9/11—An Excuse to Kill More Injuns
Andrew Jackson became famous for killing Indians and stealing their land. His policies have not become outdated, but have rather expanded.
Americans would often treat an individual criminal act committed by someone of an "inferior race" as an act of war. The crimes of one Indian made all Indians guilty, even Indians who belonged to white-friendly tribes. Punishing an entire race for the crimes of one individual is known as collective punishment.
Lincoln's general, W.T. Sherman, attacked indian villages "in the winter, when families would be together and could therefore all be killed at once." Sherman killed as many buffalo as he could, as they were the primary source of food for the Indians. He called this war of extermination "the final solution of the Indian problem." [note: wikipedia calls all of this Indian murdering "postbellum service"].
What does all of this indian killing have to do with 9/11?
We are now killing Arabs instead of Indians. And we steal resources rather than land. But very little has changed.
On 9/11, a group of individuals committed an awful crime. The U.S. responded to that crime by an act of war. We invaded Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, instead of trying and punishing those who were guilty.
Even before 9/11, the U.S. murdered over 500,000 Iraqi children by starving them to death.
We have killed an estimated 100,000 Iraqi civilians (not enemy-combatants) since 2003.
How many lives are required to pay for the 2,977 lives lost on 9/11? Our justice system allows for the execution of murderers, built on the foundation of the Judeo-Christian philosophy "eye for an eye." But our current wars, like the Indian wars of the 19th century, require the punishment of an entire race, or religion, for every injury against an American.
Instead of collective punishment through war, we should individually punish those responsible for 9/11. With Osama bin Laden dead, I say that's been accomplished. It's time to bring the troops home. And in the future, we need to hold our leaders to the standard of justice, and punish individual criminals, rather than letting them wage an endless war of vengeance on an entire people.
Americans would often treat an individual criminal act committed by someone of an "inferior race" as an act of war. The crimes of one Indian made all Indians guilty, even Indians who belonged to white-friendly tribes. Punishing an entire race for the crimes of one individual is known as collective punishment.
As President, Jackson ordered the Five Civilized Tribes to "voluntarily" remove themselves from the United States. The Five Civilized Tribes had become civilized by, among other things, owning slaves. If high school American history has taught me anything, it's that it's okay to murder slave-owners.
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| This bib keeps my shirt clean from the blood and tears of Indians. |
Like the heroic Lincoln, who murdered 600,000 of them in order to free the slaves. After the Civil War, Union veterans who had been paid to murder Southern civilians for four years, were able to escape the ravages of unemployment by turning their skills on the Indians of the vast American plains. The Indians were guilty of train heists, letting their buffalo wander onto the tracks, an living on land that white people wanted.
Lincoln's general, W.T. Sherman, attacked indian villages "in the winter, when families would be together and could therefore all be killed at once." Sherman killed as many buffalo as he could, as they were the primary source of food for the Indians. He called this war of extermination "the final solution of the Indian problem." [note: wikipedia calls all of this Indian murdering "postbellum service"].
What does all of this indian killing have to do with 9/11?
We are now killing Arabs instead of Indians. And we steal resources rather than land. But very little has changed.
On 9/11, a group of individuals committed an awful crime. The U.S. responded to that crime by an act of war. We invaded Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, instead of trying and punishing those who were guilty.
Even before 9/11, the U.S. murdered over 500,000 Iraqi children by starving them to death.
We have killed an estimated 100,000 Iraqi civilians (not enemy-combatants) since 2003.
How many lives are required to pay for the 2,977 lives lost on 9/11? Our justice system allows for the execution of murderers, built on the foundation of the Judeo-Christian philosophy "eye for an eye." But our current wars, like the Indian wars of the 19th century, require the punishment of an entire race, or religion, for every injury against an American.
Instead of collective punishment through war, we should individually punish those responsible for 9/11. With Osama bin Laden dead, I say that's been accomplished. It's time to bring the troops home. And in the future, we need to hold our leaders to the standard of justice, and punish individual criminals, rather than letting them wage an endless war of vengeance on an entire people.
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