Was seeing the footage on tv today of the chemical attack in Syria . A father hugging his two daughters with no visible injury and crying loudly in arabic . Soon he had to move away as both of the kids were dead . It is always the case where death is more gruesome when the bodies are so lifelike ....victims of chemical attack ..
Then they were showing the footage of a young doctor who was doing relief work and in between gave a brief interview to the reporters . Later he was crying too for just after the attack when his colleagues went into the area of attack some of them died because they didnt know initially that it was a chemical attack .
Like in everything the gruesome attack raises questions on who did it with the speculations as ever . And the US is planning to attack syria too . With the largest stockpile of weapons in the world its not surprising of this move from USA. In the channel they were mentioning that US attacked Iraq also in the guise that they had stockpiled chemical weapons .
I dont know whether US intervention will decrease or increase the bloodbath but as a casual observer one thing is clear . US interests in this region is not humanitarian because we seldom hear of US intervention in impoverished african countries which have horrible atrocities in civil wars . So i think oil , oil pricing etc is a key interest in these interventions .
Typical of developed economies US has lots of internal problems ( healthcare inequality , crime rate etc ) its high time that US intervenes more as a big brother than an international policeman . With infinite access to diplomacy , the sanctions method , UN is it only by an aggressive military intervention that US can help the west asian region .
Any way in the days to come probably we will see more children dying on television . And again i am thinking aloud can the american public prevent these actions by widespread protests especially since its well known that many of the returning soldiers from these wars like vietnam , iraq etc come back with post traumatic stress disorder which destroys their lives and their families . Also even many people think that Israel (backed by US as always ) is behind chemical attacks . Anyway the end result is fathers who lose their daughters and doctors who lose their colleagues in preventable tragedies ...
Now you know why i prefer animal planet or discovery channel or the movie channel . Not that i cant watch people dying but i think many are preventable and man is more cruel than all animals . Even lions which kill the little ones when they take over a new pride pale in comparison because we are more intelligent than them . Or is it ?
Then they were showing the footage of a young doctor who was doing relief work and in between gave a brief interview to the reporters . Later he was crying too for just after the attack when his colleagues went into the area of attack some of them died because they didnt know initially that it was a chemical attack .
Like in everything the gruesome attack raises questions on who did it with the speculations as ever . And the US is planning to attack syria too . With the largest stockpile of weapons in the world its not surprising of this move from USA. In the channel they were mentioning that US attacked Iraq also in the guise that they had stockpiled chemical weapons .
I dont know whether US intervention will decrease or increase the bloodbath but as a casual observer one thing is clear . US interests in this region is not humanitarian because we seldom hear of US intervention in impoverished african countries which have horrible atrocities in civil wars . So i think oil , oil pricing etc is a key interest in these interventions .
Typical of developed economies US has lots of internal problems ( healthcare inequality , crime rate etc ) its high time that US intervenes more as a big brother than an international policeman . With infinite access to diplomacy , the sanctions method , UN is it only by an aggressive military intervention that US can help the west asian region .
Any way in the days to come probably we will see more children dying on television . And again i am thinking aloud can the american public prevent these actions by widespread protests especially since its well known that many of the returning soldiers from these wars like vietnam , iraq etc come back with post traumatic stress disorder which destroys their lives and their families . Also even many people think that Israel (backed by US as always ) is behind chemical attacks . Anyway the end result is fathers who lose their daughters and doctors who lose their colleagues in preventable tragedies ...
Now you know why i prefer animal planet or discovery channel or the movie channel . Not that i cant watch people dying but i think many are preventable and man is more cruel than all animals . Even lions which kill the little ones when they take over a new pride pale in comparison because we are more intelligent than them . Or is it ?
Ever since Wikileaks started publishing war documents, cables and so on I have had serious second thought on US intentions. Lets us briefly review the whole war on terror starting from early 2003. Initially they went in war with Iraq claiming the possession WMD as you mentioned. They where pushing for war way before the UN weapons inspectors where even able to confirm its existence / accuracy of the claims. After overthrowing Saddam Hussein they miserably failed in their attempts to make Iraq a democratic country. What we saw afterwards was total chaos. The treatment of the Iraq war detainees was yet another horrible story.
