Home > To Bush, McCain and Olmert: The Congo Cries Out and all of you remain silent

To Bush, McCain and Olmert: The Congo Cries Out and all of you remain silent

by Open-Publishing - Tuesday 14 November 2006
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Governments USA Mary MacElveen Africa

To Bush, McCain and Olmert: The Congo Cries Out and all of you remain silent
By Mary MacElveen
November 14, 2006

The lesson for the GOP to take from last week’s election results in which they lost majority rule in both houses is that the American people saw through the deceit in using our military to fight an immoral war in Iraq. If we are to gain respect world-wide, it would be to stand up to brutal acts that continue to this day.

No, I am not speaking of Iran. In fact I think some good could come out of opening a dialogue with that country as the Democrats call for scaling down our troop presence in Iraq. It is in Iran’s best interest to see a stable Iraq. Instead Bush has called for the isolation of Iran at the behest ofIsraeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Hasn’t Bush learned anything from last week’s election results? Obviously he has not.

President Bush is concerned of Iran since they are engaging in nuclear programs in which Bush said "Iran’s nuclear ambitions are not in the world’s interest," He then went onto say "If Iran had nuclear weapons it would be terribly destabilizing." We have learned through the test firings in North Korea that isolation does not work. At least some with rational thinking have learned that. I am not so sure of President Bush. If he is trying to lead this country into another war, this is where all Americans must say to President Bush that we have had enough.

The government of the United States must be able to send a real team of honest diplomatic brokers into Iran to sit down with them and without any hidden agenda.

When President Bush stated "If they continue to move forward with the program, there has to be a consequence," With the world reaction to the Democratic takeover of congress as being a positive one, the world in essence was tired of President Bush dictating to other countries on how to behave when through his administration, they witnessed the United States behaving badly.

The Israeli prime minister, Olmert said of Iran’s nuclear efforts, "This is a moral issue of the whole world." If both Olmert and Bush truly wish to engage in what is morally incorrect with the world, the Congo comes to mind as I have read of acts so brutal inflicted upon children.

In July of this year I wrote this piece The Congo: A Hidden Terror that is not our top priority and I suggest to all of my readers that they make it their priority to read this piece. You will read of violent acts against the most innocent of this world which are children that no word can best describe how one should feel of them.

If one thought that this dire situation has all but disappeared, it has not. It continues on to this day and the world remains silent. Senator John F. Kerry once said “You do not use the military because you want to, but because you have to” and this is one case in which I can see using our military to stop the rape, the sodomy and the kidnapping of innocent children. To Senator McCain, who wishes to increase our troop levels in Iraq to stem the violence, may I suggest sending 20,000 troops into protect the most innocent of us all.

You will be absolutely horrified to read that the police in the Congo are arresting children. Exactly where is Bush and Olmert’s voice when it comes to what this article states “Scores of homeless children and others living on the streets of Congo’s capital have been rounded up and accused of starting a protest that led to violence as an increasingly tense nation awaits presidential election results.”? This is immorality at its finest.

Some of the bullet-scarred headstones in cemeteries became beds of soldiers and these headstones once acted as beds for homeless children within the Congo, yet little or no attention to the plight of these children is spoken about openly. It truly is a hidden terror.

If one truly wishes to understand how terrorism finds recruits, one only has to read Hundreds of thousands raped in Congo wars. Through our inactions in the West to combat this true and provable evil, it diminishes our stance at being the world’s leader to combat this immorality.

As Bush, Olmert and McCain speak of terrorism, exactly where is their voice when it comes to despicable acts of terrorism and barbarism as one reads, "They really come with very bad wounds," said Justin Paluku, a doctor. "For example some have their vaginas pulled out. Most of them have been raped by four, five or six or even 10 men. A village will be attacked and all the women are raped. They kill the men and rape the women."

Immaculee Birhaheka, head of a women’s rights group in Goma, Paif, stated, "It’s impossible to know how many women have been raped in the war but it is hundreds of thousands," Can any civilized person reading this even comprehend this? I know that I cannot. Yet, we have never heard from the GOP led government which will be replaced soon that this is the true evil we must stare down and more importantly end. To those in the GOP who overwhelmingly voted for the Iraq War Resolution, exactly where were your voices when it came to acts of barbarism such as this? Do you not have daughters and would you wish of them to suffer acts as heinous as the ones that are described above?

Some human rights groups are calling upon those responsible to be rounded up and sent to The Hague to face war crimes trials. If we are truly a moral country, I would love to see us lead the charge at rounding these monsters up and shipping them off to The Hague.

Exactly where is the mainstream American media in calling attention to these acts of barbarism and terror to their viewers and readers? No, we have all been bombarded by Brittany Spears/Kevin Federline saga. Then again, it was Brittany Spears who said in 2003 “Trust our president in every decision” To Ms. Spears it was apparent in this past election, not everyone took your advice.

As McCain launches his exploratory committee search on whether or not to run for president in 2008, it would be immoral of you to send more troops into Iraq, when clearly they do not want us there to begin with. Now, if you were to call upon President Bush to send those troops into the Congo to stop the repeated rapes of women and children that is clearly where you would find any moral ground in which to run on. I do think that most Americans would back an intervention in the Congo to stop these acts of terrorism. It would clearly make us feel better as a nation to confront this evil.

Would it make up for the evil we caused the Iraqi people? No, it would not, but it would be a start.

http://www.marymacelveen.com/blog/_archives/2006/11/14/2499121.html

* Please go to the link above to read the hyperlinks included within the piece to help you better understand the plight of the Congolese people.

Forum posts

  • Dear Mary, I just wanted to express my gratitude to you for bringing out this topic.Yes, the situation of these street children are beyond imagination, but yet this is a reality, so tragic. No one speak of them, of what they go. I hope many people would read your articles and would let themselves be challenged..and then be led to action. In some way. Bienvenu Mayemba, Boston College, MA.