In Spring of 1975, at the age of 20, I was living in Beirut, a Christian, married at the time (since AMICABLY divorced) from a Muslim.
I was YOUNG, naive, and inadvertantly, two weeks after my arrival there, found myself in the middle of a war zone, the beginning of the LONG Lebanese civil war.

Thomas, you do not approve of Haitham posting these pictures. I don’t like them either, NO ONE should “like them”, but “approval” is not yours to give or deny.

During the period I lived in Beirut, we lived in a “safe” area of town, on the beach, with a balcony facing eastward. During the day, the shops were open usually, but come dusk, you NEEDED to return home because that is when the fighting would begin. My sister in laws and I would sit on the balcony at night and watch the “fireworks”-only they weren’t fireworks, they were bombs. Somewhere far off, where we could see from a distance, bombs were exploding and guns were rapidly firing.
We KNEW it was bad, we KNEW people were dying, but we did not see it ourselves. Quite frankly, we were voyeurs to a not too distant destruction and massacre. Safe on our balconies, we thought, safe to watch the “smoke”, but safe from the death.

Then one late afternoon, while sitting on the balcony, just across the street below us, a jeep with a gun mounted on top sped into the Spinney’s supermarket and opened fire. People were running everywhere, and several were shot. Several were killed. We could SEE it. We saw the blood, we saw the terror, we SAW death.

We couldn’t eat that night. We didn’t talk much, just sort of waited til nightfall when we wouldn’t be able to sleep due to the bomb noises.
Only a few days later, Spinney’s itself was bombed, our windows blown out, SCARED TO DEATH.

You state, it is the Israel GOVERNMENT who is doing these things to the Palestinians. A “government” is made up of PEOPLE who carry out its’ policies. Those policies could NOT be carried out without the cooperation of the IOF which is made up of soldiers, PEOPLE. These pictures are of the RESULTS of that policy. It is not an inanimate entity which perpetrates this, it is PEOPLE and it is PEOPLE who are the victims. These pictures are HORRENDOUS, they are DEAD, they are blown to smithereens, they are mutilated, they are gone forever, they are lost to all those they loved, NEVER to return. THIS IS WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE THOMAS. This is what OUR government is supporting with its’ millions in aid to Israel. It’s NOT pretty and it is NOT something you can tuck away into some corner of your so-called “respect for the dead” mind because these LIVES were not respected to begin with. To too many people who are NOT related to these victims they are simply a statistic, but they are NOT.
These are human beings JUST LIKE YOU AND ME, and as I so happen to believe, my OWN brothers in sisters created by the SAME loving God who put us all here on earth with the WISH for us to love eachother.

Thomas, I respectfully say, your anger at Haitham for posting these pictures is misplaced. Your anger needs to be put in the CORRECT place,
and that is at the perpetrators, Israel in this case, and at our own government for directly and indirectly continuing to support this policy of genocide against the Palestinian people.

Every single last one of them take the teachings of their religion and warp them to fit whatever needs that they presently have. America uses God to promote corporate greed (manifest destiny) and the newest face of Fascism (democracy), the Jews have the same warped opinion and the muslims have the ALLAH HATES ZIONISTS angle.

Do none of us seem to realize that the God spoken about and loved by all three religions is the SAME DAMN GOD?

All this horse S!@T going on in the world today isn’t about who’s god is swinging the bigger c@ck, it is about greed and lack of personal responsibility. All governments are corrupt in one way shape or form. ALL governments feed its populus with propoganda about it’s enemies. Countries and Governments are what is evil in this world.

We as a civilized people seem to lack the ability to shut our ears to the propoganda and actually take a look at the world around us. Do I as an American believe that every Muslim I see should be shot on sight for terrorism conspiracy, hell no. I know for a fact that there a far more honest, hard working and loving muslims in the world than there are extremists who twist the words of a great man to fit an evil cause. Just as there are both far more Jews and Christians who are the same way, just people who wish to provide for and love their families and friends.

Do I agree with this war in Iraq, F@CK NO, I don’t. Do I support Bush and his whole campaign against terrorism? Not when he invaded a sovereign nation under the premise of a lie only to strip the country of its resources. I am not denying that the US Government is an evil, corrupt Machine. I am not denying that the US Government only acts on things when there is billions in profit to be made from it. But that is the US Govenrment, not the people that this conglomerate machine Governs.

I personally believe that everything I see, from Israel and Palestine to Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Korea, and Sudan are all catastrophic tragedies, with one only being considered worse than the other by those that live with it every day. I am an outside observer in all of this, my life has not been easy by any stretch of imagination, but will never come close to the level of anguish or atrocity that the people in these countries witness every day.

Since I do not pray to any God, let me say that in the name of humanity, my heart goes out to all of you. But the only way that we are EVER going to change things is if we stop listening to those who we have either given power to or have taken it through violence and learn to see with our eyes, think with our minds, and speak with our voices. There is one thing about America that I find sacred, the freedom of speech. The only problem is, this shouldn’t be a luxury that only americans can afford, this should be a necessity that every one is GIVEN.

and as a side note, while I understand the need to get the truth out about the plight of the Palistinian people, whoever posted these pictures should be ashamed. You are not Martyring or respecting the dead and fallen, you are using them to make a point (meaning PROPAGANDIZING) about what the Israeli GOVERNMENT (there’s that word again) has done to the Palistinians.If you want to keep what is going on in your country a tragedy, leave the dead faceless, give them the respect that they deserve and stop using them as a tool.

I notice people here calling America and Isreal evil. And America does cause many problems in the world, this is true. However, blind hatred of ANY side is idiotic. The same blind hatred you feel for them is the kind they will feel for you. You cannot lump all of America, nor all of ANY country or group into one mindset. This is exactly the same thing they do when they justify these wars by 9/11. It is blind hatred at ALL muslims because of the few who acted out of rage. Do you see how it is a circle of hatred? Their hate causes you to hate, which in turn propogates the hatred all around.

The key to peace is never, ever more war. It is not to find our differences and destroy them. It is to come to terms with them and make an agreement. It is to lay down your arms, despite whatever their trespasses on your ancestors were, or what that small group of wrathful has done.

We are all the same, as it has been mentioned before. We all share the same God. (Well, the main religions thought of in this struggle) Instead of squabbling over our differences, it is up to all of us to respect eachother and come to an agreement peacefully.

I’ve just seen these pictures. You can’t go round saying that everyone in the western world is guilty for this because they aren’t its the soldiers out there that are doing it. I have no problem with doing these sort of things to people, there are tramps everywhere that are just asking for it. I think all war is wrong but, the world will be a much better place if we just blew up the middle east.