Uponnothing.co.uk

A sad day for many Londoners, in which category I class myself as having lived there for 8 years and had the best times of my life there. Needless to say the scum that orchestrated this attack on the world’s greatest city will meet their maker, of that I have no doubt.

But then the sentiments I am expressing are no different to someone in Baghdad, Fallujah, Ramadi, Gaza, the West Bank, Tel Aviv, New York or anywhere else that has suffered terrorism, both state sponsored or otherwise.

So the question that should be on everyone’s lips should be “why?”

Forget about all the drivel that gushes from the mouths of political idiots like Blair, Straw, Portillo, Clarke and others. Phrases like “they hate our freedoms” are meaningless as it tries to forestall any spirit of inquiry as to the political message these attacks represent. Rather it tries to imply that these people have no message and love killing for the sake of it.

Quite simply, Blair wishes to sweep under the cover any linkage to the war in Iraq and his now sadly mistaken assurance that the world is a better and safer place after their “war” in Iraq. The radicals’ statement has already made that clear. Yet many fools have come on TV and said they would have attacked us anyway. The oft-repeated mantra of 9/11 has been expressed and thrown around willy nilly with no real explanation as to why we are in the situation we are in.

My response to this is as follows.

The war on terror did not start on 9/11, but had been underway for several years prior – indeed well within the period we now call the Cold War. 9/11 was the most outrageous attack undertaken by a non-state entity. But the acts of terror undertaken by both nations and organisations had been taking place well before this. 9/11 represented a culmination in the ongoing war and led to a change of political direction.

Surely then, one would have asked, why aren’t we really looking at the causes and our own actions in all this? For a time it seemed that this was happening after 9/11. But when the decision to invade Iraq on a lie was undertaken, the direction was changed and the momentum against the war on terror suffered a devastating blow. For we handed to the terrorists another excuse to kill our innocents and increase their recruitment.

If I was a leader of the UK, surely the last thing I’d want to do is to shoot myself in the foot by following some half wit’s war on a country that had played no part in 9/11. Because now, nations with abysmal human rights records can kill their own people and say “it’s all part of the war on terror” Indeed, the US and UK have outsourced many of their prisoners to these very regimes.

So when idiots spout their bullshit of “9/11 terror terror, they hate our way of life” etc, the very things they are accusing the terrorists, we are doing a thousand fold every day in Iraq and Afghanistan. And then we wonder why it comes out and bites us in the ass? Yet the ones who suffer, like in Iraq, are the innocents while the leaders are protected 24/7 by their bodyguards, fleets of armour plated cars and constant surveillance.

Is it really surprising that many Iraqis, when interviewed about the attacks in London, did not express sympathy and condolences? Many had said “ Now you know what we go through every day” or “After allowing your Governments to kill our children, this is a consequence of your support” Yet this attitude is exactly what extremists on both sides want – as it provides an endless supply of willing recruits to murder more innocents.

How can we defeat this? Firstly we must address our double standards, which is a sore point with millions in the third world, where different rules are applied between the rich and poor. If we continue to adopt supercilious and arrogant attitudes then we are inviting a response. Perhaps the recent G8 summit will do something to address this. Only time will tell.

More importantly, rather than responding to any of Bin Laden’s pronouncements, governments should not engage in pre-emptive invasions and wars to suit their own interests but to seriously address the issues that are inflaming the world’s trouble spots. That is not to say we should negotiate with al-Qaida as such – but to cut the support he has from many in the Islamic world. By resolving Iraq, Palestine, Kashmir and other areas that burn deeply in Muslim consciousness, it throws the ball into Bin Laden’s court and shows potential supporters that solutions can be addressed fairly without recourse to extremism. Thus Bin Laden’s message of violence no longer has the attraction of the masses. Just as advertisers target the masses into buying their products rather than others, we must target the masses of the Muslim world by addressing their concerns and providing a “product” that then diverts them from their competitors (extremism). For extremism to survive, it requires as Mao put it, a swamp of support to swim in. So drain the swamp and watch the terrorists flounder.

But by then rattling their sabres at countries that have nothing to do with this (as is currently happening with Iran) and drawing up plans to invade the next axis of evil, then you consign yourselves to what George Orwell called “the never-ending war”

I will close this article by dedicating it to those who lost their lives in London, in the hope that leaders will finally realise that thoughtful and measured actions are required rather than knee jerk actions, so that we do not have more dates like 9/11 and 7/7 to enter our vocabulary and engender more hatred in the world.

“An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind” – Mahatma Gandhi