thoughts

for a while now, the u.s. has been bombing pakistan. they claim that they are seeking out al qaeda militants who are fighting them in afghanistan. this is blandly reported here, as if it were of little consequence. pakistan has recently stated that they will fire on any planes that enter their borders to attack them. i hope that this is actually true, and not just bluster. supposedly, it is ok for the u.s. to attack pakistan, because the attacks are part of something described in our media as "the war on terror." think about this; pakistan is a sovereign nation, minding its own business, and u.s planes decide to start bombing them. this gives me an idea. there are hundreds of cuban exiles in florida who have committed violent (ie, terrorist) acts against cuba. it seems to me that in order to prevent future attacks from these exiles, cuban jets should drop bombs on florida, hopefully killing these terrorists. of course, many floridians would also be killed in the bombing, but this would be collateral damage, unintended, and therefore, not criminal. for we know cuba would go out of their way to limit civilian casualities, as the u.s. army always claims it does. such bombings by cuba would be fully justified under the rubric of "the war on terror."

sadly, this is not the case. instead, 5 cubans, known ironically as the cuban 5, are spending life sentences in jail for merely spying on these violent cuban exiles. they didn't fly jets, they didn't drop bombs, and they didn't "unintentionally" kill civilians. this appears to be their crime. if they had only done it the american way, all would be well.

so yeah, the arrogance of power is beyond astounding. i hope that pakistan shoots back, that iraq shoots back, that everybody shoots back. shooting back seems to be the only communication our government understands. and this is nothing new; when the u.s. was bombing vietnam, it was also bombing cambodia and laos, supposedly because there were "vietcong" in those nations as well. as a result, laos, who did nothing to nobody, remains the most bombed nation in the history of war, and cambodia was also brutally devastated. both of these were sovereign nations minding their own business. it is as if a country was at war with mexico or canada, and then began bombing the u.s. because there were mexicans or canadians in our country. how do you think we would feel? would the fact that there were some mexicans here justify hundreds of thousands of u.s. citizens being "unintentionally" killed? what if there were terrorists operating in mexico, and some of them fled to the u.s. to plan future operations. could foreign countries violate our air space and attack our cities as part of "the war on terror?" of course not. only we can kill people at will for some "noble" goal, such as "the war on terror."

so there you have it. the same old bullshit; we can do what we want, kill who we wish, because it's all for some greater good, but no one can attack us for a greater good. in fact, we won't even let others nationalize their own oil and gas industries, or to redistribute the wealth in their own countries. if they begin to do this, we begin to describe them as "authoritarian," as "dictators," as "undemocratic."

and before long, the bombs may begin to drop on them as well, as part of "the war on terror," for in today's world, a terrorist has become someone the u.s. government doesn't like.

like a pakistani citizen minding his or her own business, who is bombed by the u.s. because there or may not be an al qaeda in the area.