Did you notice… the Spring has arrived!

Did you notice… Spring has arrived!
I saw needle like leaves with white line in the middle sprouting first along our driveway, then in the patch in the middle of the front yard. Umm. i haven’t seen this kind of weed before. Next or the day after what do I see? Beautiful white yellow purple…. purple flowers. I am reminded of Iqbal’s:

phool hain sahra main ya paryan Qatar under Qatar
neeley neeley ooday ooday peelay peelay pairahan.

Finally it dawns on me that these early welcome guests are crocuses. Did I plant them? Was it last year or the year before? I know for sure no crocuses bloomed last year.
Next came blue/purple hyacinths, what happened to the pink/red ones? Daffodils with all varying shades and combinations of while, yellow and orange are making their appearance. I can’t wait for tulips to start blooming, oh what a sight it would be, bright pink, red, yellow deep purple almost black, in other words all the colors of the rainbow.

Coreopsis, a burst of yellow all along the drive way and the sidewalk, I think irises bloom before coreopsis. While glorious flowers in all their splendor of hues and colors come and go roses continue to grace my yard for most of the spring, summer and the fall months. Last year I also had rose of Sharon made its maiden appearance. Sylvia, a neighbor, and I had kinda stolen samplings from the roadside the year before and planted in our yards. And then there are so many native plants that bloom in most delightful colors. I think I have enough flowers in my front yard that it would not be an exaggeration to call it a garden

In my neighbor’s yard a stick of a tree does not have a single leaf but is laden with white blossoms, She also has the most gorgeous while camellias in addition to other flowering and non- plants including rose bushes and rose of Sharon.


When all the cruelty, the injustices, the destruction and all the man made misery gets me down I take a walk - splendor of nature lifts my spirits like nothing else!

History repeating itself in Iraq, Afghanistan

My letter that appeared in Peoria Journal Star is reproduced here along with readers comments

History repeating itself in Iraq, Afghanistan
Monday, January 29, 2007
"People of the governorate of Baghdad, we come here not as conquerors but as liberators to free you from generations of tyranny." Those weren't the words of an
American general, but of Gen. Angus Maude, when the British invaded Iraq in 1917.
When the "insurgency" started, the British intelligence sent a telegram from Baghdad to London: "Terrorists are crossing the Iraqi border from Syria."
Due to large British casualties, war became unpopular. Prime Minister Lloyd George addressed the House of Commons: "If British troops leave Iraq, there will be chaos, civil war."
History is being repeated not only in Iraq, but also in Afghanistan. For more than a century during their rule on the Indian subcontinent, the British could not subdue the Afghans. Can Americans?
In December 2001, I visited Pakistan. Being neighbors and a Muslim country, Pakistanis were quite upset.
The news of traumatic effects of relentless bombing on children and civilians across the border added fuel to fire. The majority of Pakistanis were convinced that it was a crusade on Islam all over again. They did not believe that Muslims were responsible for 9-11. They believe it is part of a greater, anti-Islamic movement in the West.
Who can blame them, especially when U.S. President George W. Bush used the word crusade? The worst was yet to come. What's next, Iran?

Comments:

john: If you people want to play big brother to the world ...... and thats what were going to haft to do because terriost are all over the world not just in afganisatn and Iraq .There everywhere arnt they? THese people have been at each other for a thousand years and we will never WIN as you put it. Whats there to win ? How do you define WIN? What exactly did MISSION ACCOMPLISHED mean? We were LIED to. It was a HUGE cover up FACE IT.

chris: I would like to commend Mr. Ahmed on a thought provoking letter. However, he should be very careful about quoting historical facts. I am not a historian, but a quick Google search showed that the General�s name and quote are not correct.

My guess is that Mr. Ahmed repeating an improperly quoted text from an interview with Robert Fisk. www.cfr.org

The correct name of the general is Frederick Stanley Maude en.wikipedia.org and the quotation should be,

��our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators.� www.harpers.org


cgiselle 12
Great letter, Ms. Ahmed. Excellent historical analysis. If only Americans today could understand it! Iraq had and still has nothing to do with 9/11. I can only pray Big Al and those likeminded will wake up and realize attacking Iran would be an unmitigated disaster. Time for foreign policy to rear it's cooler and smarter head, and we shoot down all these hawks among us.

Big Al
This comparison is a non sequitur. The peace loving people there are having elections, not being colonized. Iraq, Iran, Syria, Saudi, wherever terrorists are training and being supported made 9-11 possible, and as such are necessarily in the crosshairs. Taking out Iran would be a disaster- for Ahmadinejad. Just ask Saddam. Oh, yea- he's dead!

The White House says there has been growing evidence over the last several months that Iran is supporting terrorists inside Iraq and is a major supplier of bombs and other weapons used to target U.S. forces. In recent weeks, U.S. forces have detained a number of Iranian agents in Iraq.


www.foxnews.com

BTW How do their women feel about that whole 72 virgins deal?
If they (Iran's leaders) continue in their dangerous, provocative course, the answer is obviously yes. By your tone and from your name, I presume you are a Muslim. Unless you are also in denial about the facts of 9-11, you could serve the cause of peace by speaking out for tolerance and co-existence rather than fueling the Islamic extremist rhetoric.

The people being "subdued" are the terrorists. Perhaps you've heard that elections have been held in Afghanistan and Iraq. They weren't until we removed their despots. Too many extremists in Pakistan already threaten that elected government.

You are fortunate to be able to choose to be a voice of reason or to encourage the enemies of the United States. Choose wisely.

http://www.pjstar.com/stories/012907/FOR_BC6SPNCJ.059.php#list

Sami Al-Arian

Dr Sami Al-Arian, at the urging of his family, has suspended hunger strike. however, his imprisonment continues even though the jury did not find him guilty of a single charge. on friday a federal appeals court affirmed an earlier dicision that sentenced him for 18 months for refusing to testify before a virginia grand jury.

Background details can be found at: http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn03032007.html

Coming to a city near you?

Produced by the US magazine The Nation.

No one knows for sure, but it's believed that as much as 40% of the military budget goes to private contractors including private armies.

There are thousands of private mercenaries operating on behalf of the US in Iraq and elsewhere around the world. Nearly 1,000 have been killed in Iraq alone, but their casualties are not counted. Nor has Congress been able to discover exactly how many mercenaries the US employs there.

One of these firms, Blackwater USA, a big supporter of George Bush, is now deploying in the US. They were present in New Orleans after the levee collapses.
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/93.html

Abundant eye witness evidence

Now, for the first time ever, DOZENS of live video references to the multiple internal explosions that brought down the Twin Tower and World Trade Center 7.

What's amazing is not that it happened, but that it happened in broad daylight, thousands experienced it first hand, millions saw and heard the overwhelming evidence on TV and in spite of that, a government-created myth has become the official version of events.
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/91.html

The Video Google Censored

Google took this video down after three days and then when I attempted to post it to YouTube it was rejected.

This video is an important companion piece to the video that I call "Inside Job" (see the Brasscheck TV archive.)

"Inside Job" shows that thousands of eye witnesses and millions of live TV viewers heard and heard about MULTIPLE explosions in the Twin Towers that preceded their sudden and inexplicable collapse.

"The 9/11 Solution" shows that even as the World Trade Center was burning and immediately after the collapses, a stream of disinformation laying down the key official 9/11 myths was being actively being put in place via the US mass media (i.e. the impact of the planes weakened the structures, the "intense" fires caused the collapses, Bin Laden was the only possible suspect.)
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/92.html