SOAD

[Ahimsa138]

I was on System of a Down's board and apparently Serj wrote an article and posted it on the site, but it was taken down. I thought it was well done so here it is.

Understanding Oil
By Serj Tankian

The brutal attacks/bombings this week in New York, and Washington D.C., along with threats of attacks there and elsewhere in the country have changed our times forever. While the mass media concentrates on the details of the destruction, and the blanketed words of politicians, I will attempt to understand and explain the events from the fence. BOMBING AND BEING BOMBED ARE THE SAME THINGS ON DIFFERENT SIDES OF THE FENCE.

Terror is not a spontaneous human action without credence. People just don’t hijack planes and commit harikari (suicide) without any weight of thought to the action. No one in the media seems to ask WHY DID THESE PEOPLE DO THIS HORRIFIC ACT OF VIOLENCE AND DESTRUCTION?

To be able to understand the answer to this, we must first look at our U.S. Mideast Policy. During most of the 20th century, U.S. businesses have worked on attaining oil rights and concessions from countries in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. After WWI, secret back door deals by our State Dept. yielded oil rights from then defeated Turkey to fields in what is now Iraq and Saudi Arabia, in return for looking the other way at a crime against humanity, the Genocide of the Armenians by the Turks. Oil profits have been the motivating factors behind many attempts at counterinsurgency of democratic regimes by the CIA and the U.S in the Middle East (such as Iran in the 1950s, where the Shah replaced the Prime Minister who refused to give up oil rights to the U.S., and since the people couldn’t deal with the Shah, an extremist government headed by the Ayatollah Khomeini ultimately prevailed). During the Iran-Iraq war, America supplied both sides with weapons and advice. These are not the actions of a rich superpower wanting peace. Let’s not forget that Saddam Hussein, before being America’s vision of the Anti-Christ, was a close ally of the U.S., and the CIA. So what was the firm belief system of consecutive American administrations that caused all this to occur ? PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST WILL LEAD TO HIGHER OIL AND GASOLINE PRICES. Let’s not also forget the power of the Arms industry, disguised as defense, that still sells billions of dollars of weapons to the area. Therefore it has not been in the short-term economic interest of the U.S. to foster Peace in the Middle East. Using the above reasoning, the U.S. has encouraged extremist governments, toppled democracies, as in the case of Iran to replace it with a monarchy, rigged elections, and many more unspeakable political crimes for U.S. businesses abroad. Let’s not also forget the Red Scare. During the war between the then Soviet Union and Afghanistan, the U.S. armed and supported the Taliban, a fundamentalist Muslim organization, and allowed them to export opium and heroin out of their country to pay for those weapons. Therefore the Taliban rose to power and control with the help of the U.S.A. Today, the bombing of Iraq still continues, no longer covered by the media, the economic embargo still remains, killing millions of children, and recently, while the world and the U.N. General Assembly have cried out to bring in peacekeeping forces into Israel and Palestine, to end the escalated war and recent assassinations, the U.S. has vetoed the rest of the Security Council and has halted the possibility of peace, there, in the most volatile place in the world.

People in Serbia, Lebanon, Iraq, Sudan, and Afghanistan to name a few have seen bombs fall, not always at military targets and kill innocent civilians, as the scene in New York city yesterday. The wars waged by our government in our names has landed smack in the middle of our living room. The half hour of destruction closed down all world financial markets, struck the central headquarters of our military, and had our leaders running into bunkers, and our citizens into fear and frenzy. What scares me more than what has occurred is what our reactions to the occurrences may cause. President Bush belongs to a long generation of Republican Presidents who love war economies. The media has only concentrated on the bombings, if you will, and what type of retaliations are looming for the perpetrators. What everyone fails to realize is that the bombings are a reaction to existing injustices around the world, generally unseen to most Americans. To react to a reaction would be to further sponsor the reaction. In other words, my belief is that the terror will multiply if concrete steps are not taken to sponsor peace in the middle east, NOW. This does not mean that we should not find the guilty party(s), Bin Laden, or whoever they may be, and not try them. Put simply, as long as a major injustice remains, violence precipitates to the surface of life.

