This morning’s Daily Times carried a stunning headline for Pakistanis. Asif Ali Zardari, to clarify “the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan” stated that ”Obviously, the world is a safer place,” he said. “It could have been worse,” in an interview with the Washington Post on Saturday. Can I ask which world Zardari is talking about?

If we look at it from Pakistan’s point of view, we are under attack both from internal and external forces. Our borders are regularly being violated by US military forces and our citizens are being targeted in terrorist attacks on our own soil. The international media has made Pakistan the reason for the US failure in Afghanistan because apparently the Soviet conflict never happened and the US never left Afghanistan in a lerch after using it to defeat the Soviet Union. Yet, Zardari feels that Bush has made the world a safer place.. interesting… did you hear the dollars transferring to offshore accounts there??

More interestingly, in the same interview, Zardari refuted the fact that Pakistani forces fired on the US military on their latest incursion into Pakistan. While Admiral Michael Mullen was confirming to the media that:

“There was a cross-border fire incident yesterday,” Mullen said, corroborating reports from U.S and NATO military officials. He urged both sides not to “overreact to the hair-trigger tension we are all feeling. Now, more than ever, is a time for teamwork, for calm.”

Another interesting thought….

Zardari also contributes the Marriott bombing to the “rise of the axis of evil”:

At the same time, Zardari warned that “the axis of evil is growing.” He cited last Saturday’s massive bombing at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, which killed more than 50 people, and pressed the Bush administration to step up intelligence cooperation with Pakistan to help confront Islamist militants.

Zardari also announced a new initiative for Afghani farmers:

Zardari discussed a plan to persuade Afghan farmers to plant corn instead of opium to take advantage of rising prices sparked by the burgeoning U.S. ethanol industry. “We can try to grow corn in Afghanistan and give them the same returns they’re getting from opium,” he said.

Sadly, he has nothing to offer the people of Pakistan to feed their starving, nor any solutions to controlling the massive smuggling of wheat to Afghanistan and the Central Asia states.

Later, in the interview:

Zardari reaffirmed Pakistan’s position that it should take the lead in battling terrorism. “This side of the border is my problem,” Zardari said, adding that if U.S. forces need “permission of sorts” to cross the border, “we can have an understanding on that, but they haven’t asked for it.”

“If we need help, we call for them. If they need help, they call for us,” he added. If the United States has security concerns in Pakistan, “let us know. We’ll do it for them.”

Zardari said he welcomed U.S. support in bolstering his country’s ability to patrol Pakistan’s porous border with Afghanistan. He also appealed for help confronting an insurgency that has grown increasingly bold in recent months.

“They keep coming up with new ways of war,” he said referring to the Marriott Hotel attack. “Obviously, the problem has not gone away, so the medicine needs to be enhanced.”

I found an interesting post on a blog about the Iraq War which sheds some more light on the “safety” that George W. Bush has given the people of Iraq.

One more thing… not to forget the historic meeting between President Zardari and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Zardari is quoted in another Washington Post article saying:

Pakistan’s new president, Asif Ali Zardari, said that he thought Palin was “very nice” and that she was “quite knowledgeable” about the threat of terror posed by Islamist extremists along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan. “She is obviously a hunting lady,” he said, suggesting it was a useful qualification for understanding Pakistan’s complex security challenges.

Zardari said that he was impressed by Palin’s strategy for developing oil reserves in Alaska and that she had done a good job ensuring that revenues flowed to local communities. He said he was considering a similar approach to exploiting natural resources in Pakistan.

“I’ve been promoting the Alaska model to some extent in Pakistan,” Zardari said. At that stage, a senior aide interrupted the Pakistani leader. “The president also spoke to Joseph Biden,” he said. Zardari said that Biden has been instrumental in steering hundred of millions of U.S. dollars to Pakistan to shore up democracy. “He has been a great friend of democracy from the first day,” Zardari added.

Sarah Palin “quite knowledgeable” on the threat of terror posed by Islamist extremists along the Pakistan border with Afghanistan… should we take that to mean that Zardari also has no clue about what is going on the border with Afghanistan? The US media has made it very clear to their voters that Palin has no idea about Pakistan, the War on Terror or Extremism, no foreign policy experience seems to be the regular chorus from the media. Yet, somehow Pakistan’s President Zardari thinks she’s “quite knowledgeable” on Pakistan… guess that comes from his months of foreign policy experience.

