Posted by Siphiwe Moerane, South Africa on March 14, 2003 at 11:56:12:
Mr. Ritter,
Please tell me how Americans can wage war against an entire country to get one man? We were all
sorry to see the loss of so many American lives on September 11. But why do Americans seem to think
that their lives are more valuable than lives outside their borders? This is what makes people so hate the
U.S.
Patriotism assumes that those who had the fortune of being born on some particular spot, consider
themselves better, nobler, grander, more intelligent than the living beings inhabiting any other spot. It is,
therefore, the duty of everyone living on that chosen spot to fight, kill, and die in the attempt to impose
his superiority upon all others.
The US is currently ready to start bombing a poor, war-weary country, much of it due to US actions and UN imposed sanctions pushed through by the US. A report by Marc W. Herold, University of New Hampshire Economics professor finds that using conservative estimates, about 3,700 civilians--people who had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11--were killed in Afghanistan by U.S. bombs. The number of innocent Afghans driven from their homes by the US bombing is over half a million- -as many as were driven out of Kosovo by Milosevic when the US
bombed there. Hundreds of Afghans are dying of starvation and freezing to death every day in horrible
refugee camps. This is what makes people around the world so hate the U.S.
That's all I have to say, Mr. Ritter. Here is a bit of wisdom from one of your favorite left-handers:
"He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given
a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization
should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country
stance, how I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a
part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of
murder." -- Albert Einstein
Please continue to shine a light in dark places.
-- Siphiwe Moerane, South Africa
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