Terrorism

What happens as a result of terrorist acts is horrific. People going to work, kids going to school; their lives ended tragically in mere seconds. Most human beings, myself included feel so personally devastated and emotionally distraught when individuals and their families have to experience such physical pain and terror.

It's so hard to understand and a sad commentary on this world that the human race hasn't risen above terror as a tool to better address grievances and defend a particular way of life. George Bush, said the war against terror in Iraq was going well.

I wonder if he meant it was going well for all the soldiers and their families killed this week in Iraq. I wonder if he meant it was going well for all the civilian's killed in Iraq; more than 125,000 by the most conservative of estimates. Killed in a war that was justified by lies, for the benefit of American oil companies and defense contractors. I wonder if he feels for all those that die? Or don't Iraqi men, women and children count or feel pain? Perhaps only Americans and British citizens count and feel pain. The war on terror is not going to be won by military might.

The war on terror is not going to be won by additional military forays into sovereign Moslem countries. The war on terror is not going to be won by fulfilling the prophecies of the most radical Islam clerics and guaranteeing more generations of disenfranchised Islamic youth who see a Jihad against the oppressor as their only resort. The war on terror is not going to be won by the United States support of the corrupt governments in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, continuing to man military bases in Islam's holiest lands. The war on terror is not going to be won by the United States continued support of Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands and their oppression of the Palestinian people. The war on terror is not going to be won until the United States and other wealthy countries address the root causes of poverty, disease, starvation and hopelessness.