Uponnothing.co.uk

IOL: EU ministers agree to step up war on terror

Why is it that the leaders of this country cannot take a step-back to analyse the London Bombings, why is it that they still believe further security can prevent such attacks? It seems to me that even the community in which the London Bombers lived had no idea what was going on, so how increased security could help is hard to fathom - and as usual Charles Clarke does not give details as to what such ‘anti-terror’ proposals actually entail.

I imagine after tracking each email we send, the next logical steps are to really get to grips with common forms of communications. Why not have every phone call recorded, and every time two people engage in conversation they must be listened to by a anti-terrorist police officer. Of course this is impossible, but if you really wanted to stop terrorism through increased security this is what you would have to do. Instead we need to be realistic about terrorism, and admit that increased security cannot stop such attacks, only engaging with the root causes can hope to do that.

As for the 2 minutes silence to be observed across the 25 nation block of Europe, I really wonder exactly what people across Europe - and here in the UK will actually think during it.

I understand that everyone will be thinking about the families of the lost ones, those that really know the reality of terror, and the horror of losing someone in such a senseless way. I will be one of these people, trying to imagine what it must feel like to have suffered such a loss, but selfishly thankful that I have not lost anyone close to me in the attacks.

Yet, I will also feel angry, and genuinely ashamed during the two minutes silence, for how must it look to those in Iraq or Afghanistan, or those plentiful nations in Europe who strongly opposed our terrorist crusade in Iraq? Will those in Europe feel angered at how they are forced to have two minutes silence for the European, British victims of the war on terror, whilst they are not expected to spare a thought for the thousands killed in Iraq or Afghanistan as a result of ‘collateral damage’ - or as in Iraq the very real slaughter of innocent people in places such as Fallujah? Furthermore will those in Iraq or Afghanistan feel bitterly the difference in how we treat the death of a European, as to how we treat the death of an Iraqi of Afghan. For it has never been clearer how little we value any lives but our own - dead Iraqi civilian: unfortunate (or considered ‘worth it’), dead Briton: outrage, unjustifiable, priceless.

I am not ashamed to mourn the innocent dead in London, but I am ashamed that we as a nation only see fit to mourn and respect our own dead, it seems to me that as a nation we place no value in any suffering except our own. It makes me sick to have two minutes silence for 50 dead in London, and no such event for the hundreds dead at the hands of Tony Blair and George Bush in Iraq, and various other nations in which they have installed vicious dictators, and then propped them up with money, arms, diplomatic support, and a licence to kill. Terror is the most important ally that the UK and US has, which is why we only mourn (or mention) our victims of terror, not the victims of our terror.

How is it that we can be outraged at the deaths of 50, when we can be Blasé about the death of thousands at the same time?

If we respect death and suffering, and families that have lost loved ones in such senseless atrocities, then we should at least have the decency to do it equally.