Talking about Terrorism (9/11)

I know this is a few years belated, but I was reminded of this by reading Harold Pinter's acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday, December 8, 2005. Here's the link. Thanks to a commenter on intentblog for this.

Especially, read below a couple essays, similar to tone and content to the link above that I received in my email as a subscriber of DRUMnews, post 9/11, 2001, that shocked and horrified me as well. (If you're passionate and politically inclined, the first couple are for you, if you're sensitive and literally so, the last two. But i suggest that both types get an idea of each other's interpretation!

Shocked and Horrified

-Larry Mosqueda, Ph.D.

The Evergreen State College

September 15, 2001

Like all Americans, on Tuesday, 9-11, I was shocked and horrified to watch the WTC Twin Towers attacked by hijacked planes and collapse, resulting in the deaths of perhaps up to 10,000 innocent people.

I had not been that shocked and horrified since January 16, 1991, when then President Bush attacked Baghdad, and the rest of Iraq and began killing 200,000 people during that "war" (slaughter). This includes the infamous "highway of death" in the last days of the slaughter when U.S. pilots literally shot in the back retreating Iraqi civilians and soldiers. I continue to be horrified by the sanctions on Iraq, which have resulted in the death of over 1,000,000 Iraqis, including over 500,000 children, about whom former Secretary of State Madeline Allbright has stated that their deaths "are worth the cost".

Over the course of my life I have been shocked and horrified by a variety of U.S. governmental actions, such as the U.S. sponsored coup against democracy in Guatemala in 1954 which resulted in the deaths of over 120,000 Guatemalan peasants by U.S. installed dictatorships over the course of four decades.

Last Tuesday's events reminded me of the horror I felt when the U.S. overthrew the governments of the Dominican Republic in 1965 and helped to murder 3,000 people. And it reminded me of the shock I felt in 1973, when the U.S. sponsored a coup in Chile against the democratic government of Salvador Allende and helped to murder another 30,000 people, including U.S. citizens.

Last Tuesday's events reminded me of the shock and horror I felt in 1965 when the U.S. sponsored a coup in Indonesia that resulted in the murder of over 800,000 people, and the subsequent slaughter in 1975 of over 250,000 innocent people in East Timor by the Indonesian regime with the direct complicity of President Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissenger.

I was reminded of the shock and horror I felt during the U.S. sponsored terrorist contra war (the World Court declared the U.S. government a war criminal in 1984 for the mining of the harbors) against Nicaragua in the 1980s which resulted in the deaths of over 30,000 innocent people (or as the U.S. government used to call them before the term "collateral damage" was invented--"soft targets").

I was reminded of being horrified by the U. S. war against the people of El Salvador in the 1980s, which resulted in the brutal deaths of over 80,000 people, or "soft targets". I was reminded of the shock and horror I felt during the U.S. sponsored terror war against the peoples of southern Africa (especially Angola) that began in the 1970's and continues to this day and has resulted in the deaths and mutilations of over 1,000,000. I was reminded of the shock and horror I felt as the U.S. invaded Panama over the Christmas season of 1989 and killed over 8,000 in an attempt to capture George H. Bush's CIA partner, now turned enemy, Manual Noriega.

I was reminded of the horror I felt when I learned about how the Shah of Iran was installed in a U.S. sponsored brutal coup that resulted in the deaths of over 70,000 Iranians from 1952-1979. And the continuing shock as I learned that the Ayatollah Khomani, who overthrew the Shah in 1979, and who was the U.S. public enemy for decade of the 1980s, was also on the CIA payroll, while he was in exile in Paris in the 1970s.

I was reminded of the shock and horror that I felt as I learned about how the U.S. has "manufactured consent" since 1948 for its support of Israel, to the exclusion of virtually any rights for the Palestinians in their native lands resulting in ever worsening day-to-day conditions for the people of Palestine. I was shocked as I learned about the hundreds of towns and villages that were literally wiped off the face of the earth in the early days of Israeli colonization. I was horrified in 1982 as the villagers of Sabra and Shatila were massacred by Israeli allies with direct Israeli complicity and direction. The untold thousands who died on that day match the scene of horror that we saw last Tuesday. But those scenes were not repeated over and over again on the national media to inflame the American public.

