[Loch-Ruadh] FW: From the UK Daily Mirror

[Spence and Robin Mabry]

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-----Original Message-----
From: blanthony at msn.com [mailto:blanthony at msn.com]
Sent: Friday, February 21, 2003 9:25 AM
To: Baccigalopi, Sherry G
Subject: Fw: From the UK Daily Mirror



This has been circulated so many times, there were lots of the little >
on
the page.  I "cleaned it up" for passing along.  Many of you may have
seen
this, before.  It's still worth the reading.


Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2003 11:44 AM
Subject: Fw:


>
> > > Subject: Fwd: From the UK Daily Mirror
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > No matter your views on President Bush's statement of upcoming
war,
> > > > this, from an English journalist, is very interesting. For those
not
> > > > familiar with the UK's Daily Mirror: it's a left-wing daily,
normally not
> > > > supportive of 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 is up there with Pol Pot's
Mountain of Skulls in Cambodia, or skeletal bodies stacked like garbage
in
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 now there would 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 the UK: 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? And exactly a year ago,
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, 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 tourists 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 have a minute's silence for the slaughtered
innocents
of 9/11? How many Islamic leaders 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 streets. 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 phony "war on terrorism." A real war.

The fundamentalist dudes are talking about "opening the gates of hell,"
if
America attacks Iraq. Well, America could have opened the gates of hell
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 some minor offense.

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 by religion, or by 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 City
Fire
Department.

To our shame, George Bush gets worse press than Saddam Hussein. Once we
were
told that Saddam gassed the Kurds, tortured his own people and set up
gang-rape camps in Kuwait. Now we are told he likes Quality Street.

Save me the orange 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 it. Never forget it!

 --- UK Daily Mirror
Scott Walker
Local Sales Manager
Viacom Outdoor-Houston
(713) 868-2284



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