Eid Mubarak!

[rowan]

It's actually the 3rd day of the Sacrifice Feast and we have the entire week off here in Turkey. This is normally the time when I am in the Greek Islands swimming, hiking, eating moussakas and drinking red wine, but unfortunately I came down with a virus on the first day of the break and am resting at home instead. I've actually been to Greece about 10 times in total now, having missed only one year previous (2012 when I went to South America instead). Anyway, I've been out for a few meals locally, and thought I'd share this touching Facebook message from one of my American friends here:

Last night, I experienced a beautiful Eid celebration with so many lovely people from Muslim-majority countries. The women were all empowered, happening ladies. Their men were all doing cool stuff like starting companies, writing books, and making music.

I looked around the room, and calculated what the people of my country, through our government, had done to the countries of everyone present.

Overthrown their democracy in 1955 for Iran and installed a dictator;

invaded and occupied their country resulting in up to 1.5 million deaths in another, plus the loss of their priceless heritage from their National Museum, in Iraq;

still drone attacking people, in yet another, Pakistan;

still occupying Afghanistan (here, the Afghanistan-heritage Canadian present had me beat since her own Canadian tax dollars were used to bomb her own people - and as an American, I will defend actions in Afghanistan up to when OBL was killed);

bombed Libya, got the dictator killed off with not a plan in sight for what comes next, resulting in a power vacuum that created a free-for-all that continues to this day;

Propped up and supported a dictatorship for 43 years in Egypt, did next-to-nothing to help them keep their democracy once they got it (they have now lost it and the USA funds yet another dictator with the blood of thousands on his hands);

I couldn't help but wonder if we could leave the people in these nations alone now.

I can't defend this endless imperialism toward people, can you?

Americans, does your definition of our country require endless intervention into other people's business?

The food cultures of each and everyone of these nations is spectacular. If you could have tasted the food last night, you would so want the American government to invite more people from these cultures into America. I wish I had every recipe for everything I ate last night.