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Editorial

How Little Things Have Changed

The “war”, more correctly the genocide, in Iraq is proceeding according to the plans of the US commanders. Minor adjustments had to be made, when the invasion and occupation was resisted by the Iraqis. The outcome, short of a miracle like that of Dawood and Jaloot (David and Goliath), has never been in doubt. It is actually amazing that it took so long for the giant to prevail.

The imbalance of destructive military power, with the fall and well-deserved dismemberment of the defunct USSR, is at present such that if a US president were to name France as an evil country and wished its government changed, it would probably take less time to subdue it than it took to subdue either the Taliban government or the Saddam government.

Human resources that should have been spent to alleviate hunger, disease, homelessness, joblessness and hopelessness have been massively and sinfully invested by the US government to develop hi-tech means of mass destruction and subjugation and eventually meaningless domination. The only other two countries that nearly equal such investment on a per capita basis in means of such mass destruction are the Zionists in Palestine and the Hindus of India. This post-cold war process was accelerated, if not started, by Ronald Reagan. One wonders that, if Ronald Reagan had had a second chance to control human resources as a president, would he still have spent them to develop such evil means of human destruction or would he have let them be spent on research to find a cure and prevention of Alzheimer’s and other such human ailments. This is the question that all human beings, especially the leaders with control over human resources, need to ask themselves. The time for all of us is running out and we do not get a second chance. Only one life has Allâh granted us to purchase our own salvation or ruin.

More than two decades of wanton spending on development of technology of non-nuclear means of mass destruction has given the US military establishment such superiority that the US government, at the very least and possibly correctly, feels that it needs no support from any assembly of human beings, including the UN Security Council or the NATO alliance, to carry out any armed operation against any of the “nations” of its choosing. The only hindrance is that the American public may not like to see Mogadishu repeated. Amazingly, the American public so far seems willing to take such chances, and, not so amazingly, is quite oblivious if massacres a hundred times worst than Mogadishu befall other “nations” at the hands of US forces.

It is not the first time that balance of military power has been so skewed. Allâh reminds Muslims in Qur’ân: 

“If ye have received a blow, the (disbelieving) people have received a blow the like thereof: These are (only) the vicissitudes which We cause to follow one another for mankind, to the end that Allah may know those who believe and may choose witnesses from among you; and Allâh loveth not wrong-doers.”  [Al-Qur'ân 3:140]

The history of the Middle East alone is replete with countless such encounters. How many times had non-Muslims subdued and evicted the Jews from Palestine before Umar , the second Khalifah (caliph), granted them the right at least to visit their holy places? How many times was Baghdad devastated by invaders? How many times has Jerusalem witnessed its ruination through human barbarism such as we now see happening in Iraq and Palestine? One glimpse of such behavior during the Crusades and its comparison with the behavior of Muslims is well described by Paul Findley, a US congressman 1961-1982 (Silent No More, Amana Publication, Beltsville, Maryland, USA, 2001). Paul Findley narrates (page 20) how, for all posterity, a crusader himself recorded the events in a letter he wrote on July 15, 1099, from the bloody scene in Jerusalem: “With drawn swords our people ran through the city; nor did they spare anyone, not even those pleading for mercy. The horses waded in blood up to their knees, nay, up to the bridle. It was a just and wonderful judgment of God.” Paul Findley at the paragraph end acknowledges, “In contrast, on the three separate occasions when Muslims took control of Jerusalem, no blood was shed.”

Obviously this was long before democracy, secularism, pluralism, United Nations, Geneva Convention, human rights and many such other catchy isms were invented. No one expects these events to happen today. Well, see if you would be shocked the same way this writer was when I read the following e-mail letter printed in the New Haven Register of April 12, 2003 (page A8) in a forum article written by Bill O’Reilly. Bill O’Reilly, perhaps not realizing it, is for once speaking the truth when he wrote “The media’s not telling everything.” Then he very proudly has to say the following, “The e-mail I quoted is genuine in every way. It was not solicited, it was not hyped. It is an eyewitness report from an American field commander.” Here is the e-mail: “I do daily air recon in a Black-hawk escorted by Apaches, and we have probably killed close to 10,000.…. Iraq has these maniacs, death squad guys called Saddam Feddyen, DGS forces, IIS, and Ba’ath Party forces that we spend most of our day killing. They continuously make suicidal charges at our tanks, brads and checkpoints. We are happy to send them to hell. You would not believe the carnage. Imagine body parts about knee deep, with hundreds of vehicles burning, occupants inside. We fill up trucks with body parts daily.” Obviously the commander is not on a horse so bodies cannot be measured up to its bridle.

We write these gruesome details not to intimidate, humiliate or alienate anyone, we write them for the Muslims to learn the difference between a crusader entering Jerusalem and the Muslims taking control of a city. Our assignment is not to send anyone to hell. This is a task the cursed Shaitan (Satan) assigned to himself. Our duty is to save every human being from entering hell. Killing is easy, especially with the Star-Wars technology gifted to humanity by Ronald Reagan. It takes immense guts to learn to fulfill the task assigned to the Muslims by our last Prophet . We must learn again how to save every human being from the dreaded destination. If we fail to heed the summons of our beloved Prophet and turn our backs, then let no one be unaware of Allâh’s dire warning: 

“O ye who believe! if any from among you turn back from his faith, soon will Allah produce a people whom He will love as they will love Him, lowly with the believers, mighty against the rejecters, fighting in the way of Allah and never afraid of the reproaches of such as find fault. That is the Grace of Allah which He will bestow on whom He pleases: and Allah encompasses all and He knows all things.” [Al-Qur’ân, 5:54]

Published: April 2003