An atrocity against humanity. (Attacks on America)

Member Name: MichaelR

Product:	Attacks on America
Date:	13/09/01 (47 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Loss of innocent life

I suppose the first thing that I must say is that I wish to extend my deepest sympathies to all involved in this terrible atrocity against humanity.

There is no point in talking about what happened at just before 9AM Eastern Time yesterday. Everyone has seen the sickening pictures and heard the stories of those terrible crimes.

The terrible, shocking, inhuman acts committed yesterday go against all religions that I know of. I gather that it’s been more or less confirmed now that the attacks did come from Muslim Fundamentalists – following the discovery of the hire car containing the flight manuals in the Arabic language. How these people can stand up and call themselves Muslims is beyond me. No religion teaches its followers to commit these crimes against their fellow man. These people give a bad name to all Muslims and too all religions as well as to their countrymen – people who have no wish to associate themselves with this terrible act, and who should not be tarred with the same brush as these criminals.

That is what worries me about President Bush’s declaration that:

“We will not make any distinction between the terrorists and those countries which harbour them”.

If, indeed, Osama bin Laden and his sick henchmen are responsible, then it is not right that the US should punish more innocent people as a result of his actions. I think that the ordinary residents of Afghanistan have already suffered enough under the oppressive Taliban regime. However, this man – assuming that he is guilty – and all others that organise and carry out these attacks must be brought to justice… whether that justice comes in a courtroom or is delivered in a fiery burst of missile fire.

The important thing though is that no more innocents must be hurt. Too many innocent lives have been lost already, and the lives of non-Americans and non-Westerners are no less valuable than the liv
es of anyone else.

All innocent life must be valued, cherished, and protected.

Clearly America will launch some kind of military response to yesterday’s events. I just hope that the response is well thought-out and is a precise and well-planned operation and not an indiscriminate bombing campaign.

Thoughts must turn to whether we should support America in this response. It is very hard to say whether we should or should not… there are both pros and cons for standing with America and for staying out of this. In the end though, I do not believe that we can sit back and pretend that this is simply America’s problem.

Great Britain, some of us would like to believe, is a great world power that can go it alone and withstand anything. That’s simply not true though. America is our oldest and greatest ally. We need to stick together, because I believe that both Great Britain and the United States of America do, all things considered, stand for the same things:

Freedom and democracy.

When America was attacked, the whole civilised world was attacked with it. Something that is indeed enshrined in the NATO charter, I believe it is Article 5:

“An attack on a member of the alliance is an attack on the alliance itself”.

We can’t stay out of this. We’re already a part of it. Osama bin Laden’s threats have been made against us as well as against the US. We are seen as an ‘enemy’ by these extremists simply for being an ally to America in the past.

Who’s to say that one day we will not be a victim of these attacks? I hope, as any sane person would, that that day will never come. If it should though, then whom would we turn to for help? Could we turn to the United States if we had refused to help them in delivering justice to their attackers?

The only other thing that I can think to mention is to address a quotation from one of
my previous opinions on terrorism, used in another opinion on this subject. The quotes were:

“One mans terrorist is another mans Freedom Fighter”

And

“I do not condone terrorism but can sometimes understand it”

Both those comments were made in regard to the situation in the Middle East.

I’m sure that many of us have seen the spontaneous street parties in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. These people were celebrating because they saw an attack against the United States as an attack against Israel – just as many of us see an attack against the US as an attack against the west.

Strong allies always have strong associations in the eyes of others.

Innocent Palestinian people – whose land is occupied by Israel – are killed everyday by this supposedly free, democratic government. The US has supported these attacks by Israel and so these people are celebrating what they see as an attack on an ally of their enemy. They feel angry that few people cry for the loss of their innocents. They are angry at the US for supporting attacks against innocent Palestinians.

I would say that the Palestinians are indeed fighting a war… or at least some of them are. There are people in the Middle East fighting a war against occupation of their land – and they use terrorist tactics because these are the only tactics available to them. How else are they to fight the military might of Israel?

However, deliberately killing innocent civilians can never be justified. People who kill innocent civilians are not ‘soldiers’ or ‘freedom fighters’ they are criminals and should be viewed as and treated as murderers.

My point before is that things are not always as clear as they seem and that governments too can be guilty of terrorist acts and of murdering innocent people.

However, what happened yesterday was not an act of w
ar by soldiers against other soldiers. It was a crime committed by cowards with no true cause against innocent civilians. It cannot be justified in any way and it must not go unpunished.

The final thing that I wish to say really is just to really echo the words of President Bush, and to say that although these people may attack and destroy steel and concrete structures, they can never destroy our way of life. Fanatics will never destroy freedom and democracy.

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