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"Blessed are
the Peace-Makers"
:: An Open Letter to Senator Robert Byrd ::
by Mohamed
Khodr
"Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy
lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good;
seek PEACE, and pursuit it."
Psalms:
34: 13-14
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"I cease not to advocate peace;
even though unjust it is better than the most
just war."
Cicero
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"In Philadelphia, a
Mrs. Powel "asked Dr. Franklin, Well Doctor what
have we got a Republic or a monarchy? A
Republic, replied the Doctor, if you can keep
it."
American
Historical Review 1906
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
-
The Honorable Senator Robert Byrd:
-
Senator, West Virginia
For many years now your knowledge of the
Constitution, our history, classical works, and profound courage
and patriotism have been a role model for legislators around the
nation as well as being a role model for young passionate
Americans contemplating public service.
Your speech on the Senate floor regarding the War
Resolution on Iraq, a war desperately in search of a cause, was
brilliant, impassioned, courageous, and honest.
I support you, Senator Byrd, on your principled
stand that a war debate must not be subjected to time
constraints or political expediency. Many Americans pray that
Congress would just take a deep breath, seclude itself from the
pressures of the media and sound bytes, and deliberate
thoughtfully and rationally as demanded by our Constitution as
to the reasons to send our 19 years old boys and girls to die
prior to an election and a search for a legacy.
Few Americans support this war but like our
Congress are too intimidated and fearful to speak out. Ashcroft
has put the fear into their hearts while incarcerating our
Constitution and shredding our Bill of Rights. Our nation is
easily swayed by the latest "sound byte du jour", but our
Senators and Representatives are elected to THINK and ACT on our
behalf. How can anyone be intimidated and cowardly, as Sen.
Feinstein said, by a popular President when human lives are at
stake? Is human life so cheap today that it can be sacrificed
at the altar of a "few more dollars and votes"?
Read the irony and tragedy of Shimon Peres' words
on ABCNEWS (3/31/02):
"The sacrifice of human life at the altar
of political ambitions is BARBARIC."
Anxiety, Fear, and Depression permeates our
nation and the world due to President Bush's instantaneous
demonization of Saddam, abandonment of Osama Bin Laden,
articulating an illegal and immoral "Pre-emptive" murder of
nations based on "secret intelligence" and whim, and a policy of
the next "regime change" thus ensuring a never ending supply of
"regime change and democratization" through war and
destruction. That should ensure Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz/Perle/and
Rice's (Powell?) military-industrial-wall street-media friends
an Enron/Jack Welch lifestyle for decades to come.
I left my dictatorial "Muslim" nation to flee a
nation with no Constitutional protection, no Bill of Rights, no
democracy, no due process, and no recourse for citizen
participation in decisions of life and death. I came to
America, like millions of immigrants, to participate and
flourish in a "nation of laws", a nation of equal freedoms and
opportunity, a nation founded by the two most extraordinary
documents ever written that guarantees a government by the
people and for the people, a nation that allows me the freedom
to criticize my Honorable President and Honorable
Representatives, a nation of peace, a model nation for a planet
mired in desperation and conflicts. In my nation today I am
at risk under Ashcroft's Doctrine for incarceration because I am
a Muslim. When Ashcroft hears "American Muslim", he only reacts
to the "Muslim' part. His FBI paid me a visit, under false
pretenses, questioning my past and current life and seeking
information on other "Muslims" in my community.
My President has declared an unconstitutional
doctrine of "Pre-emption", a doctrine that violates
international law and our commitment to international norms and
treaties. Today my government has abandoned the voice of its
citizens to hear the voices of money, influence, and votes of
the powerful beltway have's. Today my government is literally
taking money out of the mouths, health, and education of
Americans to spend it on an ideologically based "empire" of
might. As a former Preventive Medicine Physician I operated
under a budget of less than one percent of the Federal budget to
save lives, yet now President Bush and Company have found
hundreds of Billions of dollars to "Preventively" end lives and
nations.
Today my government is beginning to act like the
very "dictatorial" nation I left.
How ironic that our nation spent over $5
Trillion during the Cold War to "Pre-empt" the Soviet Union's
expansionism and annexation of nations, and today it is Russia
that is "Pre-Empting" Bush's America from its expansionism and
annexation of nations with coincident oil fields.
Given that our culture always pushes the envelope
to continue to stimulate our bland and boring lives, what will
our future generation do with our massive weapons of mass
destruction? A generation raised on video games and "smart
bombs" may make "stupid decisions" and annihilate peoples and
nations whom we simply don't like or disagree with our orders.
If such a generation that kills classmates and murders for
sneakers should reach power, what will they do in the future?
The time to stand up for principle, for our Constitution, and
for the sake of humanity is NOW; not after a genocide and
winning an election campaign.
Peace is much more "cost effective" and humane
than war. Abandoning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to seek
another MidEast conflict is hardly a hallmark of a rational
"civilized" nation.
Life is more precious than an expedient "sound
byte", donation, or vote.
This war and the alteration of the Middle East,
akin to post WW I, was long drawn up prior to President Bush's
election by Conservative think tanks. It's always been a dream
of the NEO-CONS (how appropriate a name: CONS), Pro-Israelites,
and Corporate Board Rooms to rule the land above the oil
reserves. War throughout history has been about Power and
Greed.
Saddam has been there for decades, he's been our
proxy, the recipient of our technology, yet now in DAYS we must
decide to kill him along with thousands of innocent Iraqi's and
American GI's.
How utterly stupid and irrational to think that a
simple "regime change" will "liberate" the oppressed Iraqi's
into an American compliant "democracy". Ask the British, the
French, the Dutch, and the Russians of their colonial experience
to alter the Muslim world into a compliant mirror image of
themselves.
The Muslim masses, not their governments, will
certainly present thousands of Bin Ladens and suicide bombers
around the world to attack Americans and American interests.
The Muslim world has experienced the Crusades, the Inquisition,
WW I (with British lies and conspiracy), WW II, the Cold War,
and now the conflicts in Palestine, Chechnya, Kashmir, Bosnia,
Kosovo etc. Too many Muslims have died. Too many illiterate
and unemployed angry Muslims will see America as the "evil
empire" and lash out, maybe not now, but will in the future,
perhaps allowing President Bush his re-election and his safe
retirement.
But God help the children of America today who
may face the "Rage of the Muslim world" as voiced by Bernard
Lewis, Huntington, and the Christian Evangelists.
You, Senator Byrd, and our Congress are our only
hope left for a rational approach to world conflicts, to protect
the lives of the innocent, to protect our nation of laws, and to
protect the world and us from more terrorism. Iraq has agreed
to unconditional and unfettered access. Iraqi civilians and
our American military deserve this last chance for Iraq to
comply. Flaunting U.N. Resolutions has been a hallmark and
specialty of Israel for 55 years with our protection, yet we
will kill Iraqis to enforce their compliance with U.N.
Resolutions. Is this double standard lost on our government?
According to President Bush's philosopher and
Savior: "Blessed are the Peace-Makers"
Peace, Shalom, Salaam
May God bless us with wisdom, guide us to the
righteous path, and forgive us our trespasses.
Dr. Mohamed Khodr
Mr. Mohamed Khodr is an American Muslim physician and a
native from the Middle East. He has worked in Academic Medicine
and Public health with national and international health
experience. He is a freelance writer who often writes columns on
the Palestinian cause, Islam and on America's Foreign Policy in
the Middle East.
by the same author:
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