Actually, let’s hear it from Sarah Palin herself:

Palin’s apparent disagreement with McCain’s position on Pakistan came as the Alaska governor was picking up a couple of cheesesteaks at Tony Luke’s in South Philadelphia. She was approached by a man wearing a Temple University t-shirt, who later identified himself as Michael Rovito. 

“How about the Pakistan situation?” Rovito asked. “What’s your thoughts about that.” 

“In Pakistan?” Palin responded. 

“What’s going on over there, like Waziristian?” 

“It’s working with Zardari to make sure that we’re all working together to stop the guys from coming in over the border,” Palin said. “And we’ll go from there.” 

“Waziristan is blowing up,” Rovito replied. 

“Yeah, it is,” Palin said. “And the economy there is blowing up, too.” 

“So we do cross-border, like from Afghanistan to Pakistan, you think?” Rovito asked. 

“If that’s what we have to do stop the terrorists from coming any further in, absolutely, we should,” Palin said.

God help us.

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An Op-Ed piece from this morning’s Boston Globe by our own Asif Ali Zardari. For your consumption and comments.

There are moments in history that define nations, and also define men. For Pakistan, we have reached a critical crossroad that will determine the nature of our future, or if we will have one. I have the opportunity to help my people secure that future, by implementing the vision of my late martyred wife, Benazir Bhutto. Benazir gave her life fighting the terrorism and fanaticism that haunt the entire civilized world. I fight the terrorist threat in Pakistan not only as an elected democratic leader but also as a grieving husband. No one should doubt my commitment to standing up to the terrorist threat. My commitment is national. My commitment is personal.

Last week’s cowardly attack on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad is another example of the irrational threat against civilization. Striking during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the barbarians killed 60 people and injured hundreds more. It was our national 9/11. It once again demonstrated that Pakistan is the great victim in the war on terror. We have lost more soldiers in Afghanistan than all the 37 countries that have forces there. We have watched our children being blown up, our wives cut down. We do not need lectures about terrorism from anyone. We don’t read about it or watch it on the evening news. We live it each and every day.

The war on terror is Pakistan’s war, and we are its greatest victims. We stand united and in defiance. We are resolved that our future will not be dictated by those who defile the spirit and laws of Islam for their sordid political goals. We may be the targets of international terrorism, but we will never succumb to it.

We are confronting the terrorist threat in our tribal areas as well as in our cities. Soldiers are arrayed in the field against the Taliban and al Qaeda, and last month our fighter jets killed 600 enemy fighters. But terrorism cannot be fought by military means alone. Fighting terrorism requires political will, popular mobilization, and a socioeconomic strategy that wins the hearts and minds of the people, by giving them a concrete stake in our country’s emerging democracy and in our economic infrastructure. Toward this end, we need the support of the developed world to not only help us fight terrorism but also its root causes, which lurk in the poverty that breeds hopelessness.

The fight against terrorism will not be won by guns and bombs alone. The fight must be multifaceted. The battleground must be economic and social as well as military. We will win when people are mobilized against the fanatics. To mobilize them we have to give them hope and opportunity for their future. They need jobs. Their children need education. They must be fed. They must have energy. We must demonstrate to them that democracy does perform and that democratic governance can improve their everyday life. In terms of security and national interest, our success will be success for the world as well.

An economically viable Pakistan will be a secure Pakistan, and a secure Pakistan is the greatest asset in the world’s fight against terrorism. A stable and economically viable Pakistan will suck the oxygen from the terrorist agenda. Economic justice and political democracy are the terrorists’ worst nightmares.

We must fight this epic battle together as allies and as partners. But just as we will not let our territory be used by terrorism for attacks on our people and neighbors, we cannot allow our territory and sovereignty to be violated by friends. Attacks that violate our sovereignty actually serve to empower the forces against which we mutually fight.

I am a democratic president of a democratic nation elected with a two-thirds mandate, and I intend that my country be a model to our region and religion of a vibrant, modern, tolerant, peaceful, moderate democracy committed to economic and social justice. People, including my wife, died for this moment. I do not intend to squander it.

Terrorism took Benazir’s life. But the terrorist cannot kill my wife’s dream.

