TERRORISM HAS NO RELIGION...

It is time for  #US  #UK  #EUROPE  #RUSSIA to stand together, with the support of the Arab countries, to extinguish ISIS from the air and the ground once and for all..

They are also terrorizing #Syria  #Iraq  #Libya #Lebanon. #Tunisia  #Egypt  #Yemen  #Afghanistan  #Pakistan...

And they are whom the refugees are running from...

What is the world waiting for?

Benghazi, Libya...

Benghazi was not the first time an American diplomatic outpost was attacked. It has happened many times before, in different parts of the world, usually in war torn countries. One of the worst US Embassy attacks in recent years happened in 1983 in Beirut, Lebanon, where 63 people were killed, 17 of them Americans. Foreign service officers and staff realize that there is a certain amount of risk involved in diplomatic missions overseas...It comes with the territory. I am bewildered by the continual blaming of the consulate attack in Benghazi exclusively on this administration. Rather than focusing on the reason why it happened, the emphasis should now be on how to better secure an American Embassy. About a year ago, the American Embassy in Tripoli was closed due to security concerns. In December, 1979, less than a month after I left Libya, the American Embassy in Tripoli was burnt down. In my book, THE LIBYAN, I wrote about a meeting in the "Bubble Room", which I suspect is the equivalent to a safe room. It was in such a room where Ambassador Stevens was overcome by smoke inhalation. He was eventually rescued by some Libyans who managed to get him to a hospital where he died, despite attempts by Libyan doctors to save him. Why does it matter what spurred those fanatics to attack an American outpost? Isn't the answer obvious? In the past, when these tragic incidents occurred, Congress worked as one, as non-partisans, as Americans, together...to examine and improve the security for our diplomats overseas. Instead, millions of dollars and countless hours on Capitol Hill have been wasted for no reason except to try and discredit the then Secretary of State. I have friends who knew Ambassador Stevens personally, and every one of them speak of his love for Libya and Libyans. The feeling was reciprocal. Thousands of Libyans went out on the streets all over Libya to protest his death and reaffirm their love for him. Sadly, the attack on the US consulate, the death of Ambassador Stevens, and the other three Americans emboldened the extremists and other militia groups to continue their attacks on Libya and Libyans... The destruction of Libya is ongoing, with Benghazi suffering the worst. Besides the four Americans, thousands of Libyans have lost their lives since that fateful night of September 11, 2012 Esther Kofod

http://www.amazon.com/The-Libyan-Esther-Kofod/dp/0989054306

The Pyramids of Libya...

These pyramidal structures are in Fezzan, in southwestern Libya. They were built by the Geramantes (500BC - 700AD), an ancient and very advanced civilization of Berbers, who lived in the Libyan Sahara.

GIFTS FROM THE PAST...❤️

For me, the best gift from the past is connecting with people I knew, liked or loved.

This has happened a lot recently, thanks to social media and writing a memoir...

The Innocence of a Refugee Child...

A little Syrian refugee girl offering a Hungarian policeman a cookie. It was her lovely and touching response to someone who was blocking her and her family from crossing the border...

These are refugees, not migrants looking for a better life. They are running from death and destruction, from Asaad, and from ISIS. They are Christians and Muslims...they are our fellow human beings and innocent, frightened children.

The Hungarians seem to have forgotten how the world reached out to help them in 1956 when they were refugees. And yet now, they treat these poor people who have walked hundreds of miles like criminals...

How long more is the world going to pretend to be blind? 

A Child's Memory of Libya...

Kfalik, sidik! I read "The Libyan." My heart still aches over your story, and the current plight of Libya. I thought it was a tremendous book. I was enthralled with your love affair and marriage. But what a let-down at where it went! I cried for you and your children. But I learned a lot about Libya. The book left me with sleepless nights over the tyranny of Ghaddafi's rule, how it separated families, and ruined and took away peoples' lives. Thank you for making it real to me. I could not put the book down until finishing it. I didn't want it to end.

I lived in Tripoli as an older child, '59 to '61. I remember Homs Road, and the stunning old ruins of Leptis Magna and Sabratha, and the Lady of Gharyan; Giorgimpopoli; the old palace in Tripoli on the water front, and the beautiful sea (all very vividly), under the pre-oil reign of King Idris, with the American military at Wheelus Air Base, where my father was stationed.

I remember the beautiful citrus farm we lived on, with it's endless groves of fruit trees, the lime tree outside the back door of the Italian villa we rented, with it's wonderful scent, bamboo that reached 40 feet high, huge poinsettia plants (anyway, that's what they looked like to me) that seemed to grow wild, acres of peanut crop, loquats, kumquats, date palms, and the irrigation pools that we splashed in, filled with pure well water. The farm bordered a road that came in off the desert, so we often saw caravans of camels passing by, laden with provisions. We children loved our Egyptian houseboy, Mohammed Homs Lumeidi, and how everybody was named Mohammed, Ali, and Fatima or Maria.

I have always wanted to go back again and visit. Your book especially renewed that interest. Now, at this time, I wish there were a way to help bring peace, democracy, and prosperity to a suffering, divided people. I want to thank you for your book. I feel blessed for having read it. God be with you and your family always.

THE DEATH OF HUMANITY...

Children washing up on beaches in the Mediterranean, families crossing seas in rickety boats, human beings dying by the hundreds every day...dying for freedom to escape death at home. 

While thousands of refugees die in the pursuit for freedom and a better life, most governments discuss the situation and just hope they don't have to deal with the influx of these poor souls in their own countries. Shame on the people smugglers, and on the countries who are not helping them. 

Kudos and heartening to see Germany...and German soccer fans,showing humanity in an inhuman world for migrants and refugees... 

Bravo Deutschland 👍