9/11 In Context- Awesome speech by a Marine Veteran

[Wetzelbill]

9/11 in Context
A Marine Veteran's Perspective
By CHRIS WHITE



Two years ago today, everyone in this room felt a sense of dread and fear perhaps unlike anything they could have imagined. My heart still aches whenever I think about the horrors that must have been felt by the victims of that day. Something virtually unknown in this country is that Chileans were also mourning on that day, but for a different reason. It was twenty-eight years before to the day the U.S. government assisted the military coup led by Augusto Pinochet that overthrew the democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, and led to the systematic murder of 3,000 Chileans and the torture of many thousands more, as well as a seventeen year dictatorship that we whole-heartedly supported. We observe 9/11 as a date to reflect on the wrongful deaths of 3,000 Americans, but why do we not mourn those who died at the hands of Americans?

Places such as Iran, where the CIA engineered a coup in 1953 that overthrew the democratically-elected Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh, and installed the Shah and supported his secret police force, SAVAK, who tortured and murdered thousands of Iranians, do not warrant American tears. Nor do the countless number of Filipinos, who suffered at the hands of the U.S.-backed dictator, Ferdinand Marcos. The tens of thousands of Guatemalans who were tortured, disappeared, and died at the hands of many U.S.-supported dictators and puppet presidents in the four decades that followed the 1954 CIA coup that overthrew the democratically-elected presidency of Jacobo Arbenz, do not receive official American sorrow. Nor do the 500,000 Indonesians or the 200,000 East Timorese who were slaughtered by the U.S.-backed dictator, General Suharto, after yet another CIA coup in 1965. The 2 million Vietnamese, the 300,000 Laotians, and the 600,000 Cambodians whom the U.S. military murdered in the 1960s and 1970s hold little place in our collective consciousness outside of Hollywood, and there exists no national day of remembrance for them like we have for our 3,000 victims of 9/11. The silenced voices of tens of thousands of Haitians killed by Marines in the early 1900s and at the hands of the U.S.-backed Papa and Baby Doc Duvalier during the Cold War, deserve no day of mourning in the country that applauded their sorrow and held contempt for their pursuits of happiness.

http://www.counterpunch.com/

[Imalittleteapot]

1. Excellent post. Everyone should read and pass on.

:cry:

[Melsky]

2. My thoughts exactly

are we really all so arrogant/ignorant/unkind to think that we are the only people who matter? Sadly for the most part it seems we are.

[minkyboodle]

3. powerful

the post-script about the reaction to his speech is chilling. Confirming how even those who lose the most in the battles can be blinded by the governments rhetoric... very disturbing
Scott

[LibertyorDeath]

4. Look in the mirror America what do you see?

[RainDog]

5. big kick

because too many Americans are unaware of the evils perpretrated in their names.

It's time for this country to get rid of the fascists who have perverted our foreign policy since the gilded age.

[ixion]

6. this is a great post

will forward to everyone... this is the same logic Chomsky uses, and what dem leaders should be using. for years, the US has been the most ardent purveyor of terror in the world.

[Wetzelbill]

7. I believe that those who truly love our country

need to love it the way a grown man loves his wife or vice versa. They may not be perfect, but you stick with that person through good and bad. If they have faults you seek to improve those problems the proper way out of love, concern and respect. You don't blindly ignore the faults until they destroy everything you have cared about and worked for. Our Democratic leadership has sorely lacked in proving their love to the U.S. by eradicating our bloody relationships with thugs and moving on to a better tomorrow. We know the RWers aren't going to do it. They will fly a damn flag and speak of "evildoers" while sending billions to some clown who will end up butchering his own people and using all that weapons funding against us in another 15 years.

[hippywife]

11. Excellent analysis.

People don't change until they are faced with the truth about who and what they are. Americans need to see and understand what they have been so glibly cheering about. And sadly, there will still be some who think this is just fine because it puts America first over the other peoples we share this planet with.

As many of you no doubt already know, The School of the Americas, now renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, is one of the worst terrorist training camps in the world and it's located in and run by the U.S. It's mission is to do nothing but gain access to precious lands and resources of the peoples of South and Central America by killing them off.

For anyone who can't figure our why we are hated by people of the world, you need look no further than here:

http://www.soaw.org/new/

The underhanded treachery this country untertakes is enough to make your head spin.

[LibertyorDeath]

8. Can I Kick this indefinitely? Yes? Good......... KICK

[Beam Me Up]

9. Big Kick and Direct Link to Article

http://www.counterpunch.com/white10282003.html

:kick:

[LibertyorDeath]

10. When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide.

[LibertyorDeath]

12. Kickin it