Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Pick up a rifle

I can't find much to comment on with Harrell's latest. I've snipped only a part of the meaty middle. It is worth a read, I think.

The Shape of Days: Where are all the revolutionaries now?
With a few notable exceptions, the state of Israel has no direct qualm with any individual Lebanese citizen. Just like, with a few notable exceptions, the United States has no direct qualm with any individual Iraqi. But eventually, patience like all things must expire. Our Founding Fathers started a revolution over excesses they deemed intolerable by the standards of their day. Unreasonable taxation, judicial legerdemain and offenses against the English tradition of laws constituted a tyranny those men were willing to die to end.

Halfway across the world, the people Syria, Iran, North Korea, Libya, Syria, the Palestinian Authority, Sudan and other likewise tyrannical states sit idly by enjoying their satellite television while their governments — elected and otherwise, legitimate and otherwise, sovereign and otherwise — wage guerilla or proxy wars against the people of neighboring and distant lands.

Pick up a fucking rifle, people. You are accessories both before and after the fact to the most horrible crimes we have names for: mass murder, terrorism, even genocide. You sit there while your leaders, the ones you tolerate even if you didn’t explicitly endorse them, carry out these acts, or support others who carry out these acts, or fail to stop those who carry out these acts within your borders.
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