Letter Never Sent

“War is the spectacular and bloody projection of our everyday life, is it not? War is merely an outward expression of our inward state, an enlargement of our daily action. It is more spectacular, more bloody, more destructive, but it is the collective result of our individual activities. Therefore, you and I are responsible for war and what can we do to stop it?
Obviously the ever-impending war cannot be stopped by you and me, because it is already in movement; it is already taking place, though at present chiefly on the psychological level. As it is already in movement, it cannot be stopped – the issues are too many, too great, and are already committed.

But you and I, seeing that the house is on fire, can understand the causes of that fire, can go away from it and build in a new place with different materials that are not combustible, that will not produce other wars. That is all that we can do. You and I can see what creates wars, and if we are interested in stopping wars, then we can begin to transform ourselves, who are the causes of war.”

The First and Last Freedom, p.182

“An American lady came to see me a couple of years ago, during the war. She said she had lost her son in Italy and the she had another aged sixteen whom she wanted to save; so we talked the thing over. I suggested to her that to save her son she had to cease to be an American; she had to cease to be greedy, cease piling up wealth, seeking power, domination, and be morally simple – not merely simple in clothes, in outward things, but simple in her thoughts and feelings, in her relationships. She said, ‘That is too much. You are asking far too much. I cannot do it, because circumstances are too powerful for me to alter.’ Therefore she was responsible for the destruction of her son.”

The First and Last Freedom, p.182

“If you loved your children with your heart, not with your shoddy little minds, do you think there would be a war tomorrow?”

Unknown source

Images of the bodies of the Chechen terrorists. One sure fire way to end this Chechen terrorism is to end the war against them.

With orders to assassinate the command structure of the rebel group. Interesting timing. February 2003. Is the US trying to secure more oil resources in the event of a failed attempt against Hussein or for the ensuing chaos during the interregnum? Colombia has substantial quantities of oil and the Farc have been siphoning off gasoline to fund their operations in addition to blowing up portions of the pipeline.

Marines Ordered into Colombia

Two battalions of US Marine Jungle Expeditionary Forces have recently received deployment orders for insertion into Colombia this coming February, 2003.

According to reliable sources, the battalions, which with support will total roughly 1,100 men, will rotate in and out of southern Colombia, with orders to eliminate all high officers of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), scattering those who escape to the remote corners of the Amazon. The FARC hierarchy has been the subject of intensive US intelligence scrutiny for several years. The offensive will mean that the US is fighting wars on three fronts simultaneously: Afghanistan, Iraq and Colombia.

I’d hate to see anyone die and I’m sure the Special Forces are a nice sort of violent mercenary group, but I hope the Special Forces get their asses handed to them. This sort of intervention is wrong and a violation of everything that is right.

From Common Dreams: Oppose Iraq War Like Gandhi, Says Indian Author Roy:

ROME – Indian novelist Arundhati Roy urged anti-war campaigners Wednesday to use civil disobedience to oppose military action against Iraq, just as Mahatma Gandhi used it to fight for India’s independence from British rule.

Roy, whose 1997 novel “The God of Small Things” won the Booker Prize in Britain and has sold six million copies in 40 languages, has become a prominent activist for human rights and environmental causes.

Speaking about actively opposing globalization, Roy told a news conference in Rome “The struggle has hit a dead-end. We need to re-imagine nonviolent resistance. It’s not simply about demonstrations on the streets and wearing masks.

“The answer lies in civil disobedience,” she said, detailing some of the boycotts and nonviolent protests Gandhi used to weaken Britain’s grip on the Indian subcontinent, which gained independence in 1947.

Asked whether she would advocate civil disobedience against a possible U.S. attack on Iraq, Roy said: “Absolutely, of course. That is where it is most urgently needed.”

“Those activists who in the past have gone into Palestine, or gone into Iraq and said ‘Bomb us, we’re here, we’re white people and we’re here’ — those are fantastic people,” she told Reuters.

Roy, 41, was in Italy to speak at a festival featuring films on a campaign of opposition to a hydro-electric dam project in India that has displaced millions of people.

“The idea that America or any other country has the right to organize a pre-emptive strike against Iraq on the suspicion that it might be developing nuclear weapons…it justifies anybody going to war against anybody,” she said.

“It justifies India going to war against Pakistan or Pakistan going to war against India based on any suspicion that they have. It’s the most outrageous thing you can possibly imagine.”