“We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.”Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.
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2 comments:
Obama made an historic speech, and as Norman Markowitz said elsewhere, it was a speech that could not, would not have been made by any other candidate. I understand why he had to distance himself from Rev. Wright, but to be honest, Rev. Wright was right about a good many things. While it's unlikely that the US government created AIDS to destroy the black population, this does not take away from the things that Wright was right about.
Rev. Jeremiah Wright essentially said that America itself was to blame for the attacks of 9/11, and that racism is an endemic problem across our country.
What I have hard time wrapping my mind around is the fact that this is somehow still controversial. 9/11/2001 was more than 6 and half years ago, and somehow the fact that our government’s policies and actions in the Middle East are in fact to blame for the brutal al-Qaeda attacks of 9/11/2001 is still controversial. The U.S. government’s overtly racist response to Hurricane Katrina ravaging the blacks of the Gulf Coast was less than 3 years ago, and somehow this is still controversial?
Let me take this opportunity to state one thing quite clearly. Most of Rev. Wright’s comments regarding 9/11/2001 and racism in America are not controversial – because they are absolutely correct. This is not even something that should be up for debate, because the material evidence, which is of the utmost importance to Marxists, bares out what Rev. Wright said.
Had our government not relished in the facts that the blacks of the Gulf Coast were bruised, battered and beaten down by the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina, racism would still be an issue. Had the government not done everything in its power to practically ensure that New Orleans would be destroyed, racism would still be an issue. Had “old-fashioned justice” not been enacted in Jena, Louisiana, racism would still be an issue. Why? Because centuries of slavery and oppression are not forgiven overnight, especially when the race war is still going on underneath the pretty white surface that the media paints for us to see.
Had our government not turned the Middle East into a virtual U.S. military base, al-Qaeda would likely not exist. Had our government not economically, politically and militarily backed every single Israeli atrocity against Arabs, al-Qaeda would likely not exist. Had our government treated people of the Middle East with respect and dignity, instead of regarding them as pawns to be used in its own game of resource-grabbing, al-Qaeda would likely not exist. Had our government respected the sovereignty of third world nations and not beaten them down with economic and military domination, al-Qaeda would likely not exist. Had the U.S. government not built an empire seeking to encompass the entire planet, al-Qaeda would likely not exist.
Make no mistake – the 9/11/2001 attacks were atrocious, and to be condemned. But in light of decades of U.S. terrorism and aggression against the peoples of the Middle East and every other oppressed part of the planet, they are easy to understand and to be expected. Much in the same way that Iran would be logically insane to not at least be looking into building a nuclear bomb as a deterrent to U.S. threats of aggression, militant Muslims and Arabs in the Middle East would be insane to not be taking some sort of violent action to resist the U.S.’s imperialist hegemony. People can only take so much brutality; were I a citizen of the Middle East that had watched as the U.S. turned my world into a theatre of imperialism, I might have strapped the bomb to my chest as well.
Call this "infanitle leftism" if you like, but there is nothing infantile about the truth.
If Rev. Wright's comments were divisive, it's because most people won't or don't want to accept the truth. In that respect, it's quite unfortunate. And there are those that say his comments were not in the spirit of "unity," and they are right, but any unity would be forced if we can't unite around what is true and factual.
I won't defend everything he said, but we can't dismiss Rev. Wright simply because he was provocative.
You and the Rev. are right. The attacks of September 11 might be rightfully called Reagan's Legacy. Bin Laden and his henchmen were trained by the CIA to fight the USSR in Afghanistan. Bin Laden's gripe has been US support for the Ibn Saud dictatorship in Saudi Arabia where most of the attackers were from and our meddling in Middle Eastern Affairs. The attack itself (which was known about to some extent in advance and used as a Reichstag Fire) was indeed "blowback" in its purest form. While such acts of terror are to be condemned, the terror inflicted by the Bush administration is far greater and can only result in the creation of more people who have reason to act against us. Only by honestly admitting our crimes and bringing our own terrorist leadership to justice can we begin to break this cycle.
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