Here are eight of the possible views of land ownership:
#1 Historic Right
#2 Worldview/Religion/Moral Claim
#3 Present Possession
#4 Military Might (The most popular view with most people in most of history)
#5 Best Use
#6 Diplomacy/Compromise
#7 Legal Claim
#8 Visitor Status (No one group, nation, religion, ideology, etc. “owns” the land. All humans are merely visiting. We must share.)
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
Showing posts with label civilians. Show all posts
Showing posts with label civilians. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 13, 2025
Wednesday, July 11, 2018
Now If That Isn't an Irony!
All through my Christian life—for 55 years—so many Christians emphasized that the only way for all humans to have peace is for humans to accept Jesus as their Savior, to become a Christian.
Then they will change, peace will come in their lives, and they will act in peace, and eventually—at least by the time Jesus returns—peace will come to all of the world.
Here’s one famous phrase—“The Prince of Peace is the only one who can change it [stop war, stop hatred, stop injustice, etc.] by changing one heart at a time.”
BUT the EXACT opposite has happened. For generations.
In every generation, the vast majority of those ‘changed-one-heart-at-a-time,’ born-again-devout Christians are the very humans who are most pro-war, even strongly supporting the slaughter of civilians, and often emphasizing nationalism!
They even now are claiming that everyone ought to put “America First”!
Arrest a 12-year-old disabled girl at the hospital where she just had surgery because she isn't a native citizen, even though she has lived in the U.S. since she was 3 months old.
Send her to a border station internment place by herself.
Forcibly separate thousands of children, including over 100 under 5, from their refugee parents, and move them to facilities far away from their parents in other states!
Utter selfishness, injustice, and no peace.
Now if that isn’t an irony.
Instead,
Seek the Light of justice, reconciliation, compassion, human rights, equality, and so much more.
Act today for those who are impoverished, those who are suffering, those who are oppressed.
Daniel Wilcox
Tuesday, February 13, 2018
The New U.S. Plan for More Nuclear Weapons versus Reconciliation
"North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the 'Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.' Will someone from his
depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!"
--President Donald J. Trump, January 2, 2018
and
“My first order as President was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before. Hopefully we will never have to use this power, but there will never be a time that we are not the most powerful nation in the world!”
“The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.”
“Perhaps someday in the future there will be a magical moment when the countries of the world will get together to eliminate their nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, we are not there yet.”
"'America First' will be the major and overriding theme..."
--President Trump
VERSUS
"A nation that continues year after year, to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift, is approaching spiritual death."
--MLK
--
YET, even without President Trump's new trillions on war-making, the U.S. already has the ability to damage civilian structures greater than all the way around the earth, 48,269 km!!
Nations in the "Nuclear Club" already have enough weapons to annihilate all humans living:-(
Tragically, former President Obama also started an update of our nuclear arsenal--that will cost, eventually, at least 1 trillion dollars!
And some Congressmen and Senators have also called for the possible use of nuclear arms, particularly against Iran.
Here we go with a new nuclear arms race:-(
“The new arms race has already begun,” says former Defense Secretary William Perry. “It’s different in nature than the one during the Cold War, which focused on quantity and two superpowers producing absurd numbers of weapons. Today it is focused on quality and involves several nations instead of just two. The risk for nuclear conflict today is higher than it was during the Cold War.”
--Time Magazine
Of course, in some ways nuclear arms are no more lethal when they hit their targets than any other major bombs. Major regular fire-bombing campaigns of the past killed MANY MILLIONS of civilians.
BUT nuclear weapons of the present, bomb for bomb, will slaughter far more than conventional bombs. And the newer ones will destroy a much larger area, will turn civilization to ash, reduce cities to moonscape.
--
from The Washington Post:
"Every president since Reagan has worked to reduce the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal and dreamed of a world free from nuclear weapons. Not Trump. 'Perhaps someday in the future there will be a magical moment when the countries of the world will get together to eliminate their nuclear weapons," he said. “Unfortunately, we are not there yet.” He proposed more spending to “modernize and rebuild our nuclear arsenal.”
--Washington Post
James Hohmann
--
from Time Magazine:
"In addition to putting the Nevada testing ground on notice, he has signed off on a $1.2 trillion plan to overhaul the entire nuclear-weapons complex. Trump has authorized a new nuclear warhead, the first in 34 years. He is funding research and development on a mobile medium-range missile. The new weapon, if tested or deployed, would be prohibited by a 30-year-old Cold War nuclear-forces agreement with Russia (which has already violated the agreement). And for the first time, the U.S. is expanding the scenarios under which the President would consider going nuclear to “significant non-nuclear strategic attacks,” including major cyberattacks."
"Trump has openly threatened to unleash “fire and fury like the world has never seen,” and has been hostile toward international agreements. He reportedly called for more, not fewer, nuclear weapons in a July 20 Pentagon briefing, where military advisers were upbraided for presenting global reductions in nuclear stockpiles as progress."
“The long-standing strategic policy of the United States has been to reduce the role and number of nuclear weapons,” says Andrew Weber, who spent 30 years on nuclear-weapons issues in the State and Defense departments before retiring in 2015. “That idea seems to have been balled up and thrown out the window.”
http://time.com/5128394/donald-trump-nuclear-poker/
W.J. Hennigan
From The New York Times:
"The United States currently has about 7,000 nuclear weapons in the stockpile, including about 1,750 strategic warheads deployed in missile silos, on bombers and in submarines around the world, according to the Federation of American Scientists. That is down from more than 30,000 warheads at the height of the Cold War. Russia has about 7,300 nuclear weapons, the federation says.
Under the New Start treaty, both countries have committed to reducing the number of deployed nuclear weapons to 1,550 by 2018, though that figure can be exceeded because each bomber is counted as a single weapon even if it carries more than one.
David Wright, co-director of the global security program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, expressed dismay at Mr. Trump’s choice of Twitter to discuss nuclear weapons policy."
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/22/us/politics/trump-says-us-should-expand-its-nuclear-capability.html
--
All of President Trump's push for more weapons including nuclear ones is so CONTRARY to other statements by him about human life:
“In America, we know that faith and family, not government and bureaucracy, are the center of the American life. Our motto is "in God we trust."
--President Trump at the March for Life
"Under my administration, we will always defend the very first right in the Declaration of Independence, and that is the right to life."
Vice President Pence called Trump "the most pro-life president in American history."
Certainly not.
If in doubt read the actual accounts of horrific civilian deaths in past nuclear bombings including the eyes of children literally running down their ashed faces:-( And how so many non-military individuals including firefighters and doctors were turned, literally, to cinders.
1. For many years during my teaching of American literature-history, we covered most of the 8 views of human violence including the many cases of the actual slaughter of civilians. The use of nuclear weapons was one of the worst terrorist actions ever committed. Then there were the fire-bombing campaigns against Dresden, Hamburg, Tokyo, etc., also, some of the worst terrorist actions ever, also.
Of course, those slaughters weren't nearly as evil as the intentional murder of millions of civilians by the Nazis and the Communists.
2. Even if one could justify doing evil to obtain good, according to some scholars the atom bomb wasn't nearly the preventive that many think. And don't forget the wasted multi-billions spent on bombs instead of positive civilized actions--for the impoverished, the ill, for clean water, for education, enhancement, the arts, and so forth.
3. Furthermore, murdering any number of children, the elderly, doctors, patients, firefighters, etc. NOW
in order, hypothetically, to prevent the murder of future humans is one of the worst forms of ethics, very immoral, anti-humanistic.
DOWN-WRONG MASS MURDER!
This is exactly the sort of justifying of slaughter that many nations and political groups such as HAMAS and other Muslim organizations use in the Middle East.
They emphasize that they kill enemy civilians NOW to prevent civilians from being killed in the future.
When I lived in Palestine-Israel, Muslim soldiers came over the Jordan River a little over a mile away from us, attacked an apartment building, and shot down unarmed families:-(
Were those Muslims soldiers justified in fighting against the Israeli government? Yes.
