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You are here: Home > Forum > A Place of Safety > General Talk > I am beating my peace drum again ...
icon8.gif I am beating my peace drum again ...  [message #4485] Sat, 21 September 2002 18:35 Go to next message
kevin is currently offline  kevin

On fire!
Location: Somewhere
Registered: September 2002
Messages: 1108




On somewhat of a somber note, and with a bit of anger in my voice, I must say: PLEASE, NO WAR!!

I am against my country (or any of yours)going to war over oil, dad's failed policy, or simply because we don't like some other government. I have called, written, hounded and made a general pest of myself. "Please, killing has got to stop somewhere".

I am not really asking you to become activists, but I would like to ask your help. If your not comfortable making a call or letter, maybe you could start some discussion amongst friends.
Anything would help. I feel a bit helpless that war mongers seem to be on the war path for political gain, and their is not much I can do about it. I still want to try.

On another thought track, I liken this to yet another war over religeon, or killing in the name of GOD. In this case, The radical religeous-right vs. radical islam. Killing in the name of GOD is, in my opinion, the worst thing man has done in our history. And has happened WAY to many times.

Let me know your views, even if you disagree

Thanks for listening,

Kevin



"Be excellent to each other, and, party on dudes"!
I have not given my Prme Minister a mandate to follow Bush  [message #4493 is a reply to message #4485] Sun, 22 September 2002 00:16 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13739



I have emailed my representative in the UK to tell him so



Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
icon9.gif When watching The Tonight Show...  [message #4494 is a reply to message #4493] Sun, 22 September 2002 00:48 Go to previous messageGo to next message
lenny is currently offline  lenny

On fire!
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Registered: March 2002
Messages: 1755




...And Jay Leno asks the audience if the US should go to war with Iraq and is met by an almost bloodthirsty roar of agreement, it strikes me NONE of those people will be those who are fighting and dying.

I don't remember where I read it, it could even have been here on this board I'm not sure, but Norman Schwarzkopf (the US military commander of the (previous?) Iraqui war) apparantly said once that the people who were the most eager to go to war were the ones who had never killed another human being. Or at least something like that, I don't remember his exact words.

Seems very true to me. Of course it's easy to sit there in a TV audience and cheer if YOU don't actually have to go out and put your life on the line...


-Lenny



"But he that hath the steerage of my course,
direct my sail."

-William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act One, Scene IV
Re: I have not given my Prme Minister a mandate to follow Bush  [message #4539 is a reply to message #4493] Tue, 24 September 2002 21:11 Go to previous messageGo to next message
kevin is currently offline  kevin

On fire!
Location: Somewhere
Registered: September 2002
Messages: 1108




Thanks Timmy,

I appreciate it.

Your right Lenny. War is the LAST resort, or at least it is supposed to be. Maybe if we had a draft and the children in the top 1% income went first, we souldn't be such a war mongering country.

Just a thought.

Kevin



"Be excellent to each other, and, party on dudes"!
Just a thought; but a most meaningful one  [message #4584 is a reply to message #4539] Thu, 26 September 2002 10:59 Go to previous messageGo to next message
ron is currently offline  ron

Really getting into it
Location: Bridgeport, Connecticut U...
Registered: January 2003
Messages: 478




It is a simple and irrefutable fact of history that most wars are started by old politicians who then expect the children of others to go fight them for them, utilizing patriotic and religious fervor to get them to do it. I'm still trying to figure out how that differs from some older person convincing a younger person that girding himself with exposives and then setting them off in a public place is the only way to achieve instant heavenly bliss (if it's such a wonderful thing, then why doesn't the older person do it himself?). We would call such an act "evil" (and it is); but how does that really differ from dropping bombs where civilians are likely to be?

I realize how silly this may sound; but those who start a war are the ones who should be made to actually fight the war. How would this be for a six-man tag-team match on some pay-per-view TV wrestling show: George Bush, Tony Blair and Ariel Sharon vs. Sadaam Hussein, Osama Bin-Ladin and Yasser Arafat. I'd even pay to see that!



We do not remember days...we remember moments.