The events and images of last Tuesday have been appropriately compared to the horrific events and images of Lebanon in the 1980s with resulted in the deaths of tens of thousand of people, with no reference to the fact that the country that inflicted the terror on Lebanon was Israel, with U.S. backing. I still continue to be shocked at how mainstream commentators refer to "Israeli settlers" in the "occupied territories" with no sense of irony as they report on who are the aggressors in the region.

Of course, the largest and most shocking war crime of the second half of the 20th century was the U.S. assault on Indochina from 1954-1975, especially Vietnam, where over 4,000,000 people were bombed, napalmed, crushed, shot and individually "hands on" murdered in the "Phoenix Program" (this is where Oliver North got his start). Many U.S. Vietnam veterans were also victimized by this war and had the best of intentions, but the policy makers themselves knew the criminality of their actions and policies as revealed in their own words in "The Pentagon Papers," released by Daniel Ellsberg of the RAND Corporation. In 1974 Ellsberg noted that our Presidents from Truman to Nixon continually lied to the U.S. public about the purpose and conduct of the war. He has stated that, "It is a tribute to the American people that our leaders perceived that they had to lie to us, it is not a tribute to us that we were so easily misled."

I was continually shocked and horrified as the U.S. attacked and bombed with impunity the nation of Libya in the 1980s, including killing the infant daughter of Khadafi. I was shocked as the U.S. bombed and invaded Grenada in 1983. I was horrified by U.S. military and CIA actions in Somalia, Haiti, Afghanistan, Sudan, Brazil, Argentina, and Yugoslavia. The deaths in these actions ran into the hundreds of thousands.

The above list is by no means complete or comprehensive. It is merely a list that is easily accessible and not unknown, especially to the economic and intellectual elites. It has just been conveniently eliminated from the public discourse and public consciousness. And for the most part, the analysis that the U.S. actions have resulted in the deaths of primarily civilians (over 90%) is not unknown to these elites and policy makers. A conservative number for those who have been killed by U.S. terror and military action since World War II is 8,000,000 people. Repeat--8,000,000 people. This does not include the wounded, the imprisoned, the displaced, the refugees, etc. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated in 1967, during the Vietnam War, "My government is the world's leading purveyor of violence." Shocking and horrifying.

Nothing that I have written is meant to disparage or disrespect those who were victims and those who suffered death or the loss of a loved one during this week's events. It is not meant to "justify" any action by those who bombed the Twin Towers or the Pentagon. It is meant to put it in a context. If we believe that the actions were those of "madmen", they are "madmen" who are able to keep a secret for 2 years or more among over 100 people, as they trained to execute a complex plan. While not the acts of madmen, they are apparently the acts of "fanatics" who, depending on who they really are, can find real grievances, but whose actions are illegitimate.

Osama Bin Laden at this point has been accused by the media and the government of being the mastermind of Tuesday's bombings. Given the government's track record on lying to the America people, that should not be accepted as fact at this time. If indeed Bin Laden is the mastermind of this action, he is responsible for the deaths of perhaps 10,000 people-a shocking and horrible crime. Ed Herman in his book The Real Terror Network: Terrorism in Fact and Propaganda does not justify any terrorism but points out that states often engage in "wholesale" terror, while those whom governments define as "terrorist" engage is "retail" terrorism. While qualitatively the results are the same for the individual victims of terrorism, there is a clear quantitative difference. And as Herman and others point out, the seeds, the roots, of much of the "retail" terror are in fact found in the "wholesale" terror of states. Again this is not to justify, in any way, the actions of last Tuesday, but to put them in a context and suggest an explanation.

Perhaps most shocking and horrific, if indeed Bin Laden is the mastermind of Tuesday's actions; he has clearly had significant training in logistics, armaments, and military training, etc. by competent and expert military personnel. And indeed he has. During the 1980s, he was recruited, trained and funded by the CIA in Afghanistan to fight against the Russians. As long as he visited his terror on Russians and his enemies in Afghanistan, he was "our man" in that country.

The same is true of Saddam Hussein of Iraq, who was a CIA asset in Iraq during the 1980s. Hussein could gas his own people, repress the population, and invade his neighbor (Iran) as long as he did it with U.S. approval.