Were they justified in intentionally shooting down Jewish civilians? NO.
--
This was the same sort of ethically wrong thinking that most Americans held about our warring in Vietnam, Nicaragua, El Salvador, etc. Kill and destroy to save and bring peace later!
4. Besides, General Dwight Eisenhower and some other major military leaders opposed the use of nuclear weapons.
And Senator Mark Hatfield, who as a young Navy man was one of the first Americans to observe the result of Little Boy:-(
Senator Hatfield, forever after, strongly opposed any sort of such slaughter. He was one of only 2 senators to oppose the Vietnam War. Read his article against such killing, and his 2 books about the importance of making wise moral choices.
Also, read Hiroshima by John Hersey which shows the obscenity of killing civilians, including all the kids whose eyes melted:-(
And the many who suffered radiation sickness to death.
#5 Many think, like President Trump, that creating more nuclear weapons keeps the peace, prevents war!
On the contrary, nuclear weapons don't stop a lot of war slaughter. Since WW ll, millions have been killed in numerous proxy wars.
The major powers just shoved the death down by proxy to places such as Laos, Cambodia, Latin America, and so forth.
It's true that the death toll hasn't been as horrible as WW ll. See Steven Pinker's brilliant tome on human violence: The Better Angels of Our Nature is a powerful study.
HOWEVER, those millions of humans killed in the recent minor wars are still dead, and still suffered horrifically before dying.
CONCLUSION:
The human species doesn't deserve to exist if it bases its existence on the killing of civilians including children.
In this I TOTALLY identify with the character in The Brothers Karamazov who said that the death of even ONE innocent child
wouldn't be worth it.
BUT what about Islamic regimes such as Iran who have no ethical conscience against slaughtering civilians?
I have no illusions about Muslim governments, secular or dictatorial or jihadist.
They would annihilate Israel and the U.S. if they could.
Heck, recently Muslim leaders praised a Muslim teen for murdering a 13-year-old Jewish girl in her bedroom.
Suddenly, this thug was hailed as a "martyr" and a Palestinian "hero" by HAMAS and Fatah. Something like 75% of Palestinians support the killing of civilians. Really!
I also stand against all the injustices and inequality that the Israeli government does.
I know their history, their killing, their land theft, and so forth.
--
But doesn't America's MADD protect against the worst of such wars?
It seems to me based on my own reading of many history books that increasing weapons NEVER reduces wars,
but only makes them horrifically worse, especially for families and the most vulnerable.
What mostly hindered the former Soviet Union from launching an horrendous war that would slaughter millions wasn't MADD
but that its leaders were cognizant--extremely so--
of the many millions of their loved ones they lost in WW ll.
They realized that ANY sort of overt war among the major powers would be horrific.
They, like the U.S., didn't want a major war, so both sides did minor wars by proxy. And the Soviet leaders in the 70's and 80's weren't as irrationally fanatical as earlier Soviet leaders such as Stalin, Lenin, and Trotsky.
Putin appears to be a very nationalistic Russian Orthodox Christian who doesn't seem to worry about civilians being killed.
And Trump also claims to be a Christian.
If so, it's, again, Christian leader against Christian leader engaging in murderous threats, creating weapons of Mass Slaughter in the name of God and their countries.
TO BE CONTINUED:
How tragic is "humanunkind'!
Daniel Wilcox
depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!"
--President Donald J. Trump, January 2, 2018
“My first order as President was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before. Hopefully we will never have to use this power, but there will never be a time that we are not the most powerful nation in the world!”
“The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.”
“Perhaps someday in the future there will be a magical moment when the countries of the world will get together to eliminate their nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, we are not there yet.”
"'America First' will be the major and overriding theme..."
--President Trump
VERSUS
"A nation that continues year after year, to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift, is approaching spiritual death."
--MLK
--
YET, even without President Trump's new trillions on war-making, the U.S. already has the ability to damage civilian structures greater than all the way around the earth, 48,269 km!!
Nations in the "Nuclear Club" already have enough weapons to annihilate all humans living:-(
Tragically, former President Obama also started an update of our nuclear arsenal--that will cost, eventually, at least 1 trillion dollars!
And some Congressmen and Senators have also called for the possible use of nuclear arms, particularly against Iran.
Here we go with a new nuclear arms race:-(
“The new arms race has already begun,” says former Defense Secretary William Perry. “It’s different in nature than the one during the Cold War, which focused on quantity and two superpowers producing absurd numbers of weapons. Today it is focused on quality and involves several nations instead of just two. The risk for nuclear conflict today is higher than it was during the Cold War.”
--Time Magazine
Of course, in some ways nuclear arms are no more lethal when they hit their targets than any other major bombs. Major regular fire-bombing campaigns of the past killed MANY MILLIONS of civilians.
BUT nuclear weapons of the present, bomb for bomb, will slaughter far more than conventional bombs. And the newer ones will destroy a much larger area, will turn civilization to ash, reduce cities to moonscape.
--
from The Washington Post:
"Every president since Reagan has worked to reduce the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal and dreamed of a world free from nuclear weapons. Not Trump. 'Perhaps someday in the future there will be a magical moment when the countries of the world will get together to eliminate their nuclear weapons," he said. “Unfortunately, we are not there yet.” He proposed more spending to “modernize and rebuild our nuclear arsenal.”
--Washington Post
James Hohmann
--
from Time Magazine:
"In addition to putting the Nevada testing ground on notice, he has signed off on a $1.2 trillion plan to overhaul the entire nuclear-weapons complex. Trump has authorized a new nuclear warhead, the first in 34 years. He is funding research and development on a mobile medium-range missile. The new weapon, if tested or deployed, would be prohibited by a 30-year-old Cold War nuclear-forces agreement with Russia (which has already violated the agreement). And for the first time, the U.S. is expanding the scenarios under which the President would consider going nuclear to “significant non-nuclear strategic attacks,” including major cyberattacks."
"Trump has openly threatened to unleash “fire and fury like the world has never seen,” and has been hostile toward international agreements. He reportedly called for more, not fewer, nuclear weapons in a July 20 Pentagon briefing, where military advisers were upbraided for presenting global reductions in nuclear stockpiles as progress."
“The long-standing strategic policy of the United States has been to reduce the role and number of nuclear weapons,” says Andrew Weber, who spent 30 years on nuclear-weapons issues in the State and Defense departments before retiring in 2015. “That idea seems to have been balled up and thrown out the window.”
http://time.com/5128394/donald-trump-nuclear-poker/
W.J. Hennigan
From The New York Times:
"The United States currently has about 7,000 nuclear weapons in the stockpile, including about 1,750 strategic warheads deployed in missile silos, on bombers and in submarines around the world, according to the Federation of American Scientists. That is down from more than 30,000 warheads at the height of the Cold War. Russia has about 7,300 nuclear weapons, the federation says.
Under the New Start treaty, both countries have committed to reducing the number of deployed nuclear weapons to 1,550 by 2018, though that figure can be exceeded because each bomber is counted as a single weapon even if it carries more than one.
David Wright, co-director of the global security program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, expressed dismay at Mr. Trump’s choice of Twitter to discuss nuclear weapons policy."
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/22/us/politics/trump-says-us-should-expand-its-nuclear-capability.html
--
All of President Trump's push for more weapons including nuclear ones is so CONTRARY to other statements by him about human life:
“In America, we know that faith and family, not government and bureaucracy, are the center of the American life. Our motto is "in God we trust."
--President Trump at the March for Life
"Under my administration, we will always defend the very first right in the Declaration of Independence, and that is the right to life."
Vice President Pence called Trump "the most pro-life president in American history."
Certainly not.
If in doubt read the actual accounts of horrific civilian deaths in past nuclear bombings including the eyes of children literally running down their ashed faces:-( And how so many non-military individuals including firefighters and doctors were turned, literally, to cinders.