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You know most people in Pakistan have the tolerance to listen to hack politicians like Imran Khan jabber about the state of the country because of their memory of him as a cricket star, but I think that he has gone one step too far in publicly endorsing Condoleezza Rice’s comments about Shaukat Aziz. To set the record straight, Condi, the epitome of a failed politician that is unable to get a president to listen, has written a tell-all book about how her career in politics called “Twice as Good: Condoleezza Rice and Her Path to Power.”

Condi has given a laughable assessment of Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who has led the economic revival in Pakistan during the Musharraf government calling him “Savile Row-suited gigolo” and that he bragged to Western diplomats “that he could conquer any women in two minutes.” First, I have never believed anything that Condi has to say because she has always been the mouthpiece of a failed US President, defending the Iraq War, the pullout of troops from Afghanistan and allowing Israel to continue to bomb Lebanon last summer. But what I find funny is that even if Shaukat said it, which I will doubt until someone can confirm it, he at least didn’t touch her, unlike US President George W. Bush attempting to give German Chancellor Angela Merkel a back rub at last year’s G8 meeting, which I think is more of a gigolo move than anything that Shaukat said.

But what is more humorous is the well-known ladies man in Pakistan, Imran Khan, trumpeting his praise of Condi’s comments. Now many of us remember Imran Khan’s colored past and for those that don’t know about his paternity cases, the Sita White love child scandal, the “adoption” of the same love child and adoption again, the demands of the love child, Jemina Khan, Imran’s ex-wife, being charged with smuggling Mughal antiques out of Pakistan illegally, and the claims that he was asked by Diana, Princess of Wales, to play Cupid so she could marry a heart surgeon. All this without even discussing the 5 million Pound Sterling campaign donation for Imran to become a politician in Pakistan from Lord Goldsmith himself.

Imran Khan is doing nothing more than trying to become a politician of record because his political party, Tehrik-e-Insaaf, has been unable to catapult him into any real spotlight as one. I quite enjoy listening to him defending his political ineptness by saying that “its a banana republic country” and “a rubber stamp parliament” for a dictator as President. But when offered opportunity to serve the nation first as Prime Minister, he refused; then again as Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, he refused again. Sounds to me like you have a confidence issue since Jemina kicked you to the curb… but then your political career has been nothing less than a comedy of errors. When he first launched himself into politics, he swore that if elected, he would hang every corrupt person in the country, needless to say he lost that election. Then, he tried to change his position, only to lose again. Tell me something Imran, do you really think that the religious parties that you side with on the opposition will give you any support come election time?

Today, Imran Khan, the “warrior for justice,” has formed a political alliance with those same people that he wanted to hang when he came into politics…. anything for a chance at power, right Imran?

Kamran Shafi provides a very interesting analysis of Imran Khan on his blog:

While he is undeniably one of the greatest sportsmen ever, and while he has to be appreciated greatly for putting up a super hospital, all of the moves he has made since taking up politics were/are ill advised, even foolish and opportunistic. He spoke deprecatingly and loudly and often against “Brown Sahibs” i.e., people who wear Western clothes in Pakistan while he himself did likewise when abroad, particularly while dancing the night away in nightclubs and joints such as the snooty Annabelle’s dressed in DJs. He wrote reams supporting Jirga justice, and against women working outside the home: he had the audacity indeed, to suggest that women were better employed having children and bringing up the next generation. There was also the matter of that paternity thing which, if handled in a straight-forward manner would have only raised Imran’s stature in the eyes of the majority of this country’s good and kind people. That is not all. He went blue in the face insisting against clear evidence, that Sir James Goldsmith was not Jewish, as if anybody gave a damn if he was. I mean if a case had to be made against an Establishment which might try and turn Sir James’ religion into a stick with which to beat Imran, he could have countered with invoking the name of Henry Kissinger out of whose hands the most powerful of the most powerful Pakistanis ate…..

In any case Jemima Goldsmith was a well-liked figure in Pakistan — when did her father’s professed religion ever colour people’s perceptions of her? More than any other instance that shows us Imran Khan’s character is that in which he was caught red-handed poaching partridges in Chakwal along with several of his influential friends. Now, while the game-watcher who challaned Imran and friends for the crime and confiscated the shot birds insists he was the man who booked him, Imran has consistently stuck to stout denial. While there is over-whelming evidence, the man will simply not admit his fault and apologize and promise he will never poach again. It is another matter that the State failed to prosecute him at the time because the wheels of influence and back-scratching came into motion and brought the whole proceeding to a grinding halt. It is yet another matter that in a country where very few in government do an honest days work, a poor game-watcher did his with great courage. May I once more call upon the Big General to take note of the game-watcher’s diligence and award him a high civil award. Worse than any of the above of course, is Imran Khan’s putting his lot in with the backward cleric for political expediency. By far the worse. There is time, however, for Imran Khan to apologize for his past transgressions and redeem himself in the eyes of the people, just as there is time for others in public life.

