Moral duty to our nation

Saturday, January 13, 2007
MORAL DUTY TO OUR NATION
MORAL DUTY TO OUR NATION
MISCONCEPTIONS: REPLY TO VENUGOPAL YAVESH RANA MANU_ME D.A EASHWAR IYER53 & AMIT KAUSHAL •WHO STARTED THIS WITH HIS EXPERIENCES IN AUSTRALIA ! ALSO CITIZEN KANE , INFIDEL & OUR REGULAR TRADER •WHO SLIPS IN HIS STOCK QUOTES !
Hello fellow Bloggers !
The last few days have seen some hectic blogging on religion and it is a pity that almost ALL of you have backed out and only Venugopal & Me are left in the fray- AND through our arguments •we have become friends • and he was a past resident of Bahrain too-Right Mr Venu ?
I also notice that there is a time lag between my posting from Bahrain and your local Indian Posting (maybe our WORLD clocks are not synchronized) and further I get to post only ONE line comments •when Mr Venu & Ranaji can detail their comments. Thus my comments seem out of context •unless you are online of course !
I would like to compile all these blogs starting with Amit Kaushal & Citizen Kane’ in the beginning of 2007 into a short book form and mail it to each of you- If you have no problems to read them and make your own judgements- then please send me your Email ID’s on the blog OR to me nribahrain@gmail.com
Religion as we all know- is in each and everyone of US. We all belong to the same GOD or as Venu puts it WE ARE ALL GODS ! BUT understanding our prejudices and making our corrections is what we in society have to do.- to establish a peaceful atmosphere. In the beginning people were outright calling me a “Terrrorist” because I support my religion ISLAM. I also appreciate your concern when points are made about Baghwan Sri Krishna, Rama OR Other GODS ! BUT let us NOT MISS the point here. We are all Human Beings and OUR life is not eternal and threatened even more by WAR ,Disease, Famine & Floods !
It becomes our duty to enlighten others •on the various aspects of religion and life • NOT like George BUSH •who is bent upon starting the III GULF WAR OR the 3rd WORLD WAR !- His troops have already bombed Afghanistan and IRAQ into the early 19th Century and now they are in Somalia and other parts of AFRICA ! Just because he is in Power and talks like a Crazy Politician - does not mean that all AMERICANS are the same . Here is one story top enlighten you on what an American Soldier thinks of his own President & Country.
We as Indians need to keep up the traditions of Democracy Alive •And support our legal Justice system-which has recently come of age ! Their Judgements are indeed groundbreaking and expulsion of MP’s being Upheld •or Murder & Jail Convictions for
High profile Defendants • and soon the re-opening of the Debate and Judicial Scrutiny of the IX Schedule LAWS ! (For those who have not read on the IX Schedule •opinion by Fali S Nariman • I would suggest you read it ) It was a backdoor LAW to circumvent OUR Fundamental Rights as Citizens of INDIA • with equal opportunity for ALL. Muslims and OBC OR DALITS AND HARIJANS have been classified as Backwards and reservation to a certain level is acceptable • Beyond that •it becomes counter productive and takes the WRATH of fellow citizens ! The Mandal Report and Mandal Agitations- Ambedkar Statue defacing etc …are products of this mentality .
Let us • as Indians give true meaning to the word RESERVATIONS and give a helping hand to the poor and needy Indians- whatever caste or CREED ! At times it fills my heart to read that a poor IIT’ian has been offered 6 figure salaries in a US Company.- It helps and reservations OR Quotas have helped • BUT it should never have been based on religious context ! I as a muslim am saying this ! All Dalits , Muslims, OBC’s Schedule Castes Harijans OR Brahmins, Christians, Jews, Parsis Sikhs • anybody below the poverty line •have to be supported NOT only in Education BUT also given Medical , social and financial help.
We as a nation are expanding at a fast pace and if we as Indians should come to be the next superpower- we have to rise above caste discriminations ! I comment Justice K.G.Balakrishnan on becoming the First Dalit Chief Justice of India from today and look forward to many more such success stories from among the POOR in INDIA !
I guess you fellow bloggers might lose some time and money reading this and the attached American View • BUT surely as a luckier Indian- with education and access to computers • you have to update your knowledge and impart social Justice and equality among our fellow INDIANS !
AS A FIRST STEP- LET US TODAY TAKE A VOW • NEVER TO PAY A BRIBE OR RECEIVE ONE • AND UPHOLD THE CONSTITUTION OF OUR COUNTRY AND PROTECT IT FROM THE CORRUPT POLITICIANS AND SUPPORT OUR RULE OF LAW •IN ALL THAT WE DO- EVEN IF IT IS AT A LOSS TO OUR OWN SELVES !
