*Updated* I wish I was Swedish (Attacks on America)

Member Name: Daisybelle

Product:	Attacks on America
Date:	13/09/01 (138 review reads)
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OK, it’s rewrite time. The days following the 11th were too painful by far, and like a lot of people I guess that I wrote in a fairly guarded fashion. Having read a lot of rhetoric both in the British broadsheet press and from US citizens on various websites, I feel I can write without guilt. The final straw for my tolerance of the passions invoked, for anyone that read it, was Brian Appleyards 2 page article “Why Do They Hate America” in the Sunday Times Review on the 23rd September. QUOTE. “The Yankophobes were too villainously stupid to get the message. Barely 48 hours after thousands of Americans are murdered, we see the BBCs Question Time with its hand-picked morons….” This was the most insulting, patronising piece of tub-thumping garbage I have ever read in a “respectable” newspaper, and if it wasn’t for the fact that I like the TV supplement, and need the extra pages for my cat litter tray, I’d never buy it again. OK, so everyone has their shallow side.

* What I wrote originally *

I suppose the title hints at my feelings on this subject, but it’s an oversimplification and needs a bit more meat on it than that. Well, the immediate aftermath is the first thing to look at. Like any reasonable person I feel pretty upset about yesterdays events and can only send out messages of sympathy and shared grief to our American friends, there’s no reason to go over the murders here again as everyone knows what happened.

Don’t think I’ve mentioned it before, but Mrs Daisybelle is expecting our first baby in 7 weeks. We know what each other are thinking right now – what on earth are we doing bringing a child into such a sad world? Why should our own country get involved and expose us to similar risk? What if things escalate and they wanted me to fight? If we took time to get into this deeply, we’d probably cry for hours, so what’s the poi
nt?

Work has been a bit of a non-event for me today, as I’ve spent the day dazed, like a zombie. Anyone who’s read my other speakers corner ops will know I’m almost an atheist and don’t like religion, but today, for the first time I can remember, I felt like going to a church, just to sit in peace and to try to absorb it all. I chose to write it down instead to end up with, as being at home seems like the best place to be at the moment.

The category heading poses some interesting questions. Is this an act of war? Well Colin (Emphasis on the O) Powell seems to think so, and has made it plain that the USA intends to retaliate not only against anyone identified as being involved, but also countries harbouring them. Is this right? Well, no, is my categoric answer to that. Why should other innocents suffer as a consequence of the actions of a minority of maniacs? This isn’t a war, and to make it out as being one is playing straight into the hands of the terrorists. A war is exactly what they’re after, and if the West makes it one then the Islamic fundamentalists will have won.

Before anyone points out that those guilty have not yet been identified, I know, but am writing on the assumption that they are indeed Islamic fundamentalists, as it’s hard to imagine who else is indoctrinated enough to fly themselves into buildings.

Osama bin Laden has been bandied about as the hand behind these murders, and whether it’s him or not the response should be the same as if it turns out to be Sadaam Hussein or Colonel Gadaffi. It’s the responsibility of a few individuals and it is they who should be brought to justice. The people of Palestine aren’t having spontaneous street parties because they’re evil, but because they feel a terrible sense of injustice at the way the West, the US in particular, has treated them, and at this crucial time in Global affairs their hearts especi
ally need to be won, not lost forever. Palestine is a key feature of this tragedy, so please bear with me.

Now, I’m not for a moment suggesting giving them back the country which we rashly handed over to the Jewish people in 1948, in a moment of shame and remorse for letting them down so badly. And make no mistake, Palestine was a British mandate, so we are high up the list of “Baddies” in the root causes of political strife in the region. What the US in particular should do is treat both sets of people with equanimity. My heart goes out to the Palestinians who we have so often seen bombed and terrorised by the Israeli armed forces, in revenge for the acts of lone individuals. Support for this regime, and in particular Ariel Sharon, who barely qualifies as sane (That’s my opinion after reading his biography, anyway), must be tempered with justice, as they continually fail to behave like a decent democracy. Imagine if helicopter gun ships were sent up the Falls Road in Belfast every time a bomb went off on the UK mainland. How would we be perceived? How would we deserve to be perceived? Perhaps more pertinently in the present situation, how would Americans perceive us?

That brings me on to another issue. Tony Blair has stood up and said “We” stand shoulder to shoulder with the US on this and will fight alongside them etc. Do we (The people) though? Indeed, should we? What support have they given the UK in our fight against terrorism? Well none, the opposite in fact, by allowing NORAID to procure funds to blow up our children. So I unashamedly put forward the suggestion that we steer well clear of this politically, and simultaneously recognise that we aren’t a world force. Lets send all the help and support we can, but with a sense of dignity, behaving like our civilised Scandinavian cousins, across the smaller pond, for a change.