The same was true of Manuel Noriega of Panama, who was a contemporary and CIA partner of George H. Bush in the 1980s. Noriega's main crime for Bush, the father, was not that he dealt drugs (he did, but the U.S. and Bush knew this before 1989), but that Noriega was no longer going to cooperate in the ongoing U.S. terrorist contra war against Nicaragua. This information is not unknown or really controversial among elite policy makers. To repeat, this not to justify any of the actions of last Tuesday, but to put it in its horrifying context.

As shocking as the events of last Tuesday were, they are likely to generate even more horrific actions by the U.S. government that will add significantly to the 8,000,000 figure stated above. This response may well be qualitatively and quantitatively worst than the events of Tuesday. The New York Times headline of 9/14/01 states that, "Bush And Top Aides Proclaim Policy Of Ending States That Back Terror" as if that was a rationale, measured, or even sane option. States that have been identified for possible elimination are "a number of Asian and African countries, like Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, and even Pakistan." This is beyond shocking and horrific-it is just as potentially suicidal, homicidal, and more insane than the hijackers themselves.

Also, qualitatively, these actions will be even worse than the original bombers if one accepts the mainstream premise that those involved are "madmen", "religious fanatics", or a "terrorist group." If so, they are acting as either individuals or as a small group. The U.S. actions may continue the homicidal policies of a few thousand elites for the past 50 years, involving both political parties.

The retail terror is that of desperate and sometime fanatical small groups and individuals who often have legitimate grievances, but engage in individual criminal and illegitimate activities; the wholesale terror is that of "rational" educated men where the pain, suffering, and deaths of millions of people are contemplated, planned, and too often, executed, for the purpose of furthering a nebulous concept called the "national interest". Space does not allow a full explanation of the elites Orwellian concept of the "national interest", but it can be summarized as the protection and expansion of hegemony and an imperial empire.

The American public is being prepared for war while being fed a continuous stream of shocking and horrific repeated images of Tuesday's events and heartfelt stories from the survivors and the loved ones of those who lost family members. These stories are real and should not be diminished. In fact, those who lost family members can be considered a representative sample of humanity of the 8,000,000 who have been lost previously. If we multiply by 800-1000 times the amount of pain, angst, and anger being currently felt by the American public, we might begin to understand how much of the rest of the world feels as they are continually victimized.

Some particularly poignant images are the heart wrenching public stories that we are seeing and hearing of family members with pictures and flyers searching for their loved ones. These images are virtually the same as those of the "Mothers of the Disappeared" who searched for their (primarily) adult children in places such as Argentina, where over 11,000 were "disappeared" in 1976-1982, again with U.S. approval. Just as the mothers of Argentina deserved our respect and compassion, so do the relatives of those who are searching for their relatives now. However we should not allow ourselves to be manipulated by the media and U.S. government into turning real grief and anger into a national policy of wholesale terror and genocide against innocent civilians in Asia and Africa. What we are seeing in military terms is called "softening the target." The target here is the American public and we are being ideologically and emotionally prepared for the slaughter that may commence soon.

None of the previously identified Asian and African countries are democracies, which means that the people of these countries have virtually no impact on developing the policies of their governments, even if we assume that these governments are complicit in Tuesday's actions. When one examines the recent history of these countries, one will find that the American government had direct and indirect influences on creating the conditions for the existence of some of these governments. This is especially true of the Taliban government of Afghanistan itself.

The New York Metropolitan Area has about 21,000,000 people or about 8 % of the U.S. population. Almost everyone in America knows someone who has been killed, injured or traumatized by the events of Tuesday. I know that I do. Many people are calling for "revenge" or "vengeance" and comments such as "kill them all" have been circulated on the TV, radio, and email. A few more potentially benign comments have called for "justice." This is only potentially benign since that term may be defined by people such as Bush and Colin Powell. Powell is an unrepentant participant in the Vietnam War, the terrorist contra war against Nicaragua, and the Gulf war, at each level becoming more responsible for the planning and execution of the policies.