ReplyDeleteThen came the ‘Collateral Murder’ video released by the Wikileaks where we saw innocent civilians being murdered in cold blood without any reasonable sign of provocation and then they killed the first responders too. Violated both
Article 85 of the First protocol to the Geneva Conventions which describes – “making the civilian population of individual civilian the object of attack is a grave breach” and
“Article 17 of the First protocol to the Geneva Conventions which states - “Civilian population shall be permitted even on their own initiative to collect and care for the wounded.”
Obviously they don’t give a damn about the Geneva convection.
BTW we haven’t heard of the Airmen in the Apache ever being tried for murder or atleast take responsibility for their stupid actions, instead the man, Bradly Manning who exposed the cover-ups and the war crimes to the world, faced a 90+ years sentence by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act - FISA Court (Which apparently is a complete joke, cos FISA trials are held in complete secrecy and with no accounting and no defense for the defendant.) They have also had success in cornering the Publisher Julian Assange into the Ecuadorian embassy in the UK. Meanwhile it’s also worth noting the testimonies of the Ex CIA Asset, Ms. Susan Lindauer, even thought we are unable to prove the legitimacy of her claims. Thanks to Wikileakes we now also know that the civilian fatalities in the Iraq war are far too many than actually reported. Sadly the US main stream media seems not much interested in reporting the facts instead acts likes a spokes person for the US Government and hypes the Government propaganda. Once again Thanks to online media/blogs and alternative sources that we now have alternative perspective on each stories (cont.)
Then we heard about “Operation Neptune Spear” where they claimed to have killed Bin Laden by the US Navy Seal Team 6, but unfortunately everyone on the seal team got killed in a mysterious Helicopter crash some time later. IS the US Navy that stupid to sent all of their elite forces in one old helicopter? I don’t think so. At the same time we also had reports from some major television networks that OBL died several years before due to Kidney failure.
ReplyDeleteLastly we had the Edward Snowden revelations suggesting massive Internet dragnet surveillance involving the major internet giants like Google, Yahoo, Facebook etc by the US’s CIA & UK’s GCHQ … where ever one in this planet is a potential target. Here once again, the one who exposed it is called as a Traitor and he has to be on the run for his life. Even whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg, the man who released the pentagon papers of Vietnam was calls Snowden a Hero. Even at this point the US mainstream media still seems to be supporting the government by suggested trial of the publisher of this story Glenn Greenwald on grounds of releasing classified information. It’s also true that the top level government officials after their work gets hired by these Private Contractors such as Booz Allen Hamilton and then returns back to power again only to give more government contracts to these private contractors. Seems to me like its being government by Corporations these days. So as long as there is this revolving door, these issues will remain the same. It’s also true that most of the campaign funds in the US comes from such contractors. So who do you think these democrats and republicans will work for - The Contractors or the People? Doctor I sincerely believe that the Internet is the last sources we have for expressing our open views and thought and it seems like that too will soon come to an end if none resists these surveillance.
Sadly the story of Syria also seems to be more or less like Iraq. But even if they posses Chemical Weapons, Since when did US started acting like the Police force for the world? Why are they so much interested in over throwing the Assad regime by funding the rebel forces just like how they used to fund for Bin Laden to fight against Russia back in times. Isn’t it better we let the people of Syria act for themselves to decide for what they want? All I know is that Syria is pretty rich in natural resources such as Crude Oil, Natural gas and if they start a war, sooner or later we will witness the line up of US petroleum giants alongside Syrian oil reserves. To me it seems like the US has so much deviated from the original views, the founders of the country had. The very views which made it a great country. I hope that the US citizens at some point will realize and react to what is happening these days.
BTW Doctor I deeply appreciate you for sharing your view on topics like these which does have direct or indirect implications on our life as well moreover the lest we can do is let the powerful know that we too understand what’s happening around the world.
Santosh thanks for the great comments which are quite detailed .. I love big comments :) If more people were opinionated i feel world would be definitely a better place ..
ReplyDeleteThanks to internet at least nowadays there are better ways to know about hypocrisy ... I have greatest regard for people like Abraham Lincoln but it is sad that the vietnam , irag, and now syria is getting repeated .. As always governments cannot act at least without the "silent " approval of people just like corruption in india has the "silent " approval of our people . So let them protest these moves instead of trying to play along with their governments hypocrisy ...
Beautifully said doctor.
ReplyDelete