Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Plain & Simple.
Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues
May 26, 2009
I met with a friend today for coffee...I have already warned that friend about 10000 times, that if she wants to bring anyone along - she should inform me in advance and not leave me with a fait accompli.
Well, she did not. So here I was face to face with a Westerner, my "friend" who if she persists in her ways, will be written off as no friend, and myself.
The subject of Iraqi refugees came up and naturally the subject branched out to the main source of all ills and evils - the Occupation. And naturally, Layla is not terribly diplomatic when it comes to the occupation and destruction of her country.
Why should I be polite and diplomatic about it ? And what is there to be polite and diplomatic about ?
I did not insult the woman or anything, but she did receive a (strong) piece of my mind and she did not like it too much...
She was expecting me to go on a self pity party, so she could extend her "empathy" to me and hence alleviate whatever was gnawing at her, presuming anything was gnawing at her. But more importantly, her expectations were derived from that typical Western monster -- that of feeling superior, important and indispensable, thus allowing her to assume her role of the "white" savior, helping those "poor, poor Iraqi people"...
All the while, sidestepping or more accurately, evading the crux of the matter, namely the root cause of all Evil that has assailed Iraq -- the Anglo-American Occupation and the not so-covert Iranian occupation.
She remarked in her typical snide way, that I was too "bitter" (for her taste, I suppose) and that "anger will not resolve anything."
And I replied to her in those exact terms -- " we are left with nothing but our Anger."
I suppose she was expecting me to be apologetic to her, or feel guilty for "flying off the handle"...
Tough luck Madame, neither you nor anyone else who holds a similar position/attitude as yours vis à vis the occupation and destruction of my country will receive anything else but...my anger.
For God's sake, can anyone explain to me what is so radically wrong, so fundamentally warped with the Western mind ???
What is the matter with you people - don't you have any sense ???
What if I (I as in some nation), on bogus charges, brought in over 650'000 armed men, bombed the shit out of you, destroyed your homes, your infrastructures, your state, your army, your civil institutions, partitioned your country, build walls around your neighborhoods, unleashed the most deadly militias against you, used DU and Napalm, displaced thousands of you and turned them homeless, maimed thousands of you, killed thousands of you, turned thousands of your kids and women into orphans and widows, raped and tortured your women and men and sodomized your kids, destroyed your monuments, looted your history, burned your libraries, changed your school textbooks, urinated in your churches, insulted you with the most denigrating epithets, pillaged your homes and your treasury, burned your fields, arrested your families, detained thousands of you, brought in missionaries to convert you to Islam...and more....all in your own country, on your own turf --- what the fuck would you do ?
Come on, ask yourselves this question, what would you do ?
The least, the minimum, the bare minimum is that you will get angry...
But the way your minds function, your screwed up, sick minds function, is that in those putrid heads of yours, we are not even allowed our anger...
Not only are we not allowed our anger, but we need to demonstrate gratitude, a forever gratitude that you have "visited" us...the way you did.
After all in your minds, it is not called an armed invasion and occupation...you call it an "unfortunate mistake", "an unnecessary war" at best, and preach to me and us that we should forgive, while you're still there, physically there "visiting" us and while you persist in the lie...
And in those sick, sick, minds of yours, you justify it all with "we are here to help."
Do you know why you do that ? I will tell you why. It is because you have this amazing propensity to LIE TO YOURSELVES...you are in fact the PEOPLE OF THE LIE.
And that is the plain and simple Truth.
