The US & UK’s oil & war-hungry foreign-policies look set to see London and other major western cities facing years, perhaps decades, of terrorist guerrilla warfare. Could our elected representatives be doing more to speak out against the illegal wars that have precipitated these barbaric acts?
There will obviously be a lot of people traumatised by what happened in London yesterday. Because it's been clearly demonstrated Britain is no longer invulnerable to retaliation for our own acts of terror abroad, a lot of people up and down the country will feel extremely traumatised by what happened, whether they were directly involved or affected. Incidents like this can also re-awaken old wounds from past trauma people have experienced (like 9/11 & the IRA bombings). It could be a long time before many feel safe again. History has taught us that the type of terrorist guerrilla warfare we saw in London yesterday is months, if not years in planning.
As for George Galloway, I don't think there was anything wrong with the point/question he made in Parliament yesterday. He is far from wide of the mark in pointing out that what happened is unlikely to be the last to strike the capital. It's a statement of fact. Whatsmore, if you reflect back on many of the news stories we've seen over the past few years, ranging from missing radioactive to chemical & biological agents (mostly lost by careless governments & corporations), you've got to wonder how long it will be before we start facing that kind of horrendous terrorist scenario. If you've misplaced the Home Office "PREPARING FOR EMERGENCIES" brochure that every one in Britain was sent last year, now might be a good time to get a new copy. The telephone number is 0800 88 77 77 and the website address is www.planningforemergencies.gov.uk
Most politicians are thinking exactly what we are all thinking: that the governments poverty-promoting foreign policies, lack of action on Palestine, the Yankee concentration camps & the heinous torture taking place in Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere and the illegal, immoral and barbaric actions against the people of Afghanistan and Iraq, are ALL direct causes for this attack. This is what the government was widely warned by many (including their own advisers) would be the price to pay for the wars of aggression they have been engaging in. But instead most MP's choose instead (in a gross dereliction of duty) to politely walk on egg-shells at the moment, in the mistaken belief that speaking out would open themselves up to accusations of political opportunism, that they were disrespecting the dead, injured and bereaved. Yes, we should all show solidarity in condemning these terrorist actions, but if people don't unite in condemning the behaviour that actually caused it in the first place, we're not really doing very much to help prevent it happening again.
The government can actually quite easily prevent a future terrorist attack in Britain, by sobering up, swallowing their pride and actually asking why these people hate us, looking at what we've done wrong, and forming peace talks with the people and countries we've terrorised (rather than just wining & dining in the lap of luxury with their fellow G8 leaders while the people are starving, the planet is dying & folk are being murdered on the streets of London) then we might actually get somewhere. If we had engaged in peace talks much earlier, London wouldn't have suffered so badly during the IRA days.
If the nations elected representatives refuse to speak out on this issue and voice their concerns, then they themselves are complicit - through their inaction - in allowing Britain to be targeted by terrorists; by failing to hold to account the government's actions, particularly their ILLEGAL actions within Parliament, they are part of the problem NOT part of the solution.
There is one way Britain can be made much safer - quite literally overnight. It doesn't involve spending billions on extra security, bombing more countries into the dark ages or further eroding British democracy and our civil liberties.
It simply involves Blair resigning or being impeached by Parliament. Thanks Tony, you started off great and you've done a wee bit of good as PM, but you've let us all down with all your war-mongering and the thousands of British, American, Iraq & Afghan soldiers, civilians, police, security agents & journalists that have been killed. But, it's time to finally wake up and recognise you need to change your ways or step down.
As for George Galloway, I don't think there was anything wrong with the point/question he made in Parliament yesterday. He is far from wide of the mark in pointing out that what happened is unlikely to be the last to strike the capital. It's a statement of fact. Whatsmore, if you reflect back on many of the news stories we've seen over the past few years, ranging from missing radioactive to chemical & biological agents (mostly lost by careless governments & corporations), you've got to wonder how long it will be before we start facing that kind of horrendous terrorist scenario. If you've misplaced the Home Office "PREPARING FOR EMERGENCIES" brochure that every one in Britain was sent last year, now might be a good time to get a new copy. The telephone number is 0800 88 77 77 and the website address is www.planningforemergencies.gov.uk
Most politicians are thinking exactly what we are all thinking: that the governments poverty-promoting foreign policies, lack of action on Palestine, the Yankee concentration camps & the heinous torture taking place in Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere and the illegal, immoral and barbaric actions against the people of Afghanistan and Iraq, are ALL direct causes for this attack. This is what the government was widely warned by many (including their own advisers) would be the price to pay for the wars of aggression they have been engaging in. But instead most MP's choose instead (in a gross dereliction of duty) to politely walk on egg-shells at the moment, in the mistaken belief that speaking out would open themselves up to accusations of political opportunism, that they were disrespecting the dead, injured and bereaved. Yes, we should all show solidarity in condemning these terrorist actions, but if people don't unite in condemning the behaviour that actually caused it in the first place, we're not really doing very much to help prevent it happening again.
