"IF YOU SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING."
This is the slogan that has protected us in New York City, since 9/11. This is the mentality, the thought process, the active public engagement we in India need.
The 72-year old harbor official in Mumbai who SAW the young men getting out of a speedboat at night with overloaded backpacks, should have SAID something because he SAW something. This is EVERY citizen's obligation.
Don't leave it to the politicians especially the rightwing, antisecular, anticonstitutional Hindutva elements, or sluggish, status-preserving lifetime salaried bureaucrats.
It's up to The People to say something, to kick the butts of their elected leaders, these paid/bribed political hacks, to DO the PEOPLES WILL.
NDTV and other media, Stop talking to the talking heads. Step aside and let The PEOPLE speak. Let the People Engage in vigilant antiterrorism, for the Greater Collective Good (GCG).
That is a critical and preferred path towards a People's
Democracy. We aren't there yet, either in India or the U.S. or South Africa or Brasil or anywhere else.
DEMOCRACY'S WORK IS NEVER DONE.
Chithra KarunaKaran
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
http://www.EthicalDemocracy.Blogspot.com
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Showing posts with label terrorists. Show all posts
Showing posts with label terrorists. Show all posts
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
U.S. Raids inside Pakistan an Affront to Sovereignty of Nation-States
U.S. Raids inside Pakistan an Affront to Sovereignty of Nation-States
September 11th, 2008 9:21 am
Raids (actually acts of terror by the U.S.) inside sovereign states is abysmally shortsighted U.S. foreign policy. This horrific search and destroy non-strategy is supported by a majority of the American electorate, as numerous polls have shown. The American PUBLIC is largely accountable.
In their we-are-the-greatest-nation-on-earth, shop-until-we-drop stupor, despite record high joblessness, homelessness,lack of universal healthcare and a plummeting economy, the majority of American voters apparently thinks that a 'strong' America means a threatening America, a 'strong' America means an invading, occupying America.
The U.S. PUBLIC which historically has favored short-sighted military adventurism by their government, whether Republican (the Bushes) or Democrat (Kennedy, Johnson), got the government they deserve when they elected George Bush twice. The U.S. public, AND a poll-driven Congress, supported Bush's invasion and occupation of a sovereign nation state, Iraq.
This is the same U.S. public and their leaders, McCain/Palin, as well as Obama/Biden, that now predictably supports raids against so-called "terrorists", inside a sovereign nation-state, Pakistan, and kills large numbers of women, men and children, all innocent civilians, in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
When will they ever learn? Is it possible that a public with various civic freedoms can undermine their own democracy and endanger the prospect of democracy in other sovereign nation-states? The frightening spectacle of U.S. democracy offers sobering lessons for other nation-states and their publics as they chart a democratic course.
The US has absolutely NO business being inside Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan.
The mere fact of U.S. military presence within these sovereign states, nation states in which the U.S. has dangerously meddled for decades, triggers adverse and sometimes violent reaction. The US has repeatedly demonstrated that it has no respect for the sovereignty of nation-states. The chest-thumping of American triumphalism and exceptionalism is continuing to challenge an emerging and fragile multipolarity in much of the rest of the world.
What the US govt. can continue to do is use its own intelligence and international intelligence resources to strengthen its OWN borders against incursions. This it has done admirably since 9/11. This is the way to go. This is the way to keep going.
Raids inside sovereign states produce more and more "terrorists", as the evidence already shows.
Chithra KarunaKaran
http://www.EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
— EthicalDemocracy, http://www.EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
September 11th, 2008 9:21 am
Raids (actually acts of terror by the U.S.) inside sovereign states is abysmally shortsighted U.S. foreign policy. This horrific search and destroy non-strategy is supported by a majority of the American electorate, as numerous polls have shown. The American PUBLIC is largely accountable.
In their we-are-the-greatest-nation-on-earth, shop-until-we-drop stupor, despite record high joblessness, homelessness,lack of universal healthcare and a plummeting economy, the majority of American voters apparently thinks that a 'strong' America means a threatening America, a 'strong' America means an invading, occupying America.
The U.S. PUBLIC which historically has favored short-sighted military adventurism by their government, whether Republican (the Bushes) or Democrat (Kennedy, Johnson), got the government they deserve when they elected George Bush twice. The U.S. public, AND a poll-driven Congress, supported Bush's invasion and occupation of a sovereign nation state, Iraq.
This is the same U.S. public and their leaders, McCain/Palin, as well as Obama/Biden, that now predictably supports raids against so-called "terrorists", inside a sovereign nation-state, Pakistan, and kills large numbers of women, men and children, all innocent civilians, in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
When will they ever learn? Is it possible that a public with various civic freedoms can undermine their own democracy and endanger the prospect of democracy in other sovereign nation-states? The frightening spectacle of U.S. democracy offers sobering lessons for other nation-states and their publics as they chart a democratic course.
The US has absolutely NO business being inside Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan.
The mere fact of U.S. military presence within these sovereign states, nation states in which the U.S. has dangerously meddled for decades, triggers adverse and sometimes violent reaction. The US has repeatedly demonstrated that it has no respect for the sovereignty of nation-states. The chest-thumping of American triumphalism and exceptionalism is continuing to challenge an emerging and fragile multipolarity in much of the rest of the world.
What the US govt. can continue to do is use its own intelligence and international intelligence resources to strengthen its OWN borders against incursions. This it has done admirably since 9/11. This is the way to go. This is the way to keep going.
Raids inside sovereign states produce more and more "terrorists", as the evidence already shows.
Chithra KarunaKaran
http://www.EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
— EthicalDemocracy, http://www.EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
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