Cheryl Seal
Message from an American Mother
Tue Feb 14, 2006 12:00
Message to the Iraqi People
from Cheryl SEal
As a mother myself, I cannot begin to imagine what life in the most war-torn parts of Iraq must be like, the despair, fear, disruption of life, the horrible feeling of helplessness when you realize you are not able to protect your children from brutal violence. Last September, we Americans got an insight into just what life for thousands of Iraqis must be like when we witnessed the destruction, displacement, suffering and death in New Orleans after Katrina. I know that life in Iraq for too many people amounts to living in a disaster zone with no hope of relief. There are, I know, still many areas of Iraq where, as in New Orleans, there is no running water, no electricity, no sewage system STILL.
I am deeply, deeply ashamed that the leaders of America, through deception and manipulation, have caused this war and the chaos and suffering that have followed. It staggers my imagination that over 30,000 innocent civilians have died as a result of my nation's actions - I lived for many years in a town that had a population of about 30,000 - the death count in Iraq would be equivalent to having every man, woman, and child in that town killed. This kind of loss and waste is an atrocity beyond acceptance for me and many of my fellow Americans. As someone who has worked with disabled veterans,
I am also very acutely aware of the kind of suffering our US troops are enduring in the war, and know that their suffering will continue, long after this war is over. My heart breaks for them and their families.They are victims of this war as much as the Iraqi people. The number of dead, wounded, psychologically damaged, and embittered is growing every day. Bush's refusal to adequately equip our soldiers in the field, or adequately care for them once they have returned home is a disgrace.
We are living in the 21st century - the age of communication, where the only excuse for failure to communicate is REFUSAL to communicate. And that is what the Bush administration and its supporters use as their main tool for achieving their ends: REFUSAL TO COMMUNICATE, which, of course, includes LISTENING. They refused to listen to the honest intelligence people who told them there was no justification for war with Iraq. They refused to communicate with experts from the UN and elsewhere who tried to give them sound advice and information on Iraq's WMD status. They refused to communicate with any senators, congresspeople, or activist leaders who questioned the proposed invasion. On a daily basis, they have for several years now refused to allow the American media to communicate the truth of what is happening to the American people, not just in Iraq, but here in our own country. The Katrina tragedy was due in large part to a gross failure of communications in the US government. As we have seen recently, the Bush administration even refused to communicate to most of the people in its own government that they were conducting warrantless wiretaps of citizens.
I am especially angry that the Bush administration and the American media have, through their collusion, managed to present a false picture of most Americans to the world. We are now seen throughout the world as bloodthirsty, greedy, arrogant, indifferent to suffering, and cruel. Yet I know that most Americans are NOT like this. The fact that Bush had to lie to the country to induce it to go to war proves that even Bush knew that. .
The violence being perpetrated on both sides - by the US soldiers and the Iraqi resistance fighters - is a tragic and inevitable consequence of the insanity of war. As someone once siad, "War is hell.". Especially a war where there is no hope of either side really winning. If the US were to become an occupied country, we Americans would feel forced to keep fighting, no matter how much we did NOT want to engage in violence. So how can we deceive ourselves into believing that the Iraqi people will not also continue to fight as long as the US is in occupation?
But, in the end, the most powerful weapon is, and always will be, COMMUNICATION. It is obvious that the American media is failing to do this, so it is left to a small but growing network of communicators, many of use on line, to try to reach past the lies and violence to our brothers and sisters in Iraq - including our own troops - who are suffering. The message that is most important is that MOST Americans and MOST Iraqis are good, decent people who want to live in peace and are who are perfectly willing to work together with tolerance and compassion to improve quality of life for all. As long as a small minority of people are able to paint all Americans as heartless conquerors, and all Muslims as murderous fanatics, then the "bad guys" will win and the violence will continue. By communicating, while at the same time resisting taking the "bait" of inflammatory lies, the bad guys will ultimately become isolated.
For Iraq, I think Ghandi had the right idea when he found that the best way to throw off the British occupation was through passive resistance and peaceful noncooperation. (read more about this: http://www.kamat.com/mmgandhi/gandhi.htm )
Here in America, the peaceful solution of "noncooperation" is to push to impeach Bush (who has committed enough crimes to certainly deserve this, long before now) and to vote out of office every senator and congressperson who has failed to represent the REAL wishes of the majority of Americans. It may take time, but in the end, we will prevail. Even if we must wait until 2008, when Bush MUST leave office.