The government can actually quite easily prevent a future terrorist attack in Britain, by sobering up, swallowing their pride and actually asking why these people hate us, looking at what we've done wrong, and forming peace talks with the people and countries we've terrorised (rather than just wining & dining in the lap of luxury with their fellow G8 leaders while the people are starving, the planet is dying & folk are being murdered on the streets of London) then we might actually get somewhere. If we had engaged in peace talks much earlier, London wouldn't have suffered so badly during the IRA days.
If the nations elected representatives refuse to speak out on this issue and voice their concerns, then they themselves are complicit - through their inaction - in allowing Britain to be targeted by terrorists; by failing to hold to account the government's actions, particularly their ILLEGAL actions within Parliament, they are part of the problem NOT part of the solution.
There is one way Britain can be made much safer - quite literally overnight. It doesn't involve spending billions on extra security, bombing more countries into the dark ages or further eroding British democracy and our civil liberties.
It simply involves Blair resigning or being impeached by Parliament. Thanks Tony, you started off great and you've done a wee bit of good as PM, but you've let us all down with all your war-mongering and the thousands of British, American, Iraq & Afghan soldiers, civilians, police, security agents & journalists that have been killed. But, it's time to finally wake up and recognise you need to change your ways or step down.
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Comrade, your analysis is flawed
08.07.2005 11:43
I am sorry to say this but your posting is a deeply flawed analysis of the situation and that it is in fact premised on essentially racist thinking.
You say that: '...the governments poverty-promoting foreign policies, lack of action on Palestine, the Yankee concentration camps & the heinous torture taking place in Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere and the illegal, immoral and barbaric actions against the people of Afghanistan and Iraq, are ALL direct causes for this attack'.
No they are not.
The direct causes of the attack are the people who made, planted and detonated the bombs. That is the direct cause. To understand it you need to understand them.
I guess you think that these people were somehow forced into it by the actions of Western governments. Leaving aside the fact that this is the same logic that says women who wear short skirts are responsible for the rapes perpetrated against them or that people who leave a window open are asking to be robbed this is also a racist and eurocentric perspective since it presumes that only the west can be responsible for bad things, only the West can be the driving force of politics and denies that the Middle East is capable of producing out of itself its own nutters who believe their own things quite independently of western powers and have their own agenda which is nothing at all to do with freeing the world of poverty or war or disease.
Study some history of the Middle East and study some of the political writings of Isalmists. Their goal, explicitly stated, is to restore the ancient Caliphate over all the Middle East and then spread out into the West. They have always resisted any democratisation of the region and any loosening of the grip of an absolutist theology. Theirs is not a movement for equality and freeedom and nor is it an anti-imperialist movement - it is a movement for its own imperialism. They are opposed to all other kinds of muslim and even see you and I as apostate muslims whom they have been given permission by God to kill in the struggle to impose His will on everyone.
None of this necessarily legitimates Western foreign policy. It only adds to the condemnation of those western states that have tolerated and encouraged autocratic regimes in the Middle East and who failed to see that Islamism was a threat not only to us but to the Middle East. But if you think that in some perverse way your enemy is the West and that since Islamism is your enemies' enemy and therefore your friend then you lend support to a movement that wishes to ban most representative art, enforce (on pain of maiming) a restrictive dress code for women and substitute for democratic law the theocracy of Sharia law and so on.
Read Qutb, read Banna and see for yourself.
James
James
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jameswiccas@hotmail.com
Thank-you for your comments
08.07.2005 13:27
While I disagree with many of the opinions you express, you've certainly hit the nail on the head on one point; the causal basis of the attacks are obviously not DIRECTLY linked to western policies, but I'm sure you would agree they are indirectly linked.
As for your supposition that I must "think that these people were somehow forced into it by the actions of Western governments", that is clearly a preposterous suggestion.
While, Islam clearly has its sects and hardline fanatical groups (just like Christianity) and has a large number of unevolved & pragmatic cultural & religious viewpoints (just like many Christian denominations) it is clear, however, that increasing numbers of people within the Islamic world increasingly feel backed into a corner by the west's foreign invasions over the past few years, and we ignore that at our own peril.
Of course, however barbaric or benovolent a countries foreign policies may or may not be, it will always prove possible for sufficiently motivated and dedicated fanatics to attempt to legitimise their behaviour and find some sort of 'foundation' - whether it be ideological, theological or theocratic - to support any acts of aggression or murderous acts they are planning. That would seem, in my opinion, to apply equally to both terrorists AND governments.
Thanks for the book recommendations, your comments and for reading my little article. I shall enjoy reading more about the subjects you mention.
Thanks again.
Yours sincerely,
Z
Z