The Martyrs of War

The Martyrs of War

In June 2006, the headlines boiled with the loss of an Islamic Martyr, or butcher, depending on your political view. Did you also cry when tens of thousands of children were killed by western troops at the start of the war; children sent to fight against their will, by the old Iraqi leadership and by Al-Qaeda? We can blame those who put guns to their backs for forcing them to stand in front of the bloody lawn mower that is the U.S. Military. Please don't blame the soldiers following orders; many of them are my friends and I've heard the horror stories they brought home.

We can blame Bush for sending them there and for firing that first shot or we can blame Blair for standing on principle to support this U.S. campaign, nothing short of an act of revenge for the 911 tragedy or blame Osama or Saddam for acts of terror against our cities; even their own people.

Who is really to blame in this war?

I suggest you look in the mirror and blame the person who drives a car rather than shares a ride, who burns oil for heating water rather than using solar radiated heat and who sits idling at stop lights, 20 deep, 5,000,000 intersections wide, that has now created this tension and this need to fight for land rich with the substance.

When you and your community begin using alternative energy, which is far cheaper than oil by huge margins; Hugh Piggott in Scotland, The OtherPower and WindGenZen.com sites in the U.S. all teach people how to unplug their homes from the grid with equipment made in their garage. And there are a huge number of sites dealing with ethanol and bio-diesel production. When your community educates it's citizens and children and deploys that technology, THEN you can blame the leaders overseas. Until then, you are at the root of this problem, not Saddam, not Osama and not Bush or Blair.

Have you learned how to use alternative energy?

No. Instead you spent time reading editorials like this and watched stories like that, time which could have been educational and productive and in doing so, fueled the war in Iraq from your living room. Your TV uses power too. It's rather obvious that war wasn't over political strife or humanitarian issues or we'd be rushing in to quelch the genocide in the Sudan. When you reduce and then stop burning oil, all this bloody news will subside, the revenue stream funding the Jihad will dwindle and the countries and communities focusing on renewables can expect their economies to improve, their air and water to improve, their lives to improve and their news to improve.

Or perhaps we need to see the bloodshed in the paper and on the telie so we can feel good about the standards of living and remarkable safety we enjoy here at home, easy while enjoying a bag of popcorn and reading a story about the death of reporters, the bombings and beheadings and the loss of innocent children.

An 8 year old girl was killed in that strike that took out Abu Musab al-Zarqaw. Was she bad too? Did you cry over her death? It triggered this editorial comment. I don't care about the butcher who was killed in that attack by U.S. soldiers; good for them for finding him at last. Arabs, Yanks and Brits are all dancing on table tops.

What was her name? That is what I want to know. And we never shall.

Will you now, please, go out to your garage and learn today, to honor her and the children who died there before her and will die after her and the soldiers, my friends, who are dying there now and the Iraqi soldiers, on both sides of that war over oil, those neighbors who are killing each other? It's not about religion; it's about oil and the revenue stream. Please; be realistic. How much oil rich land was given to the Palestinians?

Is a raging civil war in Iraq and news of the slaughter of tens of thousands of villagers in Africa far more enjoyable than going out to the garage, building a wind generator from a $10 piece of wood and a $100.00 motor and learning something new, something peaceful, something good for the kids on the block, good for the kids in Iraq and good for the planet as a whole?

When we point fingers at Arab extremists and no doubt, what they do is horrid; shattering the wonderful possibilities of an emerging nation and fragmenting communities, we can feel justified and dead right to blame them for the slow progress there and the high cost our nations are paying for their eventual stability, should that dream ever materialize.

And when we point fingers at the Arabs in the Sudan slaughtering the African villagers in another war that really boils down to oil, certainly it isn't over grazing land for cattle, again, we can feel self-righteous that we are morally right and those butchers are dead wrong.

And when you look in the mirror, please do me a favor and lift that same finger, point to yourself and say:

'I am going to unplug from the grid this year
and start this weekend and learn how.'

Take a moment and peel yourself away from the blood and bombs in the news and go find the websites and to make it easier to learn, team up and join the online classes and forums that hold your hand each step of the way.

If you are already learning these techniques and applying them to your daily life and intend to continue with your education until you've stopped burning oil, I thank you; this page is for your neighbors to read. Please send them here to learn. This page is actually a class, as much as it is an editorial.

Whether it involves converting your car to a biofuel or putting a wind generator tower on your roof or a 50 foot tower in your backyard, please, for that 8 year old girl that died, for her sake and for your own children, please don't let no television program or government agency or 'expert' discourage you or stop you. You can do this. You'll save money in the long run and you can teach others how.

Men, women and children are being slaughtered all over the planet for oil, not for religion, politics, WMDs or some 2000 year old feud, even if that is the 'excuse' a political leader may use to initiate the bloodshed. In this economy, wars are fought over oil; plain and simple. And it really doesn't matter who you blame, since the person buying that product is you. Not me; I unplugged five years ago and when I see bloodshed over oil, I don't blame the radical butchers doing the deed or the leaders who may or may not be lying about why we are there. I know why we are there fighting each other.

And so do you.

I blame you for her death and the death of my friends fighting there now. I blame you, my friends, my neighbors and in my mind, my dear unenlightened guests here on planet Earth, for being too lazy to read, learn educate yourself and your neighbors and fix the problem at home, that has now led to this nasty situation in the first place.

Who do you blame? If you didn't get up and out to the garage as you finished this article, then who was the educated human, who knew what needs to be done, yet failed to take the measures to fix the problem?

I suggest the real blame rests on the shoulders of that person you see in the mirror or the reflection of your telie's screen or in the rear view mirror of your automobile. Lifting a finger to point elsewhere is easy. Educating yourself and elevating your mind to a new form of energy and lifting a wrench is so much more difficult indeed. Do it anyway; for an innocent 8 year old girl who died so you can drive your car and boil your water with oil beneath her corpse.

To me, she is the real martyr in this war.

Craig of Craigworld.org