Tony Parsons and the Daily mirror

[Navaron]

The author is Tony Parsons. It follows:
>
>
> September 11, 2002 ONE year ago, the world witnessed
> a unique kind of broadcasting - the mass murder of
> thousands, live on television. As a lesson in the
> pitiless cruelty of the human race, September 11 was
> up there with Pol Pot's mountain of skulls in
> Cambodia, or the skeletal bodies stacked like
> garbage in the Nazi concentration camps. An
> unspeakable act so cruel, so calculated and so
> utterly merciless that surely the world could agree
> on one thing - nobody deserves this fate.
>
> Surely there could be consensus: the victims were
> truly innocent, the perpetrators truly evil. But to
> the world's eternal shame, 9/11 is increasingly seen
> as America's comeuppance. Incredibly,
> anti-Americanism has increased over the last year.
>
> There has always been a simmering resentment to the
> USA in this country - too loud, too rich, too full
> of themselves and so much happier than Europeans -
> but it has become an epidemic.
>
> And it seems incredible to me. More than that, it
> turns my stomach. America is this country's greatest
> friend and our staunchest ally. We are bonded to the
> US by culture, language and blood.
>
> A little over half a century ago, around half a
> million Americans died for our freedoms, as well as
> their own. Have we forgotten so soon? And exactly a
> year ago, thousands of ordinary men, women and
> children - not just Americans, but from dozens of
> countries - were butchered by a small group of
> religious fanatics. Are we so quick to betray them?
>
> What touched the heart about those who died in the
> twin towers and on the planes was that we recognized
> them. Young fathers and mothers, somebody's son and
> somebody's daughter, husbands and wives. And
> children. Some unborn.
>
> And these people brought it on themselves? And their
> nation is to blame for their meticulously planned
> slaughter?
>
> These days you don't have to be some dust-encrusted
> nut job in Kabul or Karachi or Finsbury Park to see
> America as the Great Satan. The anti-American
> alliance is made up of self-loathing liberals who
> blame the Americans for every ill in the Third
> World, and conservatives suffering from power-envy,
> bitter that the world's only superpower can do what
> it likes
> without having to ask permission.
>
> The truth is that America has behaved with enormous
> restraint since September 11.Remember, remember.
>
> Remember the gut-wrenching tapes of weeping men
> phoning their wives to say, "I love you," before
> they were burned alive. Remember those people
> leaping to their deaths from the top of burning
> skyscrapers. Remember the hundreds of firemen buried
> alive. Remember the smiling face of that beautiful
> little girl who was on one of the planes with her
> mum. Remember,
> remember - and realize that America has never
> retaliated for 9/11 in
> anything like the way it could have.
>
> So a few al-Qaeda tourists got locked without a
> trial in Camp X-ray? Pass the Kleenex. So some
> Afghan wedding receptions were shot up after they
> merrily fired their semi-automatics in a sky full of
> American planes? A shame, but maybe next time they
> should stick to confetti.
>
> AMERICA could have turned a large chunk of the world
> into a parking lot. That it didn't is a sign of
> strength. American voices are already being raised
> against attacking Iraq - that's what a democracy is
> for. How many in the Islamic world will have a
> minute's silence for the slaughtered innocents of
> 9/11? How many Islamic leaders will have the guts to
> say that the mass murder of 9/11 was an abomination?
>
>
> When the news of 9/11 broke on the West Bank, those
> freedom-loving Palestinians were dancing in the
> street. America watched all of that - and didn't
> push the button. We should thank the stars that
> America is the most powerful nation in the world. I
> still find it incredible that 9/11 did not provoke
> all-out war. Not a "war on terrorism". A real war.
>
> The fundamentalist dudes are talking about "opening
> the gates of hell", if America attacks Iraq. Well,
> America could have opened the gates of hell like you
> wouldn't believe. The US is the most militarily
> powerful nation that ever strode the face of the
> earth. The campaign in Afghanistan may have been
> less than perfect and the planned war on Iraq may be
> misconceived.
>
> But don't blame America for not bringing peace and
> light to these wretched countries. How many
> democracies are there in the Middle East, or in the
> Muslim world? You can count them on the fingers of
> one hand - assuming you haven't had any chopped off
> for minor shoplifting.
>
> I love America, yet America is hated. I guess that
> makes me Bush's poodle. But I would rather be a dog
> in New York City than a Prince in Riyadh. Above all,
> America is hated because it is what every country
> wants to be - rich, free, strong, open, optimistic.
>
> Not ground down by the past, or religion, or some
> caste system.
>
> America is the best friend this country ever had and
> we should start remembering that.
>
> Or do you really think the USA is the root of all
> evil? Tell it to the loved ones of the men and women
> who leaped to their death from the burning towers.
> Tell it to the nursing mothers whose husbands died
> on one of the hijacked planes, or were ripped apart
> in a collapsing skyscraper. And tell it to the
> hundreds of young widows whose husbands worked for
> the New York Fire Department. To our shame, George
> Bush gets a worse press than Saddam
> Hussein.
>
> Once we were told that Saddam gassed the Kurds,
> tortured his own people and set up rape-camps in
> Kuwait. Now we are told he likes Quality Street.
> Save me the orange centre, oh mighty one!
>
> Remember, remember, September 11. One of the
> greatest atrocities in human history was committed
> against America.
>
> No, do more than remember. Never forget.


****I think it is great we have allies like the Brits, and even though we have our differences, we are mighty together - Nav****

[BLuE_ZeRO]

Wow that was actually a damn good article. Got to hand it to the british.

[Navaron]

[Mtx]

Everyone hates America because we created the internet.

[Bighoss]

the british always make the best ariticles because they seem somewhat neatrul compared to American new's. For all those that call us Warmongers look at 9/11 then look at pearl harbor. Somewhat similar except for the military/civilian aspect of it. If we were warmongers we would have sent a mass invasion through the middle east tearing apart anything we didn't like. I think screwing with America is picking at the gates of hell

[Lexington_Steele]

Originally posted by Mtx
Everyone hates America because we created the internet.

Wasn't that Al Gore?

[IDgaf]

Finsbury Park is the location a of a Mosque in London that's associated with Islamic militancy and religious fanaticism.

What's more it's about 15 minutes' walk from my house, or just four minutes or so on the 'subway'.

Hooray.

[Lexington_Steele]

Originally posted by Bighoss
the british always make the best ariticles because they seem somewhat neatrul compared to American new's.

All press is biased. Also remeber that the author acknowledges that he is the among the minority in GB.

Becareful with articles like this. The author is trying to mask an anti-Palestinian and anti-Islamic message in the cloak of the 9/11 tradgedy.

[Navaron]

Damn it, I missed a turn somewhere, how exactly do you get to area 51 Lex? Should I just follow the unmarked black helicopters?

[Lexington_Steele]

Originally posted by {BOHICA}Navaron
Damn it, I missed a turn somewhere, how exactly do you get to area 51 Lex? Should I just follow the unmarked black helicopters?

No, you see that is how they fool you. The helicopters are going to area 52. I can't tell you how to get there specifically (I fear for my safety), but think Maxwell Smart and the entrance to Controll. :

[BLuE_ZeRO]

thinks maxwell smart... /me calls area 52 from shoe phone