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Still hanging out; he cites two more
From William Schneider
Cave Junction

They hung Saddam in late-December. Big deal.

There should have been two more bodies dangling: Charles Taylor, of Liberia; and Omar Al Bashir, of Sudan, whose regimes are responsible for much of the terror happening in Africa. Between 2003-2006, 400,000 dead and more than 1 million displaced.

Terror far more heinous than a clean gassing of the multitudes of Kurds. Saddam’s acts are almost clinically sterile compared with what is happening in Africa.

Rather than go into detail, I urge that we become informed as to the literal Hell-on-Earth that is Sudan and other places on the continent where gold and diamonds are awash in blood, and babies are thrown into fires while mothers are raped and hacked to pieces with 15-cent machetes made in China, and child soldiers shoot their parents and siblings with AK-47s (made in China and Russia).

Where the Jangaweed ride through villages hacking and shooting anything and anyone while rounding up girls for sex slaves and boys, 5-, 6-, 9-, 12-years old for soldiers, whose first acts are to shoot their parents, in many instances. All under the guidance and watchful eyes of some world leaders who are not dangling with Saddam, but still carry on their terror as I write.

Family values? War on Terror? Empty echoing rhetoric.

When we think of diamonds and gold let us remember Africa, littered with the corpses of hundreds of thousands of our fellow human beings. When we pray in our churches, maybe ask what is our share of responsibility by the money we spend and things we don’t do for the suffering of others not so far away.

If we saw it down the street, a baby being hacked to death while its mother is being unmentionably abused and tortured, would we still gaze dreamily out the window thinking about how righteously religious we all are? American the Beautiful. Family values and all.

It is happening down the street and just across the ocean. A few hours away by jet. A few hours away. Not far, far away. Close enough to almost touch. As close as, say, Iraq.

As of this writing, as far as I know, Omar Al Bashir still runs Sudan. I am not sure of the status of Charles Taylor. I believe he is still a free man, or should I say monster. Not hanging with
-- but still hanging out.

 

 

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