But while Imran Khan is busy making a spectacle of himself, the leaders of the nation have passed the Women’s Protection Bill, repealing a highly controversial section of the Hudood Ordinance; revived the national economy to the point of Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves reaching record levels (US$ 13 billion); stood outside and watched Pakistan regain ex-pat and foreign investor confidence to be able to slowly start building stability and lower the national debt; a massive growth in the IT revolution with foreign owned IT parks planned around the country; and watch the country come under one national cause: Sub Sey Pehley Pakistan (Pakistan First).

So I am left to ask one question: Imran Khan… what have you done for us lately?

[ratings]

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This Op-Ed piece was picked up from the Sunday Daily Dawn. Great reading and posted here for your consumption.

THE Economist of London described General Musharraf’s autobiography as “laughingly vainglorious”. That description equally fits his reaction to the gang warfare and pillage in Karachi on May 12. Three days and 40 deaths later, according to a report in this newspaper, he decided to deal with the killers and arsonists with an iron hand.

A “poised and composed” president, says another report, has counseled his nervous allies to concentrate on his election and later on their own, and leave it to him to handle the current situation which poses no threat to him or to them. For the trouble in Karachi he has put the blame on the ‘non-functional’ Chief Justice and his counsel Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan.

No matter where the blame lies (most would disagree with the president), the responsibility for saving the lives and property of the people lies squarely with the government.

In that, the provincial and central governments both failed, completely and miserably. Gangs ruled the streets of Karachi while the police and even the Rangers, if seen anywhere, were bystanders.

How one wishes (surely this wish is shared by every citizen) that the president, instead of delivering his iron-hand warning from Islamabad, had come down to Karachi and expressed his sorrow and sympathy the way Colonel John Nicholson, commander in the American Marines, had done at Jalalabad where his men, enraged by a suicide bomb attack, shot dead 19 innocent Afghans by the wayside.

This is what Nicholson said addressing an audience of the bereaved: “I stand before you today deeply, deeply ashamed and terribly sorry that Americans have killed and wounded innocent Afghan people.”

Gen Musharraf’s expression of penitence on the death of a larger number of his own people, matching Colonel Nicholson’s intensity was necessary but did not come.

It would have been in his political interest too but the power game makes its own merciless calculations.

The MQM coordinator Farooq Sattar’s apology did not match the enormity of the tragedy nor could he be speaking for any of the three governments — district, provincial or central — for he is part of none.

Besides the bloodshed, so extensive was the blockade on that day that even the judges had to climb over the boundary wall of the Sindh High Court to get to their chambers. Whether it was sheer complacency or actual complicity on the part of the law-enforcement authorities, the three governments remain equally culpable.

Every government at the political level, and that too in an election year, has its aims and chooses its means, fair or foul, to achieve them. The same is also true of the opposition. Law and order take a back seat in the priorities of both.

Maintaining public order in all situations, irrespective of party aims or interests, thus becomes the duty of the permanent civil service assisted by the police, paramilitary and even military when called out. With the passage of time, the civil service has ceased to be permanent and the administration of law and order has been made an adjunct of politics.

Before Gen Musharraf’s devolution plan took hold, the powers and responsibilities of officials responsible for law and order were clearly defined and known to the people. Not any longer. In the lawlessness that swamped Karachi on May 12 and on the two days following, no one appeared on the scene to exercise this power or to acknowledge this responsibility. No one can be punished, even if it is so intended, for no one was in charge.

Under the system and laws that Gen Musharraf abrogated, this power and responsibility vested in the district magistrate. There was no ambiguity about it nor escape from it. In the new system, the law and order powers and responsibility are diffused, and control over the law-enforcement agencies is divided between a variety of commissions and the three governments mentioned earlier.

If one person were to be named on whom this responsibility rests it is the nazim whom the new law requires to “perform functions relating to law and order in his district.” But the law doesn’t say what these functions are and how the nazim is to perform them.

