9/11 Licence To Kill
remember the afternoon when I sat with my then current girlfriend and best friend when we switched on the TV to find every channel dedicated to two burning towers in New York. The twin towers of the world trade centre, the very epitome of American Global capitalism was up in flames, and collapsed before my eyes. My mobile rang and my Dad was making sure I knew what was happening; ‘This is big, this could really be the end of a lot of things’, he warned. He was right, but it has taken a long time for the real outcome of 9/11 to be realised, for America was too cynical to respond emotionally; it instead chose to hold tight and make sure that 9/11 would be a licence to kill for decades. So we witness war in Afghanistan, followed by war in Iraq, followed by preparations for strikes in Iran, the licence to kill is being extended everyday. The abuse of the emotion generated by 9/11 is a far bigger tragedy than those that lost their lives in the terrorist attack, an attack in itself has never been put into a realistic context. 9/11 although it cannot be condoned, was not the worst act of terrorism ever committed, and it was in the great scheme of human tragedy, a small event. In human terms it cost the lives of around 3000 people, for comparison the current war in Iraq has cost the lives of around 100,000. However, the ignorance of the West allows Iraqi civilians to be reduced to figures, and as numbers they cease to exist in the conscience of the Western world and count for nothing. In the Western mindset only the 3000 Westerners killed actually exist; we cannot even bring ourselves to consider the Iraqi’s of Afghans killed in the initial actions in the ‘War on Terror’ as people. If we could we would surely not allow it to happen, but somehow in our Western-centric mindset we ignore any other suffering than our own, we can view all the atrocities caused by 9/11 Licence to kill as somehow different to the death of the 3000 Westerners in the original terrorist act. 9/11 should have been a time for reflection on the way that America acts globally, 9/11 was not a random bombing of a shopping centre or a gas attack on a subway; it was a direct attack on the American system. It attacked American Militarism – the pentagon, it attacked the American Corporations – the World Trade Centre, and it tried to attack the heart of the American system – the White house. It attacked the very instruments that have been part of American State terror for decades, and although the attack cannot be condoned, it can also be viewed as a strategic strike, much as the Americans viewed their strikes in Afghanistan and Iraq as strategic. What is the difference between Al Qaida striking against the terrorism of America with strategic strikes achieving minimal lose of life, but maximum statement; and the American attacks on strategic targets against the ‘War on Terror’ in Iraq and Afghanistan, often with loss of human lives completely unrelated to any justifiable military target.
Make no mistake on this point, America and Britain are rogue terrorist states, and individually they are responsible for more loss of life through terrorism than any other country in the world in the last 50 years. To fight a ‘War on Terror’ regardless of the human cost, as is happening today across the world through direct and indirect conflict sponsored by America and Britain; in response to a direct attack on American terrorism is a dangerous application of complete moral hypocrisy. I am sorry that the lives of other 3000 people were lost as a result of terrorism in America on September 11, 2001, but I am appalled at the millions of innocent people that have died at the hands of America and Britain in the last 50 years. Furthermore I am appalled that these deaths that are never referred to as terrorism – because they are terrorist atrocities beyond anything even dreamt of by Al-Qaida. What is even more galling is the misuse of the word ‘terrorist’ with regards to the war in Iraq – under UN law people have the right to resist occupation through military means. Although civilians have been killed, these casualties have occurred due to collateral damage, where the targets themselves were military and the civilians unfortunate victims. Most of the resistance attacks were preceded by statements warning civilians to stay away from these targets – something more than the US and UK managed during their mass terrorism in 2003. Yet this isn’t widely reported as the US/UK coalition does not want to legitimise the resistance to their war of ‘liberation’.
America have no moral right to feel sorrow for the death of 3000 at the hands of external terror, if they cannot feel sorrow or remorse for the death of millions in the course of their own state terror. They have given themselves a licence to kill, but they also given their largely innocent citizens licence to be killed in further terrorist retaliations against continued - and escalating - American state terror.