Those affected, all of us, must do everything in our power to prevent a wider war and even greater atrocity, do everything possible to stop the genocide if it starts, and hold those responsible for their potential war crimes during and after the war. If there is a great war in 2001 and it is not catastrophic (a real possibility), the crimes of that war will be revisited upon the U.S. over the next generation. That is not some kind of religious prophecy or threat, it is merely a straightforward political analysis. If indeed it is Bin Laden, the world must not deal only with him as an individual criminal, but eliminate the conditions that create the injustices and war crimes that will inevitably lead to more of these types of attacks in the future. The phrase "No Justice, No Peace" is more than a slogan used in a march, it is an observable historical fact. It is time to end the horror.

In a few short pages it is impossible to delineate all of the events described over the past week or to give a comprehensive accounting of U.S. foreign policy. Below are a few resources for up to date news and some background reading, by Noam Chomsky, the noted analyst. The titles of the books explain their relevance for this topic.

For the most current information see http://www.commondreams.org/. For information on how the media distorts the news see http://www.fair.org/. For excellent links on the Middle East see http://al-awda.org/newyork/links.html.

For background reading by Noam Chomsky see:

Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies

Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (with Ed Herman

Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel and the Palestinians Deterring Democracy

A speech from Radio Havana:

RADIO HAVANA CUBA VIEWPOINT

September 13, 2001

A CALL FOR REFLECTION, RESTRAINT AND RESPONSIBILITY

There is no joy here in Cuba at the events of Tuesday. No one is cheering or holding impromptu block parties to celebrate the most astonishing act of terrorism in history against what has been for Cuba an implacable enemy for 40 years. There is, instead, a profound feeling of shock, revulsion and compassion and very real apprehension about the cries for vengeance that emanate from every corner of the White House and the US Congress.

The most powerful nation on earth has been put on a war footing and history has taught us all what to expect when Washington starts waving the cudgel self-righteously. The families of almost a million Japanese, four million Koreans, three million Vietnamese, and thousands of Iraqis and Yugoslavians can all attest to what occurs when the Oval Office scrambles its bombers.

It is hard to avoid the obvious accusation that an editorial such as this will be viewed as a cheap shot against a weakened United States, but there is an urgent need to respond to staggering and inconceivable statements from US politicians and people calling for the use of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons in an almost triumphal assertion that this is their first war of the 21st century.

The sabre rattling is deafening and very frightening to us all. US mainstream media is stirring the hatred by airing statements from people "on the street" calling for an immediate strike, an immediate all-out war against the "enemy." But who is the "enemy?" The enemy are successive Washington administrations that have for more than five decades promoted terrorism on an enormous scale across the globe.

Administrations that have trained international military personnel in techniques of torture and terrorism in its meek-sounding School of the Americas. Administrations that have for 40 years permitted and supported terrorist attacks against its island neighbor whose only crime was to advocate a different socio-political system. Administrations that introduced the world to nuclear holocaust, to carpet bombing, to horrendous use of phosphorous and napalm bombs.

Administrations that maintain an economic blockade that is directly responsible for the loss of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children's lives. Administrations that support one of the most repressive, brutal and racist regimes on earth with massive flows of money and weapons to use against the Palestinian people. Administrations that financed the Latin American dictatorships of the eighties and then later "apologized" for some of the unspeakable crimes they committed in the name of "democracy."

Tuesday was the anniversary of the US sponsored coup in Chile in which a legitimately elected government was brought down with extreme violence. The man behind this event and the covert wars within Cambodia and Argentina, Henry Kissinger, is one of those that today clamour for a "tough and decisive" response to the attacks in New York and Washington, who clamours for a blind war against an invisible enemy. Few doubt that Washington has just suffered the consequences of its actions across the globe. Even if Osama Bin Laden is found to be responsible, the people of the US should know that he was previously trained and used by the CIA in its war against the former government of Afghanistan. George W. Bush will seek to take the war to another part of the globe where more civilians can pay for the death of US civilians without their blood and disfigured bodies being shown on CNN.No solution will be forthcoming in the destruction of those deemed responsible. The enemy will still be there because the enemy comes from within. The CIA supported Noriega, Marcos, Sukarno, the Shah, Idi Amin, Mobuto, the Contra, Pinochet, the Argentinian generals, d'Aubuison, Somoza, Batista, Stroessner et al - the list is long and represents the obliteration of hundreds of thousands of civilian lives. In Panama 2,000, in Nicaragua 30,000, in El Salvador 75,000, in Guatemala over 150,000, in Indonesia 300,000.

