Newspaper Article from England

[Shaners]

Please read! You will be glad you did!

 

An Article from England.

 

     No matter what your views on President Bush's statement of upcoming

war, this, from an English journalist, is very interesting. Just a word of

background, for those of you who aren't familiar with the UK's Daily Mirror.

 

     This is a notoriously left-wing daily that is normally not supportive

of the Colonials across the Atlantic.

 

**********************************************************************

 Tony Parsons Daily Mirror September 11, 2002

 

     One year ago, the world witnessed a unique kind of  broadcasting -the

mass murder of thousands, live on television. As a lesson in the pitiless

cruelty of the human race, September 11 was up there with Pol Pot's

Mountain of Skulls in Cambodia, or the skeletal bodies stacked like

garbage in the Nazi concentration camps.

 

     An unspeakable act so cruel, so calculated and so utterly merciless

that surely the world could agree on one thing - nobody deserves this fate.

 

     Surely there could be consensus: The victims were truly innocent, the

perpetrators truly evil.

 

     But to the world's eternal shame, 9/11 is increasingly seen as

America's comeuppance. Incredibly, anti-Americanism has increased

over the last year.

 

     There has always been a simmering resentment to the USA in this

country; too loud, too rich, too full of themselves, and so much happier

than Europeans - but it has become an epidemic. And it seems incredible

to me.  More than that, it turns my stomach.

 

     America is this country's greatest friend and our staunchest ally. We

are bonded to the US by culture, language and blood. A little over half a

century ago, around half a million Americans died for our freedoms, as well

as their own. Have we forgotten so soon? On September 11, 2001, thousands

of ordinary men, women and children - not just Americans, but from dozens

of countries, were butchered by a small group of religious fanatics. Are we so

quick to betray them?

 

     What touched the heart about those who died in the Twin Towers and on

the planes, was that we recognized them. Young fathers and mothers,

somebody's son and somebody's daughter, husbands, wives, and children,

some unborn.

 

     And these people brought it on themselves? Their nation is to blame for

their meticulously planned slaughter?

 

     These days you don't have to be some dust-encrusted nut job in Kabul

or Karachi or Finsbury Park to see America as the Great Satan. The

anti-American alliance is made up of self-loathing liberals who blame the

Americans for every ill in the Third World, and conservatives suffering from

power-envy, bitter that the world's only superpower can do what it likes

without having to ask permission.

 

     The truth is that America has behaved with enormous restraint since

September 11. Remember, remember - Remember the gut-wrenching

tapes of weeping men phoning their wives to say, "I love you," before

they were burned alive.

 

     Remember those people leaping to their deaths from the top of burning

skyscrapers.

 

     Remember the hundreds of firemen buried alive.

 

     Remember the smiling face of that beautiful little girl who was on one

of the planes with her mum.

 

     Remember, remember - And realize that America has never retaliated for

9/11 in anything like the way it could have.

 

     So a few al-Qaeda terrorists got locked up without a trial in Camp

X-ray? Pass the Kleenex.

 

     So some Afghan wedding receptions were shot up after they merrily fired

their semi-automatics in a sky full of American planes? A shame, but maybe

next time they should stick to confetti.

 

     AMERICA could have turned a large chunk of the world into a parking

lot.

 

     That it didn't is a sign of strength. American voices are already being

raised against attacking Iraq - that's what a democracy is for. How many in

the Islamic world will have a minute's silence for the slaughtered innocents

of 9/11? How many Islamic leaders will have the guts to say that the mass

murder of 9/11 was an abomination?

 

     When the news of 9/11 broke on the West Bank, those freedom-loving

Palestinians were dancing in the street. America watched all of that - and

didn't push the button. We should thank the stars that America is the most

powerful nation in the world. I still find it incredible that 9/11 did not

provoke all-out war. Not a "war on terrorism." A real war.

 

     The fundamentalist dudes are talking about "opening the gates of ####,"

if America attacks Iraq. Well, America could have opened the gates of ####

like you wouldn't believe.

 

     The US is the most militarily powerful nation that ever strode the face

of the earth. The campaign in Afghanistan may have been less than perfect

and the planned war on Iraq may be misconceived.

 

     But don't blame America for not bringing peace and light to these

wretched countries. How many democracies are there in the Middle East,

or in the Muslim world? You can count them on the fingers of one hand - assuming you haven't had any chopped off for minor shoplifting.

 

     I love America, yet America is hated. I guess that makes me Bush's

poodle.

 

     But I would rather be a dog in New York City than a Prince in Riyadh.

Above all, America is hated because it is what every country wants to be -

rich, free, strong, open, optimistic. Not ground down by the past, or

religion, or some caste system. America is the best friend this country ever

had and we should start remembering that.

 

     Or do you really think the USA is the root of all evil?  Tell it to the

loved ones of the men and women who leaped to their death from the

burning towers.

 

     Tell it to the nursing mothers whose husbands died on one of the

hijacked planes, or were ripped apart in a collapsing skyscraper. And tell

it to the hundreds of young widows whose husbands worked for the

New York Fire Department.

 

     To our shame, George Bush gets a worse press than Saddam Hussein. Once

we were told that Saddam gassed the Kurds, tortured his own people and set

up rape-camps in Kuwait. Now we are told he likes Quality Street. Save me

the range center, Oh Mighty One!

 

     Remember, remember, September 11 -One of the greatest atrocities in

human history was committed against America.

 

     No, do more than remember. Never forget.

[TROYROBO]

i agree with all of it------i will never forget   nor will my children and so forth

[HillHound]

Refreshing to see that from England.  I hope a majority of citizens feel the same way.

[BlueRado]

That is unusual, but refreshing to have come from the Mirror.  He makes a strong point - this goes for most of Eurpoe and SE Asia - if not for the USA, they'd be speaking German and Japanese, respectively!    

 

Thanks for sharing, shaners!