JAI HIND
Attached : An american soldier’s story !
A Young Marine Speaks Out
by Philip Martin grimmythedog@netscape.net
I'm sick and tired of this patriotic, nationalistic and fascist crap. I stood through a memorial service today for a young Marine that was killed in Iraq back in April. During this memorial a number of people spoke about the guy and about his sacrifice for the country. How do you justify 'sacrificing' your life for a war which is not only illegal, but is being prosecuted to the extent where the only thing keeping us there is one man's power, and his ego. A recent Marine Corps intelligence report that was leaked said that the war in the al-Anbar province is unwinnable. It said that there was nothing we could do to win the hearts and minds, or the military operations in that area. So I wonder, why are we still there? Democracy is not forced upon people at gunpoint. It's the result of forward thinking individuals who take the initiative and risks to give their fellow countrymen a better way of life.
When I joined I took an oath. In that oath I swore to protect the Constitution of the United States. I didn't swear to build democracies in countries on the other side of the world under the guise of "national security." I didn't join the military to be part of an Orwellian ("1984") war machine that is in an obligatory war against whoever the state deems the enemy to be so that the populace can be controlled and riled up in a pro-nationalistic frenzy to support any new and oppressive law that will be the key to destroying the enemy. Example given • the Patriot Act. So aptly named, and totally against all that the constitution stands for. President Bush used the reactionary nature of our society to bring our country together and to infuse into the national psyche a need to give up their little-used rights in the hope to make our nation a little safer. The same scare tactics he used to win elections. He drones on and on about how America and the world would be a less safe place if we weren't killing Iraqis, and that we'd have to fight the terrorists at home if we weren't abroad. In our modern day emotive society this strategy (or strategery?) works, or had worked, up until last month's elections.
My point in this; to show that America was never nationalistic. If anything they were Statalistic (giving their allegiance to the state of their residence). This is shown in the fact that the founders created states with fully capable and independent governments and not provinces that were just a division of the federal government. These men believed that America was a place where imperialistic values would be non-existent. Where the people trying to make their lives better by working hard, thinking, inventing and using the free market would tie up so much of normal life that imperialistic colonization and the fighting of wars thousands of miles away for interests that are not our own would be avoided. They believed this expansion of power could be left to the European nations, the England, France and Spain of their time. However this recent, and current influx of nationalistic feeling has created an environment where giving up your rights, going to a foreign country to fight a people who did not ask for us to be there, nor did their leader do anything to warrant us being there, and dying would be considered honorable and heroic. I don't believe it anymore. I don't believe it's right for any American to go along with it anymore. Yes I know that we in the military are bound by the UCMJ and somehow don't fall under the Constitution (the very thing we're suppose to be defending) but sooner or later there is a decision that every American soldier, marine, airmen and seamen makes to allow themselves to be sent to a war that is against every fiber this country was founded on. I know that when April rolls around I will be thinking long and hard on that decision. Even though we in the military are just doing as we're told we still have the moral and ethical obligation to choose to do as we're told, or to say, "No, that isn't right." I believe that if more troopers like me and the professional military, the officers and commanders, start standing up and saying that they won't let themselves or their troops go to this illegal war people will start standing up and realizing what the heck is going on over there.
The sad fact of the matter is that we are not fighting terrorists in Iraq. We are fighting the Iraqi people who feel like a conquered and occupied people. Personally I have a hard time believing that if I was an Iraqi that I wouldn't be doing everything in my power to kill and maim as many Americans as possible. I know that the vast majority of Americans would not be happy with the Canadian government, or any other foreign government, liberating us from the clutches of George W. Bush, even though a large number of us would like that, and forcing us to accept their system of government. Would not millions of Americans rise up and fight back? Would you not rise up to protect and defend your house and your neighborhood if someone invaded your country? But we send thousands of troops to a foreign country to do just that. How is it moral to fight a people who are just trying to defend their homes and families? I think next time I go to Iraq perhaps I should wear a bright red coat and carry a Brown Bess instead of my digitalized utilities and M16.
Notice I never once used the word homeland in any of this. I have a secondary point I want to bring up now. Never once was the term homeland ever used to describe the country of America until Mr. Bush began the department of homeland security after the 9/11 attacks. Taking a 20th century history class will teach us that the most notable countries in the last century that referred to their country in this way were Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. Hitler used the term fatherland to drum up support, nationalistic support, for his growing war machine. He used the nationalism he created in the minds of the Germans to justify the sacrifice of their livelihood to build the war machine to get back their power from the oppressive restrictions the English and French had put on them at Versailles. This is the same feeling that has been virulently infecting the American psyche in the last hundred years. This is the same feeling that consoles a mother after her son is killed in an attempt to prosecute an aggressor's war 10,000 miles away. It's also known as Patriotism these days, but I say, "No more." No more nationalistic inanity, no more passing it off as patriotism. Patriotism is learning, and educating oneself to understand what their country really stands for.