Cesare Pavese
icon4.gif A couple of thoughts on Ron's thought.  [message #4585 is a reply to message #4584] Thu, 26 September 2002 12:16 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Steve is currently offline  Steve

Really getting into it
Location: London, England
Registered: November 2006
Messages: 465



Of the three western leaders that Ron mentions, as far as I know, only Arik Sharon was a professional soldier for most of his life - and he was much admired by those who served under him. (Can't you get your prurient minds out of the gutter for even one minute? Smile) He only became a politician when he retired from the army (and he has yet to become a statesman).

Somehow I can't help feeling that the American desire to wage war against Saddam Hussein is firmly based on the feeling that the Bush family has with him some "unfinished business". The first to pay the price of such a war will be the citizens of my country. And I say this as someone over whose apartment in 1990 a scud thundered very close, shaking the whole building, before overshooting its target and landing safely in the sea.

However, I think that everybody would agree that Saddam Hussein is a very dangerous man and his regime is a very dangerous regime.
Re: A couple of thoughts on Ron's thought.  [message #4590 is a reply to message #4585] Thu, 26 September 2002 18:37 Go to previous messageGo to next message
kevin is currently offline  kevin

On fire!
Location: Somewhere
Registered: September 2002
Messages: 1108




I tend to agree with both of you (Ron and Steve)on this issue. It brings to mind an old song called "War Pigs".

Politicians hide themselves away
They only started the war
Why should they go out to fight
They leave that all to the poor
-Ozzy Ozbourne-

*at least I think he wrote it*

Kevin



"Be excellent to each other, and, party on dudes"!
Re: A couple of thoughts on Ron's thought.  [message #4592 is a reply to message #4590] Thu, 26 September 2002 20:12 Go to previous messageGo to next message
ron is currently offline  ron

Really getting into it
Location: Bridgeport, Connecticut U...
Registered: January 2003
Messages: 478




I probably heard that song somewhere along the way and it somehow unconsciously seeped into the inner recesses of my (alleged) mind (and I actually thought I had formed an "original" opinion; what hubris, eh? Wink

Thanks, Kevin



We do not remember days...we remember moments.

Cesare Pavese
icon7.gif Well Ron maybe .....  [message #4596 is a reply to message #4592] Thu, 26 September 2002 22:40 Go to previous messageGo to next message
kevin is currently offline  kevin

On fire!
Location: Somewhere
Registered: September 2002
Messages: 1108




Might not be "Original" but I think your mind seems just fine.
Thanks for the opinion anyway.



"Be excellent to each other, and, party on dudes"!
Re: Well Ron maybe .....  [message #4598 is a reply to message #4596] Fri, 27 September 2002 00:23 Go to previous messageGo to next message
ron is currently offline  ron

Really getting into it
Location: Bridgeport, Connecticut U...
Registered: January 2003
Messages: 478




Thanks, Kevin. And you go right on beating that drum!



We do not remember days...we remember moments.

Cesare Pavese
icon6.gif Post Script  [message #4602 is a reply to message #4598] Fri, 27 September 2002 04:46 Go to previous messageGo to next message
kevin is currently offline  kevin

On fire!
Location: Somewhere
Registered: September 2002
Messages: 1108




I will also be hounding folks in my country to vote. It's part of my job in politics.

(fair warning all)

Kevin



"Be excellent to each other, and, party on dudes"!
Re: I am beating my peace drum again ...  [message #4644 is a reply to message #4485] Sun, 29 September 2002 12:36 Go to previous message
mt is currently offline  mt

Toe is in the water

Registered: November 2002
Messages: 93



Lenny, Ron,
I couldn’t agree more. Anyone who has kept up with their speeches will know that they are nothing but spoilt brats toying around with peoples’ lives. And about that wrestling match… I’d definitely pay to see it. You know? I once read a sci-fi story in which a war occurs. The writer goes on to describe the events and the people and their cheering (it’s a sword fight) but then surprises the reader with the fact that only the two leaders of the warring nations will be fighting. It was a lovely short story but as it was one of many, I forgot its name.

And Steve dear, I think if there’s any price to be paid by your country it’ll be second, for the people over whose heads the actual bombing will take place will surely be first. I say this as someone whose house was shaken many times and to the point where all the glass was broken, but even that is nothing compared to what some others suffered. They actually had rockets exploding over their houses. Why doesn’t someone tell the bush family about assassination?

I don’t mean anything by what I’ve said save that which Lenny and Ron meant; that there should be no wars. Politicians are there to find ways to solve problems through peaceful ways not to start wars that will solve nothing and only cause harm to innocent people.
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