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Disturbing
Tokyo since 1998
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Ready for more? By Douglas JE Barnes What could I possibly say about the attacks in NYC and Washington DC that you don't already feel yourself? It leaves me utterly stunned to the point that I still have a hard time accepting it as real. This cruel political statement has ripped apart the lives of thousands of immediate victims and millions around the world who have friends or family among the injured, dead and missing. The initial shock is passing and now people are starting to ask why. Why? As always with politics, there is an official line stated by "President" Bush and parroted by the media and world leaders. On Wednesday, Bush offered that explanation when he said, "America was targeted for attack because we're the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world." Breaking that apart we get America was targeted and America is a beacon for freedom and opportunity. Thus, America was targeted because it's a beacon for freedom and opportunity. I guess the White House and CNN, which keep repeating this line, think that all Americans are as lacking in mental fortitude as George W. It is not that the White House doesn't know their international role and image. And the media knows as well. It would be hard for any professional journalist to have missed former chief of staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Pat Holt's September 6 (Christian Science Monitor) op-ed "Of course we're imperialists," in which he explained that, while the US is imperialist, it is a good imperialist. The real meaning of Bush's statement is that it's "imperialism as usual." Furthermore, Bush stated that "Our military is powerful, and it's prepared." Giving a not too subtle hint that when they find "the terrorists who commited these acts and those who harbour them", they will use it as a display of US might and as a subsidy to the military-industrial complex. How effective will this approach be? Will this be enough to stop a people so angry and desperate that they will gladly trade their lives to kill those that they hate? We can answer this, there is a model that we can use to see if this would be effective - Israel. What happens there? Palestinians throw rocks, Israeli soldiers fire bullets. Palestians get enraged and walk into a pizzeria with a bomb. BOOM! Israel retaliates with helicopter gunships, Palestinians board a bus with a bomb. BOOM! And on and on for over 20 years. The effect of adding violence to violence is quite logically more violence. The US might bomb, beef up airport security and legislate unbreakable cockpit doors with locks, but this won't stop terrorism. Thinking about the vulnerability to terrorism for all of 40 seconds, I came up with a plan to kill hundreds of thousands in a major city and two plans to blow up more buildings. It is safe to assume that terrorists are not short of ideas. I see it as foolish to bomb them and thereby give them more incentive to attack. This approach then will not work. There are two methods that could be effective. One is to use nuclear strikes and kill everyone in the region, then hunt down and kill everyone of that ethnic group worldwide, thereby assuring no vengeful second generation terrorists. This method is ridiculous and needs no serious scrutiny. The other approach would be to find out why this/these groups are angry at the US, sit down with them and work out a plan to rectify the situation. How likely this will be, considering that the Secretary of State of the US could be tried as a war criminal, I don't know. It is rather academic anyway as the US shows every sign of following the Israeli model and thus continuing the cycle of violence. This leaves the rest of us in the cross-fire. We are the future potential victims of this political war. Not only are we potential terrorist targets, we are also more likey to be targets of COINTELLPRO type surveillance and covert actions (infiltrations, etc.) if we speak out against the state in this time of need. Furthermore, right-wing pundits like David Horowitz are aready (in his case, just a few hours after the attack) calling to slash spending on foolish things like health care or social security and spend it instead on military equipment, covert-ops, political assasinations, and so on. That leaves us with the same options we had before the attack - raising a big stink about injustice. This might be harder to do in the months to follow but the alternative is worse. If the NSA, CIA, or FBI would like to go after me for not toeing the line, they can reach me at 0360993101@jcom.home.ne.jp |