1. For many years during my teaching of American literature-history, we covered most of the 8 views of human violence including the many cases of the actual slaughter of civilians. The use of nuclear weapons was one of the worst terrorist actions ever committed. Then there were the fire-bombing campaigns against Dresden, Hamburg, Tokyo, etc., also, some of the worst terrorist actions ever, also.
Of course, those slaughters weren't nearly as evil as the intentional murder of millions of civilians by the Nazis and the Communists.
2. Even if one could justify doing evil to obtain good, according to some scholars the atom bomb wasn't nearly the preventive that many think. And don't forget the wasted multi-billions spent on bombs instead of positive civilized actions--for the impoverished, the ill, for clean water, for education, enhancement, the arts, and so forth.
3. Furthermore, murdering any number of children, the elderly, doctors, patients, firefighters, etc. NOW
in order, hypothetically, to prevent the murder of future humans is one of the worst forms of ethics, very immoral, anti-humanistic.
DOWN-WRONG MASS MURDER!
This is exactly the sort of justifying of slaughter that many nations and political groups such as HAMAS and other Muslim organizations use in the Middle East.
They emphasize that they kill enemy civilians NOW to prevent civilians from being killed in the future.
When I lived in Palestine-Israel, Muslim soldiers came over the Jordan River a little over a mile away from us, attacked an apartment building, and shot down unarmed families:-(
Were those Muslims soldiers justified in fighting against the Israeli government? Yes.
Were they justified in intentionally shooting down Jewish civilians? NO.
--
This was the same sort of ethically wrong thinking that most Americans held about our warring in Vietnam, Nicaragua, El Salvador, etc. Kill and destroy to save and bring peace later!
4. Besides, General Dwight Eisenhower and some other major military leaders opposed the use of nuclear weapons.
And Senator Mark Hatfield, who as a young Navy man was one of the first Americans to observe the result of Little Boy:-(
Senator Hatfield, forever after, strongly opposed any sort of such slaughter. He was one of only 2 senators to oppose the Vietnam War. Read his article against such killing, and his 2 books about the importance of making wise moral choices.
Also, read Hiroshima by John Hersey which shows the obscenity of killing civilians, including all the kids whose eyes melted:-(
And the many who suffered radiation sickness to death.
#5 Many think, like President Trump, that creating more nuclear weapons keeps the peace, prevents war!
On the contrary, nuclear weapons don't stop a lot of war slaughter. Since WW ll, millions have been killed in numerous proxy wars.
The major powers just shoved the death down by proxy to places such as Laos, Cambodia, Latin America, and so forth.
It's true that the death toll hasn't been as horrible as WW ll. See Steven Pinker's brilliant tome on human violence: The Better Angels of Our Nature is a powerful study.
HOWEVER, those millions of humans killed in the recent minor wars are still dead, and still suffered horrifically before dying.
CONCLUSION:
The human species doesn't deserve to exist if it bases its existence on the killing of civilians including children.
In this I TOTALLY identify with the character in The Brothers Karamazov who said that the death of even ONE innocent child
wouldn't be worth it.
BUT what about Islamic regimes such as Iran who have no ethical conscience against slaughtering civilians?
I have no illusions about Muslim governments, secular or dictatorial or jihadist.
They would annihilate Israel and the U.S. if they could.
Heck, recently Muslim leaders praised a Muslim teen for murdering a 13-year-old Jewish girl in her bedroom.
Suddenly, this thug was hailed as a "martyr" and a Palestinian "hero" by HAMAS and Fatah. Something like 75% of Palestinians support the killing of civilians. Really!
I also stand against all the injustices and inequality that the Israeli government does.
I know their history, their killing, their land theft, and so forth.
--
But doesn't America's MADD protect against the worst of such wars?
It seems to me based on my own reading of many history books that increasing weapons NEVER reduces wars,
but only makes them horrifically worse, especially for families and the most vulnerable.
What mostly hindered the former Soviet Union from launching an horrendous war that would slaughter millions wasn't MADD
but that its leaders were cognizant--extremely so--
of the many millions of their loved ones they lost in WW ll.
They realized that ANY sort of overt war among the major powers would be horrific.
They, like the U.S., didn't want a major war, so both sides did minor wars by proxy. And the Soviet leaders in the 70's and 80's weren't as irrationally fanatical as earlier Soviet leaders such as Stalin, Lenin, and Trotsky.
Putin appears to be a very nationalistic Russian Orthodox Christian who doesn't seem to worry about civilians being killed.
And Trump also claims to be a Christian.
If so, it's, again, Christian leader against Christian leader engaging in murderous threats, creating weapons of Mass Slaughter in the name of God and their countries.
TO BE CONTINUED:
How tragic is "humanunkind'!
Daniel Wilcox
Saturday, November 19, 2016
The Conundrum of Christianity and Other Religions
A CONUNDRUM!
Questions from an agnostic online:
"...why [do] some people grow more aggressive, muscular, demanding, authoritarian or judgmental after converting to the "religion of self-sacrificial love," i.e., Christianity;"
"...or why there are people who are more loving, kind and understanding in each non-Christian religion or philosophy when compared with some very devout and staunchly believing Christians"?
Excellent questions, especially the last one.
For years it troubled me why it was that the most Jesus-like individuals were outside of orthodox Christianity.
And that, in contrast, many of the leaders of Christianity held strong unethical views and behaviors that were the exact opposite of Jesus' own words, and against Jesus' own social ethics as seen in the Sermon on the Mount and in the Good Samaritan parable.
Contrary to what I expected, the individuals who I admired as being deeply ethical in thought and practice included an agnostic, a Baha'i, a Jehovah's Witness, a Mormon, and a member of Eddy's church, Christ Scientist.
Their religions all seemed bonkers, but somehow, they had become committed to basic ethical truths, ones every human ought to hold and be dedicated to living.
Strangely, when a few of us dedicated social activists sought to get Christians to work for peace, the Christians would say,
"No one can know peace until they first accept Jesus as their only savior."
YET all these Christians, and their leaders (indeed almost every Christian I knew) were strongly pro-war:-(
avidly supported, paid for, and fought in the wars the U.S. started in Vietnam,
Central America, Iraq, Syria, etc. over the years.
Where was the peace that Jesus was supposed to bring?
These millions of born-again Christians continued clamoring in favor of the newest U.S. wars,
and defended all of their country's past wars,
even the intentional slaughter of innocent civilians!
Yet they were devout Christians who said they were born again,
that only they were the people who had real peace.
Huh?
I still remember when one Christian leader stated
that the atom bomb was "God's gift to the U.S."!!!
And our Christian youth leader personally told me
that God was calling me and others to go and kill Vietnamese for Christ:-(
And many Muslims and orthodox Jews make similar claims--
if only our enemies adopt our religion, then all will be well...
But, of course, it never is,
because those Muslims, Jews, Christians, etc. use unjust and harmful means
to accomplish their alleged good goal.
Even worse, all 3 religions claim that God/Allah/G-d
is the One who actually causes/wills/ordains ALL evil,
causes all the wars, and so forth.
None of it made any sense, still doesn't.
Troubled in the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
Questions from an agnostic online:
"...why [do] some people grow more aggressive, muscular, demanding, authoritarian or judgmental after converting to the "religion of self-sacrificial love," i.e., Christianity;"
Excellent questions, especially the last one.
For years it troubled me why it was that the most Jesus-like individuals were outside of orthodox Christianity.
And that, in contrast, many of the leaders of Christianity held strong unethical views and behaviors that were the exact opposite of Jesus' own words, and against Jesus' own social ethics as seen in the Sermon on the Mount and in the Good Samaritan parable.
Contrary to what I expected, the individuals who I admired as being deeply ethical in thought and practice included an agnostic, a Baha'i, a Jehovah's Witness, a Mormon, and a member of Eddy's church, Christ Scientist.
Their religions all seemed bonkers, but somehow, they had become committed to basic ethical truths, ones every human ought to hold and be dedicated to living.
Strangely, when a few of us dedicated social activists sought to get Christians to work for peace, the Christians would say,
"No one can know peace until they first accept Jesus as their only savior."
