Revenge

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This is a mistake
We must act to stop this "crusade"

By Peyvand Khorsandi
September 17, 2001
The Iranian

News has just arrived of an Afghani cab driver who has been paralysed from the neck down after an attack by a passenger in apparent revenge for the terror that hit the U.S. last week -- he was found at 3 a.m. outside a pub in Twickenham, west London.

Last night (September 16), Iranian.com editor Jahanshah Javid told Britain's BBC Radio 5 Live that an Iranian grocery store in America had been attacked for displaying a U.S. flag which the assailants had complained was "too small".

The press, it seems, has dutifully started its dehumanisation of Muslims and in particular Afghanis -- the first step in Bush's "war" against terrorism. And people are dutifully being duped by his "crusade".

"Hand over Bin Laden or we'll flatten you,": the ultimatum reads. Even the US' fellow Taliban-backer Pakistan has joined the chorus demanding "revenge" from its Frankenstein.

Those uncivilised woman-killers, shocked by Bush's reaction, must be reaching for their butts to check that their "Made in America" branding has not disappeared.

-- "Bomb us? We had a deal!"
-- "Fuck you, we're coming in."
-- "But..."
-- "Fuck you, we're coming in."

So, we Brits and Americans sit and flick channels waiting to hear news of the "onslaught" against "our boys" by "hordes" of dark "beasts" -- all words the press has used in the past to describe people whose lives would later be written off as "collateral damage".

This time it will be the burned, mutilated humanity left behind by U.S. F16s disappearing into the Afghan sunset. ("Yiiiieeeeeehaaaaaa! Got me an In'jun.'")

***

Last week Whoopi Goldberg called for caution: "We're talking about taking out a whole country." She was wise. The people of Afghanistan live (or if you're a woman, try to live) within 652,000 square km of land. Osama Bin Laden, with his arms stretched out, would take up far less than one km squared. In fact, I reckon the man would fit in a two metre-squared box, so there's surely no need to reduce a whole people to dust.

But let's not kid ourselves. This would not be war and certainly not the first one this century -- we haven't finished bombing Iraq yet! Bad habits are hard to kick. Evidently, we have forgotten the 200,000 Iraqi conscripts who were vaporised while in retreat, when Geroge Bush Sr. wanted to get back at Saddam in the Gulf War. Now Junior wants a shot at Osamamumabitch.

Oh, my brothers, this is a mistake. None of us knew the World Trade Center would be obliterated. There was no way to pre-empt it. However, we are all aware of what may happen next door to Iran if Bush's proposed slaughter campaign proceeds. Ask the paralysed London taxi driver.

So, Muslim, Christian, or -- like me -- Who Wants to be a Millionaire- viewer, we must act to stop this Die Hard With a Vengeance "crusade". After all, if Hollywood wrote history, Vietnam would be a U.S. state.

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