As Ghandi once observed, dictators always fall in the end - ALWAYS. One down (Saddam Hussein) and one to go (Bush).
from Cheryl SEal
As a mother myself, I cannot begin to imagine what life in the most war-torn parts of Iraq must be like, the despair, fear, disruption of life, the horrible feeling of helplessness when you realize you are not able to protect your children from brutal violence. Last September, we Americans got an insight into just what life for thousands of Iraqis must be like when we witnessed the destruction, displacement, suffering and death in New Orleans after Katrina. I know that life in Iraq for too many people amounts to living in a disaster zone with no hope of relief. There are, I know, still many areas of Iraq where, as in New Orleans, there is no running water, no electricity, no sewage system STILL.
I am deeply, deeply ashamed that the leaders of America, through deception and manipulation, have caused this war and the chaos and suffering that have followed. It staggers my imagination that over 30,000 innocent civilians have died as a result of my nation's actions - I lived for many years in a town that had a population of about 30,000 - the death count in Iraq would be equivalent to having every man, woman, and child in that town killed. This kind of loss and waste is an atrocity beyond acceptance for me and many of my fellow Americans. As someone who has worked with disabled veterans,
I am also very acutely aware of the kind of suffering our US troops are enduring in the war, and know that their suffering will continue, long after this war is over. My heart breaks for them and their families.They are victims of this war as much as the Iraqi people. The number of dead, wounded, psychologically damaged, and embittered is growing every day. Bush's refusal to adequately equip our soldiers in the field, or adequately care for them once they have returned home is a disgrace.
We are living in the 21st century - the age of communication, where the only excuse for failure to communicate is REFUSAL to communicate. And that is what the Bush administration and its supporters use as their main tool for achieving their ends: REFUSAL TO COMMUNICATE, which, of course, includes LISTENING. They refused to listen to the honest intelligence people who told them there was no justification for war with Iraq. They refused to communicate with experts from the UN and elsewhere who tried to give them sound advice and information on Iraq's WMD status. They refused to communicate with any senators, congresspeople, or activist leaders who questioned the proposed invasion. On a daily basis, they have for several years now refused to allow the American media to communicate the truth of what is happening to the American people, not just in Iraq, but here in our own country. The Katrina tragedy was due in large part to a gross failure of communications in the US government. As we have seen recently, the Bush administration even refused to communicate to most of the people in its own government that they were conducting warrantless wiretaps of citizens.
I am especially angry that the Bush administration and the American media have, through their collusion, managed to present a false picture of most Americans to the world. We are now seen throughout the world as bloodthirsty, greedy, arrogant, indifferent to suffering, and cruel. Yet I know that most Americans are NOT like this. The fact that Bush had to lie to the country to induce it to go to war proves that even Bush knew that. .
The violence being perpetrated on both sides - by the US soldiers and the Iraqi resistance fighters - is a tragic and inevitable consequence of the insanity of war. As someone once siad, "War is hell.". Especially a war where there is no hope of either side really winning. If the US were to become an occupied country, we Americans would feel forced to keep fighting, no matter how much we did NOT want to engage in violence. So how can we deceive ourselves into believing that the Iraqi people will not also continue to fight as long as the US is in occupation?
But, in the end, the most powerful weapon is, and always will be, COMMUNICATION. It is obvious that the American media is failing to do this, so it is left to a small but growing network of communicators, many of use on line, to try to reach past the lies and violence to our brothers and sisters in Iraq - including our own troops - who are suffering. The message that is most important is that MOST Americans and MOST Iraqis are good, decent people who want to live in peace and are who are perfectly willing to work together with tolerance and compassion to improve quality of life for all. As long as a small minority of people are able to paint all Americans as heartless conquerors, and all Muslims as murderous fanatics, then the "bad guys" will win and the violence will continue. By communicating, while at the same time resisting taking the "bait" of inflammatory lies, the bad guys will ultimately become isolated.
For Iraq, I think Ghandi had the right idea when he found that the best way to throw off the British occupation was through passive resistance and peaceful noncooperation. (read more about this: http://www.kamat.com/mmgandhi/gandhi.htm )
Here in America, the peaceful solution of "noncooperation" is to push to impeach Bush (who has committed enough crimes to certainly deserve this, long before now) and to vote out of office every senator and congressperson who has failed to represent the REAL wishes of the majority of Americans. It may take time, but in the end, we will prevail. Even if we must wait until 2008, when Bush MUST leave office.
As Ghandi once observed, dictators always fall in the end - ALWAYS. One down (Saddam Hussein) and one to go (Bush).
- Vote Fraud War With Iran, British Soldier Beatings —THE CHARLES GOYETTE SHOW:, Tue Feb 14 13:43
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