« BACK TO FORUM
Moderators:
AminaYasmine, Liamjod, mnopq
 Author |
 Post
|
 |
|
AFGHANISTAN
Joined: Nov 8, 2006
Posts: 9
Poster Rank:
Soft-spoken
User is
Offline
Gender & Age: Male & 23
Country: Afghanistan
Province/State: Kabol
|
America, We Feel your Pain, Do you Feel Ours?
November 30, 2006 - 12:45 AM
|
|
A six year old Palestinian girl kneeled and nervously, yet gently laid a flower to join hundreds of other flowers, banners and candles in a small vigil held in Jerusalem to commemorate the death of thousands of Americans in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington. The little girl rushed back, bashful, and held on her mother's hand and both stood quietly gazing at a burning candle. At the scene, only a few reporters gathered, none of them represented foreign agencies; they were all Arabs and Palestinians. But Americans who witnessed the world weeping for their victims, never learned of the deep sympathy that was felt by many Palestinians across Palestine and around the world. If your grief and pain allow you to roll the tape of memory a few years back, try to remember New York City following the Gulf War in 1991.The American army had just returned from a mission in the Middle East. Former President George Bush described the nature of the mission once on TV, so bluntly and in simple terms, to "bomb Iraq back to the stone age.” Mission accomplished. The American army led the allied forces in the region bombed Iraq for months and killed with no remorse as the whole world watched, and as all Americans watched, the same way they watched the World Trade Center being leveled to the ground. Those killed in Iraq were mostly civilians, innocent men and women, not any more or less innocent than the New Yorkers who fell to their deaths while sipping their coffee on a seemingly beautiful morning. American soldiers returned home with hands covered in the blood of civilians, after they bombarded every city, town and village in Iraq, south and north. They used every weapon, they experimented with the highest killing technology against a largely defenseless nation, and they bombed, killed, and some times ridiculed their victims.
Regards
Sayed Kamal Jalalzai
|
|
back to top |
link to this post
|
|
Ashraf
Joined: Jan 31, 2004
Posts: 23
Poster Rank:
Talkative
User is
Offline
Gender & Age: Male, 37
Country: Saudi Arabia
|
Re: America, We Feel your Pain, Do you Feel Ours?
November 30, 2006 - 05:24 AM
|
|
Well said!
People should never ignore the painful memories of the past to learn from its lessons. The future depends on how the children today are being taught those lessons.
This post was edited on: 2006-11-30 at 05:41 AM by: Palestinian
|
|
back to top |
link to this post
|
|
prieten47
Joined: Oct 26, 2006
Posts: 24
Poster Rank:
Talkative
User is
Offline
Gender & Age: Male, 50
Country: Japan
Province/State: Hokkaido
City: Sapporo
|
Re: America, We Feel your Pain, Do you Feel Ours?
November 30, 2006 - 06:34 AM
|
|
I wish just for once you could try to be more objective and, if you must retell history, try not to insult the intelligence of the readers here. If you want to rehash the first Persian Gulf War, you might start with the unprovoked, surprise attack by Sadaam on Kuwait. You might try to remember the atrocities Iraqi troops committed there. Iraq defenseless? I guess they asked the Kuwaiti's permission to take over their country???? I do recall Scud missles raining down on Saudi Arabia and Israel, too. Who was shooting those off? Sadaam was defenseless, but he did find enough weapons to put down several revolts by the Shiites which occurred after the ceasefire. Oh, I almost forgot, the real laugher was when Sadaam flew all his advanced Russian fighter planes to "safety" in Iran. I guess he didn't think he needed those to protect his people. Really, let's try to be less biased. Otherwise, we can't take what you say about other topics seriously.
|
|
back to top |
link to this post
|
|
Arslan Jumaniyazov
Joined: May 13, 2004
Posts: 117
Poster Rank:
Chatterbox
User is
Offline
Gender & Age: Male, 29
Country: Turkmenistan
Province/State: Dashoguz
|
Re: America, We Feel your Pain, Do you Feel Ours?
November 30, 2006 - 12:09 PM
|
|
prieten47 wrote:
I wish just for once you could try to be more objective and, if you must retell history, try not to insult the intelligence of the readers here. If you want to rehash the first Persian Gulf War, you might start with the unprovoked, surprise attack by Sadaam on Kuwait. You might try to remember the atrocities Iraqi troops committed there. Iraq defenseless? I guess they asked the Kuwaiti's permission to take over their country???? I do recall Scud missles raining down on Saudi Arabia and Israel, too. Who was shooting those off? Sadaam was defenseless, but he did find enough weapons to put down several revolts by the Shiites which occurred after the ceasefire. Oh, I almost forgot, the real laugher was when Sadaam flew all his advanced Russian fighter planes to "safety" in Iran. I guess he didn't think he needed those to protect his people. Really, let's try to be less biased. Otherwise, we can't take what you say about other topics seriously.
prieten47,
What you are saying about Saddam's murderous crimes is right, but two wrongs do not make one right.
Operation Desert Storm was not in the desert only. It was a 42-day massive bombing of hospitals, schools, mosques, highways, electric stations, water systems--the entire infrastructure--which was followed by ground operation. And after the Resolution was adopted, and after the Iraqi soldiers were retreating, they--tens of thousands of Iraqi conscripts forced to serve the government--were slaughtered like "turkey shoot" or like "fish in a barrel," to borrow a couple of quotes from some US soldiers. Iraqis were looked at as "sand niggers" to many soldiers; "cockroaches" to one military commander. Norman Schwarzkopf repeatedly stated on national television after the war that he had hoped to creat a "battle of Canne, a battle of Annihilation" in Iraq. Then you have the "sanctions of mass destruction."