The people of the US can surely no longer remain immune from the terrorism their governments provoke, promote and tolerate in their name. After the rage, the hatred, and the clamouring for vengeance have subsided, the time for reflection must come. War should be declared on the real threats to humanity: AIDS, racism, neo-colonialism, ruthless free market profiteering and Washington's "democracy" of domination.

That way the poverty and desperation that creates the kind of hatred of the US that leads to such unspeakable acts of terrorism will be avoided. The security and welfare of the United States clearly depends on social justice for all. There must be a change in this US psyche of isolation and pre-eminence or we shall all be brought to the brink of disaster once more.

The people of Cuba indeed share in the pain and distress of their neighbors, but at the same time they are reminded of the fact that five of their own were recently found guilty in a Florida court for combating this very same kind of despicable terrorism that has so stupefied the world after its use against the US.

The chickens have come home to roost and there is no smugness or satisfaction in saying it -- just very sincere anxiety for what may follow.

(c) 2001 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News.

All rights reserved.

And First Writing Since

-Suheir Hammad

1. there have been no words.

i have not written one word.

no poetry in the ashes south of canal street.

no prose in the refrigerated trucks driving debris and dna.

not one word.

today is a week, and seven is of heavens, gods, science.

evident out my kitchen window is an abstract reality.

sky where once was steel. smoke where once was flesh.

fire in the city air and i feared for my sister's life in a way never before. and then, and now, i fear for the rest of us.

first, please god, let it be a mistake, the pilot's heart failed, the plane's engine died.

then please god, let it be a nightmare, wake me now.

please god, after the second plane, please, don't let it be anyone who looks like my brothers.

i do not know how bad a life has to break in order to kill. i have never been so hungry that i willed hunger i have never been so angry as to want to control a gun over a pen. not really. even as a woman, as a palestinian, as a broken human being. never this broken.

more than ever, i believe there is no difference. the most privileged nation, most americans do not know the difference between indians, afghanis, syrians, muslims, sikhs, hindus. more than ever, there is no difference.

2. thank you korea for kimchi and bibim bob, and corn tea and the genteel smiles of the wait staff at wonjo the smiles never revealing the heat of the food or how tired they must be working long midtown shifts. thank you korea, for the belly craving that brought me into the city late the night before and diverted my daily train ride into the world trade center.

there are plenty of thank yous in ny right now. thank you for my lazy procrastinating late ass. thank you to the germs that had me call in sick. thank you, my attitude, you had me fired the week before. thank you for the train that never came, the rude nyer who stole my cab going downtown. thank you for the sense my mama gave me to run. thank you for my legs, my eyes, my life.

3. the dead are called lost and their families hold up shaky printouts in front of us through screens smoked up.

we are looking for iris, mother of three. please call with any information. we are searching for priti, last seen on the 103rd floor. she was talking to her husband on the phone and the line went. please help us find george, also known as adel. his family is waiting for him with his favorite meal. i am looking for my son, who was delivering coffee. i am looking for my sister girl, she started her job on monday.

i am looking for peace. i am looking for mercy. i am looking for evidence of compassion. any evidence of life. i am looking for life.

4. ricardo on the radio said in his accent thick as yuca, "i will feel so much better when the first bombs drop over there. and my friends feel the same way."

on my block, a woman was crying in a car parked and stranded in hurt. i offered comfort, extended a hand she did not see before she said, "we"re gonna burn them so bad, i swear, so bad." my hand went to my head and my head went to the numbers within it of the dead iraqi children, the dead in nicaragua. the dead in rwanda who had to vie with fake sport wrestling for america's attention.

yet when people sent emails saying, this was bound to happen, lets not forget u.s. transgressions, for half a second i felt resentful. hold up with that, cause i live here, these are my friends and fam, and it could have been me in those buildings, and we"re not bad people, do not support america's bullying. can i just have a half second to feel bad?

if i can find through this exhaust people who were left behind to mourn and to resist mass murder, i might be alright. thank you to the woman who saw me brinking my cool and blinking back tears. she opened her arms before she asked "do you want a hug?" a big white woman, and her embrace was the kind only people with the warmth of flesh can offer. i wasn't about to say no to any comfort. "my brother's in the navy," i said. "and we"re arabs". "wow, you got double trouble." word.

