"Twenty years ago, as a young paratrooper in the Israeli
army, I spent a long time on the Lebanese and Syrian
borders, watching the Arab soldiers watching me over the
barbed wire.
As I looked at them day after day, it occurred to me
that just as every unit in the Israeli army has 'good
guys' who will give you their last pair of dry socks if
you need it, and others who might steal yours if they
can, so every unit on the Arab side must also have its
share of people you would want to be with, and those you
would rather avoid.
I was only 19 then, with lots of time on my hands,
so once this thought hit me I couldn't help taking it a
step further and thinking, "If we HAVE to fight,
wouldn't it make more sense for the good guys on both
sides to get together against the others...?"
Ami Dar [founder of idealist.org]
Thank you and the British people - with all my heart. Our TV stations have
played and replayed video of the Changing of the Guard throughout the day,
at which the Queen requested they play our Star Spangled Banner for the
first time in history. You have absolutely no idea what your great kindness
means to me and all Americans. By this meaningful act you have let all
America know we are not alone in this horrible, gruesome mass murder of
innocents. Playing the "World's police force" as we often find ourselves
doing, a job we do not enjoy but believe we have an obligation to do our
best to perform, America so often feels totally, completely alone,
unappreciated, and unwanted. Our soldiers and civilian aid workers are
threatened and killed around the World trying to bring peace to peoples who
don't want it, while trying to protect the defenseless who do. What you did
today in Great Britain brings a lump to my throat and tears to my eyes.
Thank you - thank you all.
God Bless Great Britain and your wonderful
Queen. - Mike Andrews, PDG, Seattle
"Sadly, thousands of innocent lives have already been lost in this war. Before it is over, others will also have to die as a regrettable, but necessary consequence.
Forget 'proportionate' responses. What is needed is a response that will stop such an atrocity ever happening again ...
Ironically, those who advocate restraint, or who criticise the US, are free to do so precisely because they live in a (democratic) society." - Simon Heffer
I drove through Epping today (a little town, somewhere outside London, England) and the fire engine was outside its station. Must be the open day, I thought. Then I saw the folded black uniforms in front of the fire truck, each with a yellow fireman's hat on top, in tribute to the many New York fire-fighters who so bravely gave their lives on 11th September.
This is just one town amongst so very many. But what has happened has touched the hearts of people here as much as in any other town. We *all* mind. We all want a safe world for our children, freedom from fear, a democratic and peaceful society for people of all nations.
No-one wants war. But equally none of us want the fear and chaos that unfettered terrorism would generate. Let wisdom guide those who must make the decisions now, to ensure a free and just world for our children to live in.
".. the urgent need for security will pull down the curtain on a century of liberalism and permissiveness .... We will be in a new and sterner world - but a more secure and stable one.
Countless millions of people, dismayed at the way society has been drifting and degenerating, have longed for such a change but despaired of it. But historians know that a sudden horrifying shock can, and occasionally does, produce fundamental reversals of attitude.
The terrorist assault on America - and the response to it - may set in motion a return to the traditional notions of right and wrong.
We are perhaps standing this week on the threshold of a new age, which will alter not only our own lives, but those of our great grandchildren." - Paul Johnson |