RE: Do Not Participate in the Ill Considered "Peace" Rally

["Shahab Mesbah" <meteor2@moscow.com>]

Dear friends,

I wanted to share this with all of you so I have deleted the information
about the friend who wrote the message to me. Their message is below my
reply.

<Begin reply>

I agree with you whole-heartedly. The problems we have in the city are
directly caused by incompetent mismanagement. We have plenty of money... we
just misappropriate it all the time.

As for the idea of US helping everyone... you are right... we do help a
lot... that is the part you see all the time. What you don't see is that
virtually all of the problems going on in the Middle East were caused by US.
I am sorry but it is true. I was there when US destroyed my country to lower
the price of oil. The rhetoric was that Carter was on Shah's case for human
rights violations but anyone with a tiny amount of knowledge and
understanding of the situation knows that it was about oil. That is it... we
had cheap oil again but now the Middle East is a mess. Do you think the
Taliban would have had a chance if Iran were still the way it was 25 years
ago? Do you think Iraq would have dared to do what they did 10 years ago?
Iran was the stabilizing force in the Middle East. Even the Soviet Union
would have never attacked Afghanistan if Iran were there. US screwed up big
time! And we should get our butts in gear and fix it. It is time we took
responsibility for our mistake in the past. Religious fanaticism in the
Middle East was cultivated by US. As long as we are blind to this we have
not learned the lessons from our mistakes and so we are likely to make them
again.

"Your brother in arms"
Shahab...


<Message>
I don't disagree with you but the United States does get tired of being the
world's policeman along with providing support to so many nations.  It is
difficult to rebuilt the Germany's and the Japan's along with Mexico and
Africa.  We have sent dollars and our young people as Peace Corp volunteers
all
over the world.  Granted we are spoiled and I do get very frustrated with
our
constant support of whatever Israel does but it is so difficult to decide
where
to put our resources when we have poverty and lack of education and
resources in
our own communities.

Just reviewing the community of Moscow---  We have a community center that
is
not completed, we want a new high school and elementary school, new
fairgrounds,
more and better baseball and soccer fields, new county court house, bigger
hospital, more arts and activities for our children and seniors. Teachers
want
paid more.  Our police deserve more.  But we don't have the resources.  We
pay
some of the highest property tax rates in the state, high water and light
fees
and we still need to tax ourselves more to get all the goodies we think we
need.

It is difficult to look beyond our own backyards to the rest of the world
when
there are so many hands out that can't be filled.

<Name deleted>

Shahab Mesbah wrote:

> Dear friends,
>
> It is critical for us to be champions of justice. It is true that the
> terrorists have to be punished. I would, however be careful how you make
> your statements. We (US government) have destroyed people's peace and
killed
> millions of civilians either directly or by misguided support of tyrants
in
> the past several decades. While I lost a part of my heart on Tuesday the
> 11th, I had already lost much more due to atrocities elsewhere in the
world.
> You talk about hypocrisy... it is us as a nation who have been the
> hypocrites so far. We claim to fight for justice and freedom yet we have
> caused more injustice and chaos than any government in the history of our
> world!
>
> As I have stated before, I feel the attacks are appropriate for the time
> being. In fact they are necessary and consistent with our ideals. It
remains
> to be seen if this administration will repeat the past mistakes. I see a
lot
> of signs that we are trying to avoid taking shortcuts and thus not making
> the right moves. I feel that our government needs our support because of
> this and this alone. If we do not support the government the pressure to
> stop the war will cause us to leave the work unfinished. I do not feel the
> other arguments against the rally so far are really relevant. They do not
> make logical sense and appeal to emotional and patriotic emotions. We are
> not fighting terrorism to benefit ourselves only... we are benefiting
> others. This has to be the focal point of our attention. The fact remains
> that you cannot fight violence with violence. The English should talk...
> they have not been able to deal with the Ireland problem for decades. It
was
> Clinton who brought the problem in control. The Israelis are another good
> example. The only way to eliminate terrorism is through eliminating what
> causes it... injustice. To do this we have to stop being a bunch of
spoiled,
> selfish brats and learn that there are limited resources on earth. If we
> consume too much and hog the good as we have, majority of the world will
> have to go without... as they have.
>
> We need to pound the terrorists, Help rebuild Afghanistan, help them
develop
> a democratic government, and watch them flourish just as Germans did.
>
> If there is one thing we should have learned out of this it should be that
> it is far cheaper to use money to help people than not. We are now
suffering
> great economic damage because of the events of 11th. Had we spent 10% of
> that amount to help Afghanistan after the soviets left we would not have
had
> this problem and millions of Afghani lives would have been saved. This of
> course is another area of fault... in reality we do not value Afghani life
> like we value an Americans. This is prejudice... it has infested our
society
> and it will destroy it if we do not destroy it.
>
> "Your brother in arms"
> Shahab...
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Douglas Whitney [mailto:dwhitney@moscow.com]
> Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2001 9:02 AM
> To: Duncan Palmatier; Vision2020@moscow.com
> Subject: Re: Do Not Participate in the Ill Considered "Peace" Rally
>
> Good for you Duncan. If  these people were really for peace, why were'nt
> they demostrating against the terrorists on Sept 12? They seem to be
> hypocrites to me, along with a couple of other things.
>
> Doug
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Duncan Palmatier" <dpalm@earthlink.net>
> To: <Vision2020@moscow.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2001 7:29 PM
> Subject: Do Not Participate in the Ill Considered "Peace" Rally
>
> > Margaret Howe wrote:
> >
> >
> > >... we hope to
> > >promote unity in the peace process as well as to further eludicate the
> > >United States' impact in Global Politics and the ways in which we too
> > are
> > >also terrorists...
> > >
> >
> > (Emphasis mine)
> >
> > Dear Vision2020 and artists and citizens of Moscow:
> >
> > For my part, especially at this time when we rally our support for our
> > country and all the people of the world, I write in this forum to
> > encourage you NOT to participate in such an ill considered display. We
> > Americans are not terrorists. We are good people, and reticent, and
> > restrained, and generous, and, by contrast with our enemies, we are
> > tolerant, and forgiving to the point of fault.
> >
> > We sought no war.
> >
> > But, we now have enemies we must face, lest all our ideals of equality
> > and justice be foresworn.
> >
> > Those enemies killed our friends and relatives and countrymen and
> > strangers as they started an ordinary day of work.
> >
> > Despicable and loathsome and cruel and stupid and unjust and idiotic and
> >
> > lunatic and intolerable.
> >
> > They killed our peace; so, must they also see us put aside our peace and
> >
> > reticence and tranquility, and they must see us go to war against them.
> >
> > Do not participate in this silly rally.
> >
> > Instead, rally for the equality and justice and peace that we Americans
> > will now defend.
> >
> > Duncan Palmatier
> >
> >
> >