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Hate
by James Glaser
In the last year or so I have seen the rise of hate in America. It is understandable that Americans hate those terrorists that attacked our nation, but now it seems more and more that we hate Arabs and Muslims too. There are billions of people that hate the United States, but when you talk to those people you find that they hate our government and love the American people. They love our music, technology, even our movies. People the world over are able to separate their feelings about politics and people. Here in America it seems to me that we are not differentiating between people and government in our hate. We attack Iraq, trying to destroy their government. America talks about how we are trying to free the Iraqi people, but somehow that is lost on the American Public. No where do you see an outpouring of sympathy for the killed and wounded innocent Iraqi people. On the contrary we have government officials and pundits almost pounding their chests in victory, talking about how great our forces were in defeating this pitiful nation that has suffered under the cruel dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. Even as Washington gloats about this victory and claims that this war ranks right up there with some of the greatest military operations in history, many of our own troops are referring to many of the "battles" as turkey shoots or slaughters. Before America gets too pumped up about how we conquered Iraq we have to admit to ourselves, all of the rhetoric Washington expounded about the prowess of the Iraqi Army before we attacked, was just that, so much talk. Yes, there is no doubt that we won this war, but all the claims about this being an attack on Saddam and not the people of Iraq were false. Right today the Innocent Death Toll is approaching 1800, with thousands of innocent Iraqis wounded, and no one knows how many people in Iraq have lost everything. Washington's buildup to this war and the reference to Iraq and September 11th at every chance, has more than half of the American people believing that it was Iraq that attacked us in that terrorist attack. That is simply not true and the fact is those terrorists came from Saudi Arabia and Egypt. We in the United States should be having an outpouring of help for the poor people of Iraq that have suffered under Saddam for so long. Even our President claimed that we were there to liberate these people. It is just so sad that this same President poisoned the American people in their thoughts of the people of Iraq and yes Muslims. If America ever wants to get back our respect from the a large section of this world we are going to have to start acting like Christians. We can't paint all Arabs and Muslims as Terrorists, but that is what Washington has seeded in the hearts of too many Americans. President Bush has taught America how to hate, he has taught us how to fear, and he has also taught Americans how to be distrustful of each other. Jesus, remember him? Men like President Bush claim to follow his word. Well here are a few to ponder.
For those of the more secular persuasion, "Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?" Abraham Lincoln America can only go down this path of hate that President Bush has set us on for so long. That hate will destroy not only us, but our nation also. I am not a preacher, but here are a few more words we should all live by.
We each have many choices in this life and here is one of them. We can follow the words of George Bush or we can follow the words of Jesus Christ. |
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