Native American folklore, the Bible, Nostradamus, and many other major religious beliefs point to this era with the visuals of yesterday’s disasters, and conditions of ecological disasters we experience daily in our lives today. War, rumors of war, famine, long burning fires, etc., are at our doorstep. We can prevail over this possible vision with the power of the human spirit, understanding, compassion, and peace. IT’S TIME TO PUT OUR NEEDS FOR SECURITY AND SURVIVAL, ACHIEVED ONLY THROUGH PEACE, ABOVE AND BEYOND PROFITS, ESPECIALLY IN THESE TIMES.

SOLUTION:

The U.S. should stop sidestepping the U.N. Security Council, and allow U.N. Peacekeeping troops and missions to the Middle East. Stop the violence first.

Stop the bombing and patrol of Iraq.

With today’s gains in the use of alternative fuels, develop them to full usage with autos and other utilities, to make the country less dependant on an already depleting natural reserve, oil.
By initiating peace, we would have already shaken the foundations of support for Bin Laden, and/or all those that sponsor activities like those we saw yesterday, and break the stronghold of extremists on the world of Islam. On the other hand, if we carry out bombings on Afghanistan or elsewhere to appease public demand, and very likely kill innocent civilians along the way, we’d be creating many more martyrs going to their deaths in retaliation against the retaliation. As shown from yesterday’s events, you cannot stop a person who’s ready to die.

[Raptorman]

This is the idiocy you get when celebs think they know anything about politics. The UN is almost worthless. It's military force is competly impotent. It's only vegisal power is that it can get people to start talking and sometimes slow the decent into war.This is the sole reason it should be kept around and not scrapped entirely.

We are at war. The usual standard of guilty beyond a resonable doubt no longer applies. We are not out to capture or try Bin Laden. He must die. There are lot's of religious phycos in the world including many in my own country who don't call their God Allah. What there is a shortage of is people that can coordinate the attacks and train these fucks. Funny thing about these cocksuckers, they, unlike their pawns, do not want to die. So we track them and kill them. Bin Laden dies. Any one else who whispers threat to the US dies. Sleep lightly you coklicks, for we come in the night.

As much as seeing Palistinians dancing in the streets make my blood boil, they should not be killed. This is a war to destroy those who would harm us, or wives, and our children. They will see no mercy in this life. We are NOT at war with Islam. To do this runs aginst the very core of what we are. The attacks and threats aginst Arabs in this countries MUST STOP. They are Americans goddamnit. They too lost loved ones to these terrorist pieces of shit. They fight along side us and die with us if they must.

I left the military recently and am considering re-activation. Who knows maybe I will have the grim pleasure of ripping his fucking throat out. Vengence is coming and the UN is not capable of deliveing it. We are. So it begins.

[Raptorman]

I went the the website to investigate this article and I saw thay while most of the post were typical lefty punk bullshit, there was in fact no sign of the article mentioned. You see, they have a new album coming out. There manager probalby realized that their jackoff lead singer could kill their US album sales and muzzled him.

When principals oppose profits, prinipals rarely survive.

[TheGiantPeach]

And you think you know what you are talking about?

fucktard.

http://www.0wned.org/~orion/serj.html

[Slizor]

At 9/15/01 07:00 PM, Raptorman wrote:

This is what happens when people like you think that they know shit about politics.

[Raptorman]

What intellegent and insightful rebuttles. This is why we don't let 15 year olds vote.

[Raptorman]

Can't be to hard on y'all though. I too was once a dumb ass punk. Only diffrence is that I was a dumb ass righty and you fellas are dumb ass lefties.

In my 13 post-15-year old punk years, I haven't figured out much, just that all my old answers were wrong. Your parents may have said the same thing with the same condesending tone (I know mine did and I hated it.) but you fellas have got a lot of world to see before you can really form a strong opinon.

There are lots of ways to do this and they can all be done in a few years for both of you. If military service is not to your liking, the are severval worthy orgainizations that will get you out to see how things really work. It is a pity that so many people do the grow up, collage, work, retire thing without really doing anything that they can really remember fondly and tell thier grandkids about. Anyway, enough of my rambling. Later gents.

[Slizor]

In my 13 post-15-year old punk years, I haven't figured out much, just that all my old answers were wrong. Your parents may have said the same thing with the same condesending tone (I know mine did and I hated it.) but you fellas have got a lot of world to see before you can really form a strong opinon.

How so?