What do true Jews think about this war?

Never mind the images you see on your television of Israeli's slaughtering innocent Palistinians including a four year old girl...
What do true Jews think about this war?

Let's take a lesson from Philo:

"We do not rejoice at the punishment meted out to an enemy; we have been taught by the holy laws to have human sympathy."

- Philo, "Flaccus"

Opinions from Russia...

I love the BBC.

They've got some great opinions from Russians on the street about the US war in Iraq.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/03/asia_pac_war_views_from_moscow/html/2.stm

My favorite was this:

‘Shame on America’
Alla, 46, teacher

“I am against war in any circumstance, but it's unlikely that there won't be one now.

“There's something out of order in George Bush's head."

“This war is a shame on America.”

~ Basil-fly ~

The End of Western Civilization...

(part 2)

Well, someone may say to me…

Q:
Basil, you fool. What’s up with this? Here people are about to suffer and die and all you care about are the Dixie Chicks? What’s wrong with you, dude?

A:
Well, that isn’t exactly the problem. The problem is that I am willing to grant that war in some cases may be justified. I can think of a couple of simple examples. Example 1: when a foreign enemy is invading your country and you need to protect your homeland. Example 2: When you are fighting for the freedom and liberation of an oppressed people. Oppression? That would be when you are being forced into thinking along a particular ideology by the state or certain political parties (fascism). For example, when freedom of thought, expression, speech and arts are stifled, controlled (through coercion or political pressure), and so on.

So the reason the Dixie Chicks have tipped the balance in my thinking. We can see now that freedom of expression, variety of political viewpoint, and unbridled artistic expression are now far from being things that we in our country will fight to defend, in fact, they are no longer even tolerated here!

This puts the United States into two bad positions: 1, it makes us the aggressor in this war; and 2, it makes it so that we have nothing worthwhile to defend.


fly...

The End of Western Civilization...

(part I)

As we sit on the brink of war, and war which has already brought an end to Western Civilization as we have always known it (see below...) one cannot help but become annoyed at the idiots in power all over the country. The idiots in power that I speak of are the hundreds (thousands?) of radio station owners who take a deliberate stand against free speech. Against freedom of speech!

Now help me out here folks: "Of what purpose is it to 'save our civilization' by making war on another country, if we crush freedom of speech back home by calling someone unpatriotic and then banning their artistic expression, simply because the have criticized the President of that supposed nation that is 'vanguard of freedom of speech.' " Is this lunacy or what?

Now, mind you, I know next to nothing about the Dixie Chicks. But you can bet as soon as I have a few dollars to rub together I'm gonna go out and buy some of their CDs.

The Dixie Chicks who just came away from the Grammies with all sorts of awards, have now had their music banned from thousands of radio stations, because one of the singers made a few choice (and well placed, I wager) remarks about president Bush.

Can you imagine that? Radio stations, who are supposedly the paragons of free expression in our society have banned something for criticizing our president. What is this country coming to? Talk about unpatriotic! In our country, folks, patriotism means: encouraging, allowing, and appreciating free expression. I have never in my life heard of a more unpatriotic act than what these radio stations have done, and I tell you, it is proof positive of what I say: we have already seen the End of Western Civilization.

To what end should we fight for freedom when we subjugate freedom to the whims of one man (and his personal vendetta against another nation)?

You can read about this banning of the Dixie Chicks, here:


http://www.msnbc.com/news/886330.asp?0cv=CB20

Like I say, I never really cared for country music... but I'm gonna start appreciating them girls.

And what great Texan wouldn't be ashamed right now that the president is from Texas? Here's a man who is pursuing a war that the rest of the world opposes (yes the rest of the free world) purely for political reasons. He can sugar coat his lurid personal lust of power all he wants by saying that we are doing it to save the poor downtrodden Iraqi people, but why then do Iraqis world wide both inside and outside their homeland oppose this? These people are not crying out for someone to come invade their nation and save them... they are protesting American threats in their own streets!

I am saddened that the course of our world's history has come to such things. That our people really think (do they?) that to criticize the president is "un-American" - for in actuality there is nothing more American than to express your point of view, whether others like it or not.

Of what moral, political, or religious use is it to support a war supposedly on behalf of those who have their free expression stifled, by a country that does not itself allow free expression?????

There is nothing more I can say but to grieve over such a thing. What a sad, sad day to be an American. I will continue to fly my flag, and I will continue to pray for peace and an end to bloodshed. But I will not be silenced. The flag that I fly bespeaks freedom, and I shall freely speak.

~ Basil, the angry fly...


and a saddened American....