Sludge Report #109 – Bomb Them With Butter

Monday, 24 September 2001, 10:39 am
Column: C.D. Sludge

In This Edition: Bomb them with butter, bribe them with hope! – Introduced By Bob Harvey - An Urgent Message to the People of the World, from the People of New Zealand

NOTE: Authors of this report will be anonymous and wide ranging, and occasionally finely balanced. Indeed you are invited to contribute: The format is as a reporters notebook. It will be published as and when material is available. C.D. Sludge can be contacted at sludge@scoop.co.nz. The Sludge Report is available as a free email service..Click HERE - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/myscoop/ to subscribe...

Sludge Report #109

….in this edition we feature two email messages - anonymous pleas for peace - apparently sent from New Zealand to the world in general and consumption in the USA in particular. Take it away Bob Harvey... (Note to NZ readers… this does not seem to be our Bob Harvey!)

Bomb them with butter, bribe them with hope! – Introduced By Bob Harvey

-----Original Message-----
From: bobharvey
Sent: 20 September 2001 09:37
To: Bobharvey
Subject: Afghanistan

I don't recall ever before circulating an email that is political and radical, but this seems the sort of thinking outside the box that this problem needs. Like a lot of creative thinking, it originated in New Zealand.

I hope that you will feel inclined to pass this on; we could just start something - something better than World War 3.

With warm regards,

Bob Harvey

bob.h@messagesintowords.com
http://www.messagesintowords.com
Messages into Words
P O Box 600 Tonbridge Kent TN10 3ZE England

…THE MESSAGE….

A military response, particularly an attack on Afghanistan, is exactly what the terrorists want. It will strengthen and swell their small but fanatical ranks.

Instead, bomb Afghanistan with butter, with rice, bread, clothing and medicine. It will cost less than conventional arms, poses no threat of US casualties and just might get the populace thinking that maybe the Taliban don't have the answers. After three years of drought and with starvation looming, let's offer the Afghani people the vision of a new future. One that includes full stomachs.

Bomb them with information; - video players and cassettes of world leaders, particularly Islamic leaders, condemning terrorism. Carpet the country with magazines and newspapers showing the horror of terrorism committed by their "guest". Blitz them with laptop computers and DVD players filled with a perspective that is denied them by their

Government. Saturation bombing with hope will mean that some of it gets through. Send so much that the Taliban can't collect and hide it all.

The Taliban are telling their people to prepare for Jihad. Instead, let's give the Afghani people their first good meal in years. Seeing your family fully fed and the prospect of stability in terms of food and a future is a powerful deterrent to martyrdom. All we ask in return is that they, as a people, agree to enter the civilized world. That includes handing over terrorists in their midst.

In responding to terrorism we need to do something different.

Something unexpected; - something that addresses the root of the problem.

We need to take away the well of despair, ignorance and brutality from which the Osama bin Laden's of the world water their gardens of terror.

Please pass this along.

It is important that we learn to think in NEW ways. If we continue attacking in the old ways we will get the same old results. Look at what has been happening the middle east for thousands of years to see what we can expect if we attack with bombs and military force.

Do we want to live a life of fear as people in the Middle East do?

ENDS

An Urgent Message to the People of the World, from the People of New Zealand

…and another email from a New Zealander…this one is also apparently anonymous. And it purports to be from all of us. That said, C.D. Sludge would have no difficulty in signing up to the text…

Dear friends,

It has recently come to our attention that there are many people in the world who still believe that it's acceptable for them to kill other people. They are apparently under the illusion that war is still an acceptable option.

The hijackers wanted a war, and now many Americans want one, too. They are united in wanting the same thing - to kill each other. They think that whoever kills more people somehow "wins".

The billions of people who don't want to have a war apparently don't matter. No one has asked them. No one has asked the children who are already traumatised by the crashes and the killing. They don't matter, either.

And no one has asked the billions of other creatures on the earth which will die whether or not they want a war. Apparently they will just have to die as well.

Most important, no one has asked whether the planet can actually sustain another major war ? Without being completely poisoned by radioactive waste from nuclear weapons, germs, poison gas and oil fire smoke.

Some people kill for money, some people kill in the name of power. Some people kill simply because their government "orders" them to. Some kill for their religion, others for their own or someone else's territory. Everyone always seems to have a "good reason" to kill in a war, whether that reason is to "defend freedom", "fight terrorism", "protect our way of life", defend their religion or whatever.

In fact we are all encouraged to kill in wars. We are told that we must "punish" the enemy. These days Americans are being told that they must "make the punishment fit the crime".

* However, the people of New Zealand would like you to consider this:

If you really want to have a war, are you willing to destroy the entire planet on your way to victory? Are you aware of the fact that the entire ecosystem is on the verge of collapse, as suddenly and as totally as the World Trade Centre? Are you prepared to support a government that helps to bring this about?

We the people of New Zealand simply can not believe that the American people are so blinded by hatred and thoughts of revenge that they are unable to come up with a better idea than having a war.

All wars are now obsolete. But the kind of war the American and the Afghani and some other governments are apparently working toward now ? is totally insane. This is a war where people are actually talking about using "tactical" nuclear weapons, germ warfare and poison gas, on innocent people (they call it "collateral damage") and soldiers alike.