YET all these Christians, and their leaders (indeed almost every Christian I knew) were strongly pro-war:-(
avidly supported, paid for, and fought in the wars the U.S. started in Vietnam,
Central America, Iraq, Syria, etc. over the years.
Where was the peace that Jesus was supposed to bring?
These millions of born-again Christians continued clamoring in favor of the newest U.S. wars,
and defended all of their country's past wars,
even the intentional slaughter of innocent civilians!
Yet they were devout Christians who said they were born again,
that only they were the people who had real peace.
Huh?
I still remember when one Christian leader stated
that the atom bomb was "God's gift to the U.S."!!!
And our Christian youth leader personally told me
that God was calling me and others to go and kill Vietnamese for Christ:-(
And many Muslims and orthodox Jews make similar claims--
if only our enemies adopt our religion, then all will be well...
But, of course, it never is,
because those Muslims, Jews, Christians, etc. use unjust and harmful means
to accomplish their alleged good goal.
Even worse, all 3 religions claim that God/Allah/G-d
is the One who actually causes/wills/ordains ALL evil,
causes all the wars, and so forth.
None of it made any sense, still doesn't.
Troubled in the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
Sunday, October 9, 2016
Friday, September 9, 2016
Call and Oppose the 1.5 Billion Arms Sale
Vital Request from Friends Committee on National Legislation:
FCNL and other organizations are supporting a national call-in day to generate cosponsors for a bipartisan initiative against selling 1.5 billion dollars' worth of arms to Saudi Arabia.
"Will you call your senators and urge them to block the arms sale to Saudi Arabia?
...There hasn’t been much attention to this massive bomb sale the Obama administration has planned, even though the announcement comes in the midst of news
of the Saudi-led coalition
bombing another school,
and a fourth
Doctors Without Borders
hospital in Yemen.
"While Saudi Arabia is dropping the bombs, the U.S. is often supplying the bombs and providing other support for the war.
As Senator Chris Murphy pointed out,
“there’s an American imprint on every civilian life lost in Yemen.”
--
QUOTE FROM REP. LIEU against this arms sell to Saudi Arabia:
“The actions of the Saudi-led Coalition in Yemen are as reprehensible as they are illegal."
"The multiple, repeated airstrikes on civilians look like war crimes. Hospitals, schools, and wedding parties are not legitimate military targets.
Saudi Arabia is either intentionally targeting civilians or deliberately indifferent in executing its military operations – either case flies in the face of long-standing international standards of conduct.
The United States of America should never support such atrocities in any way. They are not only immoral and unlawful, but they seriously harm our national security and moral standing around the world.”
--
"A hospital associated with Doctors Without Borders.
A school.
A potato chip factory.
Under international law, those facilities in Yemen are not legitimate military targets.
Yet all were bombed in recent days by warplanes
belonging to a coalition led by Saudi Arabia, killing more than 40 civilians."
"The United States is complicit in this carnage."
"It has enabled the coalition in many ways, including selling arms to the Saudis...Congress should put the arms sales on hold and President Obama should quietly inform Riyadh that the United States will withdraw crucial assistance if the Saudis do not stop targeting civilians and agree to negotiate peace."
"In all, the war has killed more than 6,500 people, displaced more than 2.5 million others and pushed one of the world’s poorest countries from deprivation to devastation. A recent United Nations report blamed the coalition for 60 percent of the deaths and injuries to children last year."
"Human rights groups and the United Nations have suggested that war crimes may have been committed."
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/17/opinion/stop-saudi-arms-sales-until-carnage-in-yemen-ends.html?
--
"PLEASE CALL the Capitol Switchboard at 1-855-86-NO WAR (1-855-686-6927) to urge your senators
...to block bombs to Saudi Arabia. Here are some talking points to help you make your call:
Hello, my name is [NAME] and I’m a voting constituent calling from [CITY, STATE].
I’m calling to urge the senator to join the bipartisan Murphy-Paul bill to block the $1.15 billion arms deal to Saudi Arabia.
Saudi’s war in Yemen is a humanitarian catastrophe and the U.S. shouldn’t be rewarding the killing of civilians by sending more bombs.
Once you're done with your call, make sure to follow up with a message to your senators and representative urging them to block the deal.
Thanks for all you do for peace,
Kate Gould
Legislative Representative
Middle East Policy
For more background on the U.S. supported Saudi-led war in Yemen, see the New York Times editorial calling on Congress to block the arms deal. You can also check out the bipartisan House letter that FCNL supported, which calls on President Obama to delay the arms sale to Saudi Arabia.
You can also join a webinar on the war in Yemen hosted on Mon Sept 12 featuring Yemeni journalist Nawal al-Maghafi and our partners at Oxfam, Human Rights Watch, Oxfam and Win Without War."
--
Endorsed by:
"Oxfam, Amnesty International USA, International Christian Concern, Friends Committee on National Legislation (Quakers), Just Foreign Policy, Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain, Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, Yemen Peace Project, Human Rights Watch,
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Physicians for Human Rights, Christian Solidarity Worldwide – UK, In Defense of Christians, Jubilee Campaign USA, The Hudson Institute Center for Religious Freedom, International Christian Concern"
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
FCNL and other organizations are supporting a national call-in day to generate cosponsors for a bipartisan initiative against selling 1.5 billion dollars' worth of arms to Saudi Arabia.
"Will you call your senators and urge them to block the arms sale to Saudi Arabia?
...There hasn’t been much attention to this massive bomb sale the Obama administration has planned, even though the announcement comes in the midst of news
of the Saudi-led coalition
bombing another school,
and a fourth
Doctors Without Borders
hospital in Yemen.
"While Saudi Arabia is dropping the bombs, the U.S. is often supplying the bombs and providing other support for the war.
As Senator Chris Murphy pointed out,
“there’s an American imprint on every civilian life lost in Yemen.”
--
QUOTE FROM REP. LIEU against this arms sell to Saudi Arabia:
“The actions of the Saudi-led Coalition in Yemen are as reprehensible as they are illegal."
"The multiple, repeated airstrikes on civilians look like war crimes. Hospitals, schools, and wedding parties are not legitimate military targets.
Saudi Arabia is either intentionally targeting civilians or deliberately indifferent in executing its military operations – either case flies in the face of long-standing international standards of conduct.
The United States of America should never support such atrocities in any way. They are not only immoral and unlawful, but they seriously harm our national security and moral standing around the world.”
--
"A hospital associated with Doctors Without Borders.
A school.
A potato chip factory.
Under international law, those facilities in Yemen are not legitimate military targets.
Yet all were bombed in recent days by warplanes
belonging to a coalition led by Saudi Arabia, killing more than 40 civilians."
"The United States is complicit in this carnage."
"It has enabled the coalition in many ways, including selling arms to the Saudis...Congress should put the arms sales on hold and President Obama should quietly inform Riyadh that the United States will withdraw crucial assistance if the Saudis do not stop targeting civilians and agree to negotiate peace."
"In all, the war has killed more than 6,500 people, displaced more than 2.5 million others and pushed one of the world’s poorest countries from deprivation to devastation. A recent United Nations report blamed the coalition for 60 percent of the deaths and injuries to children last year."
"Human rights groups and the United Nations have suggested that war crimes may have been committed."
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/17/opinion/stop-saudi-arms-sales-until-carnage-in-yemen-ends.html?
--
"PLEASE CALL the Capitol Switchboard at 1-855-86-NO WAR (1-855-686-6927) to urge your senators
...to block bombs to Saudi Arabia. Here are some talking points to help you make your call:
Hello, my name is [NAME] and I’m a voting constituent calling from [CITY, STATE].
I’m calling to urge the senator to join the bipartisan Murphy-Paul bill to block the $1.15 billion arms deal to Saudi Arabia.
Saudi’s war in Yemen is a humanitarian catastrophe and the U.S. shouldn’t be rewarding the killing of civilians by sending more bombs.
Once you're done with your call, make sure to follow up with a message to your senators and representative urging them to block the deal.
