Tuesday, September 13, 2011

The Age spits on America

This letter was given prominence at the top of today's Melbourne Age.
Time to reflect on decadence of US

BLANKET media coverage of ceremonies to mark the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, creates the impression that lives in the US are of far greater value than lives in the rest of the world, particularly in poor countries.

Fewer than 3000 people died and some "collateral" damage occurred to New York and Washington. In contrast, more than 300 times that number have died in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan as a direct result of the response to the terrorist attack.

No serious self-examination has occurred in the US to determine why the terrorists desired to hurt them in such a spectacular fashion.

About 8.5 million people die every year from starvation due to poverty. Where are the ceremonies to mourn their loss? Americans have enjoyed the life of a spoilt adolescent with their only care being retaining their lifestyle. Reflection upon their decadence might be a good starting point. The result might be some action towards a more humanitarian strategy as a means to counter terrorism and make the world safer for all of us.

Frederick Gower, Drysdale
What a petulant attack on the US.

Accusing the US of being like a "a spoilt adolescent with their only care being retaining their lifestyle" ignores the amount of aid and assistance offered by the US to countries who in some cases return the favour by harbouring those calling for "Death to America". Such a deal! How's that "humanitarian strategy as a means to counter terrorism" working out?

While Americans go without jobs, they might ask why their government gives billions away to other countries which perhaps should be left to rot. Of course Americans generally don't ask such questions.

Consider the volume of American Aid given to the Arab world alone, while Arab dictators buy themselves palaces and helicopters instead.

Like a teenager who lives in their parents house and eats their food while shouting "I hate you", the fact is despite all the criticism heaped on the US, the world would be a disaster without American foreign aid.

The UN would shut up shop overnight (probably a good thing mind you) and Islamists would suddenly find their Jihad a whole lot easier. No. God Bless America, even though some people, especially in peacetime are completely ungrateful cynics.

As for Gower's claim that "No serious self-examination has occurred in the US to determine why the terrorists desired to hurt them in such a spectacular fashion." he's apparently upset that nobody in America has concluded "this is all our fault, we totally had it coming, we absolutely deserved this".

The reality of America's attitude was summed up neatly by Colin Powell.

At this stage it would be redundant to say The Age has hit rock-bottom.

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1 Comments:

Blogger kae said...

And yet they continue to dig.

7:41 PM  

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