It is now for the people to say whether Mustafa Kamal ever made an appearance at the rioting scene in Karachi on May 12 and on the days following. Or were he to be around and willing could he be trusted to take control of law and order when his party — the MQM — was being widely accused of disturbing it.

The Aaj TV host should have been looking for the nazim and not for the home secretary when his studio came under gunfire. The home secretary sits at a policy desk in the secretariat and is not expected to chase rioters on the streets. But then, could the Aaj TV host expect the nazim to intervene when the attackers, he suspected, came from the latter’s party?

Three lessons emerge from Karachi’s costly mayhem. One, the country cannot do without a professional and impartial law and order administration. Two, officially sponsored rallies are invariably counterproductive, and so was the president’s at Islamabad. Three, a caretaker government of national consensus should be formed here and now to organise elections under a chief election commissioner who is as fiercely independent as was India’s maverick T.N. Seshan.

The course of events in Pakistan’s politics has never been easy to predict but the kind of fervour and despondency that now reside together in the body politic strongly suggest that time is fast running out not for the government alone but also for the opposition.

Another round of irresponsible behaviour and violence like that of May 12 and the curtain may come down on the political scene as a whole.

Remarkable, however, is the complacency of the government on the disorder that paralysed Karachi. After 40 deaths and three days of anarchy, the prime minister had the gall to say that the city has been saved, or plainly put, got away lightly, and the Sindh chief minister wants the gory chapter closed. No one, it seems, will ever be held to account.

With mounting tension and repeated warnings of terrorist strikes weeks ahead of May 12, no district magistrate of the old times worth his salt would have permitted the MQM rally to be held on that day. And if the administration apprehended factional clashes on the arrival of the suspended Chief Justice, the district magistrate would have issued an order (not just made requests) banning the Chief Justice’s entry into Karachi.

The enforcement of law and order sometimes requires tough decisions by putting careers at risk, if necessary. The administration is not all about plots, promotions and extensions.

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A few weeks ago, when the South Asian Tribune ran a story that the United States was planning a coup to remove General Musharraf from power, I honestly didn’t put alot of thought into it. There is always a coup of some kind in process in Pakistan, whether it comes from the religio-fascists that don’t want development; the opposition parties that can’t get their hands in the cookie jar; or the military who is not interested in watching another round of failed democracy that leads to more debt. But, when today’s DAWN, Pakistan’s largest English newspaper, ran a story with the headline 66% want exiled leaders back, I couldn’t help but read the details.

Since most of my background is from the United States, having spent 25 years there, the name International Republican Institute rang a bell in the back of my mind, so like any normal person, I googled it. What I found was that the International Republican Institute is a backroom organization funded by the Republican Party and the US Congress to overthrow elected governments.

Well, well, well, looks like Dubya has his hand in the cookie jar again.

The International Republican Institute, founded in 1983, is “dedicated to advancing democracy, freedom, self-government, and the rule of law worldwide.” IRI states that it is an independent, nonprofit institute that is not affiliated with the Republican Party, and “is guided by the fundamental American principles of individual liberty, the rule of law, and the entrepreneurial spirit.” This project, which aimed to create a quasi-governmental instrument for U.S. political aid, came to fruition in 1982 when President Ronald Reagan proposed a new organization to promote free-market democracies around the world, the National Endowment for Democracy. In 1983 Congress approved the creation of NED, which was funded primarily through the U.S. Information Agency and secondarily through USAID.

The early focus of IRI was Central America and the Caribbean—a region that in the 1980s was the cutting edge of the Reagan administration’s revival of counterinsurgency and counter-revolutionary operations. After the Soviet bloc began to disintegrate in 1989, IRI says it “broadened its reach to support democracy around the globe.” IRI has channeled U.S. political aid to partners—which like itself are often creations of U.S. funding—in 75 countries, and it currently has operations in 50 countries.

The Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) in an article about the IRI stated: “The International Republican Institute, an organization that describes itself as being dedicated to “advancing democracy, freedom, self-government and the rule of law worldwide,” has in the last two decades earned the questionable distinction of being perhaps the least-known of a group of lethal Washington institutions devoted to the trade of nation-building, or more accurately termed, nation undermining. Despite its elaborate rhetoric and claims to nonpartisanship, the IRI in fact operates as the powerful and well-funded foreign policy arm of the ultra rightist wing of the U.S. Republican Party. It is far more ideological and operational than its Democratic Party counterpart, the National Democratic Institute, and is less concerned with democracy building than hunting down leftists and crushing their causes. It would not be too much to say that the IRI engages in anti-populist witch-hunts with far more enthusiasm than any of its research efforts exploring the history or politics of those countries where it wreaks its havoc.”

