Pinocchio
The tragic adventures of the American giant

By Akbar Kochini
September 10, 2003
The Iranian

Sent to iranian.com on September 18, 2001, a week after the 9/11 tragedy. It is being published for the first time.

"My little Pinocchio! How did you manage to burn your feet?"

"I don't know, papa, but believe me it has been an infernal night that I shall remember as long as I live. It thundered and lightened, and I was very hungry, and then the Talking Cricket said to me: 'It serves you right; you have been wicked and you deserve it,' and I said to him: 'Take care, Cricket!'... and he said: 'You are a puppet and you have a wooden head,' and I threw the handle of a hammer at him, and he died, but the fault was his, for I didn't wish to kill him, and the proof of it is..."

I hope my American friends forgive me for the analogy but to me last week's tragic events were just waiting to happen and the parallels with the Pinocchio story are just too many.

I came over to US back in November 2000. In the 10 months or so that I have been living over here with my family, we have had nothing but praise for this country and its people. Well organized in almost every respect, kind and really genuine people.Circling around California's Iranian community, our positive American experience seems to have been predominantly shared by almost every Iranian we have met so far.

Going outside the Iranian community, over the past few months I have spoken to immigrants of almost every creed and color you can imagine and they all seem to love this country and its people and want to stay on.

Outside America, people of almost every country in the world watch the Hollywood movies, drink Coca Cola, love their Big Macs and given a nice enough design would not shy away from wearing their USA T-shirts (when was the last time you saw someone wearing a I love Poland or China tee-shirt?! And no terrorist ever bothers to attack these countries!) So what makes a good country like America and its truly cosmopolitan population a target for such ghastly and barbaric attacks as we have been witnessing recently?

Why target America when this country spends upwards of $13 billion a year on its foreign aid programs with 40% of that going to the Middle East? The sad truth of it all is that America is a country which has been totally seized and deviated from what it use to represent to the rest of the world by its Jewish minority!

Despite Israel's reputation around the entire world for racism, for stealing its neighbor's territories, for ruthless suppression of defenseless Palestinians and its complete disregards for various United Nations resolutions (not too different from similar resolutions which allowed America to fight Korea and Iraq), a good portion of America's foreign aid / tax-payer's money is being squandered on Israel and since 1948, America has more often used its veto to bail out Israel from situation after situation than for any other reason.

Up until now, Israel's relationship with America was all about taking its money, using its veto power, making it paranoid about the rest of Middle East every time it felt the puppet was gaining consciousness and putting the American population through a permanent guilt trip about what the Germans did to the Jews 60 years ago (just watch some of Spielberg's movies which are apparently almost compulsory watch for American high school kids).

Today, this anomalous relationship has gone a step to far.... The enemies Israel has created in the region have brought the war into the American backyard. This is a war which America need not have entered and it has resulted in casualties it need not have suffered.

My message for the American people is a simple one: For god sake get out of there! Save the money you are spending on "aiding" Middle Eastern countries and spend it on the further development of your own economy or health care, or if it is really burning a hole in your pocket then spend it on a joint space program with Angola or even feeding the hungry around the world.

That lot have been at it for thousands of years and they have never stopped. Guess what: Both Jews and Palestinians are from the same race, they are Semites! All you will do by helping Israel, Egypt and PLO is to make even more unnecessary enemies for yourselves.

Following the Camp David Accord, America agreed to pay $5 billion a year to Israel and Egypt. Following the Wye River peace agreement reached between Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians in October 1998, America agreed to pay an additional $1.9 billion.

At the same time, Israel asked for more than $3 billion for purposes ranging from improving water supplies to development of a missile defense capability (but the US only agreed to provide $1.2 billion). Last year, as a peace deal between Israel and Syria began to look possible, Israeli treasury officials were looking to the US to help cover a bill they estimated at $18 billion for withdrawing from the Golan Heights.

Hey, I say it's crazy when American college kids have to borrow money in order to complete their college degrees, or when unlike European countries or even Canada next door, US citizens have to pay for their health care. Spend the American tax-payer money on American causes. God Bless America -- and I really mean it from the bottom of my heart.

PS: In case you were wondering, I have nothing whatsoever against Jews or Arabs but I think it is high time they made their own shooter money or made peace. It just bothers me that Americans are being taken for a ride and at the same time getting all of the blame and the heat for it as well! >>> News and politics forum

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