Thanks for all you do for peace,
Kate Gould
Legislative Representative
Middle East Policy
For more background on the U.S. supported Saudi-led war in Yemen, see the New York Times editorial calling on Congress to block the arms deal. You can also check out the bipartisan House letter that FCNL supported, which calls on President Obama to delay the arms sale to Saudi Arabia.
You can also join a webinar on the war in Yemen hosted on Mon Sept 12 featuring Yemeni journalist Nawal al-Maghafi and our partners at Oxfam, Human Rights Watch, Oxfam and Win Without War."
--
Endorsed by:
"Oxfam, Amnesty International USA, International Christian Concern, Friends Committee on National Legislation (Quakers), Just Foreign Policy, Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain, Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, Yemen Peace Project, Human Rights Watch,
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Physicians for Human Rights, Christian Solidarity Worldwide – UK, In Defense of Christians, Jubilee Campaign USA, The Hudson Institute Center for Religious Freedom, International Christian Concern"
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
9/11, A Last, Again
News: This is the 15th anniversary of the slaughter
of over 3,000 humans at the World Trade Center.
Yet tragically now the U.S. is planning to sell 1.5 billion dollars' worth of weapons to an Islamic government which is bombing, killing many civilians, and denies its citizens basic human rights, a country where you can be executed for disagreeing with Islam!
Further, we continue to supply millions of dollars to jihadists involved in the slaughter in Syria.
WHY?!
Multiply the 3,000 9/11 deaths to about over 300,000 deaths, (probably about 413,000 deaths) in Syria and millions wounded.
Why are we involved in this slaughter being conducted by various contrary groups of Muslims against each other?
A Last
Alas, grieving sorrow, tribulating
Don’t ask from where—
Yes, Shiloh; down to Sheol, after Shoah
Welted eyes, shadowed tears,
Wind-cuffed face with ‘fulled’ lashings
Of more less and less,
Wiping away
With wept wetness
In a downward swirling wet sweep,
The torn sky in
A multiple series of weeping losses,
Stark--
Abyssed fall of all welling reveries
In the wreck--aging.
How long, how many tomorrow’s tomorrow
This a las—ting loss lostness?
Selah
--Daniel Wilcox
First pub. in The New Verse News
in different form
of over 3,000 humans at the World Trade Center.
Yet tragically now the U.S. is planning to sell 1.5 billion dollars' worth of weapons to an Islamic government which is bombing, killing many civilians, and denies its citizens basic human rights, a country where you can be executed for disagreeing with Islam!
Further, we continue to supply millions of dollars to jihadists involved in the slaughter in Syria.
WHY?!
Multiply the 3,000 9/11 deaths to about over 300,000 deaths, (probably about 413,000 deaths) in Syria and millions wounded.
Why are we involved in this slaughter being conducted by various contrary groups of Muslims against each other?
A Last
Alas, grieving sorrow, tribulating
Don’t ask from where—
Yes, Shiloh; down to Sheol, after Shoah
Welted eyes, shadowed tears,
Wind-cuffed face with ‘fulled’ lashings
Of more less and less,
Wiping away
With wept wetness
In a downward swirling wet sweep,
The torn sky in
A multiple series of weeping losses,
Stark--
Abyssed fall of all welling reveries
In the wreck--aging.
How long, how many tomorrow’s tomorrow
This a las—ting loss lostness?
Selah
--Daniel Wilcox
First pub. in The New Verse News
in different form
Saturday, July 2, 2016
Please Cancel the 4th.
This year we need to cancel Independence Day, need to mothball our raucous patriotism,
our own American focus, our own proud story...
Put those ceremonial clothes away in the cedar chest like our grandmothers put away precious wool outfits.
Because our patriotism, our own American focus, our proud story have wrecked havoc in places
that were already suffering from their religious debacle,
their own strident patriotism, their self-centered focus, their own proud stories...
#1 We need to turn our celebration into mourning, our self-focus into remembrance.
What is the source of all our wars and fights?
Reflect on that and change.
But this weekend--
Lament, mourn, and weep.
Let our laughter be turned to mourning, and our joy to sorrow.
Dirge Without Music
I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.
Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains,—but the best is lost.
The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,—
They are gone. They are gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.
Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.
-Edna St. Vincent Millay
--
#2 Let's center in what is for the ultimate good, what will help the impoverished world.
It's not more of "God Bless U.S." (Insert the name of your own country, religion, ideology, and faction or sect)!
Never was.
Never ought to have been.
Ah, but we humans don't need those history lessons, again, do we?
Yes, we do, but not here and not now.
Now let us grieve this 4th.
#3 And let us give generously to those in need.
#4 Not weapons, not billions of dollars for wars
like the U.S. government did this last month to Israel, Egypt, etc.
But instead we need to give life-enhancing methods, technology, crops, precious pure water and so much more.
#5 And let us, again, remember those who have been blasted
from this life all too soon, all too quickly--
the young, the innocent, the suffering, the weak, the lost...
Instead of "bombs bursting in air," let this weekend burst with grieving and compassion.
Instead of "through the night our flag was still there," let this weekend be given to work for human rights.
Write a letter for prisoners of conscience, for orphans, for the impoverished...
When will the star-spangled night sky shine over a world of peace, hope, justice, and human rights?
In the LIGHT,
Daniel Wilcox
Put those ceremonial clothes away in the cedar chest like our grandmothers put away precious wool outfits.
Because our patriotism, our own American focus, our proud story have wrecked havoc in places
that were already suffering from their religious debacle,
their own strident patriotism, their self-centered focus, their own proud stories...
#1 We need to turn our celebration into mourning, our self-focus into remembrance.
What is the source of all our wars and fights?
Reflect on that and change.
But this weekend--
Lament, mourn, and weep.
Let our laughter be turned to mourning, and our joy to sorrow.
Dirge Without Music
I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.
Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains,—but the best is lost.
The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,—
They are gone. They are gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.
Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.
-Edna St. Vincent Millay
--
#2 Let's center in what is for the ultimate good, what will help the impoverished world.
It's not more of "God Bless U.S." (Insert the name of your own country, religion, ideology, and faction or sect)!
Never was.
Never ought to have been.
Ah, but we humans don't need those history lessons, again, do we?
Yes, we do, but not here and not now.
Now let us grieve this 4th.
#3 And let us give generously to those in need.
#4 Not weapons, not billions of dollars for wars
like the U.S. government did this last month to Israel, Egypt, etc.
But instead we need to give life-enhancing methods, technology, crops, precious pure water and so much more.
#5 And let us, again, remember those who have been blasted
from this life all too soon, all too quickly--
the young, the innocent, the suffering, the weak, the lost...
Instead of "bombs bursting in air," let this weekend burst with grieving and compassion.
Instead of "through the night our flag was still there," let this weekend be given to work for human rights.
Write a letter for prisoners of conscience, for orphans, for the impoverished...
When will the star-spangled night sky shine over a world of peace, hope, justice, and human rights?
In the LIGHT,
Daniel Wilcox
Saturday, May 28, 2016
Honor, Duty, Memorial Day--Only One Defensive War in 500 Years
We seek to live in memory--to remember--those who served, suffered, and died in the past that we might not forget...
Let us honor those who went to war, not to kill, not to slaughter, not to conquer, but to defend, to protect, to rescue.
Tragically, too often in our nation's past, the U.S. began and/or supported unjust wars.
Of the 100 or so wars and conflicts, ONLY one of all of our wars was defensive!
We humans, seldom, are angelic, but always seem to find new angles,
or recycled propaganda from wars of yesternight, so many dark nights of the 'sold.'
However, even in those offensive wars, there were many Americans who served though they passionately opposed their country's immoral actions.
Let us honor, today, all men and women who sought to limit, to change, to rescue others in the midst of the destructive evil of war.
That is the true duty.
That is the true honor.
Secondly, let us forgive our nation and those millions of us who chose so wrong--who engaged in, or supported, killing in wars which were immoral and unjust. Soldiers of the past who caused so many countless woundings, sufferings, and killings such as Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Jackson, Chamberlain, Alvin C. York...