The IRI Board of Directors is made up a plentatude of Bush neo-con, from Senators John McCain (Chairman) & Chuck Hagel, Brent Scowcroft (National Security Advisor to Bush Sr.), Lawrence Eagleburger (Sec of State under Bush Sr.) and Jeane Kirkpatrick. The entire Board is made up of hardline Republicans that have supported George W Bush in his “War On Islam.”

They have been the topic of numerous articles by publications like Mother Jones, Source Watch, Right Web, People’s Weekly World, Counter Punch, Cooperative Research and Wikipedia. All of which provide a wealth of information about the activities and operations of this radical right wing neo-con Republican “institute.”

What scared me was the speech that Dubya gave in May of 2005 at a dinner sponsored by the IRI. Dubya said “I appreciate the work IRI is doing to advance the cause of liberty. IRI has been at the forefront of democratic change in more than a hundred countries. You’ve trained the next generation of leaders, you’ve strengthened political parties, you’ve monitored elections, and you’re helping to build civil societies. The world is safer and freer and more peaceful because of the International Republican Institute. Thank you for your good work.” When Dubya says they have been at the forefront of democratic change in more than a hundred countries, you have to be concerned about what they are actually doing.

He continued: “These are incredibly exciting times. They should be exciting times for everybody — because freedom is making unprecedented progress across the globe. In the last 18 months, we have witnessed revolutions of Rose, Orange, Purple, Tulip and Cedar — and these are just the beginnings. Across the Caucasus and Central Asia, hope is stirring at the prospect of change — and change will come. Across the broader Middle East, we are seeing the rise of a new generation whose hearts burn for freedom — and they will have it.”

If you read the entire transcript of the speech, it puts a chill down your spine that the US government will spare no excuse to destablise and cause unrest, all in the name of radical Christianity… oops… I mean “democracy.” So when the war machines can’t go in, they send in the IRI.

But Dubya has a problem in Pakistan. We hate the American governments for rigging elections to put Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif in power. We hate the American government for allowing these criminals to enter, live and hold assets in the United States with the billions they have stolen from the Pakistani people, even though InterPol has issued a red warrant for Benazir’s arrest. We hate the American government for its continued support of the state terrorism of Israel in Palestine and Lebanon. It has been the American government that has continually vetoed every UN Security Council resolution against Israel, while supporting Israel’s “right to self defence.”

Most of all, we hate you George. Since you have “taken power,” we have seen US citizens lose their civil rights through wiretaps, financial monitoring, and regular character assassination of anyone who doesn’t support your neo-con view of the world. You have spared no opportunity to brand the 1.8 billion Muslims as fascists, communists, and nazis. You told the American Legion that America is fighting “the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century.” You have made 6 million Muslims in America feel under siege, distrusted and even hated. “You are either with us or against us” sounds more like Hitler and Stalin, than a US president. We remember that the American people don’t approve of you, but if they dare say anything that are branded as “supporters of terrorism.” We remember the lies that you have told about WMDs to justify America’s pursuit for more oil. We remember the comments made by your Christian advisors about Islam. We remember that you let Israel bomb Lebanon while the world cried out for a ceasefire. We remember that it is you that has supported apartheid in Palestine, while continuing to support Israel’s land grabbing and the building of a seperation wall. We remember the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis and American soldiers in the name of democracy. We remember the chemical weapons that you supplied Israel for use on the Lebanese civilians. We remember Guantanamo. We remember Abu Gharib. We remember the rape and murder of Mahmudiya and her family by US soldiers.

We hate the neo-cons for the war they have started against the Muslims, all Muslims, assuming that we are all terrorists because we follow Islam. We are not Islamists. We are not Islamofascists. We are proud Muslims that grieved with the American people on September 11th. We are proud Muslims that grieved with the British people on July 7th. We are proud Muslims that have extended our hand to fight the scourge of terrorism, only to have it slapped back as if we were trying to take a piece of American Pie. We are proud Muslims that believe in God and humanity, even when the radical elements of Islam pervert it. We are proud Muslims that understand the social, cultural and economic contribution that has been made by our people to the world’s economies.

When America doesn’t want your “democracy,” what makes you think that anyone else does?

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