Arslan
|
|
back to top |
link to this post
|
|
Lauren
Joined: Jan 20, 2003
Posts: 5
Poster Rank:
User is
Offline
Gender & Age: Female, 21
Country: United States
Province/State: New York
City: Button City
|
Re: America, We Feel your Pain, Do you Feel Ours?
November 30, 2006 - 01:06 PM
|
|
prieten47 wrote:
I wish just for once you could try to be more objective and, if you must retell history, try not to insult the intelligence of the readers here. If you want to rehash the first Persian Gulf War, you might start with the unprovoked, surprise attack by Sadaam on Kuwait. You might try to remember the atrocities Iraqi troops committed there. Iraq defenseless? I guess they asked the Kuwaiti's permission to take over their country???? I do recall Scud missles raining down on Saudi Arabia and Israel, too. Who was shooting those off? Sadaam was defenseless, but he did find enough weapons to put down several revolts by the Shiites which occurred after the ceasefire. Oh, I almost forgot, the real laugher was when Sadaam flew all his advanced Russian fighter planes to "safety" in Iran. I guess he didn't think he needed those to protect his people. Really, let's try to be less biased. Otherwise, we can't take what you say about other topics seriously.
Did anyone else catch the irony there?
And Arslan, your response was well-said.
Sayed, I wish I could say that Americans did feel your pain as keenly as you describe yours, and that of the rest of the world. But I don't think Americans are very concerned with what's going on in the rest of the world if it doesn't involve Americans. It's sad, but quite true and I'd like to see it change.
|
|
back to top |
link to this post
|
|
Luke Lieberman
Joined: Feb 13, 2003
Posts: 156
Poster Rank:
Chatterbox
User is
Offline
Gender & Age: Male, 30
Country: United States
Province/State: California
|
Re: America, We Feel your Pain, Do you Feel Ours?
November 30, 2006 - 02:13 PM
|
|
I appreciate the sentiment -
- but I also agree that Iraq was hardly innocent or undefended during the first Gulf War.
you really cannot compare the first Gulf War to 9/11 it is disingenious -
it is apples and organge - and we need to talk apples and apples.
Arslan it is true that many places were bombed during that war - but I think your expectations for how wars should be fought are unreolistic - it is war -
and unfortunately it has become a common practice in wars in the middle-east to hide arsinals and or bunkers underneath or inside of civilian areas.
the logic is that your weapons cache is harder to hit if it is hidden under a hospital because the enemy will hesitate at the prospect of so many civilian casualties.
Hezbullah certainly did this - so did Saddam - I understand that it is a good move strategically - but in practice it is very heartless toward your own people.
obviously this is not the truth in every instance - but in a good many - and must be recognised.
and it is good to point out that in the first Gulf War Saddam did not only invade Kuwait but he was firing missils at major civilian populations centers - particularly in Israel - like Tel Aviv.
the only thing that stopped Israel from respoonding in kind - was that the US asked them not to.
This post was edited on: 2006-11-30 at 02:14 PM by: luke
|
|
back to top |
link to this post
|
|
Arslan Jumaniyazov
Joined: May 13, 2004
Posts: 117
Poster Rank:
Chatterbox
User is
Offline
Gender & Age: Male, 29
Country: Turkmenistan
Province/State: Dashoguz
|
Re: America, We Feel your Pain, Do you Feel Ours?
November 30, 2006 - 03:01 PM
|
|
Here is more authoritative info on the Gulf.
NEEDLESS DEATHS IN THE GULF WAR
Civilian Casualties During the Air Campaign and Violations of the Laws of War
New York:Human Rights Watch, (c)1991. http://www.hrw.org/reports/1991/gulfwar/
Arslan
|
|
back to top |
link to this post
|
|
Beary Special
Joined: Apr 9, 2006
Posts: 8
Poster Rank:
Soft-spoken
User is
Offline
Gender & Age: Female, 42
Country: United States
Province/State: Missouri
City: Rayville
|
Re: America, We Feel your Pain, Do you Feel Ours?
November 30, 2006 - 04:22 PM
|
|
This is definately a compassionate and compelling story.
It is certainly something that we all have in common no matter where in the world we live.
My condolences go out to all family in the US and in Palestine as well as Jeruslium.
Many Blessings,
B
|
|
back to top |
link to this post
|
|
That guy
Joined: Sep 17, 2006
Posts: 20
Poster Rank:
Talkative
User is
Offline
Gender & Age: Male, 21
Country: United States
Province/State: Louisiana
City: New Orleans
|
Re: America, We Feel your Pain, Do you Feel Ours?
December 4, 2006 - 01:18 PM
|
|
Alrighty then, if you feel our pain and we feel yours can we stop shooting at eachother already? Clearly, somebody isn't feeling as much empathy as they should because both groups are still bombing eachother. How is this going to be fixed?
This is where my brain and my starry-eyed idealism run out. I have no idea how to turn claims of empathy into real empathy. Maybe you could integrate the Jewish and Muslim schools so they have to grow up with the other guy? Maybe not.
Are there any Einsteins (or merely wild speculators) of diplomacy out there with ideas on how to get westerners to feel some connection to the Middle East and vice versa?
|
|
back to top |
link to this post
|
|
|
Display posts from:
|
« BACK TO FORUM
|
Forum Jump:
|
All times are GMT-05:00
|
» Check that you are logged in!
You cannot create new threads in this forum
You cannot post replies in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot edit/delete your posts in this forum
|
|
Administrators:
Liamjod
Moderators:
AminaYasmine, Liamjod, mnopq
|
|
Home
Community
