ZNet Commentary
October 21, 2007
That the Greeks are the "chosen people" of the world is indisputable. Usually, "chosen peoples" are chosen by God Himself. However, in the case of the Greeks it was the (European) Christian white man that elevated the Greeks to the top of the world. The "creation" of man (and of the world) is denoted by the Greek word "genesis". After his birth man must be "baptized", that is "submerged into the water" as the Greek word "baptizo" denotes. Then follows the childhood period accompanied by Christian "catechism", as denoted by the Greek word "catecho" (to indoctrinate, that is to "brainwash"). Indoctrination which is performed by Christian "clergy", as denoted by the Greek word "clerekos" (priest). Quite frequently, these members of the clergy are "pederasts", as denoted by the Greek word "pedi" (child) and "eros" (love). Then the child goes to "school", as denoted by the Greek word "scholi" (leisure, school). No need to go on. Ask any Greek 10-year-old and he or she will spit out the "litany" (again a Greek word!) of the above claims, as proof that the Greeks are the "chosen people" of the world.
[Note: That it is the white man and not the Almighty that brought about this "racket" of the classical Greek supremacy is amply analyzed by Martin Bernal in his excellent work "Black Athena". Although the Nazis of yore (and of today) disagree fervently with him.]
So, facing the reality of this inundation of the western civilization (especially the sciences) with the Greek "spirit" (and Greek words) we find that it was inevitable to have a scientific branch with the name of "onomastics" or "onomatology" that studies the names of people (as expected, "onoma" being the Greek word for "name").
In this branch of science the correct spelling of the name "Petraeus" is "Petraios". The root of the word "petraios" is the Greek word "petra" which means "stone" or "rock". Thus, "petraios" is the adjective for "petra" and it means "of a rock" or "of a stone". The search around the word "petraios" results in a variety of interesting bits of information. Here are some of them:
- "rockfish": any of various fishes that live among rocks.
- "tomb": as in the play "Electra" of Sophocles.
- "Petraios": epithet of the God Poseidon in Thessaly as he was the one who "clave the rocks" of the valley of Tempi, and drained Thessaly.
- "Petraiai Nymphai": the nymphs (girls) of the rocks. [Did "nymphets" originate among those rocks? Who knows.]
- "Petraios": one of the "Centaurs" (creatures that were half human and half horse) who was killed in Thessaly by some king the day of his marriage to Hippodameia. [Centaurs are very well-known to Americans thanks to Walt Disney and his "Fantasia".]
General David H. Petraeus (or more correctly Petraios, as we have seen), is an "officer and a gentleman" plus a scholar. His father, Sixtus, a Dutch American, emigrated to the US during World War II. The Dutch origin of the General explains the Greek roots of his name.
Prominent among the European white men that we mentioned above, was the Dutch humanist and theologian Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (1466/1469-1536). Erasmus was "infatuated" with the Greeks, as a matter of fact he "invented" what is known as the "erasmian" pronunciation of the classical Greek language. [Which we, as Greek kids, found strange, if not ridiculous]. Erasmus was the son of Roger Gerard, a priest. Following the trend of the Dutch intellectuals of his time Roger Gerard's son adopted the above Greco-Latinized name. Now he is known to the world as "Erasmus". Again the correct word is "Erasmos" which originates from the Greek word "erasmios" which means "lovable"! The root again is the Greek word "eros" that we have already met above.
So, it is rational to assume that the Dutch ancestors of General Petraios chose a Greek-sounding name for themselves. Now, which of the above listed items they thought described better their family is rather irrelevant to us. However, there is one more item that could be added to the list; Peter the Apostle of Jesus. Peter's original name was Simon but Jesus told him: "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona... And I say unto thee. That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church..." [Matt. 16:18-19]. The name Peter originates from the Greek word "petra" which means "rock" or "stone", as we have already seen. Therefore the surname Petraios could be associated with Peter of Jesus.
The addition of Peter (the "rock") in the above possible choices for the Dutch ancestors of General Petraios is only a guess. What is not a guess is that General David H. Petraeus has the morality or ethics of a stone or a rock.
Petraeus took part in various US military operations: In Haiti, in one of the most repulsive and inhumane interventions of the US against a defenseless and innocent population. The code-name of the operation: "Operation Uphold Democracy". In Bosnia, in the murderous geopolitical game of the US in which (not so strangely) one of the protagonists, Milosevic, was a close friend of Richard Holbrooke, a top US official. Code-name: "Operation Joint Forge". In Kuwait, during the decade after the (Bush father) Gulf War. Code-name: "Operation Desert Spring" (that is, blossoming of the desert by killing about half a million Iraqi infants, during the Clinton watch). Finally in the present (Bush son) US "aggressive war" (a Nuremberg Tribunal crime) against Iraq. Code-name: "Operation Iraqi Freedom".
In all these US military operations that Petraeus participated (and in some commanded and commands), doing the bidding of the Bush family and the Clinton family, about 2 million infants, children, women, and men were murdered or starved to death.
In all languages there is the expression "heart of stone" to describe the cruel acts of a person. Thus, the claim that Petraeus has the "ethics of a stone" is based on the fact of the 2 million dead and the notion that only a "heart of stone" could tolerate participation in operations of this kind of US "benevolence".
To defend themselves human societies take measures against their members that commit crimes, especially crimes against humanity. Now, imagine that the American society decides to do something against the Bush family, the Clinton family, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Petraeus, et al. Could the following (imaginary) proposition for such a measure be adopted by the American people?
The proposition:
AMENDMENT XXVIII To the US Constitution
"We the American people, as part of the human population of this planet, having observed and unfortunately having tolerated the crimes against humanity committed by our leaders after the Second World War, we have come to the conclusion that our leaders should be judged for the crimes they commit in the same way as any other human is judged for the commission of the same crime. Therefore, if any of our leaders intentionally, through the crime of 'aggressive war', takes the life of even one human being should be judged in the same way that an individual who killed another person is judged."
Here enters a tragic paradox: There is no human on this planet (except persons of the Sarkozy ilk) who disputes that the above proposition is moral. Yet, most people will claim that it is "unrealistic" (or imaginary!). Therefore, let immorality rule the world.
If Bush, et al, should be judged and condemned for killing only one person it is reasonable to expect that for killing 2 million humans the sentence should be mathematically proportional to the number of the murdered.
It is up to the American people to remove the paradox and let morality reign on this planet adopting any Amendment that they themselves see fit.
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