One word can change the entire meaning of a sentence

I was watching the news today, ok, I admit it was FOX News, and saw a story from the US Pentagon regarding "the war." I heard the reporter say something about the Pentagon and the war against "radical Islam." I thought to myself, the war on radical Islam?? What happened to the war on terror?? Then I thought, well, maybe they're just being more truthful with themselves these days. After all, wasn't the war in Iraq always the war against radical Islam? No, the war in Iraq was supposed to remove Saddam and free the Iraqis. I'm certain the US military knew that there would be people who want to defend themselves in Iraq against the US. Then I thought, whose definition are they using with regards to "radical Islam?" I suppose they made up their own definition. I think the term has been changed from the "war on terror" to the "war on radical Islam" because maybe the government wants to include Iran and Syria.

Unfortunately, now Iraq is being "Balkanized" and instead of having one nationality of Iraqis, it's been turned into divided areas of Sunnis, Shias and Kurds. No one has ever reported on what the actual differences are between Shias and Sunnis anyways. (Ask me, I'll tell you sometime.)

I think President Bush said it best with the following quotes regarding the events of September 11th. "You're either with us or against us." OK, I can understand that type of quote; I mean after all countless innocent people were killed.

Then the next quote came out that ". . . we're on a crusade." A "crusade?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. When I think of the crusades, I think of Christians long ago going out to convert and torture those who were not Christian. Is that what this is all about? What is wrong with Islam, or Buddhism or Hinduism or Judaism?

When the Serbs massacred thousands of Bosnian Muslims in the 1990's the Serbs were not called "radical Christians." (In fact, President Clinton was quite courageous to stand up for the Bosnians.)

Hitler and Milosevic were very much the same. Hitler first exterminated the Jews, then the Poles, the Slovaks, the Hungarians, and anyone else who didn't buy into his ideology. No one deemed him a "radical Christian" either.

One thing I have learned from living in Egypt is that we are all the same no matter what religion we are, what country we are from, or what language we speak. Maybe people ought to travel abroad to expand their minds a little and take off the blinders. Maybe just maybe people would like what they see.

First They Came for the Jews

First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Pastor Martin Niemöller

Ma'salaam,

Marian