They killed for God, killed because of war fever, because they had been misinformed by their leaders.
We need to forgive them.
Of course, there are always millions of people who claim their country isn't wrong, or even worse the ones who declare, their country right or wrong.
Shall I list each unjust war by name, and how we were so deceived?
Not today...but
We are slow learners, we humans.
Let us on this Memorial/Remembrance/Decoration Day, then also, remember not to forget.
Let's stop repeating the past.
Forget about political bombast and intentional lies and empty slurs such as "defending our freedom" and the bombings that those empty slogans always begin to destruction.
Vote to end our warring in Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, and our support of dictators, warlords, and Islamic jihadists.
Please work instead for peace.
And remember those men and women who fought to defend, to protect, to rescue, but not to kill...
They are the noble humans for whom Memorial Day ought to be.
Thirdly, this Day of Remembrance ought not to be an honored memory of war in general, of nationalism.
The basis for the first Memorial Day was tragically that--about memorializing those who invaded, attacked, and destroyed.
Let's seek a change of heart--those of us who have gloried in our country's past wars. There is nothing glorious or heroic in going off to war, even a defensive war.
On the contrary, war is the greatest evil we humans commit.
In the Great War, 16 million people were killed and 21 million people were wounded or disabled.
And contrary to what government and religious leaders promised-- that the war would end war, the Great War only led to World War ll and more wars, including the wars at present. See The Great and Holy War: How WWl Became a Religious Crusade by historian Philip Jenkins and Preachers Present Arms by Ray H. Abrams.
When we choose war, inevitably, all the other Commandments also get violated.
Try to think of a war without any lying, without any stealing, without any cursing, without any profaning, without any fornicating, without any destroying, without any killing of civilians,
Without any suffering for the innocent...
It can't be done.
So let us, today, remember those multi-millions of humans who have fallen in the past to this most destructive and unjust of all acts.
Particularly, I think of my own father who went to war to protect and defend. He hated violence, even movie and gaming video violence.
We bow today to those who sought to serve and protect.
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
Let us honor those who went to war, not to kill, not to slaughter, not to conquer, but to defend, to protect, to rescue.
Tragically, too often in our nation's past, the U.S. began and/or supported unjust wars.
Of the 100 or so wars and conflicts, ONLY one of all of our wars was defensive!
We humans, seldom, are angelic, but always seem to find new angles,
or recycled propaganda from wars of yesternight, so many dark nights of the 'sold.'
However, even in those offensive wars, there were many Americans who served though they passionately opposed their country's immoral actions.
Let us honor, today, all men and women who sought to limit, to change, to rescue others in the midst of the destructive evil of war.
That is the true duty.
That is the true honor.
Secondly, let us forgive our nation and those millions of us who chose so wrong--who engaged in, or supported, killing in wars which were immoral and unjust. Soldiers of the past who caused so many countless woundings, sufferings, and killings such as Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Jackson, Chamberlain, Alvin C. York...
They killed for God, killed because of war fever, because they had been misinformed by their leaders.
We need to forgive them.
Of course, there are always millions of people who claim their country isn't wrong, or even worse the ones who declare, their country right or wrong.
Shall I list each unjust war by name, and how we were so deceived?
Not today...but
We are slow learners, we humans.
Let us on this Memorial/Remembrance/Decoration Day, then also, remember not to forget.
Let's stop repeating the past.
Forget about political bombast and intentional lies and empty slurs such as "defending our freedom" and the bombings that those empty slogans always begin to destruction.
Vote to end our warring in Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, and our support of dictators, warlords, and Islamic jihadists.
Please work instead for peace.
And remember those men and women who fought to defend, to protect, to rescue, but not to kill...
They are the noble humans for whom Memorial Day ought to be.
Thirdly, this Day of Remembrance ought not to be an honored memory of war in general, of nationalism.
The basis for the first Memorial Day was tragically that--about memorializing those who invaded, attacked, and destroyed.
Let's seek a change of heart--those of us who have gloried in our country's past wars. There is nothing glorious or heroic in going off to war, even a defensive war.
On the contrary, war is the greatest evil we humans commit.
In the Great War, 16 million people were killed and 21 million people were wounded or disabled.
And contrary to what government and religious leaders promised-- that the war would end war, the Great War only led to World War ll and more wars, including the wars at present. See The Great and Holy War: How WWl Became a Religious Crusade by historian Philip Jenkins and Preachers Present Arms by Ray H. Abrams.
When we choose war, inevitably, all the other Commandments also get violated.
Try to think of a war without any lying, without any stealing, without any cursing, without any profaning, without any fornicating, without any destroying, without any killing of civilians,
Without any suffering for the innocent...
It can't be done.
So let us, today, remember those multi-millions of humans who have fallen in the past to this most destructive and unjust of all acts.
Particularly, I think of my own father who went to war to protect and defend. He hated violence, even movie and gaming video violence.
We bow today to those who sought to serve and protect.
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Strike Matches of Light Against War
"War is Hell!" said General Sherman, but he instituted one of the first intentional total-war attacks in modern history, where his invading army ravaged the American South. And he never regretted or admitted his war crimes.
They killed, burned, destroyed and stole food, animals, and treasures from impoverished civilians. A few of his Union soldiers even stole shoes from poor slaves! What an irony.
And in every generation since, millions of Americans, too, have strongly condemned war as wrong, but yet
contradictorily avidly defended
all their country's many war-attacks,
including the intentional slaughter
of hundreds of thousands of civilians,
as necessary,
even good.
What an absurdity so vividly captured in this dialog from MASH:
Just war is just injustice,
just slaughter,
just torture,
just cruelty,
just suffering,
just inequality,
just theft,
just lying,
just poverty,
just intolerance,
just harm,
just destruction,
just negation
just wrong...*
Let us fight against this Darkness
And strike matches of Light,
Daniel Wilcox
*from MCC poster
They killed, burned, destroyed and stole food, animals, and treasures from impoverished civilians. A few of his Union soldiers even stole shoes from poor slaves! What an irony.
And in every generation since, millions of Americans, too, have strongly condemned war as wrong, but yet
contradictorily avidly defended
all their country's many war-attacks,
including the intentional slaughter
of hundreds of thousands of civilians,
as necessary,
even good.
What an absurdity so vividly captured in this dialog from MASH:
Just war is just injustice,
just slaughter,
just torture,
just cruelty,
just suffering,
just inequality,
just theft,
just lying,
just poverty,
just intolerance,
just harm,
just destruction,
just negation
just wrong...*
Let us fight against this Darkness
And strike matches of Light,
Daniel Wilcox
*from MCC poster
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Nietzsche and the Nazis, a powerful documentary, and the Islamic State
Be sure to see Nietzsche and the Nazis by lecturer Stephen Hicks, a powerful documentary which shows how philosophers such as Fredrich Nietzsche in the 19th century laid the intellectual structure for the development of Nazi Germany in the 20th. And of how the leading Nazis often quoted Nietzsche and followed many of his key beliefs about what humans ought to become. That led to the "Triumph of the Will," the Holocaust, and World War II.
But what could the Islamic State dedicated to Allah have in common with the famous atheist philosopher Nietzsche and Nazi Christian Germany?
A strange case of history and similar philosophy and political action...
First, many Muslim leaders such as the Islamic Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, avidly supported Hitler and Nazi Germany. The photograph below shows him meeting with Adolph Hitler in Germany in in 1941.
Second, there are many key agreements between the philosophy of the Islamic State and Nazi Germany.
"...Long-term, generalized conflicts are always about abstract principles in collision…Terrorism is first a mindset—committing to a cause that includes a willingness to kill anonymous others indiscriminately..”
From “How to Tame Religious Terrorists” by Stephen Hicks, PhD., November 14, 2015
Let us hold all humans in the Light
and work for peace and justice and compassion
that this time of darkness will pass away,
Daniel Wilcox
But what could the Islamic State dedicated to Allah have in common with the famous atheist philosopher Nietzsche and Nazi Christian Germany?
