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The Towers and the War on Terror
A quarter of a century has passed since al-Qaeda crashed two airliners into the Twin Towers in New York, one airliner into the Pentagon, and one into the ground, this last because courageous and sensible passengers fought the killers, frustrating their attempt to hit their target, the White House.
The 19 hijackers killed nearly 3,000 people.
The Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) that followed was aimed initially at Al-Qaeda, but developed into
- a 20 year war of occupation in Afghanistan which resulted in defeat for NATO and an ignominious withdrawal;
- a war against the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq which is still grumbling on in the form of insurgent activity;
- the emergence of the “Islamic State” organisation which is very active in Africa;
- and the present US-Israeli war on Iran which is badly affecting the global economy.
- All this while Saudi Arabia, the home country of Al-Qaeda, was left untouched
The GWOT has displaced 98 million people, killed 4.9 million, and cost $8 Trillion.
Beneficiaries of GWOT
Unsurprisingly, the only people who have benefited from the war on terror have been the arms companies and the terrorists.
Defining terrorism
There is no agreed definition of terrorism. The sensible and clear definition would be “violence directed against civilians for political ends”, but politicians want to add “by non-state actors” so that politicians can kill civilians to their hearts’ content without being accused of being terrorists.
This lack of definition now means that totally peaceful people, including retired vicars, protesting against Israel’s mass murder of civilians, which is arguably a genocide, can be prosecuted and imprisoned for “terrorism” – a reduction of the term to grotesque absurdity, and one which was initiated and implemented by Labour Governments.
Absurdity of the GWOT
The idea of a “war on terror” is intrinsically ridiculous. Terror is an emotional state, resulting from a threat to peoples’ lives. War itself creates terror and death. Death of close friends and relatives in a war creates grief, anger, resentment, and hatred, and a proportion of the people so affected will inevitably join terrorist groups as an expression of their hatred.
In the Greek myth, Hercules had to fight the Hydra, a many headed serpent, but every time he cut off a head, two heads would grow back. Terrorism is the Hydra of our times. The more we fight it, the more it grows.
Religion
All three Abrahamic religions, Christianity, Judaism and Islam, are associated with violence directed against civilians for political ends. They all are guilty of tolerating terrorism within their cultural and national ranks:
Christianity is associated with toleration of the deferred terrorism of nuclear deterrence;
Judaism is associated with Netanyahu’s genocide through carpet bombing;
Islam, is associated with the violence practiced by Islamic State and similar groups.
Islam is associated with lethal actions targeted on civilians, armed conflict and war, also in some cases by horrific personal torture and barbaric violent killing of prisoners.
People who seek to reduce terrorism at its source would do well to ask their local religious organisations to dissociate themselves from their brand of terrorism. This action is one that we, ordinary citizens can carry out, not our governments, but we ourselves, in dialogue with our local religious groups.
Preventing and eradicating terrorism
The only effective defence against terrorists is, in the short term, secret service and police action against would-be terrorist groups, and, for the longer term, by reducing the injustices, inequalities and provocations that generate terrorism.
Interestingly, this global problem is uniquely open to negotiations at local level, by ordinary citizens, in dialogue with local religious groups.
Links
MP letter about terrorism and ending the purchase of politicians
Call for a fatwa against terrorism
The military response to terrorism has been counterproductive
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