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Justifying aggression
U.S. has gained sympathy to such an extent that it now has a free hand to do as it wills and implement its worldwide agenda without hindrance

By Sadaf Sadaf
August 30, 2002
The Iranian

This was emailed to iranian.com on September 17, 2001. For the next few days iranian.com will offer unpublished reactions to the September 11 attacks from its archives.

When IRA terrorists bomb civilians in Northern Ireland, does that give us the right to call all Irish people terrorists and therefore Catholic Fanatics? If ETA carries out terrorist acts in Spain does do we label all people from the Basque region mindless barbarians, or worst still Christian extremists?

When Tamil Tigers perform suicide attacks in Sri Lanka and India, are they ever referred to as fundamentalist Hindu militants? When Zionists Jews attack and kill young children in Palatine, is it called Jewish fundamentalist militants Jews? So why is it that if Arabs carry out a terrorist act, they are labeled as Islamic extremists or Muslim militants, and Islam itself is put on trial?

Contrary to what is portrayed in the media, Muslims around the world unequivocally condemn the recent terrorist attacks in America. We send our condolences to the innocent victims of this horrible tragedy, and especially those who have lost loved ones.

Hijacking and killing of civilians goes against everything that Muslims believe in and there is no justification for this kind of action whatsoever. May God give us the strength to be just and to promote justice all over the world, to spread love and compassion, and to maintain a sound mind in these difficult and confusing times.

Following Tuesday's horrific attacks on the World Trade Center and the ensuing 24-hour news coverage, analysis, speculation, suspicion, manipulation and picture building, it appears that many ordinary people like ourselves have become sucked in by the sheer strength of the media's propaganda machine. It has no doubt done a remarkable job of making us forget about all the other problems around the world, both past and present, including our very own.

Indeed these are emotional times, but perhaps we should to take a step back and think a little. Ask yourself, who stands to gain most from this outrageous act of terrorism?

Right from the onset, the U.S. officials and their media machine seem to have made up their minds as to whom they are going to hold responsible for this criminal act. Just hours after the attacks, one of the government officials was quoted as saying, "We are 95% sure it was Bin Laden".

So all the subsequent investigations that have been carried out, all those "credible leads" that the FBI are meant to be following, have been geared towards implicating a certain group(s) of people or an individual who supposedly represents these people or is tenuously linked to them.

What about all the other credible leads that have not led anywhere near them? Where is the sincerity and objectivity in finding the real criminals? The thousands of innocent people who died and their loved ones have a right to know who did this. They want to know who REALLY carried out this heinous act, not who we WANT the masses to believe did it in order to calm their anger.

Based on prejudices, it is convenient to target and accuse those whose faith or culture we do not identify with or those who have a different outlook on life. Remember all the negative publicity about Afghanistan over the past few years - their breaking of statues, their supposed mistreatment of women, their unwillingness to hand over one individual who the West accuses of being the root of all terrorism, though they have yet to prove it.

It is as though we have been gradually prepared and conditioned so as to accept this almost inevitable attack on Afghanistan as something justifiable.

Colin Powell has predictably identified Osama bin Laden as the prime suspect, but where is the evidence? It is not the first time that he has been accused, and nor is it the first occasion where no tangible proof has been found against him, except conjecture. Then again, who would have the audacity to question America?

It may be years until we know who really did it, but in the meantime millions of innocent people in Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, and other parts of the world will have to suffer, as they have been for the last few decades.

Prior to Tuesday's hijackings and attacks, U.S. popularity around the world was arguably the lowest it had been for quite some time. Think of all the countries and groups that it has invaded, bombed, usurped, embargoed or treated with utmost contempt: Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina, Bosnia, Chechnya, China, Colombia, Cuba, Grenada, Iraq, Libya, Palestine, Panama, Somalia, Sudan, Vietnam, the environmentalists, the sweatshop workers in U.S. multinationals, ... the list is endless.

But now it seems as though the whole world is rallying around to give their unconditional support to America. Suddenly resolutions are getting voted in that had never been implemented before. Clauses are being invoked that had previously never been used.

Indeed the U.S. has gained sympathy to such an extent that it now has a free hand to do as it wills and implement its worldwide agenda without hindrance. It can now justify its aggression towards nations that do not want to be subjugated by its economic domination and two-faced pseudo-democracy. Anyone who steps out of line will simply be labeled as terrorist or a threat to global security.

It may appear rather untimely and insensitive to look at the US in such a light given that it has just suffered a terrible human tragedy. However, the grim reality is that this is the root cause of what has happened, and if it is not exposed or at least acknowledged, what is to say that it won't happen again?

Americans ignore at their peril the importance of requiring their government officials to adhere to the "supreme law" of the land. After all, while we still do not know who is responsible for the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and what motivated them, how can we ignore the possibility that they are counterattacks by people against whom the U.S. government has unconstitutionally waged war for the past several decades?

Think about it: the U.S. government waged war for many years in Korea and Vietnam, in which tens of thousands of people were killed. It has invaded independent nations, such as Grenada and Panama. It has helped dictatorial regimes to torture, kill, and suppress their own citizenry. It has helped to oust democratically elected presidents from office.

It has waged war against the Iraqi people with bombs and sanctions, and continues to do so. It rained bombs and missiles on the people of Sudan and Afghanistan, and more recently Yugoslavia. There is one common denominator to all this U.S. government warfare - it has all occurred without the constitutionally required congressional declaration of war.

If the U.S. establishment is so "civilized" and opposed to all forms of "terrorism" why have they immorally supported brutal despotic regimes. If Osama bin Laden is so "uncivilized", why did they support him during the war in Afghanistan but now accuse him of being the biggest threat to U.S. security? Could it be that he no longer serves their interests?

If the U.S. is such a "democratic" nation, why has it ousted democratically elected presidents? If the U.S. is such a "peace loving" nation, why did it declare war straight after the attacks and threaten to hit back with a vengeance boasting, "it is a war that we will win"?

Let us pause and just ponder a little over our not so distant history. Let us not be naive and simply accept uncritically whatever we read in the papers, hear on the news or watch on the television. It may seem obvious, but in all these conflicts, the only people to suffer will be the innocent civilians, be they in New York, Baghdad, Kabul or Khartoum.

On the hand, despite all the rhetoric about freedom, peace and the battle against evil, it is the U.S. government, the large financial institutions that control the world economy, the defense industry, and those governments who want a tighter control over the world through global surveillance, that will ultimately benefit from this tragedy.

There has been worldwide condemnation for what is no doubt a heinous crime, but where has the condemnation been over the last 50 years for all other crimes instigated and supported by the U.S. Let us look at things in perspective and not forget our history.



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