Thursday, August 29, 2013

UK Appeasement and American Folly?

Most of us want world peace; a safe place to live, shelter, harmony, freedom and a world that operates on the principle of love.

Parliament in the UK voted not to participate in any overt action against Syria in retaliation of the use of chemical weapons against civilians. President Obama has said that he would certainly consider punitive action solo. Is this a case of UK appeasement? Is this a case of allowing atrocities in order to avoid possible repercussions? Or is this a case of sanity?

When is it proper to stand for humanity and to take arms against a sea of troubles? Since the situation is Syria is termed a civil war, is it no business of the international community? Or, are we a humanity that has nothing to do with labels; where the plight of a few is also a plight of all? Is 'what we do to our brethren' a guiding principle here, or is it just a case of 'let them deal with it'? It's not our problem?

Over the past 50+ years we have made some really negative choices. We have allowed the degradation of the environment; permitted massacres of innocent people; committed our own government to kill innocents; allowed the almighty dollar to rule all of our basic policy decisions; watched people suffer while Wall Street makes money off the suffering of many; supported dictators who were business friendly; and watched religion become the battle cry of extremists who have placed no value on human life. At what point is the line drawn?

These are not easy questions to answer. But the fundamental questions remains: Are we waking gods; or are we the walking dead? Do we live according to made up labels and false separations; or do we live according to the idea that we are one and what happens to the one, affects us all?