by James Glaser
January 8, 2003

It started in the first Gulf War. America bombed Iraq's water and sewage treatment plants. Then after the fighting was over, we slapped an embargo on the chemicals needed to treat drinking water and people started getting sick. Then we stopped many of the medicines from getting through. The result was over 500,000 children under the age of five have died. Low Ball all the way.

That was then and the way the rest of the world looks at America has changed because of our actions. Many would say that because of our killing of all those innocent children America lost that war and that as a result of those actions we were attacked on September 11th, 2001. No one can argue that millions and millions of people now hate America because of our foreign policies in the Middle East.

Now in 2003 we are doing the same type of out and out torture and killing of innocent people, only this time it is North Korea instead of Iraq. The torture and killing come from starvation. Steven R. Weisman of the New York Times writes, "For months President George W. Bush has pledged not to use food as a weapon against North Korea. But as the confrontation deepens over the country's nuclear weapons program, the United States has continued to withhold approval of grain shipments sought by humanitarian groups to avert starvation on the Korean Peninsula."

Remember, we have claimed to the rest of the world that we are a Christian country and live by Christ's teaching. Even our President will profess to being a Christian. While witholding food from starving people is an effective tool, it is hardly a Christian one.

The World Food Program says because the United States, Japan, and South Korea have suspended food aid it will for the first time in many years miss target food distributions in North Korea.. "We understand that there are political considerations, but this is a population that is suffering, with women and children the most vulnerable."

When America fought the first Gulf War it was told to the American people that we had a total victory. With over a hundred and fifty thousand Iraqis dead and American losses at 147 killed and 457 wounded in the combat, who could argue? However, as of September 2002, 7,758 American combatants have died of Gulf War Illness and over 156,000 of those same veterans are now permanently disabled from this same illness. With over a hundred and fifty million dollars invested in research, a definitive cause of these Gulf War Illness has yet to be announced.

Easy victories are seldom easy. Someone always has to pay the piper. Playing this low ball game will catch up with America. We have lost the respect of hundreds of millions of people world wide and yes, we have even lost a lot of our self respect. Those thousands of veterans have been treated very badly by both the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration. For years treatment was denied while men and women died and others got sicker and sicker.

When on May 12th, 1996 Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes asked Madeleine K. Albright the then Secretary of State, "We have heard that half a million children have died, I mean, that's more children than died at Hiroshima, and you know, is the price worth it?" Then those famous words that every third world citizen has heard or read by now from Madeliene Albright, "The price---we think the price is worth it."

And George Bush still thinks we are hated for our freedom. Little does he know that each and every terrorist organization is right now telling their world to look and see how the President of the United States is keeping the food from millions of starving women and children in North Korea. There are many ways to lose a war, starving kids will lose this one for us.

Every time George Bush gets on Television and starts talking about how evil Sadism Hussien and Kim Jong-il of North Korea are, you have to know that Osama bin Laden or other terrorists are saying the same about George. The difference is that these terrorists have on film our own Secretary of State admitting to the killing of over 500,000 kids and World Food representatives saying that George Bush is keeping food from little kids. These are powerful tools to recruit people to the terrorist way of thinking and George Bush is playing right into their hands.

America has no business killing or starving kids and if that is what we are doing and it looks like we are, then sad to say we have become Evil too.