travels to the U.S. offers a chilling commentary on U.S. conduct Americans have not only failed to condemn, but ignored.
"The Paradoxical Commandments |
People are illogical, unreasonable, and
self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of
selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false
friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten
tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you
vulnerable.
Be honest and frank
anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest
ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest
minds.
Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top
dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs
anyway.
What you spend years building may be
destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you
if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you'll
get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have
anyway."
- Kent M. Keith, The
Silent Revolution:
November 03/04, 2013 |
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Click Here For Hard News Items |
Click Here For Cost Of War |
Malala and Nabila: Worlds
Apart
Unlike Malala Yousafzai, Nabila Rehman did not receive a welcoming greeting in Washington DC. By Murtaza Hussain "Nabila, a slight girl of nine with striking hazel eyes, asked a simple question in her testimony: 'What did my grandmother do wrong?'" writes Murtaza Hussain [Reuters]
November 03, 2013
"Information
Clearing House - On October 24, 2012 a Predator drone flying over North
Waziristan came upon eight-year old Nabila Rehman, her siblings, and their
grandmother as they worked in a field beside their village home. Her
grandmother, Momina Bibi, was teaching the children how to pick okra as the
family prepared for the coming Eid holiday. However on this day the terrible
event would occur that would forever alter the course of this family's life. In
the sky the children suddenly heard the distinctive buzzing sound emitted by the
CIA-operated drones - a familiar sound to those in the rural Pakistani villages
which are stalked by them 24 hours a day - followed by two loud clicks. The
unmanned aircraft released its deadly payload onto the Rehman family, and in an
instant the lives of these children were transformed into a nightmare of pain,
confusion and terror. Seven children were wounded, and Nabila's grandmother was
killed before her eyes, an act for which no apology, explanation or
justification has ever been given.
This
past week Nabila, her schoolteacher father, and her 12-year-old brother travelled to Washington DC to tell their
story and to seek answers about the events of that day. However,
despite overcoming incredible obstacles in order to travel from their remote
village to the United States, Nabila and her family were roundly ignored. At the
Congressional hearing where they gave testimony, only five out of 430
representatives showed up. In the words of Nabila's father to those few who did
attend: "My daughter does not have the
face of a terrorist and neither did my mother. It just doesn't make sense to me,
why this happened… as a teacher, I wanted to educate Americans and let them know
my children have been injured."
The
translator broke down in tears while recounting their
story, but the government made it a point to snub this family and ignore the
tragedy it had caused to them. Nabila, a slight girl of nine with striking hazel
eyes, asked a simple question in her testimony: "What did my grandmother do
wrong?" There was no one to answer this question, and few who cared to even
listen. Symbolic of the utter contempt in which the government holds the people
it claims to be liberating, while the Rehmans recounted their plight, Barack
Obama was spending the same time meeting with the CEO of weapons manufacturer Lockheed
Martin.
Selective Memory
It is useful
to contrast the American response to Nabila Rehman with that of Malala
Yousafzai, a young girl who was nearly assassinated by the Pakistani Taliban.
While Malala was feted by Western media figures, politicians and civic leaders
for her heroism, Nabila has become simply another one of the millions of
nameless, faceless people who have had their lives destroyed over the past
decade of American wars. The reason for this glaring discrepancy is obvious.
Since Malala was a victim of the Taliban, she, despite her protestations, was
seen as a potential tool of political propaganda to be utilized by war
advocates. She could be used as the human face of their effort, a symbol of the
purported decency of their cause, the type of little girl on behalf of whom the
United States and its allies can say they have been unleashing such incredible
bloodshed. Tellingly, many of those who took up her name and image as a symbol
of the justness of American military action in the Muslim world did not even care enough to listen to her own words or
feelings about the subject.
As described
by the Washington Post's Max Fisher:
But where
does Nabila fit into this picture? If extrajudicial killings, drone strikes and
torture are in fact all part of a just-cause associated with the liberation of
the people of Pakistan, Afghanistan and elsewhere, where is the sympathy or even
simple recognition for the devastation this war has caused to countless little
girls such as her? The answer is clear: The only people to be recognized for
their suffering in this conflict are those who fall victim to the enemy. Malala
for her struggles was to be made the face of the American war effort - against her own will if necessary - while
innumerable little girls such as Nabila will continue to be terrorized and
murdered as part of this war without end. There will be no celebrity appearances
or awards ceremonies for Nabila. At her testimony almost no one even bothered to
attend.
But if they
had attended, they would've heard a nine year old girl asking the questions
which millions of other innocent people who have had their lives thrown into
chaos over the past decade have been asking: "When I hear that they are going
after people who have done wrong to America, then what have I done wrong to
them? What did my grandmother do wrong to them? I didn't do anything
wrong."
Murtaza Hussain is a
Toronto-based writer and analyst focused on issues related to Middle Eastern
politics.
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