<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"><BR>
In a message dated 7/1/04 8:45:07 AM, 76066.515@compuserve.com writes:<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE CITE STYLE="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px" TYPE="CITE"></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2">What would happen if the USA would apologize to the people of Iraq for the<BR>
invasion and the atrocities done by us or under our watch? What is the<BR>
likely result if we would make sincere efforts to make amends? Even to dare<BR>
to vulnerably make amends?<BR>
<BR>
Some would surely say it will be viewed as weakness, as an admission of<BR>
defeat. But it takes a strong people to make an apology, yes?<BR>
<BR>
Is this not a form of griefwork?<BR>
<BR>
What do the learnings of open space do to help us think this through? What<BR>
would warriors for peace do?<BR>
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"><BR>
<BR>
Dear Doug,<BR>
<BR>
To whom would we apologize? To the Sunni's and Baathists for dethroning them so they can no longer terrorize, kill with impunity and subjugate the Shi'ites and Kurds, not to mention continue the ecological disaster of draining the marshes and destroying the way of life of the Marsh People's? Not to mention the systematic killing of other minorities such as the Gypsies.<BR>
<BR>
Do we apologize to the Shi'ites for freeing them from that subjugation and enabling them to go on their Haj, self-flagellating themselves, as is their religious custom which they have not been able to practice since Saddam came to power? Do we apologize to them for creating the possibility of sharing, truly sharing, power with the other peoples of Iraq, such as the Kurds, Marsh People, Sunni's, etc. so that they might eventually prosper when those fighting to establish the old regime are defeated?<BR>
<BR>
Do we apologize to the Kurds of the north who now have the possibility of creating a viable state within a larger Iraq (maybe like Texas in the United States) that will enable them to live in relative peace while still part of the larger whole? Should we apologize for enabling them to begin to share in the oil wealth of that nation, indeed, for all the dispossed people of Iraq to begin to share in that wealth?<BR>
<BR>
Those are the kinds of thoughts that enter my mind when we fail to recognize and give thanks for the larger good that is being done and instead focus only on the undeniable tragedies. Do we need to apologize for the excesses of war? Probably we should. We should compensate families for losses, where we can. Of course, no compensation accounts for the death of a loved one. War is hell but so was the Iraq under Saddam for the non-chosen. It was hell then, too. Read the stories of the unimaginable tortures and personal degradation sustained by the non -chosen (non-Baathists, or <BR>
Sunnis'). Not to mention the athletes who competed in international games and when they failed to win first place, had the soles of their feet destroyed by Saddam when they returned to Iraq. <BR>
<BR>
Maybe we should apologize for not coming sooner, for holding back in Gulf War I and not finishing the job then so that the Shi'ites that rose up in the south, with our complicity, were not slaughtered by Saddam, as they were. We should probably apologize that we didn't do the operation perfectly, that we were blinded by hubris and ideology but that now we are getting smarter, turning the whole operation over to them in a way that they have a chance of emerging as a different, if not democratic, nation, rather than devolve into civil war. That there is hope that the first truly free election in the entire Middle East not controlled by Imam's might happen---then again, it might not. The whole region is a crap shoot most of the time.<BR>
<BR>
Perhaps we should apologize for supporting Saddam in the first place when he was battling the Iranians? Maybe we should have stood aside so Iran could have overrun Iraq and turned the whole region into a fundamentalist theocracy where the US is the Great Satan. That would have been interesting, for sure. So that people who dare to publish "The Satanic Verses" or anything approaching that are put under a worldwide fatwa and sentenced to die and have their lives significantly disrupted and have to go into hiding. Better ask them if we need to apologize.<BR>
<BR>
Maybe we should apologize to the UN bureaucrats who have had their slush fund "Oil for Food" so unkindly disrupted so they are no longer sloshing around in millions of dollars. It will be interesting to see if the investigation into that corruption ever sees the light of day.<BR>
<BR>
Nothing in this world is perfect, that is for sure. While we tried to stop the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, the Muslim Bosnians have gone right ahead and continued to force out the Serbs and Gypsies that resided in that area right after WW II. They (Serbs) were in the majority then but slowly they have been dispossessed of the lands and homes by the Muslims, until the Muslims are in the majority. That's what the fight was about---the dispossessing of the resident Serbs and Gypsies. Who do we apologize to there? The Serbs for not protecting their right to their land? To the Croats for not protecting their cultural integrity? To the Gypsies for not protecting their way of life?<BR>
<BR>
Maybe we should apologize to the Palestinians for ever supporting the creation of Isreal in the first place? After all, they were dispossed by the hundreds of thousands and we did nothing for them except put them in squalid camps so that today we have the mess that is really the source of most of our troubles with the Muslim world.<BR>
<BR>
Maybe we should apologize to the Jews who we turned away when they came to our shores seeking shelter and succor and instead we would not let them disembark from their ship and instead sent them back to France to die in the Holocaust? France, where anti-semitism is again rampant in the land.<BR>
<BR>
Maybe we should apologize for not understanding that all European and Middle Eastern fights are ultimately about LAND and who will own and control it. We don't understand that because we have lots of land but they don't. Land is so incredibly important in every culture in those areas of the world and we simply don't understand that fact because of our own experience. After we've been here for a thousand years, and have filled up the continent, maybe we'll understand that because then it will be the core issue here.<BR>
<BR>
Anyway, it tires me to read all the blaming and fingerpointing that goes on in our media for what isn't going right in the world because of this or that US action. I am reminded of the following, attributed to Gandhi, that might have some application here---because we are certainly in the arena and others are not who are our severest critics, especially France, Germany and Russia---who were up to their elbows in chicanery with Saddam and his oil.<BR>
<BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Lucida Grande" LANG="0" SIZE="3"><B>Measure of a Man. . . . .<BR>
</B></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Lucida Grande" LANG="0" SIZE="2">It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. <BR>
<BR>
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; who face is marred by dust and sweat, who strives valiantly; who errs and may fail again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who does know the great enthusiasm, the great devotion; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.<BR>
<BR>
Mahatma Gandhi<BR>
<BR>
Hope this helps you and others 'think this through', because deep thinking and clear-eyed views are definitely needed, unclouded by political correctness or any other ideology of the left or right. We need the pragmatism of the Bhagavad-gita and Krishna's conversation with Arjuna on the eve of war with his kinsmen.<BR>
<BR>
Sincerely,<BR>
<BR>
Paul Everett</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"></FONT></HTML>
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