France, ISIS, and Dr. Barack Obama
In the midst of chaos, it is crucial that we, the people of Planet Earth, take a step back and take an honest, concise look at the situation that we find ourselves in.
After all, it has been said that the general public (at least in the United States) has a common memory of about two weeks when it comes to what is in the mainstream news. That being said, the tragic atrocities that took place on Friday the 13th of November 2015 in Paris, France are currently at the forefront of the minds of us all... and in case it wasn't for even a few minutes, just open a web browser. Naturally, the hearts and minds of all good and decent people across the planet have shown our solidarity and support for the families of the victims of these brutal and savage attacks.
Of course, it is with a heavy heart that I write these words. Being that I am the proud parent of two children myself, whenever I receive word that a family living in any country has lost a son or daughter in either a car/suicide bombing, drone attack, etc., I immediately picture myself in their situation and imagine how I would feel - What if my four-year-old son were at his daycare and somebody decided to detonate a bomb in the name of the cause of ISIS? I can't even begin to convey how painful that would be, and I don't want to even think about it...
We as Citizens of the United States don't think about that much, but perhaps we should.
Much like the way in which a doctor of medicine performs the diagnosis of a patient with a terminal form of cancer, I believe that we as members of society should take a fresh look at the prognosis of our planet.
How do we treat the cancer, and what is the cause of the cancer in the first place? Is there more than one type of cancer present in the body of the planet? If the government of the United States was the doctor on staff at this hypothetical hospital, how would you say that he/she was doing?
I'll get straight to the point: My prognosis? The head doctor on staff has been treating the cancer with heavy doses of radiation therapy. However, the problem with radiation therapy is that it often kills much of the healthy tissue in the body along with the cancer, and risks killing the patient altogether. In this case, the doctor consistently is receiving reports that the treatment is only continuing to kill off what is left of the patient, but refuses to alter his approach or even listen to his colleagues when they plead with him to attempt another method. Could it be that the doctor has an ulterior motive? Maybe the drug companies are paying him something extra on the side so that he goes out of his way to push their cancer-treating therapy?
Perhaps this is a crude metaphor, but my point is that the US government seems to be a doctor that continues to look at and try to only treat the symptoms of a disease with aggressive drugs without taking time to address the underlying causes of the disease itself.
With every drone strike that the US Government makes in the Middle East, multitudes of civilian women and children have been killed. We have been doing this for well over a decade, believe it or not... and while the doctor would like you to believe that we are doing this in the name of defeating the cancer (Terrorism), the primary side-effect of the treatment itself has been causing the cancer to grow exponentially. As innocent people in the countries of the Middle-East stand by to watch as their loved ones are blown to bits from drone attacks, it has become more and more clear that the side-effects of the medicine being employed is only causing the cancer to grow. Instead of being seen as a doctor who has attempted to intervene in an effort to kill an infection of cancer, the United States has become more of a Dr. Frankenstein... creating a monster that has now come to threaten us all. Unfortunately, the good people of Paris are now all too familiar with these repercussions
To be blunt, this shouldn't be anything that is of surprise to the Doctor in question... the assistant surgeon in the practice here (Otherwise known as the CIA) has had much experience in this area and has even coined a term for the phenomena: "Blowback"
The CIA has been dealing with the reality of Blowback for many decades now, and the most obvious case of this would likely be the case of the Taliban in Afghanistan - Or, as they were known back in the war against the Russians in the 1980's, the "Mujaheddin". These were people like Osama Bin Laden and his comrades... trained and equipped by US secret operations to rebel against their Russian occupiers, only to organize and revolt against the very people who trained them decades later.
To sum it all up, how do we cure the cancer that we seem to have nurtured?
Honestly, I don't have much faith that it is something that can be cured, mainly because of the lack of political will (or even acknowledgement) that we find in Washington, D.C.