A strange case of history and similar philosophy and political action...
First, many Muslim leaders such as the Islamic Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, avidly supported Hitler and Nazi Germany. The photograph below shows him meeting with Adolph Hitler in Germany in in 1941.
Second, there are many key agreements between the philosophy of the Islamic State and Nazi Germany.
"...Long-term, generalized conflicts are always about abstract principles in collision…Terrorism is first a mindset—committing to a cause that includes a willingness to kill anonymous others indiscriminately..”
From “How to Tame Religious Terrorists” by Stephen Hicks, PhD., November 14, 2015
Let us hold all humans in the Light
and work for peace and justice and compassion
that this time of darkness will pass away,
Daniel Wilcox
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Concerning the Petition by World Vision and Others to Rebuild Gaza
https://youtu.be/9J2R-f5iFVU
Check out this video recently released by HAMAS.
Does it look like HAMAS is dedicated to peace?
In one new video a HAMAS terrorist slaughters an Israeli even though the Jewish person is down and not a threat, while in the background worship of Allah plays.
Really sick…
HAMAS Terrorists Attacking Into Israel from Tunnels
Then there is this new appeal by Aid organizations such as MCC and World Vision, who urge the nations to rebuild Gaza, and stop the suffering of many thousands.
--
Would the Allied Commanders at the end of World War II let the Nazis remain in power, and continue to rearm and commit terrorist attacks, while we rebuilt German cities?!
"A majority of Palestinians say that suicide bombing is often or sometimes justified “in order to defend Islam from its enemies,” according to a new Pew Research survey.
“Support for suicide bombing and other violence aimed at civilian targets is most widespread in the Palestinian territories, with 62% of Muslims saying that such attacks are often or sometimes justified in order to defend Islam from its enemies,” the report said."
--By Jessica Chasmar - The Washington Times
"A leading Palestinian Authority said in an interview broadcast earlier this month that he supported violence against Israel, including a nuclear attack.
“I swear that if we had a nuke, we’d have used it this very morning,” said Jibril Rajoub, the deputy secretary of the Fatah Central Committee and the chairman of the PA Olympic Committee..." He made the comments during a television interview with the Lebanese Al-Mayadeen television channel, which was then posted on his personal Facebook page.
Two more leading PA officials also touted support for the killer of Evyatar Borovsky, an Israeli who was stabbed to death while waiting at a station for his bus...
“We salute the heroic fighter, the self-sacrificing Salam Al-Zaghal,” said Abu Al-Einstein, a former minister to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas...
And the other PA official, also on the suspected Palestinian killer: “Blessings to the breast that nursed Salam Al-Zaghal..."
By Cheryl K. Chumley - The Washington Times
--
That is why I don’t support MCC and World Vision’s “Lift the Gaza Blockade."
Should the Nazis have been allowed to remain in power, and continue to murder innocent civilians, while the nations rebuilt Germany?
No way!
To rebuild Gaza while HAMAS spends millions on terrorism and the rebuilding of terror tunnels is insanity!
And it will only end with more innocent Gazans dying when the next war between Israel and Gaza happens, probably within 3 years.
Look at what is happening right now in the Sinai, where terrorist groups related to HAMAS have been killing Egyptian police and others.
---
"World Leaders: Lift the Gaza Blockade
ONLY AFTER HAMAS DISARMS.
DON'T
SIGN THE PETITION
YET!
To: UN Special Coordinator Mladenov, Sheikh Emir Al Thani, President Obama, President Hollande, Chancellor Merkel, Prime Minister Cameron, Prime Minister Solberg, EU Vice President Mogherini, and all other world leaders:
One year on from the devastating conflict in Gaza, we are calling on you to press Israel to end the blockade and to immediately remove wood, steel bars, cement, aggregates, and other essential construction materials from the list of items restricted from entering the Gaza Strip. Not one of the 19,000 homes destroyed in Gaza has been fully rebuilt in the last year. World leaders have pledged $3.5 billion to rebuild Gaza, but Israeli government restrictions on the entry of building material are costing reconstruction efforts severe delays. As concerned citizens, we urge you to take action to press for an end to these restrictions now, so that families are lifted out of the rubble and homes, schools, and hospitals can be built.
555,783 have signed. Let's get to 600,000
For a whole year the Israeli government has restricted basic and essential construction materials from entering Gaza. Not one of the 19,000 homes that were bombed and destroyed has been fully rebuilt.
One year on, around 100,000 Palestinians in Gaza are still homeless, hospitals and schools still lie in ruins, and whole neighbourhoods have no access to running water.
But on the anniversary of the ceasefire -- we can help ensure homes and hope are rebuilt.
Our governments have already pledged to rebuild Gaza, and called on the government of Israel to lift the blockade. If we now show them that people everywhere want urgent action to stop this injustice, they are more likely to insist the Israeli government stop hindering reconstruction, and families will be able to build homes and children will finally get their schools back.
Sign the petition and tell everyone -- let's get 1.8 million voices for urgent action, one for each person living in Gaza.
Just 5 percent of the 6,700,000 tons of steel bars, cement and aggregates needed to rebuild what was destroyed since the end of the war has been permitted to enter Gaza. At this rate, it could take 17 years before Gaza is rebuilt.
Palestinian political parties have failed to reconcile and prioritise reconstruction, and Egypt's closure of its border has further limited supplies entering Gaza. The principal obstacle to reconstruction is Israel’s blockade. While Israel justifies the restrictions on security grounds, the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross have told Israel this blockade is a violation of international law.
By placing restrictions on the movement of people and goods, the blockade is punishing innocent civilians for acts for which they bear no responsibility. There can never be a justification for leaving families without a home and the sick without a hospital.
The media's eyes are on Gaza right now, and that’ll make politicians more likely to act. Sign the urgent petition on the right -- let’s demand our government's move beyond statements, and ramp up diplomacy.
For further questions check out the Q&A page.
Signatories:
Include
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC)
Medico International
Norwegian Church Aid (NCA)
Oxfam
Pax Christi Flanders
Pax Christi International
Physicians for Human Rights – Israel
Secours Islamique France
Terre des Hommes Italy
The Lutheran World Federation
The Palestine Solidarity Association of Sweden
World Vision International
END OF NEWS QUOTATION
--
Again, think about it...would the Allies have allowed the Nazis to remain in power and continue to murder the innocent, while we rebuilt Germany?
First HAMAS, Islamic Jihad, etc. must be banned, or at least defanged, then the suffering people of Gaza can be helped.
But the civilians of Gaza, also, must reject totally all suicide bombing, instead of most of them supporting terrorism like they do now.
Then peace will stand a chance.
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
Check out this video recently released by HAMAS.
Does it look like HAMAS is dedicated to peace?
In one new video a HAMAS terrorist slaughters an Israeli even though the Jewish person is down and not a threat, while in the background worship of Allah plays.
Really sick…
HAMAS Terrorists Attacking Into Israel from Tunnels
Then there is this new appeal by Aid organizations such as MCC and World Vision, who urge the nations to rebuild Gaza, and stop the suffering of many thousands.
--
Would the Allied Commanders at the end of World War II let the Nazis remain in power, and continue to rearm and commit terrorist attacks, while we rebuilt German cities?!
"A majority of Palestinians say that suicide bombing is often or sometimes justified “in order to defend Islam from its enemies,” according to a new Pew Research survey.
“Support for suicide bombing and other violence aimed at civilian targets is most widespread in the Palestinian territories, with 62% of Muslims saying that such attacks are often or sometimes justified in order to defend Islam from its enemies,” the report said."
--By Jessica Chasmar - The Washington Times
"A leading Palestinian Authority said in an interview broadcast earlier this month that he supported violence against Israel, including a nuclear attack.
“I swear that if we had a nuke, we’d have used it this very morning,” said Jibril Rajoub, the deputy secretary of the Fatah Central Committee and the chairman of the PA Olympic Committee..." He made the comments during a television interview with the Lebanese Al-Mayadeen television channel, which was then posted on his personal Facebook page.
