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Memories of the 28th Century

This Is My Home

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I had been thinking about Afghanistan and Rumsfeld, and I have a wonderful blog begun based on that, but it is a depressing subject, and I felt like something pleasanter, even thought Rumsfeld had me thinking about propaganda, but propaganda works both ways.

Burr's conspiracy was damnable, but it probably wasn't treason. They should have let him continue for a few months, and that would have let the story become clear. If Burr was planning to take a chunk of Texas on lease, then that would have been legal; the lease already existed. If burr was intending to take the Louisiana territory in addition, then there was a problem. He wouldn't have succeeded, but it would have been the treason.

Jefferson sent a stack of blank pardons to be handed out to any who were not traitorous, but we never learned 3who those might have been, except for Mr. Nolan, the hero of “The Man Without a Country”. As I understand it, the intention of the story was to make Americans think of themselves as citizens of the U.S.A., rather than of their own countries, the states. The story was written during the Civil War, so the importance was clear, and one example of someone thinking his own country was more important was General Lee. He had been sitting it out, until Virginia seceded; Lee went along.

The Story was intended to make people think in a new way, and it was largely successful, because it encouraged Americans to think that the decisions of the federal government were special. That concept was part of what I had been thinking about Rumsfeld and the Afghan War.

It is seldom mentioned that Mullah Omar wanted to get rid of Bin Laden, and in the Summer of 2001, Omar had offered to pin Bin Laden down so that the U.S.A could could take him away. Many people didn't realize that Bin Laden was the enemy of all countries. He got funding from individuals, because governments wanted him dead.

There was a very good reason for a raid to capture Bin Laden, but there was no reason for an invasion in force. Rumsfeld and W hadn't accepted Omar's offer, because they thought that he was someone other than who he was. And they didn't even request assistance from him when they decided to try to take Bin Laden, because they thought that Bin Laden and Omar were allies. Taliban are religious students, and they were trying to act that way in 2001, but W wanted to have a war, so he did, and for most Americans following “their home, their native land” was the thing to do.


Edward Everett Hale wrote a good story with a powerful ending, but in retrospect he was mistaken. Nolan should have pointed to whichever state or region had was from and said “This is my home.”

I hope that Americans will remember that just because politicians say we should invade a country is no reason to attack anyone. Twenty years later we are finally getting out of Afghanistan. Bin Laden is dead, but that is all that the U.S. got from twenty years of invasion and occupation of a country that never hurt us. Some will assert that Afghanistan hid and protected Bin Laden, but the Afghan government had tried to get the U.S. To take Bin Laden away months before 9/11.

Yes, twenty years of war, and we can't get even good hashish anymore.


The Man Without a Country
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16493
Hale was a very good and popular writer of the 19th century, so you might check out more stories. Lost One Palace, Brick Moon, and several others are great.

Updated 07-08-2021 at 03:37 PM by PeterL

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Comments

  1. Buh4Bee's Avatar
    Some would agree with you about the uselessness of this endless war until recently.
  2. tonywalt's Avatar
    People like war. Except me and a few others. Unfortunately we are stuck with the human race, if there was a calmer better race -well, I would happily join them.
  3. PeterL's Avatar
    The only value that wars have is to eliminated some of the excess population.
  4. free's Avatar
  5. PeterL's Avatar
    You may have missed my blog of 07-25-2020. I believe that I covered this matter. The idea that it is a simultaion is amusing, but it falls apart when regarded carefully.
    http://www.online-literature.com/for...tion&bt=66279#