[Note: This blog appears as it was first posted in 2006]
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
- Buckminster Fuller
Like most up and running American Democrats I tend to be optimistic about most things political. Optimism is built into the foundation of this Democratic Republic and is evident especially with our national respect for common sense and pragmatic realism. In our time we are seriously challenged but international terror and instability won’t ever sink us – however it sure has got our attention. I’m confident that American culture in due time will once again ‘learn’ from living out and paying for our current mistakes – which lie mainly with failed protocols and some very ignorant leadership decisions. Despite our generally shallow media coverage – which often causes Americans to have a retarded comprehension of certain otherwise simple truths – we Americans somehow keep progressing – albeit perhaps slowly – toward ‘the facts.’ We do know that if we don’t learn the lessons of history – then history will likely ‘repeat itself.’ My hope for a world at peace is that public education will broaden so that yet another generation of Americans won’t have to labor through rediscovering and redealing with similar layers of irrationality and ignorance in their laws, economy and government.
When there is a persistent problem Americans like to get to the bottom of it – to figure out the ‘why’ of it. This is especially so today when every single American is now confronted with an irrational ruthlessness welling up all over the world. We’re tired of politicians who explain this by simply trotting out and rehashing those worn out ‘clichés’ – that just don’t add up. We’re sick of them trying to convince us for example that our health care system – operating as it does as a ‘for profit’ enterprise for and by insurance companies – is ‘better’ than a pure healthcare system whose sole purpose is to provide healthcare. We’re fed up too with those who inform us that we must cut back on our public education funding because a few of our politicking billionaires seem so badly in need of tax relief. And also – frankly – no one really believes that the Army, Navy and Air Force can’t do their own cooking, dishes and laundry without costly help from ‘private contractors’ – like VP Dick Cheney’s old cash cow – Halliburton! And as a nation with millions of aging adults too – we’re becoming bored and listless from hearing repeat after repeat of the fiction about how the Arabs hate us so because they are jealous of our wealth – and the free lifestyle of our women who drive cars without covering their faces in public and all! The jokes about Arab Muslims who want to die fighting infidels so they’ll get their promised virgins up in heaven – come on media folks – it ain’t at all funny any more! Americans aren’t that dumb! Now that we’ve lost thousands of our young fighting men and women and ‘luxuriated’ our paranoia to the trillions by our ongoing military and diplomatic ignorances – we Americans are now hurting enough to be plenty mad! Enough of this silliness I say! Let’s face the hard truth and come up with some real solutions.
The greatest strength of America’s mindset is our ability to unite behind common sense when we realize collectively that only common sense can solve our problem. We have proven that we are a land of exceptional innovators and inventors – committed over time not only to being ‘realistic’ but also ‘pragmatic’ when seeking much needed solutions. We can and do make mistakes of course – but we can and do eventually fix them as well.
For several decades now I’ve been made aware of the bloody turmoils that are corrupting the Middle East. After these many years I have come up with a suggestion that I hope can help speed along a profoundly beneficial solution for both the non-Zionist Israeli and the Arab side and for the Middle Eastern Region as a whole – and especially for us here in America – by saving United States taxpayers at least $3,000,000 per year. This will require that only ONE vital point of common sense be diplomatically tied to our support for Israel by our government in order for this peace process to almost instantly commence.
We need to remind ourselves of the Democratic Agenda we have so proudly inaugurated and now launched in contentious Iraq. In Iraq our goal is to unite all the diverse parties – Sunnis, Shias and Kurds – within a single Democratic government. This is our avowed agenda to bring on peace and prosperity for Iraq and all we need to do is apply this same diplomatic rationale to the contentious Israel-Palestine problem. And why not? The world sees that it is only America that funds and arms Israel so when Israel makes a blunder we too are blamed – hence the World Trade Center bombings and the outflow in the billions for homeland security protection plan contracts. Consequently we need to insist on supporting only our own mainstay virtues of American Democracy in all our dealings concerning Israel and the rest of occupied Palestine. This means that we must make clear that we Americans are not Zionists – and that every democracy that we Americans help build or fund with our own hard earned tax dollars and potent military hardware must be 100% secular – like we are – and that each citizen-inhabitant must be treated equally before the law. That is, there can be no exclusive theocracy or nepotistic tribalism allowed or even tolerated if any American tax dollars or armaments are going to be used to fund, support or defend it. This will mean that instead of the “two country” policy ‘solution’ – which is not a solution and never will be (e.g. Hamas) – must be abandoned in favor of a ”one country solution” like the one we have fought for and now lauched at great cost in Iraq – or else all our support will stop. When and if this is adopted by our government as its new policy for Israel-Palestine it will mean that eventually the voting population of Israel-Palestine will become more and more Palestinian. This will mean that the compromises favoring ‘justice for all’ that are not being addressed now – will surely be addressed as the Palestinian votes add up within this new Democratic country – by vote, not by force – which is of course the only way a true democracy should work.
When this policy is in place – like we are attempting in Iraq – each citizen of Israel-Palestine will get one vote – whether Israeli or Palestinian, Jew, agnostic, Christian or Muslim. When such a broad and honorable way of dealing with the entire “Middle East Crisis” becomes widely known as the official American foreign policy – then we will be seen by all parties to be treating all people involved equally and fairly – and terror against Americans worldwide will subside dramatically. Then and only then can there ever be justice for all sides in that troubled region. Then and only then will suicide terrorism gradually become extinct as a means for the dispossessed to get even for a previous wrong. Then and only then can a realistic and final unraveling of the Middle East’s ‘Gordian Knot’ truly begin.
Wes Wilson – August 14, 2006
