i would capture or try to capture any or all of the people involved in the 9-11 attacks and bring them back to the united states and put them on open trial for the world to see that we are a nation of laws.  if we thought osama was in afghanastan and that  government refused i think we should have told them that "well gee, then we are really sorry about this but our men and going to come in and look for themselves.  we have no problem with you we will not fire unless fired upon."  and then send the delta force anywhere in the world that we thought osama bin laden might be.  until we find him.  i would use bribery more than anything else.  it's cheaper.  if we weren't out bombing people we would get a lot more co-operation all across the board.  they already know ("they" being the whole world) that we are the biggest, baddest, meanest  sons of bitches that ever walked the face of the earth.  the biggest baddest motherfucker hardly ever has to hit anyone. 

 

iraq?   they never did anything to us.  i don't know why we are killing them.  i do know they never did anything at all to us.  and between you and me, i don't give a fuck about giving them "democracy" so they can elect some religious nut who would do something so barbaric as to have a law that if you converted to christianity from being a muslim you will be sentenced to death.    oh fuck.  that IS what we did in afghanastan.

 

i too, was angry on 9-11.  i found it hard in my heart to forgive those people.  (but on a personal level, i did forgive them)  but i will not let that lead me to blame all arabs or all muslims for the acts of a very, very few. 

 

by the same token, we have military bases on their lands.  how would we react if the chinese or the russians had military bases here in the united states? it would piss us off and  i am sure those bases piss a lot of arabs and muslims off. also the radical muslims in the middle east seem to want their own governments to change.  they see their own government as an oppressor.  worse, they see us allied in someway with their government and therefore they see us as an oppressor.  we are not.  but that is how they see us.  does that justify terrorists acts against american citizens?  fuck no.  but it does justify their being pissed.  at us.  and we, as a people, must learn to see things through the eyes of others.  there is no other way for us to ever get along.  the finding of common ground is preface of the finding of peace.  on earth.  for all people. 

 

martin luther king said, "an injustice to one is an injustice to us all." 

 

we, the american people, do not feel as though "we" fucked over anybody.  and  "we" didn't.  not consciously anyway.  (as a sidebar:  i have found that most people i have met overseas or people from overseas, in private conversations will say that they do like the american people, they find us "good" people but they do not like but do fear our government.  rightly or wrongly that is how the ones i have spoken to have felt.  and these have been people from asia, from the middle east, from western europe, from russia, from africa and from south america.  and their story is always the same.  could it be that they are seeing our government in ways that we never think to consider?)  however, we cannot really separate ourselves from our government and it is we, the people, who must suffer the consequences of our government doings.

 

   there are no sons and daughters of congressmen or women in iraq or afghanstan.   there were no sons or daughters of congressmen, congresswomen or members of the administration who were in the trade centers on that fateful day.  the members of congress (almost exclusively) are millionaires, the president is a millionaire, the vice president is a millionaire, the secretary of defense is a millionaire.  their kids don't go into the military, their kids don't have to worry about college tuition, they all have health care paid for by taxes why should they care about the cost of going to a doctor?   why should they care if the national debt is run up over this war...my point being a REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY we should have men and women who REPRESENT the citizens.  how can a "club" of all millionaires represent you and me who have to get up and go out and earn a living each and every day?  millionaires never have to worry about the rent, know what i mean.  they can send us off to war knowing that the consequences will never affect them. 

 

so what do i think we should do in iraq and afghanastan.   LEAVE.  NOW.  SEE YA.  ADIOS.  GOODBYE.  SORRY ABOUT THAT INVASION BUT WE GOTTA GO NOW.

 

i believe that one of the main reasons bush lead us into war was to establish permanent military bases in iraq.   we have built 4 super-bases in iraq complete with bowling alley and pizza hut stores.  we have spent billions on these bases.  they are permanent.  do you think we built them to give them to the iraqis?  i don't.  but i am sure the iraqis will just love to have a permanent military presence of a foreign country on their soil.  i know we would.

 

leave now.  "it will fall into civil war" cry the warmongers.  so?  it already is a civil war and we are the cause of it.  leave now.  bring our men and women home.   now.

 

leave afghanastan as well.  learn from the russians.  ask them how well it went for them there.  it broke the soviet union and unless we leave these two hell-holes they will break us as well.   it is not "cutting and running" it is using common sense and knowing when to lay down a hand to use a poker term. 

 

so there you go.  that is what i think for what it is worth.

 

ron shock