Still, it could be that all it comes down to would be for the doctor to actually come through and at least show that he/she has abandoned all other motives and truly has the best interests of the patient at heart. Show that what we truly want for the people of the underprivileged countries of Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, etc., is for them to have equal access to the same basic human rights and freedoms that we claim to embrace in our own countries in the "Western World"...
One last point I'd like to make: Although some people might say that it makes me sound like I don't appreciate the tragic loss of life that we saw only a few days ago (I'm talking to you, 'Papa Bear'), the truth is that I am deeply saddened by all of this. Also, I really want to say that we should also think of the millions of people who call the countries of the Middle East their home, and of the real effect that it has had on them. For the most part, those of us in the world who are fortunate enough to live in countries like the United States, England, France, Germany, Spain, Japan, New Zealand, etc., don't have to worry about things like car bombs and executions on a daily basis, I think that we sometimes need to put ourselves in the shoes of the typical citizens of those countries who are trying to work hard to support their families, and yet have had their lives torn apart by war and poverty. I believe that the life of a 10-Year-Old girl in Baghdad is equally as precious as the life of my 10-Year-Old girl here in California. As it is said in the Bible, after all, "Treat thy neighbor as Thyself".
To sum up, we:
1. ...Need to realize that a murdered Syrian child should be as important to us all as a child who is murdered in Paris, or New York, or Moscow, or even Fresno, California (yes, even Fresno).
2. ...Need to do what any intelligent and experienced doctor would do, and look back on the fact that the treatment which we have been employing over the past 12 years has done nothing but cause the original problem to compound itself.
3. ...Need to come to terms with reality... that being that we need to admit that we have been creating many more multitudes of 'terrorists' than we have been killing or imprisoning. Also, we should recognize the fact that we have set a poor example for any country who claims to be fair and just, being that we have made our own President the Judge, Jury, and Executioner of the people that we label as 'terrorists' around the world. There is no way in Hell that we can claim to be delivering "Democracy" to the people of the Middle East when we simultaneously keep people in Guantanamo Bay under conditions which fly directly in the face of the morals and standards that we claim to uphold.
I could easily add another five or ten points to this list, but I'm tired. Mind you, there will definitely be more to come.
/robinclimbsoffsoapbox
After all, it has been said that the general public (at least in the United States) has a common memory of about two weeks when it comes to what is in the mainstream news. That being said, the tragic atrocities that took place on Friday the 13th of November 2015 in Paris, France are currently at the forefront of the minds of us all... and in case it wasn't for even a few minutes, just open a web browser. Naturally, the hearts and minds of all good and decent people across the planet have shown our solidarity and support for the families of the victims of these brutal and savage attacks.
Of course, it is with a heavy heart that I write these words. Being that I am the proud parent of two children myself, whenever I receive word that a family living in any country has lost a son or daughter in either a car/suicide bombing, drone attack, etc., I immediately picture myself in their situation and imagine how I would feel - What if my four-year-old son were at his daycare and somebody decided to detonate a bomb in the name of the cause of ISIS? I can't even begin to convey how painful that would be, and I don't want to even think about it...
We as Citizens of the United States don't think about that much, but perhaps we should.
Much like the way in which a doctor of medicine performs the diagnosis of a patient with a terminal form of cancer, I believe that we as members of society should take a fresh look at the prognosis of our planet.
How do we treat the cancer, and what is the cause of the cancer in the first place? Is there more than one type of cancer present in the body of the planet? If the government of the United States was the doctor on staff at this hypothetical hospital, how would you say that he/she was doing?
I'll get straight to the point: My prognosis? The head doctor on staff has been treating the cancer with heavy doses of radiation therapy. However, the problem with radiation therapy is that it often kills much of the healthy tissue in the body along with the cancer, and risks killing the patient altogether. In this case, the doctor consistently is receiving reports that the treatment is only continuing to kill off what is left of the patient, but refuses to alter his approach or even listen to his colleagues when they plead with him to attempt another method. Could it be that the doctor has an ulterior motive? Maybe the drug companies are paying him something extra on the side so that he goes out of his way to push their cancer-treating therapy?