Two more leading PA officials also touted support for the killer of Evyatar Borovsky, an Israeli who was stabbed to death while waiting at a station for his bus...
“We salute the heroic fighter, the self-sacrificing Salam Al-Zaghal,” said Abu Al-Einstein, a former minister to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas...
And the other PA official, also on the suspected Palestinian killer: “Blessings to the breast that nursed Salam Al-Zaghal..."
By Cheryl K. Chumley - The Washington Times
--
That is why I don’t support MCC and World Vision’s “Lift the Gaza Blockade."
Should the Nazis have been allowed to remain in power, and continue to murder innocent civilians, while the nations rebuilt Germany?
No way!
To rebuild Gaza while HAMAS spends millions on terrorism and the rebuilding of terror tunnels is insanity!
And it will only end with more innocent Gazans dying when the next war between Israel and Gaza happens, probably within 3 years.
Look at what is happening right now in the Sinai, where terrorist groups related to HAMAS have been killing Egyptian police and others.
---
"World Leaders: Lift the Gaza Blockade
ONLY AFTER HAMAS DISARMS.
DON'T
SIGN THE PETITION
YET!
To: UN Special Coordinator Mladenov, Sheikh Emir Al Thani, President Obama, President Hollande, Chancellor Merkel, Prime Minister Cameron, Prime Minister Solberg, EU Vice President Mogherini, and all other world leaders:
One year on from the devastating conflict in Gaza, we are calling on you to press Israel to end the blockade and to immediately remove wood, steel bars, cement, aggregates, and other essential construction materials from the list of items restricted from entering the Gaza Strip. Not one of the 19,000 homes destroyed in Gaza has been fully rebuilt in the last year. World leaders have pledged $3.5 billion to rebuild Gaza, but Israeli government restrictions on the entry of building material are costing reconstruction efforts severe delays. As concerned citizens, we urge you to take action to press for an end to these restrictions now, so that families are lifted out of the rubble and homes, schools, and hospitals can be built.
555,783 have signed. Let's get to 600,000
For a whole year the Israeli government has restricted basic and essential construction materials from entering Gaza. Not one of the 19,000 homes that were bombed and destroyed has been fully rebuilt.
One year on, around 100,000 Palestinians in Gaza are still homeless, hospitals and schools still lie in ruins, and whole neighbourhoods have no access to running water.
But on the anniversary of the ceasefire -- we can help ensure homes and hope are rebuilt.
Our governments have already pledged to rebuild Gaza, and called on the government of Israel to lift the blockade. If we now show them that people everywhere want urgent action to stop this injustice, they are more likely to insist the Israeli government stop hindering reconstruction, and families will be able to build homes and children will finally get their schools back.
Sign the petition and tell everyone -- let's get 1.8 million voices for urgent action, one for each person living in Gaza.
Just 5 percent of the 6,700,000 tons of steel bars, cement and aggregates needed to rebuild what was destroyed since the end of the war has been permitted to enter Gaza. At this rate, it could take 17 years before Gaza is rebuilt.
Palestinian political parties have failed to reconcile and prioritise reconstruction, and Egypt's closure of its border has further limited supplies entering Gaza. The principal obstacle to reconstruction is Israel’s blockade. While Israel justifies the restrictions on security grounds, the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross have told Israel this blockade is a violation of international law.
By placing restrictions on the movement of people and goods, the blockade is punishing innocent civilians for acts for which they bear no responsibility. There can never be a justification for leaving families without a home and the sick without a hospital.
The media's eyes are on Gaza right now, and that’ll make politicians more likely to act. Sign the urgent petition on the right -- let’s demand our government's move beyond statements, and ramp up diplomacy.
For further questions check out the Q&A page.
Signatories:
Include
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC)
Medico International
Norwegian Church Aid (NCA)
Oxfam
Pax Christi Flanders
Pax Christi International
Physicians for Human Rights – Israel
Secours Islamique France
Terre des Hommes Italy
The Lutheran World Federation
The Palestine Solidarity Association of Sweden
World Vision International
END OF NEWS QUOTATION
--
Again, think about it...would the Allies have allowed the Nazis to remain in power and continue to murder the innocent, while we rebuilt Germany?
First HAMAS, Islamic Jihad, etc. must be banned, or at least defanged, then the suffering people of Gaza can be helped.
But the civilians of Gaza, also, must reject totally all suicide bombing, instead of most of them supporting terrorism like they do now.
Then peace will stand a chance.
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Take Time to Weep, Take Time to Grieve for the Loss of the Innocent
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/what-they-didnt-tell-you-ab…/
What They Don't Tell You About Dahlia
By Sherri Mandell
"....the reporter tells you about the terrorist [Maher al-Hashlamun of Islamic Jihad] who is from Hebron, how he was in an Israeli jail for five years for a firebombing. The reporter quotes his Facebook page: 'I’ll be a thorn in the gullet of the Zionist project to Judaize Jerusalem.'
We learn nothing about 26 year old Dahlia, who was just getting started in life after finishing college, studying occupational therapy so that she could have a job where she could help people who were sick or infirm or disabled to live in a fuller way.
...And they don’t tell you how she had to hitchhike to get to her job working with children in Kiryat Gat or that she was the main volunteer at Yad Sarah in Tekoa which lends medical equipment like wheelchairs to those who are sick or injured. They don’t tell you how she liked to help brides look beautiful by doing their makeup for them before their weddings.
They don’t care that Dahlia’s father Nachum drives the ambulance in Tekoa. Day and night he is called on to make the drive to Jerusalem, and that Dahlia’s mother cares tenderly for the elderly."
--
Instead, Palestinian drivers who intentionally crash into civilians to kill them,
are acclaimed heroes by Palestinian leaders.
The driver ran over Dahlia, then got out of his car and stabbed her to death!
Where is the outrage among Palestinians for such despicable murders?!
Take time to weep, take time to grieve for the loss of the innocent.
Weep for the family of the little infant intentionally murdered by a Palestinian militant.
Weep and grieve for Dahlia, an innocent civilian standing at a bus stop.
Weep for nearly 1,000 civilians killed by Israel's bombing of Gaza.
Weep for the 100 year old conflict in Palestine-Israel where evil rules the day.
Weep and demand a stop to this evil.
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
What They Don't Tell You About Dahlia
By Sherri Mandell
"....the reporter tells you about the terrorist [Maher al-Hashlamun of Islamic Jihad] who is from Hebron, how he was in an Israeli jail for five years for a firebombing. The reporter quotes his Facebook page: 'I’ll be a thorn in the gullet of the Zionist project to Judaize Jerusalem.'
We learn nothing about 26 year old Dahlia, who was just getting started in life after finishing college, studying occupational therapy so that she could have a job where she could help people who were sick or infirm or disabled to live in a fuller way.
...And they don’t tell you how she had to hitchhike to get to her job working with children in Kiryat Gat or that she was the main volunteer at Yad Sarah in Tekoa which lends medical equipment like wheelchairs to those who are sick or injured. They don’t tell you how she liked to help brides look beautiful by doing their makeup for them before their weddings.
They don’t care that Dahlia’s father Nachum drives the ambulance in Tekoa. Day and night he is called on to make the drive to Jerusalem, and that Dahlia’s mother cares tenderly for the elderly."
--
Instead, Palestinian drivers who intentionally crash into civilians to kill them,
are acclaimed heroes by Palestinian leaders.
The driver ran over Dahlia, then got out of his car and stabbed her to death!
Where is the outrage among Palestinians for such despicable murders?!
Take time to weep, take time to grieve for the loss of the innocent.
Weep for the family of the little infant intentionally murdered by a Palestinian militant.
Weep and grieve for Dahlia, an innocent civilian standing at a bus stop.
Weep for nearly 1,000 civilians killed by Israel's bombing of Gaza.
Weep for the 100 year old conflict in Palestine-Israel where evil rules the day.
Weep and demand a stop to this evil.
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
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