The word oops is used to express mild apology for an error or infringement made to another. The oops attitude has become an integral part of American foreign policy and military activity.
An American drone attack against “terrorists” in Yemen accidentally blew up the wrong house. Oops. Americans have blown up innocent civilians in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan. Oops, oops, and oops.
Perhaps the biggest oops resulted in the attack made on Iraq for its possession of weapons of mass destruction, which after extensive search were shown not to exist. The invasion of Iraq and the subsequent destabilization of the country has resulted in the loss of more than 100,000 civilian lives. That’s a lot of oopses.
In one military operation in Afghanistan American forces accidently killed a woman’s five sons. General Petraeus paid her a personal visit presumably expressing his regret for the oops that took their lives.
To give this oops policy another perspective imagine that the Mexican government in its war on drugs fired drones into the United States at the drug cartel’s suspected operations, and occasionally blew up the house of innocent civilians. How would Americans react to that oops? Would they do nothing or would they take strong diplomatic and military action? Even if the Mexican government did not make any errors and not even one oops occurred would that incursion on to American soil be tolerated?
By what right are we shooting-up the countries of the Middle East? Does the average person in the Western world have any knowledge as to why American soldiers are in Afghanistan?
The nations that have been the victims of the American oops policy do not have the wherewithal to conduct large scale military operations. They fight back on a guerrilla basis, which we choose to call terrorism. Isn’t having drones fired into a person’s neighborhood terrifying? All the terrorist organizations that have been classified by Western governments come from countries that are occupied and/or are subject to the oops policy.
No person wants to die; the basic motivation of all life is to preserve itself. If people give up their lives it is because they are in a desperate state. Japanese Kamikaze pilots in World War II expressed the desperation of a government that knew it was losing the war. People that blow themselves up in order to destroy others are desperate because they see no other way to combat the oops policy imposed upon them.
Not only does a person not want to kill himself but he does not want to kill others either. Having American soldiers sent on tours of duty for the purpose of killing others who pose no threat to them or their country has created severe psychological trauma upon their return home. The oops policy does not work well for them either.
The recent incursion into Europe of terrorist activity has not resulted in any public indication of an internal dialogue by governments concerning changing the oops policy, but instead it has focused on blowing up everybody that dares to oppose that policy. Russia, France. the UK and the United States are attempting to work out a unified plan on how to eliminate those who rebel against the oops policy and who have dared to retaliate in Europe.
The Europeans have expressed outrage at this incursion on their lands, which reminds me of Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s comments regarding the 9/11 attack in America in which he stated:”We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.”
There will be many more chickens coming home to roost in the Western world. The great spiritual truth “Whatever a man sows, so shall he reap” cannot be avoided.
At this point the reader might be wondering why I am addressing this issue as I do not take sides in domestic or foreign political matters. Men’s Action focuses on spirituality, gender, and family, not on international situations; however, the issues regarding international conflict and the oops policy result from the absence of spirituality in the Western conduct of domestic and international affairs.
Western thought, wherever it is accepted−and most of the world now accepts it−is devoid of spirituality; therefore, it does not have an understanding of the purpose of human existence, gender, and family. The gross materialism of its thinking has created a society without ethics, which accounts for the Western oops policy ( it also account’s for domestic terrorism, which has become commonplace in America). The Western presence in foreign lands represents its penchant for imposing its standards on others, which it considers to be a right; hence, it feels no guilt in killing innocents.
To end terrorism the oops policy must be brought to an end not only in foreign and military activities but in domestic political and police policies as well; however this cannot be done without spiritual understanding and the ethics necessary to establish moral standards and behavior.
E.G.