I heard a lot during the memorial service about how the dead Marine did so much good for others and how his helping others was like a little microcosm of America helping because we have the power to do so. Well if we have the power to help people why aren't we helping in Darfur where hundreds of thousands of people have died in the last 10 years. Saddam was convicted and sentenced to death for killing 143 Shiites who conspired to assassinate him. (I know all you "patriotic" Americans would be calling for the heads of anyone who conspired to assassinate supreme leader Bush). And yet we spend upwards of 1 trillion dollars and nearing 3,000 lives to help these Iraqis when they don't even want us there. Not to mention we don't have the legal justification to be there. I guess we should wait around for the omnipotent W Bush to decide who we should use our superpowerdom to help next. It's about time to throw him and the rest of the fascists out. Moreover it's about time to start educating Americans about their past and history, and letting them know that imperialistic leaders are not what the founders of this great country wanted.
December 8, 2006Philip Martin [send him mail] has been a Marine for 2 years. He is in the infantry (a "grunt"), and spent 7 months in the al-Anbar province of Iraq. He went on more than 180 combat patrols in and outside of the city of Fallujah, where he was hit with 2 IEDs (luckily never injured) and was involved in a number of firefights. He is currently stationed in Twentynine Palms, CA, and due to return to Iraq for a second deployment in April 2007. He is 21-years-old.
5:24:32 PM
Posted By K Muneerudeen Comments (3) Society
Comments
K.Venugopal Saturday, January 13, 2007 6:20:53 PM
Dear Muneer (we are friends and on first-name basis), Not exactly, I was not in Bahrain. I said I was an expatriate like you.
K.Venugopal Saturday, January 13, 2007 6:48:41 PM
It's great that you are compiling some blogs into a short book form. I appreciate your sincerity and enthusiasm. My e-mail id is venu1005@hotmail.com
K.Venugopal Saturday, January 13, 2007 7:31:38 PM
Dear Muneer, Your blog is fantastic and it surely should be made the blog of the day and should stay there for quite some time. I agree with every single word you have written. It appears we have difference only when we speak about religion. Well, let us agree to disagree. I also do not see eye to eye with you on Bush. I think he is doing a gallant job fighting terrorism, sad as the collataral damages are.

shocked Saturday, January 13, 2007 7:36:05 PM
muneerudin r u real cant blieve

MUNEERUDEEN Sunday, January 14, 2007 12:39:26 AM
VenugopaljiNow we are ! Muscat -Bahrain Kya farak pada .Ushar Sultan Idhar King .Yes we agree to disagree now and agree later maybe !Mr Shocked- I AM FOR REAL in flesh & blood and PRACTICE WHAT I PREACH !

Roger Sunday, January 14, 2007 6:31:34 PM
Muneeruddin and Venugopal, why this obsession with religion? If there is a God, then one's religious beliefs will have no bearing on what happens in the hearrafter. God will be above such human frailties. If there is no God, then it will not matter anyway.
MUNEERUDEEN Monday, January 15, 2007 12:32:11 AM
RogerVenugopal is an RSS pracharak and I am a practising Muslim. We both Agreed to Disagree on our outlook towards religion BUT we Both AGREE to Agree that there is ONE OMNIPRESNT GOD !- Any problems ?
Roger Monday, January 15, 2007 4:29:29 AM
Muneeruddin, whether there is or is'nt is something that will never be known. But if you both agree on ONE omnipotenr God, then why the neccesity to prove one faith is superior to the other?
MUNEERUDEEN Wednesday, January 17, 2007 2:42:32 AM
No one is talking about superiority of faith - Its only when you say "I AM GOD" that it makes everybody else look silly !Weather there is OR Isnt -wILL be KNOWN -not never be KNOWN -ROGER !
K.Venugopal Saturday, January 20, 2007 6:02:45 PM
Dear Roger, For me religion is not an obsession but just a teaching that gives us the higher spiritual truths. When the subject is being spoken of, I add my inputs - that's all.Your conclusion that it will never be known whether there is God or not is debatable. But before deciding on that, we might want to know what we mean by God. Although everybody would agree that God is whatever it is that is absolute, our relationship to that God is what people tend to disagree on.