Perhaps this is a crude metaphor, but my point is that the US government seems to be a doctor that continues to look at and try to only treat the symptoms of a disease with aggressive drugs without taking time to address the underlying causes of the disease itself.
With every drone strike that the US Government makes in the Middle East, multitudes of civilian women and children have been killed. We have been doing this for well over a decade, believe it or not... and while the doctor would like you to believe that we are doing this in the name of defeating the cancer (Terrorism), the primary side-effect of the treatment itself has been causing the cancer to grow exponentially. As innocent people in the countries of the Middle-East stand by to watch as their loved ones are blown to bits from drone attacks, it has become more and more clear that the side-effects of the medicine being employed is only causing the cancer to grow. Instead of being seen as a doctor who has attempted to intervene in an effort to kill an infection of cancer, the United States has become more of a Dr. Frankenstein... creating a monster that has now come to threaten us all. Unfortunately, the good people of Paris are now all too familiar with these repercussions
To be blunt, this shouldn't be anything that is of surprise to the Doctor in question... the assistant surgeon in the practice here (Otherwise known as the CIA) has had much experience in this area and has even coined a term for the phenomena: "Blowback"
The CIA has been dealing with the reality of Blowback for many decades now, and the most obvious case of this would likely be the case of the Taliban in Afghanistan - Or, as they were known back in the war against the Russians in the 1980's, the "Mujaheddin". These were people like Osama Bin Laden and his comrades... trained and equipped by US secret operations to rebel against their Russian occupiers, only to organize and revolt against the very people who trained them decades later.
To sum it all up, how do we cure the cancer that we seem to have nurtured?
Honestly, I don't have much faith that it is something that can be cured, mainly because of the lack of political will (or even acknowledgement) that we find in Washington, D.C.
Still, it could be that all it comes down to would be for the doctor to actually come through and at least show that he/she has abandoned all other motives and truly has the best interests of the patient at heart. Show that what we truly want for the people of the underprivileged countries of Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, etc., is for them to have equal access to the same basic human rights and freedoms that we claim to embrace in our own countries in the "Western World"...
One last point I'd like to make: Although some people might say that it makes me sound like I don't appreciate the tragic loss of life that we saw only a few days ago (I'm talking to you, 'Papa Bear'), the truth is that I am deeply saddened by all of this. Also, I really want to say that we should also think of the millions of people who call the countries of the Middle East their home, and of the real effect that it has had on them. For the most part, those of us in the world who are fortunate enough to live in countries like the United States, England, France, Germany, Spain, Japan, New Zealand, etc., don't have to worry about things like car bombs and executions on a daily basis, I think that we sometimes need to put ourselves in the shoes of the typical citizens of those countries who are trying to work hard to support their families, and yet have had their lives torn apart by war and poverty. I believe that the life of a 10-Year-Old girl in Baghdad is equally as precious as the life of my 10-Year-Old girl here in California. As it is said in the Bible, after all, "Treat thy neighbor as Thyself".
To sum up, we:
1. ...Need to realize that a murdered Syrian child should be as important to us all as a child who is murdered in Paris, or New York, or Moscow, or even Fresno, California (yes, even Fresno).
2. ...Need to do what any intelligent and experienced doctor would do, and look back on the fact that the treatment which we have been employing over the past 12 years has done nothing but cause the original problem to compound itself.
3. ...Need to come to terms with reality... that being that we need to admit that we have been creating many more multitudes of 'terrorists' than we have been killing or imprisoning. Also, we should recognize the fact that we have set a poor example for any country who claims to be fair and just, being that we have made our own President the Judge, Jury, and Executioner of the people that we label as 'terrorists' around the world. There is no way in Hell that we can claim to be delivering "Democracy" to the people of the Middle East when we simultaneously keep people in Guantanamo Bay under conditions which fly directly in the face of the morals and standards that we claim to uphold.
I could easily add another five or ten points to this list, but I'm tired. Mind you, there will definitely be more to come.
/robinclimbsoffsoapbox
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