(Note: This essay is very old and outdated, and only represents my views at the time I had written this. I've kept this essay as-is because it is how I felt at the time. Frankly, I think George W. Bush should be arrested for what he is complicit in.)
In the short 25 years of my life, I have seen many atrocities against humanity on television. The trampling of rights by the massacre at Tienanmen Square in China. The killings at Columbine High School committed by a couple of hateful students who couldn't deal with their anger and filled their minds with depravity. And now this month the world has seen how far Islamic terrorists can go in their vehemence towards the Western world.
I woke up around 6:20am on Wednesday the 12th here in Japan when the phone rang. It was my mother-in-law, and she asked me if I knew about the terrorist attack on the TV. I had no idea what was going on and I couldn't quite understand what she said in Japanese, so I handed the phone to my wife Mayu and turned on the television. I saw the footage of the airplanes colliding into the World Trade Center and I couldn't believe it. But all the media coverage was in Japanese, so I had no idea what was going on. I didn't have time to go on the Internet to read the news, so I called my mother back home in America and had her explain things to me. It was 2:30pm back home in Arizona, and she had been watching it all day on TV and she was badly shaken.
I was weak in the knees and I just sat down on the floor in front of my TV. I was in shock as I watched the footage at New York and the Pentagon replaying. It was like watching something out of a movie. The science fiction movie Independence Day came to mind as I recalled how the White House and famous buildings across America and the world were the epicenters of devastation during an alien attack. I saw that movie at the huge, old Harkin's Cine Capri in downtown Phoenix on opening night. I remembered how so many people cheered when the White House was zapped. But with this event in reality, nobody was cheering, except for the terrorists. Normally when terrorists hold airplanes hostage, they demand money or the release of prisoners or something. But this was just insane. No terrorist attack like this has ever happened before. Not on such a grand scale like this. As they showed footage from CBS, as the plane collided with the second tower, I heard a woman near the camera say "This can't be fucking happening!" (Or something to that effect.) At that moment, the reality of what had happened and the reality of so many people dying and I started to cry. I couldn't control myself.
Not only was this an attack against America, but it was an attack against Christianity as well. What the media isn't telling everyone is that these people aren't only just against Western culture and the freedoms we represent, but they are also out to kill as many Jews and Christians as possible. And unfortunately, the Koran says that it is their duty to "kill the infidels." I personally haven't read the Koran to know what context this is in, but these terrorists take it to basically mean "anyone who is not Islamic." They teach children in schools in these Arab countries how to become terrorists. They teach them that one of the most precious things (if not the most precious thing) is to kill a Christian in their lifetime. They are willing to die as long as they can kill as many Christians as possible, and that is what motivates them. And these psychopaths are too stupid to realize that not every American is Christian. They think we're all the same and so we all must die. The thing is, I don't care about their stupid religion, so I wish they'd just leave us alone. Yet all over the world, in countries like Egypt, Palestine and Afghanistan, Indonesia and the Philippines as well as all over Africa, Muslims are killing Christians. They are bent on destroying Christianity and killing Christians. That's what they won't tell you in the mainstream news media.
It was an outrage to see those Palistinians celebrating in the streets, throwing candy to children because thousands of innocent people had died. I've seen pictures of children holding machine guns up high and the smiles on their faces, just like the picture to the right. The ironic thing is, they're covered with America. Just look at their clothing! They apparently hate America and Western civilization so much, but they obviously they aren't spending much effort to distance themselves from us. I don't see them wearing turbans and such. They're oozing with our culture all over! It's difficult to see in the picture to the right, but the boy in the lower right hand corner is wearing an Indiana Jones T-shirt! Such hypocracy sickens me.
The one good thing about this whole atrocity is that it is showing how truly patriotic Americans can be. I figured that people had given up on the idea of patriotism until this occurred. Did the terrorists think that we wouldn't retaliate, so that they could just go back to opressing their women? No. I disagreed with how freely former President Clinton had misused our military to discipline other countries by bombing the hell out of them for their civil wars and ethnic conflicts that have been around for centuries. But when somebody has the guts to attack America on our own soil, most Americans want justice. People opposed to war with the Taliban are very few.
And speaking of Clinton, this event is showing us the true colors of some Americans. I didn't know whether or not I ought to have been angry or amused when Clinton gave a speech at Georgetown University earlier this month, saying that America basically deserved to be attacked like this because we had once owned slaves and that America had fought in the crusades or whatever the hell he said. The man is just a moron who is just as unpatriotic and un-American as he was back in the 60's when he was burning U.S. flags in Europe.
I don't live in America at the moment and I haven't visited home since last summer, but from what my friends and family have told me, American flags are everywhere. Americans are united once again in the face of danger from a hateful enemy. And I am very glad that we have George W. Bush as President. I couldn't imagine what it would be like with Al Gore in charge. We do not need somebody who writes environmental doomsday books. We need somebody strong.
Read about my life as an otaku next for a bit lighter subject.
Go back to the "Greg's Life" Table of Contents
Save a flag! Burn a protester!