George W. Bush has called the bombing of the WTC the first act of the "first war of the 21st century".

If this war gets out of control, that is, if it goes nuclear, there would be no more air to breathe, no more food to eat, no more water to drink. Another major war could push the whole world over the edge: oil fires ranging out of control; radioactive debris raining down; germ warfare spreading ebola and other deadly viruses, plague and anthrax all over the world, killing millions upon millions of people.

Are you willing to help make this happen? For what? To defend "freedom"? To "fight terrorism"? How odd to be fighting terrorism by reigning even more terror down on innocent people. Can you see the irony?

The entire world has been hijacked, not just four airplanes. And the people in charge apparently intend to fly the whole world into a wall and drop us into the abyss of a thousand years of darkness.

But, you say, we can't give in to terrorism. What then can we do?

ANSWER: Like the four American heroes on the plane who fought the hijackers and prevented a fourth catastrophe, the ordinary people of the world must wrest control of the world from those who have hijacked it ? it before it's too late. How? By realising that we are all in this together. We are all one people, Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and all the nations of the earth. We have only one home, earth.

Nobody is without blame and guilt. The American government does much good around the world. But it has much blood on its hands, and much to answer for. The truth is that this government has become the champion of the rich, the oppressive, and all too often the bloodthirsty. It has looted and plundered societies and land the world over. It has "carpet bombed" Southeast Asia in the Vietnam war, overthrown democratically elected governments it didn't like, bombed dozens of countries from Panama to Columbia, murdered and terrorised with "hit squads" the people of Central America, and backed some of the most repressive regimes on earth.

America has indeed helped to create the backlash it now calls terrorism. It has supported an illegal Israeli occupation, perpetuated an oppressive blockade on Iraq that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, many of them children, and it has become the biggest dealer in arms on the planet. If now it wants to see itself as a victim, it should at least remind itself that it has spawned and built a culture of violence - in the movies, television, video and computer games - that supports a foreign policy based on arms sales and violence against those who won't go along.

It has even turned its back on the only worldwide agreement to reduce harmful emissions, and the only worldwide treaty to stop the deployment of antiballistic missiles and weapons in space.

Even its schools are no longer safe from violence and murder.

Americans must look deeply into themselves, and find their essential goodness. And henceforth foreswear a system that oppresses others in order to gain material wealth for themselves. Instead of defending "capitalism" with the threat of violence as it has done for many generations, it should now begin a turnaround that will defend the planet, our only home, from meltdown. America can create a "compassionate capitalism", by actually putting people and the planet ahead of profit and exploitation. This would go far toward ending the terror in which billions of people around the world have been living in for many years. This is the terror of starvation, of violent death, of torture and maiming.

The Americans must recognise that for every action there is a reaction and must therefore understand that a war will create more terrorists, rather than getting rid of them. America must once again lead the world to recovery, just as they did after World War 2. It is so simple. Here is how it goes:

The Americans reach back to their Christian foundations and find forgiveness in their heart. Then they ask the forgiveness of others against whom they have transgressed. They must realise that blame can no longer bring about the desired results. Blame and revenge no longer work (if they ever did). They just get everyone killed.

* Some segments of the Muslim community believe that violence against innocent American civilians somehow fulfills their religious teachings. They should review their own teachings. How holy can a war be if it kills not only women and children but the whole earth itself? They must realise that their acts of terror only inflame the situation and bring disgust from much of the world and rejection. Their acts of terror also create more terror and more violence against their people.

Can we change this? Can we do it? Of course we can. All we have to do is love our own life. But we must love everyone else's too. All life is one. From this planet we are born and to this planet we belong. And we do not have the right to hurt her, or each other any more.

We are peering into the abyss only because we have allowed ourselves to be brainwashed into believing that there are causes to kill for or that the life of someone's child in a far distant land is not as valuable or as cherished as the life of our own children.

Jesus told us to "love our enemies." He thought that if we did this it would stop us from killing and would turn this earth into the paradise that it can become. He was right.

Islam, we are told, means "peace". There are millions of people in peril as you read this, and you are one of them. No matter how much we may crave revenge, it's time to realise that revenge simply doesn't work. In fact, the whole idea of revenge must be flawed if it can lead us into a situation where we can annihilate millions of people.

What can we use then, to end this terror? Why strategy can we employ to achieve our goals? It seems that the only thing that does work, time and again, in our private lives, is forgiveness, asking for it and giving it. We can begin to try it on a country by country scale now. Before it is too late.

After all, we have nothing to lose but our hatred and suffering. The arms manufacturers may not like it, but the planet will and all the people on it. It may take more courage than you think you have, more courage even than going to war. But the alternative is too unspeakable to bear.

New Zealand once told the world that we no longer agree with a policy that relied on nuclear weapons for our defence. We said then and we say it now that there is no security in nuclear weapons, only fear. The only real security we will ever have is the security of the friendship and respect of others who know that we really care about what happens to us all.

We send this to you with love. May the light shine on you and from you,

The People of New Zealand

Anti©opyright Sludge 2001

© Scoop Media

Alastair Thompson

Scoop Publisher

Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.

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