Suicide Bomber

[In order to circumvent the new sedition and anti-terror laws we would identify the following text as pre-modern naturalism (realism); nevertheless, it should not be forgotten that this is the post-modern era of contextual relativism. Therefore, the determination of whether the following is fiction, ‘faction’ or documentary reality, lies with the reader. It is culture that reads and writes – the author is dead, long live the ‘suicide bomber’.]

Confrontation with a living weapon of modern warfare is an unnerving experience, not the least reason being that myth and reality merge to form a recognisable but unfamiliar presence. Youth is the recognisable aspect but it is the foreign and unpredictable that unnerves. One is immediately struck by the fact that there are no old suicide bombers yet it is the old who have lived their lives and should be the most likely candidates (expendable).

As the initial request for a meeting came from the youth I allowed the meeting a greater degree of latitude than usual; not wishing to rush the situation I offered our unexpected guest some black tea and condiments in the hope that the gesture would remove the tension in the air. I was a little surprised when the offer was politely refused, the youth had eyed one of my colleagues drinking a can of soda; “would you like a Pepsi,” I asked while simultaneously taking a can from the bar fridge. “Yes, thank you,” replied the youth as he settled back with the cold beverage.

Our slightly more relaxed guest then proceeded to inform us why he requested the meeting and offered (as credentials) some detailed information of one network to which we were affiliated. The information offered was not readily available to outsiders, especially ‘suicide bombers’; his knowledge only served to arouse my suspicions and focus my attention. “So, you located us through this organization; the info you have is widely known (tactical lie) but do go on”, I responded. “It was your publications that initially attracted our attention, we put many hours into tracing readily available output to your many front organisations and then to you”. “I am flattered but surely you could have just emailed us from one of our many Internet sites, we break no laws and have nothing to hide, so why the convoluted cloak and dagger approach?” I asked. “We do things the way we know gets results”, he responded.

“We know that you and your other affiliated networks have gained a wide readership in a number of different mediums, including the Internet. We thought, based on content specialisation, that you might wish to have some detailed info on people like me”. “You mean an in-depth profile of a suicide bomber?” “No, not exactly, just one, me,” he replied. “Have you noticed anything unusual about my appearance?” “If you’re referring to your blue eyes and sandy hair, well yes, it was a little unexpected, but Germans have a history of terrorism, O, excuse me, ‘armed’ resistance.” “I’m not German, my mother is Australian and my father is South African; I was raised in Kenya but the family moved to Oz when I was in senior high school.” “No wonder I couldn’t pick the accent”, I said, laughing.

After asking permission, I placed my trusty pocket recorder on the coffee table and sat back while our ‘friend’ began to describe the circumstances and events that led him to his extreme and drastic vocation.

What followed was a long ramble of accusations, claims, counter-claims and justifications for the post-emptive (reactive) position of extreme violence and destruction this man/weapon has taken. I was struck by the similarity of his mode of operation with the methodologies utilised by the axis of lying, criminal governments – Britain, forty-five minute strike capability (of lies); Australia, aluminium tubing utilised for atomic (deception); the USA, satellite photos of green painted ice-cream trucks (‘mobile chemical warfare labs’) and test-tubes of 'anthrax' (baby powder) all of which existed only as fabrications, methods of deception utilised by lying, plundering, murdering governments.

Our suicide bomber was nothing if not a good learner and imitator of the example set by our governments – lies, incoherence, self-justification, violence, murder and illogic have begun to infect the community at large, I thought! I drew his attention to the similarities of his approach with that of the governments he wished to destroy. Not unexpectedly, I encountered from the youth the same blind certainty of the ‘correctness’ of his position as opposed to the flagrant evil of his enemy.

“Interesting”, I said, “you share many views with the Islamists”. “No fuckin way”, he retorted, “I’m an Evangelical Christian”. “O, I see, so you have strong Christian beliefs?” “My mother instilled religious values in me as a child; she would beat me severely if she caught me sinning – she once caught me masturbating but only put her hands on her hips and stared while I fumbled to put my dick back in my pants. However, she once beat the shit out of me for pinching an extra cookie when she told me I could only have one; I’ll never forget that beating.”

“Do you still have strong religious values?” “Nah, I remember coming home unexpectedly from high school once; we were having some work done to the house. I came in the back way and found my mother and the plumber in the laundry. She was going ‘hell for leather’ sucking his cock. She explained to me later that Evangelicals believe that we [all humans] are born in a state of total depravity (made sense at the time) and that everyone is predisposed to sin due to our inherently vile nature. Human beings, she explained, are essentially worthless and incapable of saving themselves; but for the saving grace of Christ we would all perish in hell. She said that everything was all right because she had repented and was forgiven of her ‘transgression’. She explained to me that on each occasion we sin we should ask HIS forgiveness and then we would be relieved of the burden of our guilt. Seemed like an easy way to do whatever you liked, but I took it on board at the time.”

“Nevertheless, I thought it my Christian duty to tell my father, who immediately called my mother into the room and questioned her in front of me. I guess it was my presence that forced her to tell the truth; I’ll never forget the beating he gave her on that occasion. During the struggle she fell on the coffee table and knocked the cookies and milk I was having onto the carpet. My father in his rage made her pick up every crumb and scrub the milk-stain from the carpet. Things were never the same in the household after that incident.”

“I’m no theologian, but your mother’s reading of the message of Christianity is about as screwed-up as I have ever encountered,” I said. “Yea, but that’s the way Evangelicals read it,” he replied.

“So what are you saying, a perverse Christian upbringing led you to a life of terrorism?” Nah, not that, it’s the closed doors, the lack of opportunity and the widening social divide between those who have and those who haven’t. We have no future other than slave labour and factory fodder. The rights we once enjoyed as workers have even been taken from us. Higher education is now the domain of the rich as the cost is in the tens of thousands. We are left to eat shit; imported (slave wage) Asian workers are now stealing what is left of our traditional livelihoods. The transnationals have never had higher profits, thousands of millions, yet we still have holes in our roads and sub-standard living conditions. We are only a population of twenty million, there is no valid or reasonable excuse for the deprivations we suffer; deprivations that have been artificially created by our puppet leaders. The transnationals are sucking the life blood of the nation and leaving precious little for the locals.”

“The nation as a whole should benefit, not just a few selfish parasitic transnational corporations. We have become slaves to foreigners in our own nation, there is no greater failure of leadership than this – and for this the lackeys will pay with their lives; better a few should die than a whole nation.” “I cannot argue with the issues you raise, you are right!” “But I do object to your methods,” I responded.

I promised I would make known the many valid grievances the young man had.

Regardless of the vile example our lying, murdering criminal governments have set, I could not help but feel a sense of overwhelming tragedy that a once peaceful nation has been pushed to these extremes.

I recall the final words of the blue-eyed Christian bomber, “read your history,” he said; “Australians have always retaliated against injustice and exploitation, at home and abroad.” “Remember the Breaker (Morant), his only mistake was he didn’t choose the time and method of his demise, we make no such mistakes.”