George - the article expresses a larger truth but I can see why you have decided to make it your last political post. And I can see Tom's view and I have the deepest respect and sympathy for him, and the tragedy is so deep, and I can already envision a memorial park on the site of the buildings that were destroyed and the ones that will be demolished. And the damage is devastating in every way.
And in Canada Americans have the best neighbour, even though we Canadians tend to define themselves by our difference/s, a visitor from outer space might be forgiven for not noticing much difference at all. We have friends, children and grandchildren working and living in the States, we have the same telephone system, the same school buses, the same traffic signs, the same sports, mostly the same TV shows, we travel back and forth.
But those of us here, whether Americans or Canadians who look beyond this tragedy are surely looking at a situation where America must pause and look at its foreign policy position. It is a participant in a war - a war which can't be won. A war which has come, for the very first time, to its own shores. The rhetoric about the Middle East has changed. Even Clinton, who spent a great deal of energy in the so called peace process referred, in Egypt, to 'The Territories' NOT to the OCCUPIED Territories. He in effect seemed to legitimise the occupation of the territories, and in essence offered the Palestinians no hope whatsoever. They have no hope. How could Arafat accept that and remain a leader of his people?
This is a treadmill which America must somehow get off, far far more important than spending billions on Star Wars or Son of Star Wars? Israel has to be defended, because it is surrounded by enemies and it is in many ways the child of the West and its conscience, but there has to be a genuine peace. Many Israeli commentators seem to acknowledge that in the end they will only be left with the 1967 borders - and every time I hear it I can't see how it's possible, but between then and now how much bloodshed there and here? |
