The first hint I received of something amiss in London this morning was full bus loads of people drifting endlessly past my bus stop, and a long walk to work. This afternoon there has been tens of thousands of people walking the streets of London in the absence of public transport. On the BBC there has been incessant reporting that people “can’t believe this has happened.” Yeah right, it’s no damn surprise and Londoners know it. Today’s just extra special because the bombs were pointed the other way, just like September 11.
Having elected as Prime Minister a man who is arguably a war criminal I must say I find it difficult to muster up the kind of sympathy that would usually befit a nation in times like these, just as I found it difficult to muster up sympathy for the U.S. as a nation on September 11. Then as now the overwhelming feeling is one of grim predictability. I have dulled empty feelings for those in the middle of it all, just as I do for hundreds of thousands—in fact millions—of Iraqis, Palestinians, and endless other peoples killed by the gangs we call our governments. It’s just a little difficult to get emotional about every killing when they happen in the numbers they do. Am I meant to be more emotional today because they’re Westerners?
After returning to London from Iraq in March 2003 I often found myself down at the local pub in discussions with people who were, one, confident they lived in a democracy, and two, indifferent about the invasion of Iraq. I’ve always found it a little difficult to deal with such indifference. “At the end of the day,” I used to say to them, “you can enjoy your pint of beer in the sun and ignore the murderous actions of your so-called democratic government in faraway lands, but don’t go complaining when someone comes looking for some justice in the form of a bomb under your ass.”
And from what I’ve gleaned today they’re not. Many Brits seem to know the score.
Whether this was the act of MI6/MI5 operatives or the so-called “Al-Qaeda,” Blair has blood on his hands. And while we’re going to be hearing a lot about “us” and “them,” there’s little doubt in my mind that the connection between the death of “their” babies and the death of “ours” will never be made in the coming media storm. Instead it will be Blair to the rescue!! Bring on 1984!!
According to Wikipedia, a person using the name “Nur al-Iman,” posted to the jihadist website Al-Qal’ah (Fortress), a statement issued by “The Secret Organisation Group of Al-Qa’ida of Jihad Organization in Europe.” In the statement, the group claims responsibility for the London attack. The following is a translated text of the statement (minus all the god stuff):
Nation of Islam and Arab nation: Rejoice for it is time to take revenge against the British Zionist crusader government in retaliation for the massacres Britain is committing in Iraq and Afghanistan. The heroic mujahideen have carried out a blessed raid in London. Britain is now burning with fear, terror and panic in its northern, southern, eastern, and western quarters.
We have repeatedly warned the British government and people. We have fulfilled our promise and carried out our blessed military raid in Britain after our mujahideen exerted strenuous efforts over a long period of time to ensure the success of the raid.
We continue to warn the governments of Denmark and Italy and all the crusader governments that they will be punished in the same way if they do not withdraw their troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. He who warns is excused.
Mike Marqusee writes for Counterpunch:
Blair has already appeared on television to address the nation … Even by Blair’s standards, it was a performance of nauseating hypocrisy, as he sought to seize the moral high ground in relation to violence and destruction that he himself helped unleash.
Fomenting and exploiting fear has been a speciality of the Blair regime. Asylum seekers, teenagers wearing hoods, militant Muslims, anarchists, paedophiles the list of targets is lengthy and frighteningly flexible. Whenever there is a need to distract people from the impact of the government’s neo-liberal economic policies, from its failure to rebuild the public sector, from its misbegotten foreign adventures, a new scapegoat is conjured up. The bomb blasts may aid this process, but there is also reason to hope that this time there will be substantial public resistance.
I hope so Mike, I hope so.
“He who warns is excused.”
That is an important quote in this context.
I consider there is an ethical base in that code.
If I was of a mind to take up arms, and if I was a young Arab there would be reasons for me to be of that mind.
If my people, my culture, the people dear to me, those I loved, were experiencing the abuse that many Arab communities are experiencing , I would consider fair warning had been given.
The bombs and rockets used against Arab homes and communities are no more discriminating, perhaps less so, than these bombers.
Like any person living a happy life, I want peace and oppose the practice of warfare. A person with the sunshine and fulfilment in my life of a typical Kiwi pensioner, does not have the grounds to urge violence.
But once again, the mujahadeen have won my uncomfortable and reluctant respect, and they are entitled to a fair hearing for their claims of injustice.
We cannot forever refuse to talk with these people.
I hear ya Bruce, but I’m not sure there’s all that much to talk about. And it’s not even a matter of “appeasing terrorists” either, which, as you know, is what some people call efforts to get to the root cause of these problems. No, “appeasement” assumes that our governments actually conduct themselves in a reasonable manner in the first place. Of course they clearly don’t, and we as Western citizens have not managed to stop them.
In 1996, Madeleine Albright, then the U.S. secretary of state, was asked on national television what she felt about the fact that 500,000 Iraqi children had died as a result of US-led economic sanctions. She replied that it was ‘a very hard choice,’ but that, all things considered, ‘we think the price is worth it.’ These are not the words of a reasonable person.
It’s not reasonable to invade other countries and murderously bomb them in aggression. It’s not reasonable to support Israeli apartheid oppression and tyranny, it’s not reasonable to sell weapons to violent dictators throughout the world, it’s not reasonable to believe that we have more rights to oil than the rest of the world.
These aren’t pet issues of some pinko commie activist. These are the said reasons for the September 11 attacks. Anyone with an internet connection is free to go and read it for themselves, and I implore them to: Full transcript of bin Ladin’s speech
As you know, people don’t just wake up one day and decide to be terrorists. There are causes and affect and until people realise this there won’t be peace. I don’t think we need to talk, we just need to start conducting ourselves in a reasonable manner in this world.
Al-Qaeda Is Fiction: The Organization Doesn’t Exist
hi christiaan, download and watch the 3 part bbc documentary -
worth watching imo.
cheers.
Mark Perkel | July 4 2005
three films produced by the BBC called “The Power of Nightmares” which explain how various groups use the fear of terrorism to advance their political power
they are an hour long each and are about 75 megs each. They are however extraordinary and it’s quite an education into the history of Islamic Terrorism and American neo conservatives. Here are the links:
prisonplanet.com/articles/july2005/040705doesntexist.htm
Thanks for the link, I have seen this very good documentary. I agree that “Al-Qaeda” is a very politically motivated term (it helps bin Laden and Bush) but there was and is an alliance of militants originating from the Saudi-funded Arab fighters who flocked to join the mujahideen resistance movement against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
According to this CNN interview with Osama bin Laden in October 2001, this is what he had to say about it:
So, unless we’re all being hoodwinked, and Osama bin Laden and Bush are in cahoots (which I admit is a very real possibility), “Al-Qaeda” does stand for something reasonably tangible. I use the term “so-called Al-Qaeda” simply because it’s a politically charged term first introduced to us by the U.S. government.