5. one more person ask me if i knew the hijackers. one more motherfucker ask me what navy my brother is in. one more person assume no arabs or muslims were killed. one more person assume they know me, or that i represent a people. or that a people represent an evil. or that evil is as simple as a flag and words on a page.

we did not vilify all white men when mcveigh bombed oklahoma. america did not give out his family's addresses or where he went to church. or blame the bible or pat robertson.

and when the networks air footage of palestinians dancing in the street, there is no apology that hungry children are bribed with sweets that turn their teeth brown. that correspondents edit images. that archives are there to facilitate lazy and inaccurate journalism.

and when we talk about holy books and hooded men and death, why do we never mention the kkk? if there are any people on earth who understand how new york is feeling right now, they are in the west bank and the gaza strip.

6. today it is ten days. last night bush waged war on a man once openly funded by the cia. i do not know who is responsible. read too many books, know too many people to believe what i am told. i don't give a fuck about bin laden. his vision of the world does not include me or those i love. and petitions have been going around for years trying to get the u.s. sponsored taliban out of power. shit is complicated, and i don't know what to think.

but i know for sure who will pay. in the world, it will be women, mostly colored and poor. women will have to bury children, and support themselves through grief. "either you are with us, or with the terrorists" - meaning keep your people under control and your resistance censored. meaning we got the loot and the nukes.

in america, it will be those amongst us who refuse blanket attacks on the shivering. those of us who work toward social justice, in support of civil liberties, in opposition to hateful foreign policies.

i have never felt less american and more new yorker, particularly brooklyn, than these past days. the stars and stripes on all these cars and apartment windows represent the dead as citizens first, not family members, not lovers.

i feel like my skin is real thin, and that my eyes are only going to get darker. the future holds little light.

my baby brother is a man now, and on alert, and praying five times a day that the orders he will take in a few days time are righteous and will not weigh his soul down from the afterlife he deserves.

both my brothers - my heart stops when i try to pray - not a beat to disturb my fear. one a rock god, the other a sergeant, and both palestinian, practicing muslim, gentle men. both born in brooklyn and their faces are of the archetypal arab man, all eyelashes and nose and beautiful color and stubborn hair.

what will their lives be like now?

over there is over here.

7. all day, across the river, the smell of burning rubber and limbs floats through. the sirens have stopped now. the advertisers are back on the air. the rescue workers are traumatized. the skyline is brought back to human size. no longer taunting the gods with its height.

i have not cried at all while writing this. i cried when i saw those buildings collapse on themselves like a broken heart. i have never owned pain that needs to spread like that. and i cry daily that my brothers return to our mother safe and whole.

there is no poetry in this. there are causes and effects. there are symbols and ideologies. mad conspiracy here, and information we will never know. there is death here, and there are promises of more.

there is life here. anyone reading this is breathing, maybe hurting, but breathing for sure. and if there is any light to come, it will shine from the eyes of those who look for peace and justice after the rubble and rhetoric are cleared and the phoenix has risen.

affirm life.

affirm life.

we got to carry each other now.

you are either with life, or against it.

affirm life.

Independent Media Centre

24 September 2001

Evil Empire - Innocent Citizens

By Maruthaiyan <puthiyakalacharam@hotmail.com

I belong to the uncivilized part of the world. I am notashamed to conceal the fact that my first reaction on seeingthe destruction of Pentagon and WTC Towers was jubilation.For that matter, it was the reaction of the overwhelmingmajority of our people. The mighty power on earth wasslapped on it's face!

But, when we witnessed the T.V. images of people jumping from the towers, wailing women and people running for theirlives.... we really felt bad. Especially, when we realizedthat a sizable section of the people killed were ordinaryworkers, we were back to our senses.

Because you know, we are not civilized enough to watch this horror in the T.V. Screen, munching Chocolates and sipping Coke, as America did during the "Operation - Desert Storm".

First it was "Terror on America"; Then "War on America"; Now it is "America's new War". U.S. Marines and F.B.I. sleuthsare landing in Pakistan. Standing in the midst of rubbles,putting his arms around the shoulder of a fireman, AmericanPresident declares War. It reminds me of the Hollywood Trash"Independence Day". But the reality is far more vulgar thanthe illusion. I am surprised to see that the civilizedpeople of America are politically more naive than theilliterate peasants of India.

