Business as usual [Archives:2004/796/Opinion]

One is not sure if the new year will bring us some respite from all the hardships faced by the Iraqis and the Palestinians, but it seems clear that the Bush Administration has not shown us on the ground that there are concrete steps coming that will relieve the agonizing pain of a venue of perpetual conflict. The characteristic beating around the bush has clearly shown that for all intents and purposes, for the people most directly affected – the Palestinians and the Iraqis – it is business as usual – with little hope of truly coming out of the horrible effects of an ongoing occupation, in both cases, that is not about to see any end. Perhaps, one might even suggest that with the “mandate” that the Bush Administration believes it has gotten from the American people; there is good reason to continue on the agenda set forth by a bunch of self-styled dogmatist, who have let ideology dominate their thinking and their pursuits for all the years they have been in public service. Unabashedly, these right wing elements that have found their niche in the top of the leadership ladder, or close to it, will take not item to consider the catastrophic consequences of war based on misguided ideology, spiced by an irrational extremism, supposedly based on religion, while lacking any moral grounds that demonstrate a true adherence to conscientious behavior. Their misconstrued ideals are fuelled with the unlimited might and power of the United States at their command. These right wing demagogues are out to prove that power can be ill placed and power can be maintained in their hands, by an acquired capacity to manipulate public opinion and move the masses in ways that are not compatible with human wisdom or moral determinations. It is not hard to discern that in such a venue, the value of human life and safety is overwhelmed by the insistence that divine will is dictated by the evil intentions of men (or women), who mistakenly believe that God Al-Mighty would find remorse in upholding evil intents and narrow minded inclinations.
The daily scenes of carnage that the observer is witnessing in Falluja, in Iraq, and in Gaza and the West Bank over the last couple of months would only reinforce the belief that the people at the helms in Israel and the United States are driven by the same chauvinistic drives and arrogant attitudes. Needless to say, they originate from roots of similar ideals that are tainted by chauvinism and a mistaken assumption that God has willed for might and power to be in their hands and thus this makes their quests unmistakably irreversible.
The observer is at a loss to understand how men can let chauvinism and arrogance betray human instinct and moral suasions that God has also implanted in the conscience of mankind. What has happened to all the basic fundamentals of human rights and the efforts of so many philosophers, prophets and deliverers, who were driven by a feeling of pity for the suffering and the unjustly treated throughout the span of history? Was the turn of the Millennium a signal for a retraction in the way mankind behaves towards each other? The mask of goodliness and the pronounced fealty to democratic ideals are worn by these proponents of war and perpetual conflict, of cou8rse waged by others and thousands of miles away from where the blood is being wastefully shed, as in the case of the Americans and behind a labyrinth of defenses and a facade of modern urban and rural splendor, as in the case of the Israelis, leads one to think that people can be so lacking of altruistic values. Of course, mankind has seen a lot of evil empire chasers and hoarders of the Earth, who actually believed that they are God like in strength and can impose their irrational will on their fellow men, at any costs and notwithstanding how much suffering is inflicted on the thousands of innocent lives that must fall to the millions of ordnances that are unleashed at random, wherever the continuous quest for greater power is sought by these demagogues. These are not views that come out of a latent jealousy or hatred for those who possess all the destructive power that is needed to annihilate the human race. Now this comes out of a disappointment that men still are unable to limit the evil drives that drive some of their own to a desire to unleash this might for the sake of imposing their selfish desires or to serve narrow minded interests that have nothing to do with advancing the cause of liberty and the elimination of poverty throughout the world.
More than half of the population of the world is hardly able to live any decent worthwhile life, while a minority of their human folk is actually making it more difficult for these people to find avenues that will take them out of their pitiful lots. We have at least four more years to observe more wanton destruction in Iraq, and no facade of an election process is going to show that Iraq will remain in the inferno created by these demagogues. Four years to see destruction in Gaza and the West Bank as well, as the Likudniks in Israel celebrate the passing away of one of their staunchest strugglers for his people. Thanks to the blessings of misguided religious fanatics, who haven't the faintest idea of what religion is really about both in the United States and in Israel, the land that prophets and messengers of God trekked on will be no more than a playground, where demagogues have played simulated games of warfare and mayhem in their comfortable offices.
So, rest assured, humanity that there is little to hope for in the coming years. Yes Abu Ghreib and Guantanamo are all part of the plan to insist that humanity need not seek the cover of the moral instincts of mankind. The devil has easily shown that he can overcome with that, because there are human beings who are not part of this world. They live in a world of make believe that has no room for hope or moral conduct or beliefs, because their religion is more closer to the devil's than to that preached by any of the prophets and messengers of God, who trekked these holy lands.
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[archive-e:796-v:13-y:2004-d:2004-12-06-p:opinion]