I'm certain a lot of stuff is fabricated. The motive for the war in Iraq and the motive for the war in Kuwait -- both fabricated. Other things are blown out of proportion.
Cars are a far greater threat to life than terrorists, but there is little political mileage in making them safer -- and human life is cheap. On average about 600 people in the world die each year from terrorists (prior to the invasion and occupation of Iraq it was less than 200 a year). Each year 1.2 million people are killed by cars -- almost 50,000 of those are in the USA. In the USA a person is killed every 13 minutes by cars. Can you imagine how that would be headlined if it was terrorists executing people every 13 minutes?
The "war on terror" is creating a terrorist problem that hardly existed before, but even so it is dwarfed by the slaughter by cars.
But if you think 1.2 million people is big, just look at smoking -- around the world it kills almost 5 million people per year!!!
Even smoking pales into insignificance when you compare it with starvation and malnutrition-related deaths: more than 16 million deaths each year!!!
The 600 terrorist killings look pretty weak beside this. But it is worse when you consider that the terrorists are fuelled by oppression and poverty, and we are using guns to inappropriately fight that. Food and education would be far more effective -- it would stop terrorism in its tracks.
If we were to help people instead of hurting them, how long do you think we would need to divert the global weapons budget (the bulk of which is USA's) in order to feed, clothe, house, and educate all the people in the world who die of starvation? Months? No. Weeks? No. Days? No. ....less than half an hour -- about 20 minutes!!!!! Just once a year!!! How obscene is that?
Yes. We are lied to on a grand scale in order to fuel a military-industrial complex far greater in wealth, power and influence than when US President Dwight Eisenhower warned about it in 1961 in his Farewell to the Nation speech.
Our only real hope, I think, is information spread through the internet. People are waking up to the bullshit on TV, newspapers, and radio, and all three of those are in decline now. Lets hope we can stop this out-of-control steamroller.
The thing that scares me most is that because of it we have become the enemy of humanity. In a sad, perverted way the terrorists are almost right. But as soon as they succumb to the same wicked temptation of using weapons against us they feed the same monster that is keeping them poor and lying to us.
War and the weapons makers are humanity's greatest enemy.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-16 10:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-17 11:29 pm (UTC)Cars are a far greater threat to life than terrorists, but there is little political mileage in making them safer -- and human life is cheap. On average about 600 people in the world die each year from terrorists (prior to the invasion and occupation of Iraq it was less than 200 a year). Each year 1.2 million people are killed by cars -- almost 50,000 of those are in the USA. In the USA a person is killed every 13 minutes by cars. Can you imagine how that would be headlined if it was terrorists executing people every 13 minutes?
The "war on terror" is creating a terrorist problem that hardly existed before, but even so it is dwarfed by the slaughter by cars.
But if you think 1.2 million people is big, just look at smoking -- around the world it kills almost 5 million people per year!!!
Even smoking pales into insignificance when you compare it with starvation and malnutrition-related deaths: more than 16 million deaths each year!!!
The 600 terrorist killings look pretty weak beside this. But it is worse when you consider that the terrorists are fuelled by oppression and poverty, and we are using guns to inappropriately fight that. Food and education would be far more effective -- it would stop terrorism in its tracks.
If we were to help people instead of hurting them, how long do you think we would need to divert the global weapons budget (the bulk of which is USA's) in order to feed, clothe, house, and educate all the people in the world who die of starvation? Months? No. Weeks? No. Days? No. ....less than half an hour -- about 20 minutes!!!!! Just once a year!!!
How obscene is that?
Yes. We are lied to on a grand scale in order to fuel a military-industrial complex far greater in wealth, power and influence than when US President Dwight Eisenhower warned about it in 1961 in his Farewell to the Nation speech.
Our only real hope, I think, is information spread through the internet. People are waking up to the bullshit on TV, newspapers, and radio, and all three of those are in decline now. Lets hope we can stop this out-of-control steamroller.
The thing that scares me most is that because of it we have become the enemy of humanity. In a sad, perverted way the terrorists are almost right. But as soon as they succumb to the same wicked temptation of using weapons against us they feed the same monster that is keeping them poor and lying to us.
War and the weapons makers are humanity's greatest enemy.