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Guest Opinion: The First War Of The 21st Century
By Jose Lugo
Many government officials have stated that "This Will be the First War of the 21st Century", in reference to the war on terrorism resulting from the World Trade Center attack. A worrisome implication of this statement is that since this is to be the first war, then there will most likely be a second, a third, a forth, a fifth ....etc......etc......etc.
This may seem to be unnecessarily alarming, but since we are basically doing things the same way as we did in the 20th century, it seems logical that we will get the same results, i.e., more war.
Some people will say that this is not so because we are evolving into more mature creatures that can better handle world affairs insuring peace, justice and prosperity to all. But since most of us spend hours every day watching television aimed at a four year old mentality, the only evolution we are experiencing is reverse evolution leading to less maturity and most likely more war where the only intelligence that's shown is an increase in the efficiency of our killing machines.
Another troubling factor we must face is the fact that the 20th century suffered from governments that were either military dictatorships or were governments that had elections where rich people and corporations used their money to fund their favourite candidates for public office, insuring business friendly governments that were most likely to cut social programs and cause social unrest which in turn leads to more war.
Isn't it time that we woke-up and smelled the coffee, realised that doing things the same way only gets the same results. Isn't it time we do things differently, like get big money out of government, like change the United Nations procedure where only five countries can veto all debates.
Isn't it time that we realise the methods that despots like Adolf Hitler used, like full control of the news media so that only their opinions are offered to the public can only lead to social unrest and war. I mention this because many countries in Islam also have full control of the press.
In Afghanistan, owning a radio or television is banned and they are having a civil war and most likely a foreign invasion. Isn't it time that we must state that all governments do not have the right to limit the news the people can receive. This is a criticism that I also aim at the United States, because it's news media was once controlled by hundreds of different news organizations, and is now controlled by only three or four companies, thus establishing corporation control of the news media. This is really strange in a country that claims to be a democracy.
The current American government in stating that "This Will Be the First War of the 21st Century" is proving that it is out of touch, by not realising that the war on terrorism has been going on for over twenty years and so is nothing new.
What about the attack in Somalia on October 1993 that killed 18 Americans? The attack on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August of 1998 that killed 224? What about the attack on the U.S.S. Cole that killed that killed 17? What about the attack in Lebanon that killed 241 and many other hijackings of airplanes and ships over the years?
When I was a kid in grammar school studying history, I came across a war called the "The War of the Roses", I immediately thought that they really didn't fight over some flowers, but simply just ran out of names because of the many wars they were fighting.
Isn't it time we make a study of the causes of war and re-design our governments and social institutions so that we can end war or at least lessen the frequency of War.
And in a world where nuclear weapons are spreading to ever more countries. Isn't it time that we question the very basic form of representative governments we are governed by.
If governments received report cards like we got in grade school, I think they would definitely get a failing grade because of all the wars we had, along with economic disasters, drug companies gouging profits and environmental destruction.
Why not look into the possibilities of an electronic democracy, let the people have decision making power, instead of just personal selection in elections overflowing with corporation money (didn't we used to call this corruption).
I mean aren't we supposed to be evolving into more intelligent creatures?
Jose Lugo
ddtv.lugo@worldnet.att.net
Direct Democracy TV
432 East 14 Street #1741
New York, N.Y. 10009
http://www.ddtv.org/
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