Please don’t at any point think that I’m trying to j
ustify these murders, it’s more a case of attempting to put forward an explanation as to why they’ve come about, and why we must respond delicately to them. The US has been blundering around the Middle East for decades, in pursuit of very selfish political aims. The big ones are controlling oil supplies and prices, power plays against the soviets and protecting Israel. Israel has to grow up and make friends with its own neighbours, that’s my opinion and I won’t mention it further. The manipulations of various countries by the US to keep domestic fuel prices low have been excessive and obvious to anyone who’s paid the slightest attention to the region. Those who live there know this only too well, and it’s why the US is known as the “Great Satan” by many Arabs.

The US and it’s allies (Ourselves included) have, under the guise of “Global policemen” caused several wars, supplied Billions of dollars of munitions, and supported evil regimes just to further their own ends. If this doesn’t ring any bells with people, it certainly should. We have to cease this meddling, and if the US isn’t prepared to pay for it’s fuel and take its chances, we should again distance ourselves in the region and become a peace broker, rather than a warmonger. Arabs in general will undoubtedly be as horrified as we are at the carnage, but they have seen it coming because the US act so unfavourably towards many of their nations, indeed such events have been predicted by Arab leaders such as President Mubarek for some time, as they understand the mood of their own extremists better than anyone. Lastly, don’t be deceived into thinking this is about religion. It isn’t, it’s pure politics with religion as the tar baby.

Many people in the US will be feeling hatred and a desire for revenge at the moment. If any of you are reading this, my thoughts are with you and I would probably
find it difficult not to feel the same, please remember though that these are the actions of the few, rather than the many. You are a privileged nation and should act accordingly. That may sound trite, but it’s also true, and in days to come your energies would be better focussed on healing the damage rather than causing more. If the world is to become a safer place for us all to live in, we have to share more with the poorer nations, listen to their needs and respect their ways of life and their creeds. Evil people will always exist, but they are the minority and should alone be the ones to suffer for their actions.

As someone once said, give peace a chance.

* Additional comments *

OK. Where do we stand now? This is the 25th Sept, a fortnight after the horrible murders in the US, and events have rolled on. Now, we are told, it was definitely Osama bin Laden at the helm, and his ass is grass. Western “Democracy” and “Justice” seem to have been chucked out of the window like a baby with the bath water, and the US, and to my intense disgust the UK, seem poised to blow him away at all costs. So much for a fair hearing. I’m not an apologist for terrorists, but when dealing with the morally bankrupt the only way to behave is as purely as the driven snow, so that any righteousness is the real thing, rather than a swiftly embroidered, jingoistic fantasy such as the one Mr Bush has woven with his “Crusade against terror”, one of the most ill-judged and idiotic statement to be issued from a so-called world leader. But did we expect anything better?

Having said that, applause must be proffered to the man, and perhaps even more so to Colin Powell and Tony Blair, for the restraint that has been shown so far. They have cobbled together an alliance that is shakily holding together, albeit with the threat of bombing Pakistan if it didn’t help, a wicked, wicked suggestion, and this
heartens doves like myself to a degree. Israel and Palestine have been trying to inject a little calm, and many hard-line countries have offered tacit support.

All that said, we now have the threats of nuclear bombs, poisoned reservoirs, chemical and bacterial aerial attacks and perhaps more importantly, the looming deaths of innocent (Islamic) Afghans, which will be state sponsored murders, no different to state sponsored terrorism. And why is Britain so involved? Well, apparently they (The US) have saved Europe and Britain so often that we owe them our lives and language. I have diatribes galore on this matter, but will keep it brief. Yes, the US bailed us out in two world wars. No denying it and thank you very much – there is genuine appreciation for this. What many people both here and there seem to be overlooking is that in both cases the US timidly entered the wars 2 years after they began, in the first instance as a response to the sinking of the “Lusitania”, and in the second following Pearl Harbour. Not quite as noble circumstances as we are being asked to believe. Far more important is that the US ended their part in WW2 by killing 200,000 Japanese civilians with Hydrogen Bombs. That, apparently, is acceptable behaviour, to this infant of a nation, and it’s one of the facts that frightens me most.

I think I’ve made my point. This is now a very long piece, so here’s a couple of closing comments. I genuinely like Americans, they are nice people and I’ve several good friends from that neck of the woods, but that doesn’t mean I’ll support murder to assuage their sorrow. Please, dear reader, try to be nice to your neighbours, whatever their creed and colour. That’s what counts.

Lastly, let’s all fervently hope, pray, or whatever your way, that Osama bin Laden doesn’t find sanctuary in China.

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