A few years ago this story took another turn. In a vote East Timor declared its own independence. The Indonesians violently retreated off island, burning and looting as they went. The U.S. and Australian military were present to make sure their former ally in crime left an interesting twist to this is that prior to U.S. and Australian assistance to kick out Indonesian occupiers, in a short article in an Australian newspaper it was announced that oil and natural gas was found off shore in East Timor territorial waters. [Over 400,000 were killed in these struggles]

From '68 to '73 according to William Shawcross, a war reporter and author of "Sideshow", about bombing of Cambodia U.S. routinely and indiscriminately bombed poor villages up and down borders of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. The numbers of non combatants killed are unknown because there was no census but it is likely to be very high. Another tragic atrocity that few Americans know about but resulted from direct and violent interference in another third world democracy. In 1970 Chile elected its first socialist president Salvador Allende. A medical doctor, Allende's first act as president was to make it mandatory that all school children should be given milk during school day as he noticed a certain vitamin deficiency among some of poor children which impacted their learning. About a third of country lived in severe poverty and his ambition was to rectify this and pay for usual, infrastructure, health care, schools. Chile's major natural resource is copper and Allende offered main U.S. owned copper company, Kennecott, current [at time] market price for value of copper mines at time, they said no and involved U.S. government, chief among them Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger. In short, U.S. enacted an embargo, boycotts and in end when nothing worked out to their satisfaction a coup was orchestrated out of Washington. Salvador Allende was assassinated on 9/11/73. The U.S. supported Augusto Pinochet dictatorship in which over 3,200 were murdered by Pinochet's henchmen. Many that were murdered were women and about 25,000 more were imprisoned and tortured, all civilian leftists.

These examples of U.S. conduct and foreign policy over past half century are just a partial glimpse of whole story. Our conduct throughout third world up to this point has been very anti-democratic. Another aspect to this is a national election that took place in Bolivia about five years ago in which only 5% of electorate voted, reason for this being people had no influence in their own country. The IMF and World Bank had taken control of nation's financing cutting funding for education, health care and infrastructure, privatizing everything possible, bringing foreign investors in so they could attempt to profit off backs of poor. This has been a long war on poor of world. A change in attitude and conduct is needed. A change in which mutual respect, mutual benefit and compassion are paramount. Almost all of aforementioned occurrences were preceded at home by declaration that they were being carried out for "Democracy's" or "freedom's" sake, none of which was true. I'm proud to be an American but many of our political leaders should be ashamed of themselves. Whether it were Nixon and Kissinger or are Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld they should do right thing not avaricious thing. The current situation in Liberia may provide an opportunity to do this. With America and Americans frequent proclamations of "We are greatest country in world." "Greatest democracy in history of world." and "We're Number One.". We should strive to achieve compassion as our nation's chief virtue, only then can we truly say we are greatest and number one.

Trust Is Contagious

Acting on an intuitive vision, Dean decided to put three of most competitive "natural enemies" in state of Arizona into same fenced outdoor living space. At first, these adolescent wild animals-four mountain lions, four Arizona gray wolves and four Arizona black bears-were scared and hostile towards each other. They attacked each other. They roared ferociously at each other. Each group claimed their own area inside their compound and did not trespass into another group's territory. However, after days of warning attacks, hostile posturing and growling, something remarkable happened. It only takes one to break new ground.

Dangerously alone, female wolf pack leader left safety of her group and sauntered into territory claimed by mountain lions. She lay down and rolled over onto her back in a deliberate, submissive posture in front of four lions. The gray wolf exposed her throat and stomach to her enemies, totally vulnerable to injury or even death. Cautiously, juvenile cats approached she-wolf. The process of sniffing and careful investigation took quite a while. Eventually gigantic felines and lone wolf began playing together. Before long, rest of wolf pack completed newly formed frisky alliance.

After successfully breaking through boundaries of mountain lions, furry gray peacemaker intruded into territory of bears. Repeating same unprecedented behavior, female lobo lay down and opened herself to four black beasts. Once again, after a lengthy getting acquainted period, bears and wolf began to frolic. Soon, other wolves joined in.

Play Catches On

Eventually all three "natural enemies" overcame their programmed instincts to remain separate and hostile. The young lions, wolves and bears are an inspiring demonstration of how "natural enemies" can alter their consciousness and change their relationships in order to live and play in harmony.