Now America is seething with Anger. The Anger is caused not by the loss of lives. It's the indignation to the "GreatNation". America wants Retribution. Immediate Retribution.The Empire Strikes Back! It need not care for theinternational law. It need not place the evidence before theworld. It need not approach the U.N. `cause U.N. after allis a confederacy of the Empire.

Even Hitler had to hold a mock trial against the Communistsfalsely accused of torching the German Parliament. But Mr.Bush has no time for such trivialities. The Emperor need notprove his democratic credentials to anybody.

The Empire says that Osama Bin Laden is the suspect. Meansthat the Empire does not possess any hardcore evidence toreveal. Still, it has the right not only to kill thesuspect, but also to punish all those who gave him food andshelter. The fact that the `Evil' itself was created by the`Good' is not relevant here. All Evil is Good when it servesthe Empire. Saddam is fine when he remains an instrument toattack Iran. Noriego's drug is fine until he defies theEmpire.

Thus when the Empire so desires it will bomb any country. In1986 it bombed Libya and killed unknown number of peopleincluding Gadaffi's child. It was a retribution for a bombblast in a Berlin's Discotheque in which two AmericanMarines died. Involvement of Libyan Govt. in the blast isyet to be proved. But Retribution over.In 1998, a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan was bombed.Number of deaths unknown. The factory was accused ofmanufacturing chemical weapons for Terrorists. The owner issewing the U.S. now. The accusation against the factory isyet to be proved. But Retribution over.

The body count of the people killed by the Empire throughout the World may run into millions. May be, it is Un-Americanto probe into the loss of Non-American lives.

We also lost more than 5000 Indian lives in a day, way backin 1984 at Bhopal. 5000 dead and more than 100,000 paralyzedfor life. The American TNC Union Carbide, responsible forthe killing said, "It was a gas leak - just an accident".The real leakage was a military secret. A secret research onchemical weapons for the Pentagon.

The prime accused was Mr. Anderson, the president of UnionCarbide. There was a criminal case; There was a warrant; Buthe was happily ensconced at his corporate headquarters. Wecould not "smoke him out of his hole". Not because Mr.Anderson was not a terrorist; but because India is notAmerica.

Also the U.S. Supreme Court proclaims Jurisdiction over`criminals' abducted from other countries by the U.S.Police. Sanction for the infringement of the sovereignty ofnations and sanction for the corporate terror by Bill Gatescomes from the same judiciary. The Judiciary of the Empire.

At least, the citizens of Bhopal could have killed a coupleof American tourists as Retribution. But even to kill peoplelike that, you have to feel indignant. For that you shouldhave at least `a drop of civilized blood' - to use ColinPowell's phrase - In your veins. "The purple American fury"as Lance Morrow states in TIME special issue, now attacksAsian Americans. What really is the colour of American Fury?Purple or White?

Whenever we are asked to mourn for the killing of innocents,we readily mourn. But, are people really innocent? Are theyreally ignorant of all the happenings around them?

When asked about the death of half a million Iraqi childrendue to American sanctions, Ms. Madeline Albreight replied:"The price worth paying". If the Iraqi children - the real innocents - should pay the price for Saddam's allegedcrimes, and if this is what is called American Justice, thenthe price America paid is also justified.

But, it is altogether another question whether the price isworth paying. If you ask Ms. Albreight, she will readily saythat the price is worth paying in the interest of theAmerican Global Hegemony.

"Operation Infinite Justice" will pull America into abottomless pit, where `innocent' Americans may have to feelFascism from inside and face Terrorism from outside.

People of America!

Shed your innocence. Raise your head and see the debris`created' by your Empire throughout the world.Shed your `innocence'. Else, America may have to shed thelives of many more innocents.

Sadly, this is History.
Maruthaiyan is the Editor of Puthiya Kalacharam - a
Marxist-Leninist cultural magazine published in the language
Tamil, from Tamil Nadu, South India, India.
Copyright (c) 2001 Maruthaiyan. All Rights Reserved.

OK, I've packed a lot of reading for you! But some might be redundant read collectively, so you can skim.

To read more, when you're bored (!), got to this link. Scroll a bit down to see individual essays by authors - Arundhati Roy and Noam Chomsky among others. My personal experiences later.