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I woke up on the morning of September 12th to a glorious mountain sunrise and the sound of my farmer host's shovel scraping the threshing floor again and again as he tossed the wheat grains high in the air, the morning breeze carrying away the last of the chaff. Wanting to treat myself I reached for the SW radio while still in my sleeping bag and listened in horror as astounded reporters described the inconceivable: two giant buildings only 15 minutes from my sisters' home had been annhiliated along with thousands of New Yorkers. The next 72 hours were a tormenting struggle to cover 300 kilometers of the roughest jeeptrack in North Pakistan's giant mountains. Walking, riding on tractors, standing up in throttling jeeps. Finally on the third night I learned through internet (phone communication to the US was cut off) that Darya and her husband were OK. It was time then to think of my own safety. Thanks to the help of my friends and family within three more days I was in the air to Istanbul, Turkey. I and (I think all Americans) have carried stones in the heart since this tragedy happened. All Americans have been dealt a terrible and shocking blow. The murderous heartlessness of this action defies explanation - most of us feel rage and are in mourning. In the rest of the world it seems that initial sympathy has been supplanted by a common voice for Americans to use this as a wake up call to look at the world and see what went wrong. It has been no secret to anyone seriously interested in US foreign policy that the US Government has not been angelic in its efforts to shake the global power balance in the US' favor over the last 50 years. I think I am not alone in hoping that whatever has been done was done with the highest long-term goals in mind for the citizens of all the world. Nevertheless, there are people out there who are enraged enough about the methods used to gain and maintain US global dominance to plan elaborate acts or terror against innocent Americans. If nothing else this represents a monumental PR failure by the US to show its foreign policy actions to the people of the world in a convincing positive light. We all know that ultimately the perception of reality is equal to if not of greater importance than reality itself. Whatever the case, this act of terrorism against innocent working people and the subsequent reactions of both the mentally underequipped US President and a Moslem world whose own prejudices immediately began to spin conspiracy theories of a CIA /Zionist/ ME Puppet Oil State plot behind the attacks illustrate a much grimmer reality. Like most people, I have looked over the annals of written history seeing ups and downs along the way but carrying the hope that humankind is making net gains overall. Unfortunately, I see in this recent set of events a stark truth: humans know no other way to organize themselves than through violence and the threat of force. We are still using the "push" style of day to day international governance belonging to Pharonic times and other than a few topographically interesting historical vallies of outright violent chaos (like under the Mongolian hordes' Eurasian sweep) written history has been a solid palteau of human barbarity and ignorance. As it is possible to imagine a silent fool is wise, I was lulled into the fantasy that some current governments and peoples were enlightened in the relative silence in North America and Western Europe that preceded September 11, 2001. Now that this event has happened and all the governments in the world are shouting at once for bloody justice and reflexively reaching for the sword before looking at the causes of terrorism the eyes of my heart have been opened. I have seen three principle areas where people waste the precious energy of their critical thought: - People pointing the finger at the US and stating that the US is bad, bad, bad and needs to own up to its actions. I am so tired of Europeans a |
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OK, that is my opinion. The following four resources represent the perspectives of other people that will compliment what the mainstream media is putting out (leaning in a different direction far enough to perhaps bring the reader happily to the middle after all): |